You made my day!

With some considerable effort, Sakshi quietened the little Gollum's hiss of a voice inside of her, telling her to pick up the phone and call dad, agreeing to his proposal of her tying the knot with Ranjan. Not that she was any more in love with the Indian Superman, Vittal. Vittal had long since become a story of the past to her. Her sunken spirits spoke into disorganized and messy belongings strewn about everywhere in her house. Her bearing was rendered long since devoid of the former racing of the heart, the butterflies in the stomach, the adrenaline rush, the sweating, and the flushing of the cheeks whenever looking at a lonely picture of she and Vittal hugging together that adorned the topped of the TV. Her obsession of super-imposing Vittal's smiling visage onto the face of the hero of the usual soap and smelling the fragrance yet emerging from the picture frame Vittal touched during his last visit, with her closing her eyes in a semi-dreamy state of intoxication called 'love,' were all wiped away completely. In short, she was a mess, just exactly as the way the world appeared to her. The answering machine blinked, Sakshi turned it on. "Hey, girl! I hope your spirits are back up since the last time we met. Artist Megha is onto her next Violin concert; if you wish we can go, I can book tickets for you, let me know". Before it could continue further, Sakshi truncated the message. She picked up her frock coat, and slouched towards the town center in a glum mood, and thrust her hands in her pockets. It was around 7 pm and getting dark outside.

It had been precisely three months since she last spoke a word to Vittal. It was not the fancy wedding invite for Ankita's marriage that grieved her; not even the high-profile wedding itself, with necks swathed in jewels everywhere or the eye-watering amounts of money spent on Haute Couture bridal wear, or food from top chefs of the world or opulent palace venues that grieved her either. Sakshi's soul was much more mature than moping for the elusiveness and transcience of wealth, having been witness to the luxury-tide ebbing and receding in her own family in former times. When the peering eyes of the assembly had gazed over her in a quick sweep to check on her flamboyance indicative of wedding bells ahead with the Superman, she had only reverted with a nonchalant grin without any trace of being irked by them. It was only when her simple mind was thrown into the suspicions of the "motherly" crowd during those ineluctable conversations with some such, that she gave in, into viewing marriage the traditional way: as a prescription for normalcy; relenting her carefree spirit to brood over the marriage prospects with Vittal, and to decide it may never materialize like expected. 

After the melancholy set-in, Sakshi sat by a corner at Ankita's wedding, seldomly talking to anyone, ruminating over how she and Vittal had met. Two years into Chakra meditation and deep Ashtanga Yoga not only yielded her body supple; it also dawned a phase in her spiritual life marked by the bells and whistles yogic practices carry, one of it is to be rendered with a feeling of weightlessness: precisely explaining the way superman Vittal and Sakshi had met. It was once when she forgot her surroundings in a trance losing awareness of her body, and attempted sky-walk, that she nearly fell from the top of a skyscraper; in an ensuing bone-chilling rescue, Superman had flown by and caught her in his arms. That's how they had first met, and subsequently, the chemical and not-so-chemical reactions had landed them both in the clutches of a mysterious word called 'love.' Whereas Superman was a master of his trade, with the ability to fly, remain underwater for hours without breathing, lift any amount of weight, guess the future and the past, enable others to see into the future via visions, Sakshi's skills were that of a novice and emerging. 

"Be warned," he informed her, "every time I use my superpower, physical or psychological, I lose a big chunk of my penance-potential, and I have to recharge for a whole month penancing again without food! And I cannot save others in need during the penance period. So be safe!".

Not that Sakshi was disproportionately apprehensive or made a fuss about remaining unmarried at 29. She was even ready to dismiss the marriage thoughts completely. As destiny may have it, Ankita pulled her by the hand to a secluded spot and chimed in, "Superman is always surrounded by lovely, boisterous, peppy young things!! Don't keep postponing the marriage lest you want to forget about Vittal!", fueling Sakshi's marriage-flame back in her mental hearth. Later that day, much, much into the evening, as Sakshi watched a party clown blow a colossal bubble into a heart shape that turned to a mickey-mouse and burst out disbursing confetti all over, that Sakshi's mind started fathoming the unlikely for a fact: she remaining a spinster forever.

Sakshi had been a happier person two months before Ankita's wedding. After celebrating the third anniversary of the memorable day when they had declared their love to each other, Sakshi inquired Vittal on this day, but for the 5th time about their life together. What originally had begun as delightful anticipation that would elicit a proposal from Vittal at least this 5th time, it had panned out into a dreary affair with a disastrous downturn of events, with Vittal glowering back at Sakshi in a look of unmirthful scorn. 

"Look, Sakshi! As I said umpteen number of times already, unless I have initiated at least five more worthy souls into the superhuman state of existence, I cannot marry. Marriage is too demanding of my time and too distracting of my goals, whereas the world needs those supermen quite immediately!". With a look of uncharitable disdain, he brushed aside her proposal in one of the world's biggest ironies, because when he first declared his love, Sakshi felt his intense longing for her almost immediately, foretelling immediate nuptials. 

