Promises are strange. Sometimes it becomes a balm, sometimes it makes the wound deeper. Someone says one confident sentence “I am here” and a person overcomes difficult paths with that support for months and years. Perhaps this is why promises keep us bound. They give hope that darkness is not permanent, someone will come to hold hands. But the real world is a bit harsh. It is not necessary to keep every promise here.
An uncle lived in my colony – Sharma Uncle. After retirement, his entire world was his wife and the small tea shop he had set up outside his house. Aunty was often ill. Medicines, doctors, worries about money – everything was there, but every morning uncle would smile and say the same thing to him, “You just get well, this time I will take you to the mountains. I will show you the snow.”
Aunty used to listen to that promise as if the ticket had been booked. Sometimes she would remove the sweater and keep it aside, sometimes she would say – “Don’t make me walk in this cold.” Both laugh. The disease would remain standing outside the door for a while. But life did not change the turn of the story. Aunty did not feel well.
The day she left, I saw Sharma uncle silent for the first time. The shop was closed. The chair was empty. But in the evening, when people were returning, uncle opened the shop again. Someone asked softly, “Uncle, what is the hard work for now?” He said in a very normal voice, “For the promise.” We could not understand.
After a few months we came to know that uncle had gone to the mountains. Lonely. Keeping aunty’s photo in my pocket. Saw snow, drank tea, and even cried while sitting in the hotel room. After returning he hung the photo on the wall of the shop. That day I understood that promises are not always meant to be fulfilled.
Some promises give us a reason to stand even after being broken. If aunty had really recovered, it would have been a happy story. But due to his not being well, this became the true story of life. Promises are sometimes not kept, but they keep us. And maybe…this is enough to keep living.
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