Reunion - A Short Story

Gopi’s taste for beauty can never be questioned. He knew the extent to which extravagance was needed to make something beautiful. It could've been an innate quality or something that a civil engineering background could've taught him. He wasn't sure. But he was pretty sure about another dream of his; that was to get closer to his family. Something he wanted very badly.

His kin had always been extremely kind and adoring to his parents until their marriage, after which things hadn't been the same. So reconciliation was the primary task. His father’s last words echoed inside his head, “I've made many mistakes in life, son. The mistakes that I've regretted for, since the day your mother died.” he had said taking in a deep breath struggling to exhale, “You must never repeat those mistakes.” And with that his father had taken that dreaded final breath. I promise you Father! I won’t repeat those mistakes.

After his father’s funeral he started the work. His only regret was that the reunion could've happened a lot earlier had his father confided with him his wish of seeing the family together. It was never late.

Gopi’s paternal side did not have anyone alive but his maternal side had an envious habit of living well into the nineties. His mother’s grandparents lived the life to the fullest until ninety seven and unfortunately had to die, three short of a century. His maternal grandfather too remained very much alive, on the verge of eighties. Sadly his mother and grandmother weren't blessed with the immortality that the lineage had. His mother was the last of the three children to have come out of his grandmother and the only female species among the trio. Gopi didn't want to meet his grandfather first. So he took the bottom up approach. Better to meet the cub than the lion.

The first cub he met was Mr. Sivaraman, the youngest son to his grandfather and the owner of a textile mill. A man nearing his fifties, he was, but the affluence meant that a reduction in age was visible on his face.

“I can never forget the day you mother died.” with sadness evident in his voice and face he said, “I feel very sorry for you!” His wife, who sat next to him, echoed his sympathy for Gopi. There were rumours that it was she, who was the real power center and his uncle was just a robot, playing to her music.

“Father used to say that you were a very kind man”. His uncle’s face stiffened the moment Gopi mentioned his father. But that stiffness had eased very quickly.

“Yes! Yes! Amazing person he was until...” he stopped the sentence abruptly.

“I know, Uncle! I can never correct the sins committed by my parents but I'm not them” he said earnestly. He went on one knee, in front of them and held their hands for a while. He then looked into their eyes and said, “All I have left in this world is my mother’s family. I don’t want to lose all of you”. His voice cracked a little during that moment.

The last sentence had melted Sivaraman and all he saw in that instant was his young sister, whose eyes were about to shed a tear. That was too much to bear for him.

“You’re not you father. You’re more like her, isn't he?” he turned to his wife for approval. She approved it with a nod of head. When he put forward the invitation to dine with him to mark the reunion, his uncle gleefully accepted it, of course after a gaze at his power center, who gave her approval with the same nod of head.

Unlike Sivaraman, the older sibling was more hesitant to accept the olive branch that he was offering. A broad shouldered man, Mr.Nagarajan was, with a crooked nose, flowing hair and a dark complexion. Despite the darkness, the physicality and the height gave a chivalrous feel to him.

"Your mother left all of us for your father!" he could be a bit candid at times but this time the candor was too blunt.

"Yes. She did" he said looking down. "It was a mistake and she got punished for it!"

"She put all the honour, respect that this family had, to shame" chided his better half.

"I'm not denying any of it!" He said, with his gaze, still at the floor. Then Gopi slowly lifted his head and with his blue eyes, passed onto him by his mother, who had got it from her mother, looked at his uncle, "If she had come back to you on the night she eloped with father, begged for your forgiveness, wouldn't you have accepted her back?"

That got the elder cub thinking. If the younger one's family had a matriarch rule, the situation in the elder's family was patriarchy. Gopi had witnessed that when his aunt replied to his rhetorical question with a shake of her head. But the riposte she received was a stare from her husband and she didn't open her mouth for the rest of his stay in their house.

"I loved her more than anything in this world" opened up his uncle. "She disappointed me when she married that filthy bastard, your father". Time mends a lot of things but it didn’t heal the wound left by his sister.

"I understand uncle, but my father, who was responsible for all this mess, is dead".

His uncle stared at his nephew for a while in total silence. Gopi stepped forward, emboldened by the silence and hugged his uncle. "I can never bring your sister back to you but I can be how you wanted her to be and more importantly,” he dropped a tear and said, “I'll never disappoint you, uncle!".  

That was the clincher. Like the younger cub, the elder’s heart melted at that and for a moment he couldn't differentiate who was within his arms, his litter sister or her son.

“How different things could've been had she said these words?” said a teary eyed uncle. “I'm sorry! I'm very sorry!“ he started sobbing. “I… I.. I... should’ve stopped it”. This time the sob had become an uncontrollable cry. At that moment in his uncle, all the knightly qualities had vanished and all that remained was the ordinary human repenting his sins.

