Any Other Name Would Smell As Sweet*

“Why don’t you call me by my name,” Beloved one day asked all of a sudden to Pratik. It was a question he had no hint of. It also was a question that he never had an answer to. He looked into her eyes and just smiled, hoping that the question would go as it came, which, however, did not.

“Don’t just smile Pratik. Tell me, why you don’t call me by my name,” Beloved queried longing to hear for an answer.

“What is your name though,” Pratik banteringly said as he came close. Beloved instantly pushed him aside, looked other way and made an adoring face of looking mean—a mixture of small disappointment for an unexpected joke when she was serious, and of a wait when Pratik would turn her around, smile and answer.

“Tell me Beloved, what is your name,” Pratik said with a smile, and his Beloved further walked away.

“I don’t know,” she snapped back and sat on a sofa across the distance.

“When you don’t know your name, how would I know your name,” Pratik said teasingly.

“That is so rude Pratik. I’m not talking to you. Not talking to you until you tell me my name,” his Beloved replied, added, “…and yes, I do know my name.”

While Pratik always loved her Beloved, he sometimes longed to tease her and see her adoring mean face once in a while, and today was one of those moments. However, while he wished to see her mean face once in a while, he always kept it short because he couldn’t see her look mean for a long time because he was not accustomed to it. He then walked to her, and held her from behind…rested his chin on her shoulders…Beloved, smiled, held his hands and asked again, pretending to be mean, when she wasn’t, “So tell me now, why don’t you call me by my name Pratik?”

“You don’t have a name my Beloved because you are my Beloved,” Pratik said as he held her from behind. Beloved smiled and queried, “And why am I your Beloved?”

“You’re my Beloved because you are my Beloved, and because you are dear to me. Beloved because I love you. I have no answers to the whys and hows Dear because these are questions that I never have answers to. It is not that I have not tried to search and look for the answers. I have quested endlessly—quests that all ended futile…quests that all led me to you without an answer.” Pratik said.

“You should have told me about the quest Pratik. I would have helped you to find the answers,” Beloved turned towards Pratik, stretched her hands on his shoulders and said with a smile, a small curled stretch of lips. This was the smile that escalated Pratik’s joy…the smile that further deepened his love, and it was a holy smile—a smile that he could see only on moments like this.

“No Beloved. I did fail to find my answers but I did not fail to find my destiny. All of my quests led to you my Beloved and your acceptance was my answer to all those questions that I asked for and to all those questions that I failed to ask for. You were, are and will always be my greatest gift,” Pratik said.

As Beloved heard those words, her eyes moistened and she held him close and whispered, “I love you Pratik…I love you very much.”

“I love you too my Beloved…I love you forever and more.”

As they held the other, Beloved, without seeking an answer asked, “Then what is my name Pratik?”  

“For me, your name is Beloved, my Beloved. And besides, what’s in a name Beloved when you know that ‘a rose by any other name would smell as sweet’”.

Upon hearing the words, Beloved gently kissed Pratik’s lips and he smiled…held her close and said within him, “I love you my Beloved, and I’ll always do. I love you forever and more.” He then rose his hands to his eyes and gently wiped those falling tears.

*(The title comes from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet’s Act II, Scene II)