Devi Prasad Thapa ‘Mama’
Grandpa was quite old. Everyone said he would become God any time soon.
It was wintertime. The rain had stopped. Weather was largely dry, and the sky quite clear.
Most of the time, Grandpa remained confined to his bed. As long as it was bright, someone kept visiting him to ask about his wellbeing. But at night, his room remained cold and still most of the time. He had lost his wife must earlier. His son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren remained busy in their own works.
There was only one window in the old man’s room. When the evening came darting, he would open the window and gaze at the sky. His heart would leap up whenever he saw the moon and he stars therein. One star that appeared on the northern edge of the sky always showed up at the same time, and twinkled in the same way. The old man often thought it was his wife and she always came towards the evening to see if everything was okay with her husband.
After a few months, the weather showed some sudden changes one day. The sky was overcast with clouds and this continued until it was dark. Yet, the curious eyes of the old man continued to gaze at the sky through his window. But the star he always gazed at did not appear. He watched till late night but to no avail.
In the morning, the old man was found dead in his bed.
Trans: Mahesh Paudyal
[Devi Prasad Thapa ‘Mama’ is a storywriter and poet from Manipur state of India. Some of his seminal works published so far include the poetry collections Iche Sharmila (in Manipuri) and Koubruko Kaakhbata (Nepali) and micro-story collections Aama, Baba, Sasu and Maiti in Nepali. He is a teacher by profession and lives in Kanglatongbi, Manipur.]