I check for the mobile in my pocket, grab the bag and head for the door. I take the car key and put it in the bag. I take one more look into the house. Opening the curtains brought in a pleasant feeling. The loneliness seems to be at a distance for now. A light breeze flutters the curtains as it passes by. My gaze falls on my wallet on the table. I pick it up. I check out its contents just to be sure of what I am carrying along.

It has some five hundred rupee notes along with two hundred and a hundred. They sit on the last sleeve. On the one before it, there are a couple of tens and twenties. There is a strip of a ticket or something tucked away in a corner of it. I take it out and open it. It looks like a bus ticket. The size of the paper and the serrated edges is similar to the ones issued in KSRTC buses. The ink has faded completely. Nothing is visible in it. I crumple it and throw it onto the table. It lies there along with similar crumpled papers.

I have my debit cards in the front. Alongside it is the ID card of my workplace. Behind it, I have tucked in my Aadhar card. And beyond that my driver's license. I open the coin pouch. In it, I find some ten coins. There is a large ten rupee coin amidst it. It is easily identifiable. The one rupee and two rupee coins are nowadays indistinguishable. They have become smaller and similar in dimensions. Earlier there was a difference in their design. A one-rupee coin would be round and smooth, while a two-rupee coin would have a slight octagonal profile. This makes them easy to distinguish. One can easily pick them apart without looking. The five rupee coin has remained almost the same. It is thicker which makes it easier to identify from the rest. Nowadays it comes in brass coloring also. It still keeps its thickness.

I close the coin pouch and check out the last small sleeve. In it, there is a piece of paper. The ink has bled and is visible on the other side of the paper. It has my details, in case I am to lose this purse and someone finds it and wants to return it. I take it out. Behind that lies two passport-size photographs. One is mine. The other is hers. These two photographs have been shot well. I had others too, but they weren’t that great. So I picked the one I felt was the best. She had been using this photograph for quite a while. In it, she has a sweet smile. It is good to see her smile. It makes a smile appear on my face. I pick up her photograph, kiss it and tuck it back safely with mine. Oh, how I miss her.

Something comes over me the moment I miss her. I feel a deep sense of loss. I cannot quantify it. This makes me want to do anything and everything I can to nullify it. To bring her back to me. But I know it isn’t possible now. I even don't know if it would ever be possible. I really don't know the situation I find myself in. All I can do is bask in the memories I have of her. I can at least do that.

This house and everything inside it reminds me of her. She has a touch in it. She is responsible for the few plants that are making the place greener and livelier. She was the one who took a complete effort in putting up a framed picture of the God we pray to. She took it upon herself to buy good crockery and plates. She was the one who nagged me incessantly to buy a shoe rack, which solved the problem of our scattered footwear.

Her presence permeates more than the things that she has done in this house. Strip it off everything, I can easily visualize her gliding through the premises. I am the one who moved in with her. Because of that, I will always associate the place with her.

I drop the bag on the floor and walk to our bedroom. There on the dressing table in a plastic container lies my wedding ring. I don't wear it because I am not used to wearing any ornaments, whether it be golden or silver or anything fancy. I even don't like wearing anything for a long time. From time to time I remove this smart band that I am wearing on my wrist. If it stays on for a long time, I feel suffocated. I remove it and instantly feel better.

She wanted me to wear something. She asked if I was interested in maybe wearing a silver ring. I told her how it was with me. Still, we went to buy a pair for ourselves. We brought similar ones. I wore it for a while and a couple of times when we went out together. It fits nicely on my finger. But I stopped using it.

The two silver rings lie close to each other in the same container. I pick them up and look at them. Hers is a sleek one with a small design to it. Mine is a thicker one with a very similar design. Together they form a great pair. I close my fist and kiss them. My eyes tear up. I hold them back.

I see a black strand lying right next to the container. I pick it up. It is a thick thread. I think it was to be used for some kind of stitching. It is as long as my hand. I slide both the silver rings into it and tie the thread. I take it and put it on my neck. The rings come to my chest level. They sit there perfectly. I take them in my palm, kiss them and put it inside my tee. Then I take the wedding ring and slide it into my finger.

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I walk out of the room towards the front door. I take the scooter key, pick up the bag, and leave the house. I wear my crocs, close the door behind me and walk towards the staircase.