Throughout numerous failed proposals from Sakshi, the promise of their 'married' future seemed elusive, at least to Sakshi, given the time it takes to identify, leave alone training, ordinary men into becoming super-powered men. A sense of having been betrayed settled in her conscience, like being poured a beaker of acid on her moist heart, as if everything was over, on its end. She had started to lose her sleep; her desire to read, sleep and fun things became part of her past. Her violin had started sounding like ripping, galvanized iron roof; frizzy hair stood on its end in all her selfies of herself; her zeal and zest in life had diminished to the point life felt like plain monotony of boring activities intended for sustenance rather than enjoyment, and she felt like floating away in an endless, unmanned spaceship, perhaps intended for the black hole.

That was when, quite a matter of fact, Sakshi abruptly stopped all forms of correspondence with Vittal. No more the flitting birds across the tree branches elicited a poetic mood in her; their favorite spot together by the lounger near the pool did not draw her yearning attention; his "favorites" in her closet were on the row for being given away; in short, Sakshi had started having double-minds; she was about to terminate the relationship with Vittal and consider marrying the next eligible bachelor her aunt had suggested to her. Sakshi's father, too, exclaimed a great deal in reverence about the match. Not that Vittal did not do anything about the situation. He did call upon her many, many times in these three months. Twice he waited several hours in front of her implacable front door at her apartment that seemed to Vittal like unrelenting prison gates; his emails and voicemails were never answered, and his gifts to her returned abruptly. He was all panicky because recently when he met with Sakshi's friend Ankita, she revealed to him Sakshi was considering someone else. That's when he decided to visit her one last time.

"T-ting" rang the doorbell three consecutive times, followed by the familiar, singular tap on the door. It was him! Even as Sakshi knew it, she decided to hear her internal Gollum whispering in his secretive voice not to open the door. 

"Sakshi, please, I have something for you!" announced the voice outside. 

The pain and the nagging thought of being taken for granted suddenly poured into Sakshi. She skipped past the hallway, and stood in front of the locked door, threw a fit and yelled back, 

"Go away! I'm never special to you! I do not wish to see you ever! It's quitting time for me!", as Sakshi screamed, her voice was caught in her throat. Whimpering, she headed to the couch and crouched on it, propping her head in between her knees. 

There were silence and a pause. Then an envelope got pushed in from underneath the door, followed by gradually waning footsteps. In a short while, Vittal was gone again.

It took an hour for Sakshi to come back to her senses again. All the while, her heart split down the middle as she endlessly wavered between her options now. Feelings she was unaccustomed to poured inside her and felt like paralysis of will, with thoughts and feelings vehemently colliding with each other, with no way forward. Sick of her cerebral merry-go-round, she decided to open the envelope, which felt like some closure to the stormy commotion inside her brain. At least, she had as much good fortune to do so, for that set the condition needed for her precisely, towards an upward swing in momentum. 

Sakshi stepped ahead and opened the envelope.

Inside, there was a sparkling, laser-cut 22 Carat gold pendant with the letter 'S' engraved in the middle. There was also a letter to her accompanying the gift. That was the pendant Sakshi aspired to purchase for her birthday, which made her suddenly remember about the good day, two days ahead. Holding the jewel in her palm quietened her emotional roller-coaster, and in a sudden impetuous mood, she took her chain, added the new pendant to it, and put it on! What followed next in a nearly dreamy state, Sakshi could never imagine up ahead and happened to her only because her good karma allowed her, much as bringing along Vittal to her life!

In a sudden glow that emerged of her pendant, Sakshi found herself surrounded by warm, soothing waves of light. At first, they were mild, but sooner, they became so powerful Sakshi lost all her sense of being a separate identity, space, and everything around her. Eventually, she heard the soothing voice of Vittal speak to her amidst the light. "Open your mind's eye and see through the future," the voice beckoned her. With little effort, Sakshi's yogic training empowered her to do the needful, and lo! a beautiful vision emerged right in front of her mind's eye.

As many young maidens surrounded the Vittal and Sakshi stood in the altar, on the occasion of their marriage, hand in hand, much married, and it looked like the reception ceremony. There was exuberance all around, with everyone jubilantly dancing away in circles; in no time, Vittal took Sakshi's hand to his mouth and planted a gentle kiss, and then lifted their intertwined arms above and the whole crowd cheered! Soon they were dancing away; then in an instant, the scene culminated into another dramatic vision wherein Sakshi and Vittal were celebrating what seemed like a birthday party; a little boy and a girl were holding arms with Sakshi; and then finally in a gentle haze, the vision slowly waned away and disappeared.

When Sakshi found herself back to her normalcy, she opened the envelope again and took out the letter with shaky hands. In his diligent and assiduous choice of words, Vittal had explained how he had given away much of his accumulated powers for enabling her with an enduring vision into the future, something that would convince her of how special she was to him. The extent of his spiritual endowment to her meant to him the next six months in secluded penance over no food, perhaps in a cave somewhere, so the world might not lose its lone savior. Sakshi vaulted over the clothes strewn by the floor and reached for the end table where her cellphone lay. Adrenaline rushed through her body.