Autumn Effect

The horizon was refuging the sun as he was losing his glory. The earth was going artificial as if draped with the sheet of hypocrisy. The dogs had started hooting as if moaning over some foreseen disaster and the sky was getting pale waiting silently for the storm. As I waited for my girlfriend in the same restaurant in which we first dated, from the window I could see a tree which at the time of our first date was very young and small and I remembered due to my financial incapability, I plucked some flowers from it for her, and those not so beautiful flowers despite of being devoid of any seductive fragrance, became the real adhesion for our relationship, filling our lives with the colours of love and affection. But today that tender plant had grown into a long strong tree standing alone egotistically against the fury of Autumn. Just when i was thinking about this tree, I felt the storm tremorizing my heart, mind and soul as I saw my girlfriend coming straight to me with a better pace, longer strides and firmer expressions than usual. I knew that she was in a hurry but now realized it to be an agitation rather than the eagerness. Today, for the first time I missed to greet her as a queen, may be because i was completely paralyzed by the tumult in her eyes, and surely nor did she desire, at this point of time, to be welcomed. She sat down quietly, as if in some ritual, hoping me to start the proceedings. But i was more engrossed in fixing her up in my eyes memorizing those beautiful days that we had spent together, the mesmerizing colourful monsoon evenings we danced with each other, and now this last date of ours in this autumn, storming our relationship forever. 

The rich girl was leaving the country tonight. Our love couldn't bound her since now she had started feeling like being chained and fettered. She felt differently. We had always been different from entirely different communities with exceedingly different social and financial status and totally different beliefs, she was explorative and tasteful, while I was conservative, I was a man of principle while she was the one with practical understanding and reasoning. But this was not the problem. After all, despite of all these differences, which we knew before hand, we had accepted each other. The real problem was the only thing we had in common amongst us, i.e., our towering ego. I had always given my work preference over her often even cancelling our committed dates without any regret or apology making her doubtful about my dedication towards the relationship. But I was not the only villain in spoiling our relationship, she was also very dominating, considering me to be her slave and never even made an attempt to understand my feelings and emotions. She had always been on the driver's seat in our relationship, though more often than not, at the most crucial drives and the most critical moments, I used to refuse to sit in the car. 

The sun along with its warmth had by now completely disappeared and the coldness of our hearts was grilling our relationship. I broke the deadly silence, though not getting the right words tried to be British and talked about the weather, watching that lonely tree shedding its leaves, twigs and branches in that thundering storm losing everything it had nurtured over all these months. But she appeared disinterested, probably in me, and while slowly sipping her coffee, she was silently gazing at the white band of skin on my wrist. It had been the place for the world's most beautiful watch which she had presented me on my birthday. But today there was a vacuum, though not bigger than the vacuum that was developing into our hearts, and this place was vacant since on this very ominous morning it slipped from my hand shattering into innumerable un-unifiable pieces, making me feel as if a protest by this poor timekeeper who refused to keep the time for a person who don't have a time even for his beloved. I felt embarrassed, but what could I do. In fact, many a times I was tempted to burst out and show my heart to her, but I still had the sophistication and self-esteem to control and console myself. I knew that she was also struggling and waited eagerly hoping her to show at least some sign of emotion, but evidently my girlfriend was stronger and more obstinate than me. 

The storm didn't seem to be in a mood of stopping, nor was the tree, which had now started getting uprooted, was ready to bow down and I started praying as it was the only thing I could do, hoping for some miracle to happen. But what even could God do when none of us was ready to patch up and save our love. Though I had full faith on our love, but today even our 'true love' was suffering in front of our unreasonably large mountain of ego. Finally she spoke, but not to me, but to the waiter asking him for the bill. She paid her bill. We both paid our bills and as she hurried back, I saw the tree completely uprooted by the storm and was dead forever.