3 lives

There is a saying for those who are happily married. 'Two bodies, one soul.' It is not just a statement, it's a fact. Before the first birth every soul was divided into two forming a couple. Hence, in the entire world for every individual there is a 'soul mate' as people call it. This story is of one such couple.

A small village located in the area surrounded by huge mountains. A village with dusty roads, perishable houses which could be counted on fingertips and population that did not made a mark of three digits ever. The village was a part of very big kingdom of the 16th century. With no technology that time, the village was covered with darkness until first rays of sun fell on the ground. The only alarm clock they had was the sound 'Kuku-du-ko' every morning.

It was a wake-up call for all to begin their day work. Among others there was a house of two brothers along with their wives and children. The younger one was Sanjay (60) and his wife Sumitra (57). The day like any other began with the whole family collectively cleaning the house. Then on the instructions of the elder of the house, all the children was supposed to do exercise that included Surya Namaskar and other stretching exercises. The workout was followed by getting in cue for bath. Meanwhile the women prepared the food for all. After having breakfast Sumitra's husband left for work with his 2 elder sons who joined him in his work after basic studies. On the way they would drop the younger two to their school.

Sumitra is married for 45 yrs now. She got married very young with a stranger with whom she got arranged by her parents. But as years passed she grew to love this man. Her husband works at a blacksmith workshop where weapons are made for the kingdom swords, daggers, etc. At work they spent all time hammering the molten steel to shape it into a good weapon.

By the time it was end of the day, Sanjay felt a bit fatigued so he choose to sit down for a while. Looking at him, one of his sons asked if he is okay. He nodded while his son just passed. But when he returned, his father was sitting still with his head looking down. He called his father but no response from him. He shook him, to wake him up and still he wouldn't respond. He called others for help, but after a lot of failed attempts it was concluded that he had passed away. The news of Sanjay passing away, while his body was brought home, struck like a shock to Sumitra. She sat still in front of the body without a word from her mouth. The people around gathered mourned for Sanjay's death but Sumitra didn't shed a tear.

This is something wrong. When a person dies and his soul departs from the body he takes away some life from the ones closest to him. In that case the closest ones the wife or the children must cry. This is important as the support of life is lost with the death and in order to move on in life, these people need support of someone else. But Sumitra did no such thing. At the time Sanjay's body was to be cremated Sumitra was brought there to make her believe that her husband is actually dead.

Meanwhile, the others where in deep discussion. They were taunting about why did Sumitra didn't go as Sati. Those were the times when the superstitions what we call today were followed religiously. But even then Sanjay's elder brother who was the in-charge of the house was clear in his thinking. He did not believe in 'sati' practice. Why to give life of one innocent person for the other?

As Sanjay's body was in flames the others decided to return back home. Meanwhile Sumitra with some of the women were still there. While other had turned their backs to leave, one of the women screamed. Everyone turned to see that Sumitra was walking towards the fire. The elder brother, among others, ran to save her but it was too late as she had step into the fire. Sumitra stood there as the fire engulfed her body. The flames were burning her body but there was no expression of pain on her face. Sumitra closed her eyes taking last few breath's of life.

Fire, heat, pain…Suddenly with jerk a woman wakes up from sleep in her bedroom. It's still 3 a.m. She calms herself down. "I have to wake up early in the morning." She says to convince herself and goes back to sleep. As we look around the bedroom we see that the woman's name is Sumi. She is a married woman with two children. But currently she is sleeping alone in her double bed. Sharp 6 O' clock the alarm wakes her up. She begins with her daily routine of getting freshen up and cooking for breakfast.

As we see both her sons have grown up. The elder one is already married and is well established in his job. While the younger is in the last year of his engineering. The look around the house suggests that Sumi is living happily in the house with her husband. Her husband is currently retired from the banking job he had and is now home living a happy life. Sumi, is a housewife and has a hobby of painting. A series of artwork displayed at various places is the clue for that. For some reason her husband is not in the house. It's a Saturday so Sumi's younger son woke up late and is having breakfast. Meanwhile the elder one arrives and calls her "Maa". He tells her that it's time for them to leave. Sumi agrees to it and gets ready with her purse and a bag with Tiffin box and fruits, to leave. Before getting out of the house she instructs her younger son about what he has to do, regarding food, cleaning and running errands. Then they leave.

"So it's all happy finally." A female voice interrupts the scene.