“No point in reminiscing the bad memories” he patted his uncle. He too was very much welcome to the idea of a family reunion. When Gopi told him about his intention of talking to the Grandfather, Nagarajan took the onus on himself to bring his father. “He’s not like us! Old men like him don’t forget things! But don’t worry I’ll bring him” he said wiping the tears flowing from his eyes.

The day finally arrived and from the morning Gopi felt too numb and restless. First, he decided to arrange the dining table. So he moved the rectangular mahogany table to the middle of the hall and placed the chairs around it. It accommodated a chair at either side and two chairs along the length of the table at each side. He marvelled at the glowing exterior of the table. They must never forget this day.

With the feast due to start around noon, he went about with the cooking. “This is the most important day of my life” he told himself. Keeping in mind the age of the guests, he made sure that the food was easily digestible. The last thing he wanted was the guests to remember this day not so fondly, if at all they remember it the next day.

His elder uncle called to confirm the address and the route to his house. He gave a tiding that the lion doesn't know the exact details of the feast. "That's alright, Uncle" he had said. "Let me be the one to break the truth". He then neatly arranged the vessels on the table and placed five banana leaves in each place along the table where the guests will be seated.

The guests arrived in a sedan, driven by his youngest uncle, with the lion taking the front and the remaining members occupying the rear. His grandfather had been told that the luncheon was to discuss some new business partnership. Gopi was seeing his grandfather up close for the first time. He had heard from his father that the handlebar moustache of the great lion was so intimidating that people seldom looked at him while conversing with him. He couldn't help but wonder how his father got the nerve to fall in love this lion’s daughter.

When the fake introductions were done and dusted, Gopi took his guests to the dining table to begin the feast. Both the couples sat opposite to each other allowing his grandfather to be seated at the head of the table.

“You don’t employ any servants?” enquired his grandfather. The voice had an iron feel to it. Is he really an octogenarian?

“No gra.. Sir. I feel it’s my duty to serve my guests. A servant can never understand the importance of a guest”

“Ummm. Very interesting!” he smiled at Gopi. “You live alone in this house?” he asked looking around.

“Yes sir. My mother passed away when I was a kid and recently it was my father’s turn”.

“I'm extremely sorry. How cruel!” empathized the old lion.

And like that the guests had chatted and simultaneously filled their tummies to the fullest extent possible. When the feast had come to an end, Gopi sat opposite to his grandfather, who was stuffing a betel leaf inside his mouth. His uncles were busy discussing the suicide of a father, whose daughter had eloped with her lover. Her lover had been from the supposed lower strata of the society.

“How stupid of him to commit suicide!” barked his grandfather. “He should’ve killed her!” he laughed boisterously.

“Is that what you did to your daughter?” asked Gopi creating an unsettling silence in the room.

His grandfather had not heard him properly. “What?” he stammered a bit.

“I asked, Is that what you did to your daughter? Or I’ll rephrase it. Is that what you did to my mother?” Gopi asked this with a stoic face, staring straight into the eyes of his grandfather.

“What’s happening here? Who are you?” with a panic stricken face he asked his sons, “Who the hell is he?”

Several things happened at once. The moment Nagarajan tried to stand, Gopi’s hand took out the object kept inside the compartment hidden under the table and fired a shot at his uncle, whose brains exploded and fell on his wife, seated next to him. Now both the women have started screaming their lungs out.

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH!” he screamed at all of them pointing the object in his hand. Like a slave fearing the whip, the object had the desired effect on them.

He looked at the corpse of his uncle, “You were right Uncle! You should’ve stopped your father then”.

“Now! Where were we?” he looked around the remaining occupants of the table.

“You said you wanted reunion!” cried his youngest uncle, with his voice trembling with fear.

Gopi nodded. “Yes I did! But please don’t distract me with your sermons since I've some unfinished business with Grandfather”. Then he looked at his grandfather, “You still haven’t answered my question?”

“I… I… you… you are her son?” he was weeping.

Gopi could smell the urine excreting itself from the eighty year old man. Is that the old man, whom the people feared? For Gopi, all he saw was another corpse that was alive, face full of fear, struggling to comprehend the situation.

Gopi’s mind went back to the day his father had revealed that secret that he had kept hidden till that time. His father’s mouth had struggled to reveal everything. When he uttered that she was burnt alive by her own father, Gopi had sworn to wipe out the entire family. His father had chosen the final day of his life to tell him everything. If not, you could have seen the entire family dropping dead like flies, father.

When he closed his eyes for a second, he was able to visualize his mother burning in the pyre alive. That thought drove him into a murderous rage that ended in a killing spree, “Your lot has to be taught a lesson!”

Thus revenge was served cold as deserts to the guests.

The neighbours who couldn't grasp that the sound was indeed a gunshot initially, realized it after four continuous shots were heard and called the police. But before the arrival of the cops they heard a solitary sound of a bullet escaping a gun and shattering whatever was in front.