Raincoat

Rakesh Patel

Gandhi spent all his life trying to find out what truth is. Even his biography’s title tag reads - Experiments with truths.

Love is sacrifice, it is giving, it is that exhale of breath which comes after seeing your loved one happy, it is the smile with sparking water in your eyes which comes by fulfilling what she wants. Love is wait. It is to conceive an idea to surprise her.

Love is eating food in the same dish. It is that feeling when you feed her with your hand. To me, to know love is to know a part of the truth of life.

Neeru and Manoj live in the same street, in a close neighborhood. They Grew up in poor families. Neeru loves to make fun of Manoj's serious nature and Manoj on the other hand finds his happiness seeing Neeru secretly through his room's window.

Neeru being from a typical poor Indian family knows her parents dreams and put them on top of everything. She agrees to marry a supposedly rich guy with a good job compared to Manoj who could not even afford to buy an engagement ring. It is needless to say love between two never dies after marriage. Practicality wins and Neeru follows her husband to Calcutta. Manoj never marry.

After six years, Manoj leaves to culcutta to meet his old college friend in the hope to borrow some money so that he can start a new business. Manoj, being not so educated himself takes help from the same friend and requests him to write one letter which he can show to some moneylender in Calcutta. Manoj couldn't resist to ask his friend to show him Neeru's home. He just wanted to see her once. In a rainy day, Manoj borrows his friend's RAINCOAT and leaves for Neeru's place.

They met after six long years. Those six years did not even create six inch of separation in their hearts. Neeru explains how she enjoys the comfort of the city and possess all the required things of the household. Manoj on the other side acts as good as Neeru and tells her how rich he is now and has everything that he ever wanted. When Neeru leaves to get some food for Manoj wearing the borrowed raincoat, Manoj finds out from her landlord that the big house with antiques and amenities everywhere is a rented home and how Neeru's husband is now jobless and mistreat her. Manoj gives all the money that he borrowed from his friend to the landlord. This would buy Neeru 3 months before she and her husband would get evicted from this house that they are renting. Neeru finds the letter in the raincoat which states the amount of money Manjo needs to start a small business and how poor Manjo really is. She keeps her most priced possession which happens to be all her jewelry in his raincoat's pocket. Both make this selfless sacrifice for the other without knowing that the other person also knows their reality.