Oh, that beautiful summer evening, the sun was setting and peaking through the leaves making an artistic shadow over me. I was walking down the lane going back home absorbing the beauty and positivity around me to make up for a long shitty day at school.

Respecting my rituals, I bought a packet of my favourite chips to feed my sad soul and make it happy.

Coming to a crowded home with my grandma chatting with our family friends was unusual since mom-dad weren't home from the hospital yet. While greeting them and ignoring their bitchy talks about who married whom and who ran away with whom, I made my way to heaven, my bed. If multitasking is an art, I am an artist.

I was drowned in the teen drama (gossip girl kind) while hogging on chips and messaging.

I was scrolling through the messages, when my eyes landed on that group, yes, that group which you never check, which has all kind of nonsense, whose sole purpose is to update you with current affairs by forwarding fake news, and which is on mute since forever. 361 unread messages! There was something that made me open it that day, I don't know what but then I saw ‘that’ message. That one message which turned everything upside down.

I was shattered. I stopped chewing, swallowing, and breathing all at once for at least 10 seconds.

I grabbed my water bottle and gulped it all. I ran to the bathroom and cried my eyes out. Trying my best to cover my eyes so that my grandma wouldn't see through me, I walked out of home into the veranda behind the car where no one would notice. I called my best friend and told her everything. She tried to console me but at that moment, nothing could be as soothing as his hug, as soothing as him calling me out, as soothing as his words or as soothing as his kiss on my forehead.

I waited there for a long time. I waited for the storm within to settle, for that person I was dying to see, and for things to get back to normal, but I had to wait forever for that and still it wouldn't be possible. It would never be the same, said my soul. Then I heard a familiar vehicle slowing down at the front gate. I looked at the vehicle with my hopeful teary eyes, two figures getting down walking towards me, my mom and my brother.

They hugged me tight and we cried, all of us, because ‘HE’ was not there with us, he was not there anymore.

He who held our family together, he who cared about others before himself, he who never gave up, he who has had an emotional strength of a superman, he who made me fall for 80's Bollywood song, he who inspired me to write, he who gave me more knowledge than any other teacher could ever give, he who taught me to have heart bigger than my pockets, he who set me free, he who was my defence lawyer in every case at the court that is our home, he who taught me there are no limits to our dreams and gave me all the courage to get them, he who made me who I am today, he whose reflection is here today "ME".

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