Latitudes of Longing

by Shubhangi Swarup

The nature of life, the struggle for survival, it all remained the same, no matter how many fingers a creature possessed.

Life and death are a continuum. No one has studied this as closely as he has. “All of us are burdened by the twin destinies of saying goodbye to our loved ones and departing from our loved ones ourselves,” he writes in a letter accompanying the gift. “Let this not obliterate the greater destiny we all share—the fleeting moments we have together.”

“I love you too, my angel,” her father replies. It is the first time Girija Prasad has uttered those words. To him, they are the contemporary shorthand for expressing an emotion that old people like him had invested a lifetime of silence in.