Keh raha hai mera dil ab yeh raat na dhaley
Khushiyon ka yeh silsila aise hi chala chaley

Par woh raat dhali thhi. Aur subah hui thhi. Soft early morning light. The bed was covered with jasmine strands and rose petals. The smell of that morning I can never forget. The smell of crushed petals, and incense and mehendi (henna). Blended together like that, they become the smell of a new life. So new, strange, exciting, uncertain… I couldn’t sleep. This song had been playing that morning on a distant stereo somewhere.

Chalti hoon main taaron par
Phir kyun mujhko lagta hai darr…
Mere jeevan saathi bata
Kyun dil dhadke reh reh kar…

That morning I had been scared a little, as anyone beginning a new life would be. That song had seemed so apt. That morning so memorable…

Tera mera pyaar amar
Phir kyun mujh ko lagta hai darr…

Two years later, it is a morning very similar to that one. The rose petals and jasmine from Sabeen's engagement strewn over my mattress… but out of place, like the mehendi on my hands…

Wohi khushboo, wohi dheemi roshni. Once again I cannot sleep. But it is not the excitement and fear of a new life that keeps me awake this time. It is the sadness and tears of a morning gone by long ago, of a life that was not to be.