In a completely white closed room. There is a girl in her 20's taking to a guy in a suit. It appears that she has come to the guy's office for some reason. The office has floor and all the walls painted white with the furniture white too. On one of the walls there is a display of dancing letters which spells 'Soul Matching'. We are in future, year 2270 to be precise. The technology has advanced even more by then. The matrimonial services have upgraded too. Now they get the soul print of the customer, they look into their previous lives and see if they had found their match back then. Then they get the soul print of their companion and find the person with same soul print in the current time. The rate of success in the marriage by this method is surprising high. So this girl, named Su, has come to find her soul match.

"Did you find the match?", She asks.

"Yes ma'am. I am happy to tell you that in your previous two lives you married to your perfect match. And it was the same soul mate both the times. Now all we have to do is to get the soul print and find a match." The guy replied.

Then he went on typing some stuff to execute some program to scan from the database to look for Su's match. Unfortunately there was no match to be found. Expressions of disappointment on the guy's face tempt Su to ask him.

"What happened, did you find him or not?" Su asked.

"No, ma'am there is no record of your soul match on the 'Forever Young Database'."

(Forever Young was one more invention of that time. By doing a small procedure the regeneration ability of the body is improved tremendously giving the individual surprisingly long life. It was a choice given to every individual and those who choose to do the procedure their soul print was recorded. This is because doing this procedure means defying the nature's cycle of rebirth.)

Su was disappointed and didn't know what to do. She was about to get up and leave.

Then the guy interrupted, "Don't worry ma'am, if your soul mate is alive and is on earth then we will track him down. But the scan will take few minutes."

Su sat down again thinking that there is still hope. Su had seen many of her friends and cousins who had found their soul mate and were living happily since then. That was her inspiration that brought her to this place. But finding out that she will not be able to unite with her soul mate was be depressing. She didn't want to be like her aunt Jes who lived her life alone because she didn't find her match. As Su's thoughts were getting dark and depressing the guy interrupted.

"We have a hit."

Looking at the screen he said that the guy she is looking for is J.F. Satt and right now he is in a hospital. Su took the address and left right away to the place. The guy told her that she can pay later as her meeting with her soul mate is more important. Happily Su left and went to the address in a cab. All the way only happy thoughts came to her mind. "Why he is at the hospital? Is a doctor, a surgeon maybe? Yes, surgeons are hot." At the hospital she inquired about him. Su was pointed to an I.C.U. room. On the door there was label that said, patient name: 'J.F. Satt'. Fear creped over her as she walked inside. She was shocked to see that it was an old man lying inside. There was no one else sitting there with him, only a 'Get Well Soon card' from his grand-daughter. Tears came in her eyes to see her soul mate in the bed in the last moments of his life. Quietly she decided to leave. That was when the old man woke up to ask who she was. He held her hand to stop her. Su couldn't control herself but burst into tears. Calming herself down, she then explained him the whole story how she found out that he was her soul mate. Hearing all this, the old man's eyes widened. He started narrating his part of the story.

" Long ago when I was 26. It was decided for me to get married by my parents. So, along with my friend I went to the soul matching services office. It was known as 'Soul Connect' back then. I went with a lot of hopes but all my dreams were shattered as I heard that my soul mate, i.e. you, did not exist i.e. alive. Disappointed, I left home to live a lonely life. Since I couldn't meet my perfect match, there was no point in living forever. The technology back then was not that advanced to find out what happened to you. So I did not carry out the procedure of 'Forever Young'. Later in my life I did get married and have children. But still there was an emptiness in me that looked for you. After few years I gave the hope of finding you. The only thing I could hope for then was to at least meet you before I depart from this world. Guess my last wish has been fulfilled." Then he gave a smile to Su as if it was the last of it.

Su couldn't take it anymore so she left the hospital. She needed an explanation as here past lives had been very happy but things got messed up this time. She called the soul matching services demanding an explanation. Next morning when she went back to the hospital just to find out that Jagdish had passed away and was being cremated in the basement of the hospital. By the time she went there, the body was set in flames in a closed metal container with glass side.

Watching the body burn, Su remembered what Soul matching official told her. "In the 16th century the couple passed away together so they got to live together happily in the next life. But, 13/12/2014, was the date when things changed. Saturday morning, when Sumi left home with her elder son. She went to the hospital to see her husband. That was the day when he passed away. Before the husband died, he thanked her for the happiness she gave to him and took farewell until they meet the next time. After husband's death, Sumi with her two son's support lived on for 15 more years before she passed away. This 15 yrs gap widened over time and result of it was the situation Su is facing now."

While feeling the heat of the departed soul, Su had tears in her eyes and she wondered, "How many lives will I have to live before I could be reunited with the other half of my soul…" The most important question of life, to which, unfortunately no one knows the answer.