A fresh new sun was trying to peep through the mountains.

After a good twenty minutes, it managed to struggle out of the rugged towering heights and glow in its complete aura. It looked captivating, halting in its transient serene transformation, to create a soothing appeasing spectacle. A strong gust of air was just enough to create a chill which made her realize that she had no woollens on. She hugged herself and waited for the good old sun to turn his charm on.

The fresh dew on the leaves glistened under the morning light which could give even the most enchanting pearls a complex. A giant oak had spread its wings to a great portion of the woods and was home to a pair of love birds.
She sat watching the two trying to understand their wispy jargon. They looked so good together, so complete, and engrossed - oblivious of the world around them. Both seemed so content together, no arguments, no discord over anything.

Pure harmony-revelling in joys of just being together!

Just the way the two of them appeared to be years ago. Jayant and Megha together could make any married couple envious as they emanated love like a honeymoon couple. Jayant would shower her with compliments; escort her to her parents’ house or other relatives. In fact, there had been not a single occasion in Megha’s married life when she had gone anywhere unaccompanied by Jayant. Jayant never counteracted anything Megha said and happily accepted the fact that he was out and out under Megha’s control, such was his love for her.

But this was what Jayant wanted people to believe. He slowly established the illusion amongst everyone that, they were the happiest married couple around and life was all rosy for them. Only Megha knew how well these conversational skills masked the fiend with whom life was a living hell each passing hour.

Their first night together had been a horrifying experience for her and the days that followed revealed the dark sinister side to the man whom everyone believed to be an exceptional guy. She had never been that timorous but somehow the effect Jayant had on her was more than overpowering. She was mortified and she tried explaining that to her parents but Jayant’s magic had engulfed them completely. Probably their daughter was the one to be blamed. They simply assumed she would forget her crush on Amish, whom she so desperately wanted to marry but how could they let her! He was not from their community and besides he had no family, he grew up in an orphanage. How could their daughter marry anyone whose lineage was unknown?

Thus, Megha, despite her wishes, was forced to marry the beast personified. She knew the more she would talk about his atrocities, her family would keep bringing talks about Amish to the fore, which pained her even more. How could she expect a stranger to understand her when her own folks had forsaken her? She knew all along that Amish and she had no future together, but it was difficult to resist the alluring charm of a person who had chiselled his life weeding out all negativity and pessimism.

To be fair to Megha, she had tried; she had tried to give her hundred percent to the relationship. She killed a part of herself each day and in their seven year marriage, she died completely within the first six months. The wife Jayant carried along to social functions and family gatherings was a lifeless corpse who tagged along with a label of Mrs Jayant Paliwal.

Something stirred her up, this time on the inside as well. The rustling of the leaves, when one of the lovebirds made her way through the leaves, shook her awake.

A month back, Jayant had had a massive heart attack which was impossible for a drunkard like him to survive. The formalities were over and she was all alone now. Not that being alone was a regularly denied activity to Megha, but this was the first time she felt so detached, so completely alone. Just that this time, the peace and serenity her loneliness brought with it was really welcome.

The road ahead was the same old path, yet it seemed so different, and new as if she’d come to an entirely new place. Never before had she been surrounded by such arrant and absolute beauty – one that told her a million stories, each story unravelling a new tale to her, every time in a new way. The same woods wore a new independent and a defiant look. They looked free from the overburdened mist that had clung to them all those years. Seemed so light and fresh – exuding life and hope. Wanting to dust away all the chagrin of her painful past, she looked at the old rustled leaves which lay on the ground, waiting to be crumpled and crushed- to put an end to their now futile life. Something deep within her lay still. Not wanting to move. She had had her share –Her share of pain; of a distressing life where she wished everyday that she wouldn’t see a new day.

Each new day had seen her existence hit a new low and she was alive only because could never muster the courage to end her life – however distressing it was. So timid she had been all along that even the daily battering did not compel her to run away from him. The work pressure was a blessing in disguise. Educated but yet to be emancipated, she had been a prisoner of her own mindset.
But now, she was alone and for the first time since the all the rites ended- her mind relaxed. She was alone, truly alone and it dawned upon her that it was a blessing- something she wanted all along. She revelled in her solitude and her new found status.

The sun was smiling at her so warmly that she was forced to smile back at him. The new fresh leaves on the oak standing upright in all its grandeur, were enticing her to join life with them- afresh, this time with a vow to make it beautiful and worthy. She winked at them as if to tell them- “Yes, I’ve joined you. We’re going to create magic.”
The drearily trudged path from the woods to her house lit up like the Christmas night, with bells ringing in a symphony that could compete with the world’s best orchestra group. She ran down the pathway and reached home. For the first time she was happy to be here. She opened the door and let the world – her new world in.