Ripun and Anaisha

As Anaisha was sitting by the fireside one wintery evening to avoid the chilly weather outside her mind kept wandering back to the times when her husband was alive and they went around painting the town red.

Anaisha was married to Ripun in an arranged marriage setup. They had met in a temple for the first time and eventually got married after a few months. Initially, it was a bit of a struggle but they eventually got together like bread and butter.

Either of the two could not live without the other partner and as time passed by they had kids and fulfilled all the responsibilities of being parents and partners.

Ripun had been a very jolly and adventurous sort of person. He had always done daredevil stunts and Anaisha used to get paranoid when he went about doing those stunts. She always warned him to stop but he would tell her, “Arey why are you worrying? Nothing will happen to me. We have only one life let us live it completely.”

Initially, Anaisha used to get very paranoid as Ripun engaged in many daredevil stunts. However, as time passed by, Anaisha also started liking the activities which Ripun used to do.

They made a pact that they would visit a new place whenever possible and would try out a new activity which had not been done before. Normally, it was Anaisha who had not done any kind of adventurous activities before and Ripun used to enjoy seeing her childlike excitement about doing those activities. He became one of her biggest cheerleaders ever.

Anaisha had done snorkelling, paragliding, bungee jumping, trekking and whatnot. She was very satisfied and happy as she was living a life which she had never even dreamt of. She had always been a meek, soft-spoken and reserved person who never knew how to express herself.

As time passed by, her excitement and confidence grew to greater levels pushing her to try something new every time they went for a holiday.

After the birth of their first child. Nisha, Anaisha was a bit upset as she thought that whatever adventure she had been doing now would come to a full stop. However, Nisha had also imbibed an adventurous spirit from her parents.

As Nisha grew up and started understanding things that were going on the adventurous trips resumed and now most of the stunts were done by Nisha as Anaisha had already done a lot of things.

Just for the fun of it, anaisha also used to join Nisha in some of the activities but mostly the activities were now solely focused on Nisha. Time passed by, Nisha grew up, went abroad for studies, got married and moved on in her life.

Anaisha thought that after Nisha’s departure, she would go into a lonely phase but it was Ripun who pulled her out of everything. As they were getting aged, either of them couldn’t go on adventurous trips anymore. Although they went on a lot of trips there were no adventure activities they took.

The wheel of life once again took its normal course which made Anaisha a bit upset. This is because she started thinking that her life lacked purpose. She started becoming withdrawn, lonely and dejected even when Ripun was with her.

She never told Ripun anything and tried to put a happy face in front of him so that he would not feel upset seeing her upset. Anaisha developed a habit of writing a diary where she would pen down all her thoughts and emotions.

Normally, the diary was kept under lock and key as she had not shared her feelings with Ripun or Nisha. One day it so happened that Anaisha had to go out for some work and Ripun came back a bit early from work.

He rang the bell but when he got no response he opened the door with a second key which he normally had when Anaisha was not at home.

Anaisha had forgotten to keep the diary under lock and key and Ripun opened the diary out of curiosity and started reading it out. As he flipped the pages, he understood that Anaisha had been hiding her feelings from him for many years. He could take this no longer and decided to talk about it directly to Anaisha.

He, however, stopped himself as he knew that the diary was private and confidential. Anaisha never hid anything from him but she might have a reason to hide her feelings from him. He kept the diary where it was and tried to pretend as if nothing had happened.

Anaisha walked into the home tired and was a bit taken aback when she saw that Ripun had returned earlier than the scheduled time. Then her eyes eventually fell on the diary which was kept on the table. She decided not to move it away quickly.

Ripun and Anaisha exchanged pleasantries about how was their day and what chores did they do throughout the day. After having all the discussions, Anaisha went to prepare the food and Ripun decided to go for a walk as he wanted to vent out his feelings to somebody.

Ripun called out Anaisha and said, “Listen, I am going for a walk. Will be back in a while. You prepare the dinner and have the food if you want.” Saying this, Ripun went outside. Anaisha felt it to be a bit strange as Ripun had never gone out like this before.

She kept on wondering what exactly happened but after some time went around with her usual work routine. Meanwhile, Ripun called Nisha when he went down and explained everything to her what exactly was going on in her mother’s mind.

Nisha listened to everything with patience and after her father spoke, she told him, ” Dad, I think mom wants the old self to come back to life and live a life we used to do before. I would suggest you not to bother her for now and think of something which will make her like she has always been.”

Ripun agreed to his daughter’s advice and decided not to tell Anaisha anything for now. His mind kept on wondering what should be done so that Anaisha could become her old self.

Thinking of everything, he didn’t even realize when he reached the block lift. He went home, did his daily chores and retired to bed. However, his mind was not at peace. He was still thinking about Anaisha’s happiness.

Suddenly, he got an idea. He decided to start an adventure sports activity business. He decided to tell daughter Nisha this but hid it from Anaisha for now.

Next day, while at work he discussed his plan with Nisha and Nisha was excited to hear it. She told her father I am very happy, you start everything and I am with you.

Nisha and Ripun had a good social networking reach and a good set of friends who were more than eager to help them out in any way they could.

Slowly, Ripun got the land built it from scratch and took a risk despite knowing that anything could happen. Everything was now ready. He saw his dream project come to life and could not wait to share his excitement with Anaisha.

As Ripun shared this news with Anaisha, she became very excited and could not wait to see the new venture. Ripun was happy to see Anaisha back to her normal self and the very next day Nisha, Anaisha and Ripun went to inaugurate their new venture, RAN Adventures.

Everything ran very smoothly and Anaisha was way more dedicated to this project than Ripun. Ripun was beyond happy to see a childlike excitement in Anaisha for the business. As time passed by, Anaisha and Ripun handed over the business to Nisha and her husband Tarun and both ran the business with equal excitement and enthusiasm.

Everything was going on smoothly. However, Ripun passed away after cardiac arrest leaving Anaisha all alone. Things took time but Anaisha became normal and went to live in her daughter’s neighbourhood. The business, her daughter and her grandchildren kept her occupied.

Today was a different day. She remembered Ripun smiling by the fireside as everybody had gone out for a picnic and she was alone at home. That smile made her remember the love she had for Ripun and the life she led with him. She felt herself fulfilled and satisfied.