In the southern part of Delhi, about twenty KM away from Connaught Place, there is a medium sized township which was built about twenty five years ago. This township has a central park, like any other township of its size and stature. There are lawns, small flower plants, pathways and of course some benches, where citizens can take rest after a long walk around the park. In the eastern far corner of the park, there is a wooden bench which is reserved, by some unwritten law, for older folks, where normally the younger people do not sit. This has been the norm for years, since the park and the township came into existence.
There on the far corner of the bench every weekend evening, a gentleman in his mid-forties would come and sit there for about an hour till the dusk set in. Then almost reluctantly he would rise and head towards his home. Nobody knew where he lived. It did not matter if it was summer or winter, spring or rain. Wearing appropriate clothes for the weather, he would be there, as if he was waiting for someone.
Initially, the boys playing in the park with natural curiosity would enquire among themselves about the person, but nobody really knew anything about him. In the course of time, the boys became young men and the toddlers turned into boys and started to play in the park, but one thing never changed, the seat in the park's far corner end of the bench, the man would be seated in the weekends till it was dark. Once in a while if any one asked him anything, he would not give any reply, but an empty smile, devoid of any excitement. The curious person would lose his patience, and would leave the middle aged man alone to his solitude. The man was Mr. Ramesh Ahuja and he was a patient man.
Forty five year old Ramesh Ahuja was a Journalism graduate and associated with a renowned national Daily as a journalist. He was a defence analyst and wrote columns on defence matters in the newspaper, where he was associated with. Ramesh was brought up in Delhi and his father owned a wholesale business on FMCG in the south of Delhi. They had a house in Lajpat Nagar which was quite big and a separate portion of the house was let out, as they were only a three member family. The rented portion was occupied by a professor of a local college. Prof. Sood had two daughters. Namrata was the younger of the two siblings. Arpita, the other girl was older than Namrata by five years.
It is said that proximity brings attraction, which came true for Ramesh and Namrata. When Ramesh was of twenty years and studying Journalism, she was eighteen and had completed her twelfth standard examination in Arts. The two had adequate opportunity to meet and talk to one another. By natural affinity, they gradually got attracted to each other and by the time Ramesh had completed his journalism degree, they had decided to get married once Ramesh got settled in a job and Namrata completed her post graduation.
Come late eighties, Rajeev Gandhi and Jayawardene of Sri Lanka made a historic peace accord and the Indian Army in the form of Indian Peace Keeping Force landed in Sri Lanka to solve out the issue of ethnic clashes in Sri Lanka. Mostly, people of Tamil origin lived in this northern part of Sri Lanka.
In 1987, our Ramesh was a young man of twenty two years, having completed a good Journalism degree and upon being inducted by a national Daily, left for Sri Lanka to cover the IPKF actions in Sri Lanka.
Those were the days when people used to go to the STD booth, formed a queue and waited their turn to speak to their loved ones. Through this system, Ramesh kept in touch with Namrata. They used to talk sweet nothings to each other once in every fifteen days. Prof. Sood had a land line phone at his residence. So Namrata had no difficulty in attending calls of Ramesh. Her parents and sister were aware and indulgent of the affair, the two were having and they had happily accepted. So Namrata could get her desired privacy while talking to Ramesh.
In the intervening years, Arpita had got married to a Lawyer in Kanpur and she went away to her husband's home at Kanpur. During the period Ramesh was at Sri Lanka, Arpita got pregnant, and as the delivery date came near, the parents of Arpita discussed with Arpita's in laws to get Arpita shifted to Delhi for the delivery. But as there was a reputed nursing home at Kanpur nearby their home, it was decided by the seniors that Arpita would deliver at Kanpur, however either Namrata or her mother would go to Kanpur during that period to take care of her personal needs.
Namrata kept Ramesh informed of all the developments around home and Ramesh also in turn fed her with all the detailed descriptions of some of the journalistic adventures he had performed. Namrata was not very enthusiastic of the escapades that Ramesh used to describe and she kept on reminding him to be cautious in his movement and his activities there.
