The One Who Survived

Sneha is only about 8 years old playing with her 3 siblings. Her father Col. Abhishek Kumar Ranjan, a 41 Yr old young family loving man returns home after 5 months from an operation. Her mother Col. Shweta Ranjan ,a 37 yr old brave lady , was at home preparing them food .

Suddenly her mother gets a call from an anonymous person.

“Hello… who is this?” she says.

Instead of answering her questions the person says, “The confidential information from the secret base of Gauhati is being leaked and has reached the enemies. They have hacked our whole system. We are in danger. Come to the base immediately.”

“Hello… who is this? Hello…” Before she could speak or understand anything, the call was cut.

Col. Abhishek returns home after a long 5 months tired, exhausted due to the strenuous operation.

As soon as the door opened he called his children lovingly,

“Come on, kids, come and see who’s here. A wandering fakir has come to your doorstep. Where are all my happiness, the very things this fakir has come looking for?”

He always said this poem whenever he returned home.

After 5 long months the children left their toys there and ran to him after listening to him. He sat on the sofa comfortably, hugged the children, took both the girls on his lap and answered their unending questions.

Meanwhile Shweta offered him water.

The children were way too happy but not Shweta. Her face was dark, still thinking about that call. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice who had arrived.

But her husband noticed her.

He made both the girls sit aside softly, got up and called her name.

“Shweta…”

No response.

Again, keeping his hand on her shoulders, he said,

“Shweta…”

She responded,

“Ummm… Oh, you… Oh my God, you’re here…”

She hugged him as she got her charm and everything back in her life.

He kissed her and asked about her well being.

The conversation was normal.

“I’m fine, but you must be very tired. You should get some rest. I have some work to finish in the kitchen. I’ll come back.”

As soon as she left the site all the children attacked on him, making him tremble slightly and sit on the sofa.

Both twins occupied their father's lap, Sneha was struggling to get a lap on his lap and Vijay sat beside him and telling his sibling,

“Get down. You’ll hurt Papa. He might get hurt.”

Shweta stopped for a while and had been watching them from a distance.

Vijay, the eldest, was proudly telling his father about everything that had happened while he was away, while Sneha kept interrupting him with her own little stories.

Kashish and Kashika were busy competing for their father’s attention, each insisting that Abhishek listen to them first.

Abhishek laughed as he tried to answer all four at once.

Their voices filled the room, and for the first time in months, Shweta saw all of them laughing together without a worry on their faces.

She smiled quietly.

She had missed this.

She had missed seeing her children so carefree, and she had missed seeing Abhishek being nothing but a father.

Their voices filled the room, and for the first time in months, Shweta saw all of them laughing together without a worry on their faces. She smiled quietly. She had missed this. She had missed seeing her children so carefree, and she had missed seeing Abhishek being nothing but a father.

Shweta couldn’t stop herself from laughing. It had been months since she had seen her family like this.

For a little while, the operation, the call, the fear and everything waiting outside their home disappeared.

There was only her family.

Shweta said,

“Freshen up. Dinner is ready. And you children, put your toys away and come. We’ll all have dinner together tonight…”

She paused, looking at him and her children with teary eyes.

“After such a long time.”

After some time the family again gathered at the dining table.

The dining table was filled with the sounds of the children talking over one another. After five long months, Abhishek was finally sitting at the same table with his family again.

Shweta was busy feeding Kashika, who had already decided that she had absolutely no interest in eating.

“That’s enough. I don’t want to eat,” Kashika said, turning her face away from the spoon.

“Really? And who was saying all morning that she wanted Mommy to feed her with her own hands? Who was that?” Shweta asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I never said that,” Kashika immediately denied.

Vijay laughed from across the table.

“You did!”

“Of course you did!” Sneha added.

Kashish, who was sitting beside her sister, nodded seriously.

“Mommy, she definitely said it.”

Kashika glared at all three of them.

“You’re all liars!”

Abhishek couldn’t help himself. A small smile appeared on his face as he watched the chaos unfolding in front of him.

For five months, he had lived in places where the sound of gunfire had replaced laughter, where every passing second carried danger and even sleep came with the possibility of never waking up again. He had seen harsh conditions, exhaustion and violence that he would never want his children to know about.

