THE REUNION 2: FLOOD OF LOVE

To read the first part, click here: THE REUNION: FLOW OF LOVE

“It’s an insane world, but in it there’s one sanity, the loyalty of old friends. We must believe in one another.”

                               ~ Ben Hur

MY SWINGING FEELINGS:
   

     People think moments are birds which just fly by and we can do nothing about them. But truth is that they just are like the kites. Yes, they fly. But how and where they fly to, is connected to a string and controlled by us. All that we have to do is fly them with craft. That was one moment which I felt was slipping from my hands. I fell in love with the lover of my best friend! And if that was not complicated enough, she was the reason for Arya to get drifted away from us. My thoughts kept oscillating between love, guilt and hatred!

IS THIS SCENE EVEN RELATED TO THE STORY??!! :

   The dark steps creaked as she stepped down to the dining table. Everyone was busy already sharing their nostalgia as she pulled her chair. Being mechies, our first topic was about girls, besides the chai sutta moments at Mata Mandir. We were having dinner and started talking about the good old days and Prakash, after his third tequila shot, grunted, “Remember Asha, she was a bitch man! She just behaves friendly with any person who has a bike. Man, girls just didn’t have any morals back in our college days". Everyone were silent, the place seemed gloomy and then she spoke, for the first time. Her voice husky as a flute, she said, "it hurts…" lost in a world looking deep into the emptiness. Vivek erred at her.  Gaining back the worldly existence, she said, “… to be misunderstood. A girl could not have been so worse. It must have been a misinterpretation. A girl has a beautiful heart, like a calm song. Gossips are disturbances, the noises you hear. Had you tried to listen to the song, it could have been a different table today. Misunderstanding hurts, but only after the words can't be taken back. Just think before you speak.”

 The silence prolonged except for me, for I saw more than a good understanding girl, a keen mind in her.  Her beauty was encroached by her dullness and her sweet heart by her calmness, but I noticed beyond.  He knew her true affection, he could read how she would care. All said was a sentence, but I fell in love.

THE TURNING POINT:

    

    The way she balanced motives with grace while speaking killed my two other emotions and all that’s left was love! I had decided to leave the reunion to avoid any further embarrassing confrontations. After the dinner, I went to Ananya and said, “Hey, I have to go. Where’s Arya? I’ll meet him once and take leave.”

   She said, “Come on! Just one more day and this reunion would be complete! Why do you want to leave so early?” I just insisted on leaving and asked her to at least give his contact number so that I can contact him later.

    She replied, “I didn’t want to get to this until you guys have done with your reunion. But as you’re insisting, I have to. I’m his cousin. All the avoiding he did to you guys, all the fake love stories he did weave and the changes he made you see in him were not real. He was suffering from Huntington’s disease which he came to know in the summer vacations after the second year. As soon as he was informed of his disease, he tried to get away from you as he didn’t want you guys to get distracted and drawn off, with the uncoordinated, pitiful and complicated part of his life. All the phone calls were about me helping him with his medic dates and suggestions. He asked me to arrange a reunion as soon as he passes away as he wants you to know that he loves them and he wants to be remembered.”

     It meant that we misunderstood him all the while! The irritating times for us which we spent on phone, the confusing moments which we spent questioning about his mottos of choosing a wrong path, the never ending hours which we waited for him to return; were all something bigger than what’s seen. Everything was a part of the plan. Never in his life did he place anyone above us. He thought that a lonely death is worthy to endure to make our lives undisturbed. If dying with many people praying for your life is something eternal, then dying alone praying for other’s life is greater than divine!

ONE LAST TIME:

    As the first rays of sun kissed the bleak winter land of Bhopal, we waited in distress for the hearse to arrive and it did. As the coffin was being taken out from it, a tear rolled down my cheek. 

Life is beautiful

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

“Love has no boundaries, but has certain rules. Sacrifice and acceptance being the most important among them.”

