Prose

It was morning and the day was twenty-fifth December. The door bell rang. I opened the door and saw an old lady and a young girl smiling at me. “Merry Christmas,” they said and shook my hands. The girl then forwarded me a Christmas card. “We’ll be delighted if you with your family come to our residence in the evening”, the old lady invited me. “Sure”, I assured them.

It was my first visit to the lady’s cottage and I was overwhelmed with their hospitality. After returning home, I took out my diary and penned my feelings through a poem. Next day, I sent the poem for publication to the “feelings” column of an esteemed daily. Few weeks later, it was a pleasant surprise for me when I found my poem titled ‘A lady with a difference,’ published in the newspaper.

One of the lady’s daughters, who stay in a hostel and whom I had not met before, read it in the newspaper too. Noticing the address given below the poem, she came across a doubt that perhaps the ‘lady’ referred to could be her mother. She rang her eldest sister, the one who had visited my home and told her about it. The eldest daughter did not know my good name and in fact, none in their family too, but she was quite sure that I could be the person who wrote the poem. Later, she called me, enquired about it and felt highly delighted when I told her the whole story about the composition.

After a couple of days, the old lady came to my residence again. She presented me a gift and blessed me. Then, with a bright smile, she told me that my poem about her would be scanned, framed and shall be kept as a showpiece in their living room. But this was not the end. About a year later, when the marriage of their eldest daughter was fixed, the lady’s husband and her son came to our house with an invitation card. They invited me and my family to the wedding and mentioned that we were the first family to be invited.

The words of a poem created wonders. It was an amazement to see the power of words. The love and appreciation showered by the family purely touched my heart. The charming memories shall be cherished forever. 
 

[Published in 'Your Space’ of the e-journal ‘Muse India’ on 28 May 2013]