14 Years Without, Yet With You MAA

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 Dear Maa

It has been fourteen years today since you left us. Fourteen years, yet it still feels like yesterday that I last heard your voice, saw your gentle smile, felt your soft hands, and leaned into your warmth. Time has moved on, but your memories have not faded even a little. They live in every corner of our hearts, as alive and as comforting as ever.


So much has changed, Maa. Life looks different now, and we have all grown; Me, Neetu, Abba & Mahi. We often talk about how you would have felt seeing us today, how much you would have smiled at the way we have all turned out. You would have been proud, I know it, the way I try to carry a part of you in everything I do.


But even with all this growth, the truth is that your absence still feels like an unhealed wound. Some days are lighter, some days are harder, but no day ever feels completely whole without you. There are moments when I still look for you, in the smell of your favourite dish, in the rustle of your saree that still hangs in the cupboard, in the quiet hours of the night when memories flood in like a tide I cannot stop. In my lowest moments, I still find myself searching for you, wishing you were here to hold my hand like you used to.


Recently, something beautiful and heartbreaking happened. Through AI photographs, we saw you again, your face brought to life, your eyes shining, your smile so familiar that for a moment, it felt like time had turned back. Everyone was stunned into silence. Tears came before words could. Seeing you alive again, even for a few seconds on a screen, reminded us how much we still long for you. It felt like you had just stepped out of the room and would walk back in any moment.


We miss you every single day, Maa. If only love could build a bridge, we would have brought you back home long ago.


With all the love our hearts could hold,

Yours, Shanu










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