THIS IS ME:

At last, I am going to propose her today. It has been over two years since we met and she became an inseparable part of my life. I am just another fat idiot who sits in the back benches trying to ignore every word said by the lecturers. The only thing I know (knew) was to write and I stopped doing that too, when my writings were rejected by college magazine to publish their “jugaadu” writers’ articles. In short, I have nothing special in me. These thoughts are the ones which held me back from proposing her all these days. Today, I got placed in a reputed company. Of course, I was given a job designation which I was not even aware of its existence before 2 months. But I’m happy, as were the 90% of the students who got jobs which are nowhere near their dream jobs. I told my parents and they were proud of me. The next thing I decided is that I am going to propose to Maya!

5 YEARS LATER:

“Love is magic, figuratively and literally. If magic is nothing but a simple act covered up by illusions which make it look difficult to understand, then love is no different!” With these lines, I completed writing my third book at 5 am in the morning. Then I went on to make two cups of coffee and with that I woke up Maya. Her hair all messed up and mascara half faded, she was looking eternal in those shorts and Minion tees. As her brown eyes were still half closed, her two beautiful glossy lips were sipping the Coffee. After she drank the coffee, I kissed her and my son who’s speeling and got out from there. I now have Maya in my life and I became a writer. Wasn’t this all I asked for?

“Life is beautiful. Isn’t it?”

THE PROPOSAL:

As I went to her home, aunty said that she was upstairs, in her bedroom. I knocked and went inside to surprise her, only to find her bleeding from her head. We took her to the hospital and all the tests were done. Aunty came out furiously, slapped me and told me not to bring her daughter home again. I went in. She told me crying, that she is pregnant and the guy responsible for it refused to even talk her from the moment he came to know about it. She tried to shoot herself with the airsoft gun, but being the plastic bullets, they only penetrated till the border of her brain. Her condition was stable for the next 7 months but while giving birth to her child, her brain condition got serious and she went into the state of severe trauma. From then on, she can only perform the involuntary actions such as eating, drinking etc.

NOW:

I gave up my job and started writing again so that I can always be there to take care of her. I moved away to US as my parents found it humiliating that I’m raising her child as my own and making her a part of my family. I still wait for her to wake up. And I don’t even know if she accepts my proposal.

“Life isn’t beautiful in itself. It’s your way of acceptance and adjusting power that makes your life beautiful and meaningful.”

     Vantage Point

SASARAM POLICE STATION, BIHAR.

TIME: 10.00 am

“Sir, this week I can give you only 15%. Competition has grown so much that we no longer can demand the prices.”

“Don’t give me all these stupid excuses. You are after all a pimp. I can completely wipe you out from the records and then out of the society. I’ll reduce the percentage to 20% but I need three girls per week, instead of two”, said the inspector scratching his belly. Then he called out his constable, “Ramu, take the money and send this disgrace out of the station. And also call in the next case.”

“Namaste sir, I am Arun. My daughter went missing this morning. Please do something sir” said Arun, crying heavily.

“Don’t panic and just explain me clearly what happened.”

“Sir, at around 7 a.m, I was going to drop my daughter in her school and midway and we stopped at the Neelam market to buy groceries. I told her that I’ll be back in five minutes and not to move from her seat. I went away and when I returned, she was not in the car. There were some blood drops on the back seat where she was sitting. I trembled and searched everywhere around. Then I came straight here” said Arun, in a choking voice.

“Show me the exact place where you parked the car.”

NEELAM MARKET,

12.00 pm.
“Inspector observed the surroundings and said, “Ramu, bring that panipuri stall owner, beggar and security guard of that ATM. And don’t forget to order two samosas and a tea.”

Kidnapping is such a case where interrogation is a more powerful weapon than an investigation and inspector Sasaram is said to be the best interrogator available in the state.

BEGGAR,

Explaining the scene between 6.45 am and 7.15 am.

