… I had promised myself to go and ask for his forgiveness one day, but now that he is no more, I have lost that chance of amendment, too.

… Could I have missed them more? What a fool I had been while they walked and talked and lived …

… Had Dad not thrown me out … for pursuing what I liked, and more so, for not pursuing what he liked, I could have probably said … . But as of now, I can’t. I know my conscience wouldn’t ever let me rest in peace, if I did.

… He was shouting all along, ‘so people want to make me regret’, and then came his full-throated war cry as if a triumphant cannibal was dragging his vanquished, and wriggling, enemy to cook for a communal feast…

… Mom’s murmur, ‘Oh Mohan, you fool, couldn’t you help not wrecking the delicate balance I tried to nurture’ rings in my ears ever fresh…

… Had I been less stunned, I would have gone to Mom, hugged and consoled her, but I didn’t dare; I couldn’t; not knowing who was devastated more; me or Mom.

… Why hadn’t I, too, been on board AI 666? We could all have been having bonhomie as dead as when alive…

… Though I never agreed with him fully, a part of me wanted to listen to his words as if they contained kernel of truth and, yet another part, wanted to banish the echo of his words from my head …

… I loved you, didn’t I, Dad? I could’ve come on one of these days to apologize to you for all my acts that had hurt you, only if you were there.