Letter to Engagement Ring

Dear ER,

You are no longer with me tonight, and thank god for that. In your place I have couple of deserving others on the same finger, like a tabulation of the times. The reason I write to you tonight is because there are far too many wedding invitations around, too many to attend. And there are couple of weddings which are almost family. Family. What makes one family? Blood ties, science would say. And engagement? Time-tied, legals would say. I am more family with so many other people than with blood-related ones, and engaged with so many commitments than the one that you could tie me down to.

A little diamond fell off one of my rings in Bhutan. LK was playing carrom shots with the two. It is carefully kept in a folded paper and yet to be put back to its rightful place. The other has a Swarovski crystal missing. And on my finger you are no more. Everything is complete only when there is a sense of loss attached to and with it. I had longed for you to adorn my finger and shunned the designated ring to mark my relationship. And you dotingly did. Like most things I like, you were neat and timeless. You were.

Till you too got entangled in needless agreements which needed to be annulled, and fought over like some Helen of Troy. I write today to tell you why I did not fight for you and gave you up. I do not like quarrels. I do not like unnecessary arguments, and most of all I do not like disharmony. And frankly, it was quite unbelievable that you would be demanded with such passion. It was funny actually. What did they do with you after me? Were you made to adorn the finger which replaced mine? Or sit queasily amidst the tasteless thick collection inside the locker?

I feel bad for you, really. You were so compatible with me that it is hard to imagine you on anyone else. I do not miss you because I trained myself not to think about you, and yes, at the end of the day, you are just an ornament. If I care no more for the engagement you denote, how could I care a bit for you? But, turns out I did, and have. Each little element, living or otherwise, that mattered to me infused my being. I feel like rescuing you from that ugly place you sit in, dark and secure, and put you back to doing what you do best. Ornament. All that glittered was neither gold, nor steel.

From a free house, a free finger,

K.