The Last Fear.........
“Hey hi, how are you?”
She sighed and said,” oh Vicky, I am fine, what about you? It’s been a long time.”
He replied, “Yes, when was the last time we spoke to each other I still don’t remember”. (She laughs in agreement) How is everyone at home?”
“Everyone’s fine except me and my college projects”.
“Why?”
“Nothing, just catching the deadline of one while other projects are catching me for the beginning”.
“You sound exhausted buddy, what are uncle and aunty doing?”
“They are not at home right now; they are at Sameer uncle’s place”,
“Who is Sameer uncle? I have never heard this name before”. He enquired.
“Sameer uncle is dad’s colleague in his office. He has become a family friend now and today he had invited us for Vastu Pooja of his new flat”.
“So you are alone in the house and getting bored with your projects?” he asked.
“Not really, the project is quite interesting.” She answered as a scholar.
“I was thinking about meeting you but I guess you are busy, so it’s fine, I will call you later.” Vicky said disappointedly and hung up the call.
She kept the receiver down and felt something is missing, something had gone wrong but cant get hold of that ‘what’, before frustration could take grip on her she went back to her work. It was 9.30 now as she saw the clock which was ticking to her heartbeats speed. After a while she realized that she couldn’t concentrate, her mind was just wandering everywhere. She had to finish her culture studies project as the deadline was very close. She went to the kitchen and thought of making a milkshake for herself as she had a habit of eating or drinking something while she is studying.
There was a crumpled empty packet of potato chips lying beside her study table. While she was stirring the milkshake she was thinking about Vicky. “I should have called him over to my place. It’s been a long time they had not met each other and how it was always fun to spend time with Vicky”.
When she went back to her place the thoughts made her more restless. She dialed Vicky’s number and was listening to the “tringsss tringsss” when Vicky’s voice came over,
“Hello!”Who’s this?
“Vicky, are you still interested in meeting me, or you have changed your mind?” she asked like a kid.
“Oh yes, why not. But you said you are busy with your projects so I thought we could meet some other time. I am absolutely fine with it” Vicky replied.
“No Vicky its really been a long time since we have not met. We are always busy and then we never get time so let’s meet. You can come over at my place”. She replied happily.
She felt good that Vicky and she will be seeing each other after such a long time. She went near the window and stood there looking outside the crowded street which was looking all colourful. As the wind howled and touched her face smoothly a bunch of memories just flashed in front of her eyes.
“She and Vicky were the best buddies of each other since childhood. When they used to stay in Shimla they both would go to school together and eat “imlis”. They would always stand for each other when there were fights with other children. The days of growing up together and watching life getting so excited was always a matter of curiosity for them. To keep one morsel from the lunch box for each other was like an everyday ritual. How beautiful those moments were. The day when she had to shift to Mumbai due to her father’s transfer was the most difficult day of their lives. She and Vicky just couldn’t part with each other. Vicky was running behind her car while she was leaving Shimla would always bring tears in her eyes till today.
After three years she came to know that Vicky had shifted to his maternal uncle’s place in Mumbai for education. The two lost friends were united again, but the days of childhood had passed away Vicky had taken his admission in engineering college and she was doing her bachelors in mass media. They had no time for each other, both were so busy in their own lives that they couldn’t meet even once in four to five months. Nobody knew her better than Vicky”.
Suddenly the sound of a bang and commotion which was created outside brought her back to reality. She looked outside the window and saw there was an accident. A car and a rickshaw had banged into each other where the uncle in green shirt who was driving the car was giving bad words to the rickshaw fellow because his car was badly damaged and the owner of the rickshaw was also giving it back.
The scene was getting violent and the crowded street had come to a halt. She felt like someone just woke her up from a beautiful dream. She went inside and sat on the couch, resting her head and looking at the photo frame which had their childhood photo. They were too camera friendly and would smile for any camera which would come their way.
She was staring at the photograph and her mind questioned is she falling in love with Vicky. Why is the friendship more like something special kind of emotion attached to it?. The thoughts about the horrifying incidents which could happen accidentally started troubling her she couldn’t stop thinking about it. In the next moment she was deeply immersed in her thoughts and she saw Vicky getting over friendly by smiling at her. She is getting charmed by his dimpled smile which would attract all the girls in the school, his brown eyes, Axe chocolate deodorant, spiked hairstyle. She just couldn’t get over him and before she could realize she was in bed with him. For that moment everything for her was a moment of pleasure and a feeling of being close to someone but later on she started feeling guilty. She was not being able to face Vicky because whatever just happened could have been stopped if both would have been aware of what was happening but that moment just passed. She was constantly fighting for strength when she saw fading images of mom and dad standing on two extremes giving out judgements.
“You have spoilt our family name!”
“Who will marry you now?”
“You are a curse on us!”
“All these years we have brought you up so that you can show us this day”
“You have misused the freedom which we gave and also have hurt our feelings by doing such a thing”
“You don’t deserve to live now”. Every word was entering her ear like someone pouring hot oil.
Her parents were always supportive towards her. She was the only daughter and the ladli in the family. Her father shared a friendly relationship with her. Her mother was also working and was conservative in nature. She always made sure that she is hanging out with good bunch of friends and is not getting into bad habits. Her parents were her idols; she was an ambitious girl and wanted to fulfill her father’s dream by becoming a journalist. She would never tolerate anyone pointing a finger towards her parents.
“How could you forget all the values which we had taught you?” Tears were rolling down her eyes. The main villains in the story ‘the neighbors’ were entering to add fuel to the fire.
Our society always points finger towards others even if in their own lives they have done the possible bad things in this world. She could hear random voices saying,
“Before marriage she will bear a child and then ABORTION!
“Oh good lord, the family will face humiliation and embarrassment from everyone”
“We will never let our daughters do such a thing”.
The neighbours will start giving stares everyday we pass by. The whole housing colony will come to know about it. People will gossip about this during their evening walks. Friends will start distancing themselves and the feeling of isolation will lead to depression. The storm of thoughts was spinning faster and faster. She was getting all disturbed and restless as these thoughts made her dizzy, she opened her eyes in despair and was shouting NO! NO! NO! She was sweating and panting for breath. She drank a glass of cold water and washed her face. When she was standing in front of the mirror and wiping her face with a towel she realized that she was still safe and secure in her own flat. She knew it was not a reality and she promised herself it will never be. Vicky was just her best friend and that she can’t afford such a mistake at this point of time in her life and also at the cost of her parents life.
She felt refreshed and felt the peace after the cyclone in her being had calm down, life is such which always throw challenges when we are almost unaware of it, but there is always a very fine line between facing the challenge and running away from it. She is fully prepare now to face her best friend as a best buddy without polluting the religion of friendship, and she is aware of the fact that it is very difficult to manage life according to your thoughts and decisions, the real test of her character is going to follow without any hint or doubt in her mind and suddenly the DOOR BELL RINGS!!!!!!!.
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