The Beginning of a Beginning

July 25th, 2026

Dear Diary,

How time flies.....

As she walked down the stairs, her hair muddled and as she supressed a yawn, the innocent twitching of her nose and till the moment she ran into my arms, i felt a sense of deja vu. 15 years back into the past, the same scenario was replayed at a differnt place, in a different era.

'Nau...sheeen'I softly breathed in the sylabbles that was her name. My wife looked at me with raised eyes, subduing a smile.

My name is Richard. And this is my beginning of an end.

She was 26 then. I was an old fool in need of love. I was in love with her. My awkward, bumbling ways worked an odd charm on her and suddenly the world's most beautiful girl was in the arms of the world's most geekiest boy. Slowly yet surely she was replacing my Death Star with her own planet. I welcomed the new change. I dropped my light saber for her hand. She gave words to my feelings and emotions to my needs. Gazing the stars alone at nights had a new meaning when she joined me and created harmony with the universe. In between muffled moans under the starry night and shooting stars, our hearts beat in unison. She became my guiding light as she transformed me from a geek to an almost stud.Little did i know what the Gods had planned for me all along. But at that moment, it was only me and that angel that mattered. The emotions that i thought i never had in myself shocked me when they opened up. 

As, i look back at those days, i realise Muthu was right. She would be the end of me. She definitely was the end of our friendship. Before i was smitten, we were the Starsky and Hutch, the this and that. Now, as days passed to months, i can only hope that he has forgiven me for at that time my perfect planet skewered out of orbit and revolved around hers. My costant companions, my glasses were traded for the new lens she made me wear. She changed me, physically and socially, i was more acceptable. My friends got shuffled and i found new ones. My interests didn't match hers, so she found new ones for me. All for love, i accepted blindly. She was the prize, the rest didn't matter. I paid no heed to the wind and what started as a whirlwind romance that threatened to challenge the world ended up in series of nightmares that threatened to engulf me in towers of smoke. Crash and burn, i went through it all in the blink of an eye.

Then, in the summer of 2011, she married my neighbor's son.

In the spring of 2012, she and her husband died in a car accident.

In late 2011, Muthu admitted me to the nearest hospital after i was found lying drunk in some alley behind a bar. Binge drinking does that to people. Weed and Whiskey were my only allies when life decided to stop using me as its pawn. Long story short, Muthu and Dr. Emily nursed me back to health. The relationships that i thought vanished with her absence started to start anew. My friendship with Muthu suffered but he was gracious enough to let the past remain in the past. And Dr. Emily started creeping into my life as the walls i built around myself cracked over time. Nausheen's death was a wake-up call and i knew i had to be strong. And Dr. Emily was that rock on which i leaned. She made the climb back to sanity easier.

My name is Richard. And that was the end of my beginning.

15 years later, in a different time, i watched the girl in my arms, kiss me good morning. Tarun was still asleep. Emily made her way towards me and hugged the both of us. "She has her chin, you know" she told me softly. I smiled at her. "But she has your eyes and your charm", Emily continued.

I took out the gift i carefully wrapped last night and handed it to my daughter. "Happy Birthday, Nausheen"

Total Word Count - 615