paving a way

“Only a month left now”, said my sister. She is expecting and only a month is left for the delivery. “I am so excited but anxious as well. The child would take the centre stage of my life. And am afraid how Sachin would cope with it. I would be no longer able to give him the love and attention that I used to give.” Sachin is her husband and she looked visibly uneasy while saying this.

She was showing the apparent signs of a fretful to-be-mother. Not fretful because of the pain that the delivery would ensure but because of the fact that her love, which earlier her husband had the full pie of, would now be shared.

I was listening to her, just listening and didn’t respond.

I knew what to say but I couldn’t. I don’t know why. Maybe because I myself didn’t believe in what I was about to say.

After a brief silence when it looked like I would just let it pass, I started “Don’t let the unknown worry you. Our heart is not like a room, where you give an unambiguous position to your things and furniture. Over the period of time, the things just get shifted from one position to another or may just get replaced but the fact would remain that the space remains finite. And if you try to overdo it everything just gets messed up.
Our heart is in fact like the universe, an ever expanding universe. It might have started with a concise size but the sheer force with which it expands over the period of time, the share factor just gets eliminated. Every person carves an impression of his own in your heart, independently and not at the cost another person. You would never compromise to give your love for one person to give it to another person. The space is just so big.”

I could see her nodding. Just then I thought of the number of people whom I had lost touch with over the period of time and who have literally become strangers. Many have left; a few have made their way in. But every transition has been at the cost of some or the other person. Maybe my heart is not expanding; maybe those who have left never actually touched deep inside or maybe it was destiny.

“Hmm..yeah..I just hope so.”, she murmured. But I didn’t respond.
And I was silent again.