And now...

Now he was sitting at his dining table, watching his wife argue with their daughter over a spoonful of food.

It felt strangely peaceful. Almost unreal.

For the first time in months, Abhishek wasn’t thinking about his next mission, the enemy, or whether he would make it back alive.

He was simply watching his family.

Shweta suddenly noticed him smiling.

“What are you smiling at?” she asked, slightly annoyed. “Say something! This has become her routine every single time.”

Abhishek raised both his hands innocently.

“What am I supposed to say? You two are having a meeting. If I say something in the middle, I’ll be the one getting scolded.”

The children burst out laughing.

“See!” Shweta said. “You’re supporting her too.”

“Absolutely not,” Abhishek said, trying to suppress another smile. “I’m just observing the situation.”

“Oh, really? Then keep observing.”

Shweta picked up another spoonful and brought it towards Kashika.

“Now, no more fussing. Open your mouth.”

Kashika stubbornly shook her head.

Shweta gave her the look.

Kashika immediately opened her mouth.

“Good girl,” Shweta said, finally smiling.

Abhishek watched them quietly.

Five months ago, he would have given anything for a moment like this. And now that he finally had it, he wished he could freeze time.

After having dinner, Abhishek took his children to sleep where he played with them, shared this brave funny experience in the operation and made them sleep.

The children refused to let their father leave them.

Vijay wanted to hear about his latest operation, Sneha wanted a bedtime story, while Kashish and Kashika were already arguing over who would sleep closest to him.

“Papa, story!” Sneha insisted.

“One story,” Abhishek said.

“Two!” Vijay immediately protested.

“Three!” Kashish and Kashika shouted together.

Abhishek looked at them for a moment and sighed dramatically.

“Looks like you four have learned negotiation skills in the five months I was gone.”

The children burst into laughter.

Eventually, after one story became two and two somehow became three, their voices slowly faded.

Vijay fell asleep first, followed by Sneha, while Kashish and Kashika finally surrendered to sleep beside their father.

Abhishek gently tucked the blanket around all four of them. He kissed Vijay’s forehead, then Sneha’s, and finally the twins.

For a moment, he simply stood there, looking at his children.

After five months away, this ordinary moment felt more precious than anything else.

Abhishek after the children got asleep he came out of their room and closed the door quietly.

He again noticed Shweta was way more tense than she was in the evening.

He went to her and asked,

“What happened? Why are you so tense?”

He placed a hand on her shoulder.

Shweta, who was sitting at the dining table still thinking about that call, got frightened as soon as he touched her.

“Ah—who… Oh, it’s you! You scared me.”

She said, turning towards him.

He noticed something unusual.

He thought,

“She has never been afraid of anyone. This woman has survived more than a hundred encounters in the last fifteen years and has carried out countless impossible operations. Yet she got this frightened just because I touched her. There must be something bothering her.”

He continued,

“Come on. Let’s sit down and talk calmly.”

He lovingly took her to the bedroom, made her sit, gave her water and asked,

“What happened? Why are you so frightened today? I noticed you were tense this evening too. Is someone troubling you?”

She took a sip of water and answered,

“I’m working on an operation. I can’t tell you much about it, but I can tell you this much—something very bad is about to happen, and I have to stop it at any cost. Otherwise, many innocent lives could be lost.”

He understood the situation and her fear of losing everything she had.

He said,

“I trust you completely. My wife never does anything without thinking it through. And you should trust yourself too. You’re not fragile, and you’re certainly not foolish.”

All her tension vanished, only to be replaced by irritation.

“Oh, really? You think I’m foolish?”

He immediately defended himself.

“Hey, why are you getting angry? I only said that my wife isn’t foolish. That’s all.”

“Oh, really? Is that so?”

She threw a pillow at him—not hard enough to hurt him.

Before she could start the pillow fight, he caught her hand and started cuddling and tickling her.

Their laughter echoed through the bedroom.

Slowly, they moved closer to each other.

They were living their most precious moment of their life, a moment they had waited for five long months.

They slept while cuddling each other like a baby.

But they didn’t know...

It was their last cuddle.

The last time they would laugh together.