Aaskha, apple of father's eye, mother's parting gift. She was what they said incarnation of an angel from heaven. Grounded, well-mannered, and that unknown charm that her father said was most definitely from her mother's genetic pool.
She was Akash's only ray of hope when his better half had left him for a better abode on the flip side of our world. He was with Aaskha from her first social smile to her first steps, through her potty training to school dramas. All the way to her graduation.
He had given her himself in a fully dedicated manner as a mother and a father. But that had to have come at price. A price of losing his own identity. His career had seen the downside, bussiness going hay wire. Ended with them completely broke by the time Aaskha had graduated as a lawyer.
From what aaskha had known her father was an open book. For she had known about the dwindling business, scarce cash and hard to pay tuitions and shifting and moving to new homes they made wherever they went. He was her rock as she was his, in a world they had longed to be loved by.
But locked in the high walls of Akash's heart was secret. A secret made so long back that in the maze of his love for his daughter it was lost and lost were the all the means to get through the padlocked doors that hid the promise all along.
One day after going through weeks of torment and tight cash, aaskha had finally found a job in a law firm, pay was meagre but kept them to thrive a little better for now. That's what they hoped, while akash still job hunted only to return defeated at the end ot the day.
He was back to the dusty noons and harder times of struggle only he missed was the play of eyes all noon with background mumbles and how he was pretty much incapable of the promise buried long back in the secret vault of his own heart.
Years had gone by, things slightly started to look up.. Aaskha was 25,hard-working and in line to enter the administrative know how of the law firm she'd been working 5 years.
Aaskha had bought a little apartment just close to her office, nothing fancy just a small 2-BHK but a heaven altogether from what they've been living in the past. Her father was happy would've been an understatement of the century!! He was ecstatic,joyous, on cloud nine of pride,highest a father could ever reach.Only the best was yet to come his way.
One late night when aaskha returned home burning the night oil for a presentation next morning, she had found her father asleep on the living room sofa, mumbling to himself. "I wish I could be a better father,Tara"he said with an indecipherable mumble."I had wanted for you to see the oceans, all seven of them from the best possible view. I really wanted,only if I could do better, I wished to be good enough for you." Another round of mumble.
He had broken the walls and the secret was out in the open. Aaskha had heard it. She knew what her father had regretted all his life. The secret that had been spilled was now her own to be filled and cherished and regret to be put down the drain.
A month had passed by since the day of sleep full mumbles and one morning daughter declared that they had to be going to the United states for an annual conference of the firm.
Akash had hated to tag along but, aaskha's stubbornness came from her mother,well getting to the point he would never get past it once she decided.
Ten days after the announcement, they had boarded a flight to U.S.. Only it was a hopping flight via Australia and last second stoppage at Paris to reach its destination.
Only once flight took off, and they flew over the vast expanse of the indian ocean, Aaskha whispered in her father's ear, "One".He knew what she was talking about. He knew,that she had known all along. Only he didn't know was 'HOW?'. And than aaskha had told him about the nights of mumbles and sleepful regrets.
Did I say that he was on cloud nine, when they bought an apartment?? Well listening to his daughter explain about the night he was literally stepping on cloud 50,000 feet above ground level and he could still be going higher in what in ecstasy could take him.
They met their count of 7. Speeding through in plane, giving the best of views. Landing in the final destination, he had fulfilled his once done promise to Tara. He had seen all 7 of them with his daughter's eyes, which he sweared on his own life were exactly like his wife's.
A promised fulfilled, a lifetime lived and now no padlock could tie those feelings behind the walls of a secret vault.
"Life couldn't be any fairer,it could only be fairer than death", Akash breathed his last whispering to his daughter at the airport checkout.
