Once eyes are opened in the morning, it is often very difficult to go back to sleep. In summers, Bishan Singh would go for morning walk but in winter it was different. He was sitting on the edge of his cot, his old body tightly covered with a quilt. He looked at Sukhwanti, his wife, asleep in her cot, next to his. She had been coughing the whole night and only near the morning she had fallen asleep.

Bishan Singh often told her to get her household work done by the maid but she would not listen to him. She did not feel happy until she did everything herself: washing utensils, scrubbing the floor, and if nothing remained to be done washing clothes. It was not like before when she was young. Old body is susceptible to ailments. At night, he would get up and rub her back so that she could get some relief from cough. If she is unwell, he is almost shattered.

The chirping of the birds in the courtyard suggested that it was light outside. Bishan Singh guessed that it must be 6:00 am. He wanted to peep through a window but the very thought of cold gust of wind that would enter through the window frightened him. He enveloped his body tightly in his old quilt. He was thinking why birds don’t catch cold! How delightfully they were chirping in the courtyard, pecking at the grains strewn by the maid.

Meanwhile, Sukhwanti turned on her side, and in the process her quilt slipped from her back, showing her bare back. Bishan Singh wanted to call her so that she could adjust her quilt but he didn’t; he did not want to disturb her sleep. He stood up and covered her body with her quilt. He decided to take her to their doctor, for her cough was not being cured with the help of herbs and local treatment.

Sukhwanti did not agree so easily because she did not want to waste money on minor ailments. She believed that such physical ailments get cured by themselves.

He came back to his cot and sat against the wall, with his back touching the wall. Memories don’t easily leave a person. Memories are like friends to the old and helpless lonely people. They submerge themselves in those whirlpools of memories and pass their days, sometimes thinking about happy days of the past and sometimes regretting over the past which they can never undo.

When he had married Sukhwanti, his economic condition was not so good, and it was somewhat difficult to make ends meet. There was no ancestral property and land. Bishan Singh was a carpenter in his village, carrying forward his ancestral profession. But with the first step of Sukhwanti in his house, everything began to change magically.

In those days, a new factory had opened near his village and he was lucky to have got a job there. He would ride his bicycle to and fro and come back home in the evening. His salary brought a lot of happiness in their house. The first signs of prosperity appeared after the construction of a new house, replacing their old mud house. Things began to pile in their rooms and husband and wife looked very happy.

The next big venture for Bishan Singh was the purchase of a small piece of land in his own village. On that land, he got four shops constructed, of which one he kept for himself and the other three were hired, thus adding to his monthly income. The villagers admired his wife because she was lucky for Bishan Singh. In a few years, he began to be respected everywhere in his village, the evident result of his wealth and prosperity.

Sukhwanti changed her side again. Now her face was not covered with the quilt. Bishan Singh began to look at her face. God had blessed them with everything but the joy of becoming parents was, perhaps, not in their fate. They had undergone various treatments, visited many doctors, but nothing happened. People suggested to Bishan Singh to go for second marriage so that his other wife could give him children. They said that children would be a great help to him in his old age. But, Bishan Singh did not listen to any one of them. All he wanted was the happiness of his beloved wife, Sukhwanti.

While he was lost in his thoughts, Sukhwanti changed her side, but now her eyes were open. Seeing her husband sitting on his cot, she got to her feet and said, “What is wrong? Are you all right?”

“Yes, I am fine; tell me how are you feeling now? You did not sleep the whole night; your cough was troubling you. You will have to come with me to see a doctor today,” said Bishan Singh.

“Nothing has happened to me, it is but a common cold and I will be all right in a day or two. Look at yourself! You are shivering,” said Sukhwanti.

“It is too cold today. This year cold has broken all the past records,” said Bishan Singh.

“Why are you sitting like that? Lie down and take rest. I will be back with a hot cup of tea for you,” said Sukhwanti and moved towards the kitchen.

“I am waiting for the sunshine. I want to enjoy the sun but I don’t think we will see the sun even today,” said Bishan Singh.

“Now, don’t you touch cold water! The maid will wash the utensils. Bring your tea as well and sit with me,” said Bishan Singh in a patronizing manner.

Sukhwanti folded her quilt very properly and made her bed and then brought her glass of tea and entered her husband’s quilt on his bed.

“Come close. It is warm here,” said Bishan Singh, making room for her.

Sukhwanti touched his forehead and said with a shock, “Oh…you have high fever. Why didn’t you tell me before? I should have given you a tablet. Now, stay in your bed and don’t try to come out,” she said to him in a manner of a mother who tries to scold her son.

Taking a sip from his glass, Bishan Singh said, “Nothing has happened to me. You get worried unnecessarily!”

They enjoyed their tea and remained sitting close to each other for a very long time. There was an unspoken understanding between the two and both knew what in the mind of the other person was.

Then suddenly, Sukhwanti broke the ice, “I don’t know why God is angry with us. Had he given us a child, we would have enjoyed the happiness of being parents in our old age!”

Bishan Singh laughed.

Sukhwanti knew that behind his laughter there was an unspoken agony but she knew that she was as helpless as he was.

“Sukhwanti, don’t think that children bring happiness in parent’s life. Look at our neighbour Mohan Singh. He has three sons but they don’t live with him. They have taken their share of his land and left him forever. Now there is no one to take care of old Mohan Singh and his ailing wife,” said Bishan Singh with a deep sigh.

Sukhwanti did not say anything. She was, in fact, happy that her husband’s thoughts were much higher than other people in that village.

“Then there is Kamal Nath. His sons have acquired his property and given him just one room to live in. In his old age he has no one to look after him. Now he says that he was wrong. If he had kept his money securely, he could have hired someone to work for him but now he is helpless,” said Bishan Singh.

Their glasses were empty and Sukhwanti kept them under the bed. She adjusted herself on the bed, near Bishan Singh. He extended his right arm around her waist and pulled her towards him.

“Even Sonu cheated us!” said she.

“Don’t talk about him. He was my brother’s son but I had kept him like our own son. He was only twelve when he had come to live with us. I spent a lot of money on his education but when he began to talk about transferring our house and shops in his name, I go suspicious,” said Bishan Singh.

“Everything happens for good. He left us and there was something good in it,” said Sukhwanti.

“If he had not forced us, everything we have should have gone to him,” said Bishan Singh in a sad tone of voice.

Sukhwanti felt as if she had touched old wounds.

“Sukhwanti, man wants only those things which he does not possess but in the process he forgets to enjoy those which he has. Why should we think about children? We are happy, aren’t we?” he pulled her towards him and she kept her head on his chest. The warmth between them was enough to comfort them.

They remained in that position for a long while.

Suddenly, a patch of sunlight jumped onto the room through the window and began to dance, on the floor,  like a rabbit. Sukhwanti immediately pulled herself away from Bishan Singh as if someone had seen them together in that posture of love and interdependence. Looking towards Bishan Singh, she gave a big smile.