Boulevard of Memories

In a wintry afternoon Sayak decided to drop by there. The place which use to haunt him like hell. He hadn't gone there since Ritika left him. He was so paranoid about this place then that he also used to avoid the road, leading in front of that flat. The flat where so many of his memories crammed up in 840 sqft. Too many memories for his 27 years of life probably.

The mid December Sun is about to set out by coloring the skyline with dash of bright orange. The wintry afternoon always makes Sayak gloomy so he has on lean on the best memories. The watchman smiled at him. Gosh! He still remembers me. He waved his hand in reply. He parks the car and came out and straight headed to the Lift. The slight craggy corridor beckoned him. He opened the door of his flat slowly. He has to vacate it within this month. The flat where he and Ritika saw many dreams together. As he approached towards Bedroom a familiar smell began to hit his sense. The smell is so familiar to him. One night when he and Ritika were making out Ritika told him that she can sense his smell within a distance.

Sayak came to the terrace. This is the place which is closest to his heart. They both went loggers head with each other for this open balcony as he was so much reluctant to take this flat because of the open balcony. He is little acrophobic but finally he gave in and took the flat in rent. Later on he realized if he hadn’t rent out this flat, he would have missed some beautiful memories from his life. Once they spent the entire night of in the couch in their open terrace, counting stars. Another day Ritika made Sayak to skip his office just to watch Rain-swept Kolkata from their 12^th floor terrace. The bougainvillea tree looked deserted & dusty. May be he is also got tired like Sayak. Tired of silence. Tired of its own existence. Once these flowers used to adorn in someone’s bun but now they too felt deserted, getting accustomed to the silence of the room.

Sayak went to the bedroom. The three door cub board is still open. Much of their precious and important things they both took away with them. What left back were little pieces of Sayak and Ritika  which someday needed to be trashed, somewhere. Sayak opened the cupboard.  Ritika’s sunglasses are lying and so is her blue colour scarf which Sayak bought during their Goa Trip. A blue envelope with full of dust is resting in the farthest corner. Sayak opened the envelope. Some black & white random photographs came out. He remembered once during his random photo session he clicked some beautiful photographs of Ritika and printed them out from the studio just to woo Ritika. Memories such a thing you love to linger on. Every damn thing in this 840 sqft has its own story, has its own reason to stay here without the one person Sayak love the most. The packet beside the envelope contains a wallet which Ritika gave her in the last Valentine’s Day.

Sayak’s heart ached profusely when, in a distracted moment, in that room, Sayak realized that he is going to miss someone for rest of his life and to his surprise in that unsettled moment he discovered the depth of their attachment at that abandoned place. At that particular moment, in midst of awkward silence, he probably reinvents the Love for Ritika once again.