“Happy Birthday, Hemant”🥹🫶🏻❤️

“See you soon, Di,” you said that July afternoon.
Blue shirt, khakis, glinting eyes, that half-smile at the corners. My handsome little brother more than my cousin.

I was rushing—just a week’s leave for our sister’s wedding. You opened the car door, “Di… write letters.”
I laughed, “Where do I have time? PG kar rahi hu… not counting mountains like you.”
You smiled, “I don’t count mountains there, Di…”

We hugged. I promised letters. Never wrote them. Thought there was time.

How I wish I had—just a few lines on those inland blue letters with stamps at the corner… folded words carrying pieces of our lives. You would have written back. Those pages would have held your laughter, your dreams, your heartbeat in ink.

But August came first. Wrapped in the tricolour. Silence instead of letters.

And that last image of you—
blue shirt, khakis, glinting eyes, half-smile, a hand waving till I disappeared—
it carved itself into my soul,
a tattoo that will outlive even me.

And I write about you—our unsung hero. That’s how I send my letters to you, up in heaven.

Happy Birthday, little brother.
You live on, inked in our hearts forever.

⸻

Suvi’s Scribbles