Bheem
Bheem sits down in the chair with a sigh.
He catches sight of himself in the mirror hanging on the wall. His once dark and magnificent hair is completely grey; laugh lines and crows feet line his face. He's still muscled but it takes a while to get in and out of bed these days.
Ram, his dear Ram is gone.
So is Sita, one year later after her husband. They've left several generations behind; all of them are happy to call on their "Uncle Bheemu".
Langchu, Jangu and his old friends are gone.
Malli is now a mother herself; doesn't really need her సోదరుడు anymore but writes daily.
And today...
Today he just laid his beloved Jenny to rest.
It had been a long and hard battle with the tuberculosis but surrounded by her family and her husband, she finally left this world in peace.
They buried her under the banyan tree where he'd asked her to marry him. The leaves were shining and the branches themselves seemed to bow in respect.
Now he has time to himself.
He reaches into his coat pocket and pulls out the photograph someone had taken of them on their wedding day. She had looked so beautiful in her sari, beaming like the sun.
Finally the tears rise to the surface. He buries his face in his broad palm and sobs, the drops slipping through his fingers onto the floor.
He's all alone. No one left...
"Tātayyā?"
He looks up.
Kyārī, or Cary has walked in. He's the spitting image of Bheemu as a boy, barring the mop of brown hair he got from his grandma.
He walks over to him and without asking climbs into his grandfather's lap and wipes the tears from his cheeks.
"Are you sad because Am'mam'ma isn't here anymore?" He asks.
Bheem smiles, wraps an arm around his grandson's shoulders and kisses his forehead. "I am, but it's okay to be sad, my love."
Kyārī moves closer to him, relishing in the warmth of his tātayyā. "Papa said you and her were married for a long time. That's good right?"
Bheem chuckles. "It is. One day you may meet someone and be married just as long."
The little boy wrinkles his nose. "Yuck, no! I don't want to!"
Laughing, the tiger says "Oh it'll be a while, my little one. You've got a long way first."
"But...will you miss Grandma?"
"Hmm. Every day. But I'll see her in your father's eyes, in your aunties' smiles, in your uncles' laughs. And I'll definitely see her in you, my boy!" He says with a tickle making Kyārī giggle.
"So I'll see her that way too?"
"Yes...yes you will."