" A LETTER TO TESSA GRAY" [INFERNAL DEVICES]

BY PRISHA,

[ECONOMICS HONOURS , SECOND YEAR]

[DESIGNED AND EDITED BY MEHAK KOUNDAL]

[B.COM PROGRAM , FIRST YEAR]

Dear Tessa,

I can still see you there, running around the restless streets of Victorian London, leaving behind an echo of carriage wheels in a rush. You, who always had a book to thumb through, even though the story of your own life was far crazier than any on page. You, who chose love, over and over again, even when it hurt, and even when it meant being a living paradox of utmost joy and piercing grief.

​You taught us, barely teenagers, that love could be infinite. The world told you to choose, to limit, to divide your heart and perhaps your soul neatly in two. But you were never quite the rule follower, were you? You loved them both, always and forever. Your love for Jem did not mean you loved Will less, and loving Will did not dim what you felt for Jem, even centuries later. And that is what I loved most about you—your refusal to hold back, whether from being yourself or from loving with your whole heart.

​But what pains me the most is the knowledge that time is never as generous as the heart. You have to move forward while others fall back, carrying their memory with every step you take. That is the true sorrow of your story, Tessa. Not that you could not love, but that you have to outlast it. Every single time. But that is your brilliance, isn't it? You endure, even when endurance means solitude.

​Always in awe,

Prisha