Express – Words of Love (short Story)

Thendral Maniarasu is in a hurry to reach the Mandapam (marriage hall). His taxi runs like a paper boat in the rainwater. There are no cell phones during that period. His parents also tensed about this situation. Yes, Thendral is going to marry Menmozhi Meenakshi tomorrow.  Now time is around 5:30 pm, still, he needs to travel 40 more kilometers from Madurai. Thendral is a cool person, even in this marriage also everything is perfect and he is going to marry the same person according to his plan but still, he is disturbed due to the delay.

After 30 kilometers of sailing on the state highways, He feels much better and excited while nearing the destination. He reached mandapam around 8 pm. It’s really a delay, but fortunately, due to heavy rain, the bride’s family also reached a few minutes before him. While entering the hall, his eyes started searching for the bride. It’s not so easy to find her in the native crowd. But he is lucky enough to find her when she is going inside the bride’s room. After completion of all rituals, he reached the groom’s room with full of joy. She only occupied his thoughts. She is not so far, it’s only the 15 feet distance.

Usually, all will think about the future before marriage, but he was having some nice memories of her in the past. Slowly he started thinking about the memories of her. One month before, while he returning from Madurai to get some notebooks, he stopped the car near one shop located a few miles before his town. That time she crossed him from that shop. But he is not aware of anything at that time. He bought some notebooks and biscuits for his sister in that shop. After reaching home, he gives the notebooks to his sister. Within a few minutes, his sister gives one postcard to him. She finds that postcard inside the notebooks bought for her.

That postcard consists of a poem about “love” written for the competition, conducted by a monthly journal named “Namkural”(our voice). While reading that poem he got inspired by her views about love. He got her details from the address area. So without delay, he went to Madurai next day morning for posting the card on time. Meanwhile, Meenakshi also visited the shop and asked about her postcard to the shop keeper. Yesterday she came to hand over the card to the postman, who is the regular visitor of the shop. But he is not available at that time. so the shopkeeper kept that postcard inside the notebook was sold to Thendral, The Shop keeper apologized for his mistake and told that he missed the postcard. She felt very sad because hereafter she can’t post the card on time. Soon she left the shop.

Thendral felt happy after posting the card at the Madurai post office. He is confident about the poem having a great chance to win in the competition. But very soon he lost himself for her words about love. He imagined one face and started to dream about her always throughout a week. His parents also searching for a suitable bride through a famous pandit/astrologer named M.R.S Venkata Giri Shastrigal. He got an idea to marry her at any cost. He collected additional details from the same shop. Soon he met the pandit and shared the details of Menmozhi. Luckily her family is known to pandit for a  long time, so he gave assurance to Thendral for his marriage. In the same week, Elders and relatives of both families get introduced in a nearby temple. As he said, Venkatagiri fixes the marriage also in the same month. In between, Thendral started to write poems without seeing her. He also got one chance to see her during the engagement, but he saw her hands only while wearing the ring.

Someone knocking the door, Thendral checked the time on his radium watch. It’s around 3:15 am at the marriage hall. Venkatagiri with his usual naughty smile entering the room and blinked his eyes, Thendral smiled in return and conveyed the message through his eyes. Venkatagiri said in a loud tone “get ready soon, make it fast, bride is ready”. His friends also started to tease him. Around 7 am, Thendral tied the divine knots to Menmozhi with great satisfaction. She is also happy in the marriage, but still, Menmozhi is not aware of Thendral’s love towards her words.

After marriage, they all went to Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple for darshan. At noon they reached Thendral’s house. It’s around 3 pm, Thendral’s town is covered by clouds. It’s like nature’s umbrella for true love. After having lunch in the upstairs, he started to check the Namkural magazine’s latest edition by enjoying the breeze in his garden. Menmozhi entered with some sweets in her hand. Thendral gets a good chance to see her hands clearly and praised it inside for the words written. She says edutukonga (have it). She noticed the Namkural magazine in Thendral’s hand. Like her name, Menmozhi slowly asked him “are you a regular reader of this magazine?”. He said “no but hereafter I will read continuously”. She asked, “why? “. He started to read her poem without seeing the magazine. Yes her poem was published in the magazine. Her eyes filled with tears and he simply showed her poem in the magazine. She smiled with tears and hold his hands tightly. Her love started with the same words, but now there are no words from her. So nature helped her, Rain shared its blessings to the wonderful couples. Both started to enjoy the rain. They lived happily forever.