“Lovers or Friends” by Anjali Naugain explores a heart-wrenching dilemma when Tina is offered a grieving friend’s newborn baby as a substitute for her own lost child. Avni’s desperate plea forces Tina to confront her own pain and the complicated emotions surrounding love and loss. As Tina takes on the role of mother, she must navigate the intertwined fates of love and friendship. Read the blurb below.
Lovers or Friends Blurb
In “Lovers or Friends” by Anjali Naugain, Tina is confronted with a heartbreaking decision when Avni, her grief-stricken friend, offers her newborn baby in a moment of profound desperation. “Tina, I can’t give you back your dead baby, but you can take mine! Please, do me a favor and accept him,” Avni pleads with a trembling voice. Tina is momentarily stunned by Avni’s words, but the cries of the newborn pull her back to the painful reality. Torn between her guilt over her own loss and her empathy for Avni, Tina initially refuses, believing that the baby should stay with his biological parents, Avni and Hercules, despite her own fractured relationship with Hercules.
Avni’s desperate plea is fueled by her own unfulfilled love for Hercules and her belief that Tina could offer the child the affection she feels unable to provide. “He never loved me and will never love me like he loved you,” Avni sobs, convinced that Tina could give the child the love Hercules would have offered. Despite Tina’s initial resistance, Avni’s sorrowful conviction and the baby’s cries make Tina reconsider. Avni resigns to the painful reality, telling Tina, “From now, you are his mother; I am no one to him,” and leaves with her own daughter. This poignant exchange forces Tina to grapple with the depth of her own emotions and the complex dynamics of love and loss, as she steps into a new role that could reshape her future and the life of the child.
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