“How do I know what is it about? All it said was that I had to be present there with a photo id,” she spoke irritably.

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“What sort of an inheritance is this?” Ramya exclaimed.

“Madame, that is all that we know. It had your name and address and so we contacted you. Now its up to you if you want to accept it or throw it away,” the grumpy lawyer spoke disinterestedly.

The room was very small. It had a small window on one side of the wall and a table on the other. The lawyer was seated in a half broken chair and there were about ten people hovering around him. Waiting desperately for their two minutes of attention from the man in question.

Ramya knew there was nothing more she could extract out of the situation, her two minutes of attention were over.

She nodded uncomfortably. And as if on cue, the lawyer handed her a huge brown envelope.

                                           *                                  *                                 *
“Why don’t you see what’s inside?” Shekhar suggested.

Ramya continued to hold the package clung tightly to her chest. She had thought little besides it the whole day and yet no part of her had the courage to open it.

“Here give it to me, I will open it for you,” Shekhar offered.

She slowly handed over the envelope to him.

She watched as he sliced open one side of it. And he slowly extracted a bundle of sheets. They looked like letters. She didn’t know who would leave letters to her. Come to think about it she still doesn’t know who is it that died and left her this.

“They seem like letters to someone,” he spoke, at the same time ruffling a few pages in the stack.

Ramya nodded uncomfortably.

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They were kept as it is on the desk. She had been procrastinating them for almost two days now. Her heart couldn’t muster the strength to go through them. She had thought a lot as to who it might be, she rung up a few friends her family and yet had no idea who’s will left her the package.

“They told me that is all she was left with,” the lawyer had said these words while handing over the envelope.

“She”, so its a girl we know, Ramya thought to herself.

What’s the point of delaying it now? Why not get over with them, once and for all? Ramya suddenly got a whiff of curiosity which propelled her to pick up the sheets again.

They were all dated and written in a neat printed handwriting. As well as, all arranged in a preset order starting with the earliest.

The first letter went like this.

Dear friend,


If you are reading this letter then it means that I have already died by now. I have perhaps not achieved my dreams and these letters are the only way of knowing who I was. My destiny did not take me to places my dreams wished to go. And you are the chosen one to read my story.


There will be times you will judge me, times you will cry with me and at times relate to me. Its perhaps in these times you will understand me the best. Whatever I did in my life I did because I too like you had dreams I wanted to achieve.


I don’t know as of now who you are. I could have known you all my life or perhaps for a few days, months years. I don’t know why I have chosen you and perhaps these letters will prove of no use to you. In that case I am sorry. But then you see over the course of my existence I have lost them all. Friends, family, lovers everyone has deserted me. And I could not die without knowing that someone thought of me after I left.


For whatever pains I may cause you in the efforts I expect from you now, I am sorry.


Love,
Mallika.

to be contd. at Love Mallika-Part 8