It is hard to explain the significance of the event that took place in the bedroom just now. In all essence, it was me embracing my bond with her. It is a strong and significant bond. After all, she is my life partner. I must have been inspired by the stuff I had seen in action movies. The hero would pull out a dog tag of his friend and wear it on his neck for the entire duration of the movie. It has the significance of being close to the hero. He associates the dog tag with his friend. It is more than a motif to him. It was a way of saying out loud that the person meant the world to him.

My Anna means the world to me. She is the light in the darkness. She is the one to bring so much happiness and joy into my life. She fills in with all the absent colors in the spectrum. Together I feel strong. I feel I can conquer this world. She understands me and gets me. I am a cold person. She knows this and she bears all the coldness I subject her to from time to time. I genuinely think she is the only one on this entire planet who would get it. Having come together from a small meeting, I am forever grateful for having her in my life.

I know the rings will irritate me. I am not at all used to wearing a necklace or anything of that sort. But I will wear it with pride and emotion. It signifies us. It signifies our world. We were building one for ourselves. We had a lot to do.

I still hope our story isn’t over. It doesn’t end here. It simply can't. There are a lot of things to be done together. We haven't even taken a week-long trip together. There is so much more to do and explore.

This makes me feel for all those who have lost their love early in their life. On one of my earliest trips, I met a woman in her thirties. She had married three years ago. She lost her husband eight months into the marriage. It was an arranged marriage. Their love started to blossom after their wedding. Six months into it, they couldn’t keep their hands off each other. They had fallen madly in love.

Two months later he suffered an accident that saw him succumb to his injuries. She was shattered. They had just begun their lives. They had started dreaming and believing. She couldn’t get over him. She never moved on from him. I didn’t ask her why she hadn’t thought of finding someone else. The answer to it was already out in the process of her telling the story. She was now living her life for him. I didn’t understand it much back then. But I guess I know how it is now. A little of it. I think I will get to know more as I go on.

I reach downstairs and exit the building. The sun is shining bright. There are hardly any clouds in the sky. I can see some white streaks and nothing else. No dense clouds. I get onto the scooter and keep the bag between my legs. They are a bit heavier to hang on my back. I start it and ride away.

We have had discussions on how it would be if we were to lose the other. They have never reached a clear conclusion. I think there will never be one. We both tell each other to move on and if someone comes into their life, they should be given a chance. She makes me agree to it. When I try to get her word, she stalls. I know she can't do that. She can't let anyone else come into her life. But that is not right.

I believe every person who enters our life will leave it. Some of them will go on to be with us till our deathbeds. Some will be there with us for a week or more. Some might not even see a whole day. People will come and go. Everyone who comes in will have something to show us. They will have a part to play in our lives. That is why they are there. After they have played their part, they will leave. One can't always have the stage filled with all the characters in the play. They will come and go. Only the protagonist stays—the individual.

A lot of people have come and gone in my life. I am grateful for their time and their contribution to making me what I am now. They may or may not know about it. I just want to express my gratitude.

A good few stay with me. They are the ones I lean on in tough times. They are the ones who are actively contributing to making me what I am. Through them, I learn a lot. It is a symbiotic relationship. We learn and grow together. I think it is beautiful.

I am driving my scooter around fifty. It has nothing to do with having time. It has more to do with observing the surroundings. The chances of spotting a difference are slim. Really slim. Still, I need to do it. I can't leave it all to luck. I need to put in a minimum effort. Without that luck doesn’t work.

I wonder what has happened to Anna and all the people who have vanished in the great swipe. Have they been relocated to another universe, a similar kind maybe? Or can it be that they are going about their lives and I have been removed from it and thrust into this special setting? This can be possible. Wouldn’t it be better to deal with me rather than a multitude of individuals? I would have gone with the latter. It sounds easier and better.

I imagine what she must be going through then. She must be distraught. I don't know what she will do. She will search for me. She will do everything in her power to find me and bring me back. The whole event might not be as significant as it is for me. I can feel the difference when everyone else has disappeared. In the alternate case, it would only be me missing. Nevertheless, she would be heartbroken.

Thinking along those lines, I feel the pressure of finding a solution to the situation as quickly as possible. I can only contemplate these things. Even I don't know what is happening to be honest. I can go on and find out the answers for myself. I hope there are answers. If not then I guess it must be my fate. The cruelest of all fates.