Aghh all the hedonistic and capitalistic desires of us. If money equated happiness then all rich men would be happy and all poor men would be drowned in misery. Life is not just for fulfilling stomach and building fancy roofs over our heads. It is not the fear of poverty that makes people insane but it is love, the passion, the insatiable longing for a beloved that drove Majnu restless for his Layla. It is this indescribable yet inescapable emotion that makes us all majnoon.
I love the early winter morning. The warm glow of the sun. The smell of fresh dews overnight. The little stroll in the balcony when she comes wearing a blue sari and stands next to me. Her beauty rivals that of the gorgeous day. The morning breeze sways her hair.
I gently remove the strand of hair bothering her eyes. She holds my hand, leans into my shoulder and takes my hand.
But these moments are very rare these days. I am spending more time at work and leaving home early again next day.
Decades go by and life moves on. I wake up in an unusual cold morning today. The sunlight doesn't creep in and wind doesn't breeze into my room anymore. I walk to the balcony and the gray monotonous new buildings stands in front of me. I decided to sell this land ten years ago because real estate was lucrative at that time and the offer from the development company was too good to ignore. I slowly go back to my room and look at the framed picture by the bedside. I notice the dimple in her smile. I almost forgot that she had that. In fact I have started to forget many things about her. In her last days the terminal illness robbed all the joy and smile from her life.
I vaguely recollect the days of our early marriage. I now walk into my vast spacious closet and look for that blue sari again. I wish, oh how much I wish, to see her one more time in that sari. I would not hesitate to give up all just to be with her again. I find the sari and bring it up close to my face to evoke any trace or any smell of her. But I can't. I am rich now but I can't have her back. I am so rich now and yet I feel so helpless and alone. I am very rich now and yet I feel very poor.
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 Bangladesh
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