“Sir, my ‘business’ was on a poor run and I had to start as early as 6 am so as to feed my family. This week, my posting is at the Neelam market junction and I was on duty at that time. Some red car stopped and this sir got down from it. I limped towards him. He talked to someone sitting inside the car and then gave me a ten rupee note and walked towards the market. Then suddenly around ten trucks passed from beside the car. After sometime, he was back with some big cover in his hand and a man was beside him. Within seconds, he was running everywhere around. That’s all I know sir.”

PANIPURI STALL OWNER,

Explaining the scene between 6.45 am and 7.15 am.

“Sir, I couldn’t see clearly what happened as my stall was filled with customers who come for jogging in the nearby park and take a break at my stall daily. All I remember was that this sir (pointing out to Arun) bought a large pack of panipuris from me and asked me to help with his car door as it would be difficult for him to do so, holding the big cover of panipuris. When I opened the door, he kept the cover inside the car and all of a sudden, he started panicking. He asked me whether I have seen any 10 year old girl nearby. I said no and he started running around, asking everyone.”

ATM SECURITY GUARD,

Explaining the scene between 6.45 am and 7.15 am.

“This sir came to me and complained that ATM machine was not working and I showed him another booth and he went away. Then ten trucks were moving on the road and some people got down from the first running truck and moved around. Then they climbed back into the last truck and went away singing some songs loudly. There was a red car parked near the road and door opened slowly. After sometime Arun sir came to me trembling with fear and asked me “Have you seen anyone getting down from the car” and I said that someone opened the door 2 minutes ago and must have gotten down at that moment. We both then went searching everywhere and she was nowhere to be found.”

“Ramu, call all the check posts and ask them to check each and every truck carefully for the girl. Call Rani back and ask her to inform us if she gets any ten year old girl as the new prostitute. Spread the posters of the girl around the market and announce a reward for the person who brings back the girl. And also trace the beggar. They steal away the children to please their bosses for getting them a new beggar.”

They tried everything and even waited for the phone call of the kidnapper but did not get any! Three months later, the case was closed due to no clues or evidence.

AFTER 2 YEARS:

Police got a phone call from people complaining about the rotten smell from the Arun’s house. They haven’t seen him in days and suspected that he is dead. When police broke into the house, they found the body of a girl and in the post mortem, it was revealed that she was being constantly raped from more than two years and she died of the internal bleeding in her brain due to some injury. The inspector just collapsed onto the floor scolding himself for missing that one point. Two years back, when they went to the market, Arun showed him the parking spot. Talking or involving in some activity with beggar, guard and stall owner to gain their attention just enough, leaving a door unlocked so that it may get opened due to wind, planning the timing so as to overlap with the time where movement of trucks is at the peak in Bihar, showing the inspector a specific spot from where all these things form a closure and his view gets entrapped within the limits Arun had set; all these things were the part of a plan. They saw only what Arun had shown them and they searched only for what Arun had wanted them to do so. The girl was never in the car. A perfect plan for a psycho whose lust made him do unimaginable things, without raising a doubt. He imprisoned the girl inside his home so that she won’t tell anything to anybody. There was only one hint, that all the evidences were too clear to ignore and too opaque to be seen through. A hint which is hard to find or may be a hint which is too easy that it may be overlooked.

v Bihar case is just a sample. There are millions of unsolved cases in our country which need just a vantage to get solved. Thousands of girls are being molested by their own parents which should be brought into limelight and children should be given knowledge about their body and places which are private to them and should be encouraged to complain to others when touched there. Prostitution should either be legalized or be provided with a severe punishment, so that they become part of the society rather than an anti-society. If we go on discussing, we get thousands of solutions. But the problem is with the implementation. Hope it gets solved in the near future.

“You only see what you can see from your point of view. It doesn’t mean that whatever you see is the only truth about it. For example, we read the title of this story as “Point”. To see everything clearly, we need something else, something which provides a better view than this. The word to the left of the word “Point” is coloured white. Just highlight it and you’ll see the actual title. All you need is to select a perfect point and hit the perfect target and that point is called the “Vantage Point”.”