It was another day in SmallVille. Riding on the warm breeze,
the clouds were hovering over the summer afternoon. It was quite hot outside,
so all living beings were cluttered inside their shelters, except one, Dev. A
17 year old fellow of the village who was pursuing his BA , had something else
on his mind beside this hot weather. Sitting on the porch outside his
classroom, he was constantly gazing into the space, lost into a different
world, the world of thoughts, the world of his beloved. Things were whirling up
in his mind & behind this massacre was one girl, Reena. She was the center
of the storm which was causing havoc inside his soul.
Reena, who at one time was his best friend & who, now
treats him like a complete stranger. The tides of time & destiny had swiped
away all that was between them & left Dev, devastated. He tried to recover
from the shock ignoring her & diverting his mind to other tasks. He started
donning the cloak of happiness over his broken self, which did proved effective
enough in fooling his acquaintances, but failed to convince to him. Every now
and then this cloak would become too heavy for him to carry, that he would go
into solitude to put that cloak off for a while & merged himself into her
thoughts & memories as he was doing it now. It was all moving in his mind,
again & again, Flashbacks ! Like a movie playback.
It
started 6 months back. Reena was also doing her BA in same college. Their
sections were different, but they had one class in common which was of
Stenography, taught by Mr. Bakshi. One day in computer class , Dev was sitting
on a desk with his head down, when suddenly he heard a sweet giggle. The giggle
was so magical & appealing that Dev, with a sheer curiosity , looked up.
While he was searching for the source of that mesmerizing voice, something
caught his eye, something really beautiful. That something was actually
someone. You ! that was Reena, & that’s how Dev saw her for the first time.
She was simply, beautiful & Dev was completely charmed by her. He asked his
friend Deepak, “ Hey main ! who’s that girl in yellow ? “ “ Who? Oh.. She ? She’s Reena Sharma from the
other section. “ replied Deepak. “Reena !” Dev wondered aloud in his mind ,
“How could he possibly have not seen her all these days !? How knucklehead he
was to have ignored this beautiful girl all this time.”
He kept thinking about her the
whole day. At evening, the very first thing he did was to open his Facebook
account & search for the name “ Reena Sharma” . And magically, there she
was, Smiling her magical smile. He had 5 mutual friends with her, which,
somehow made him jealous. Then finding his courage Dev sent her a friend
request and waited.
After few hours, Dev saw a
message from her. With his heart beating tantrums ji his ears & his mind
Shouting, “What could it be.!! “ “ What could it be !!” , he opened the
message. It said,” You are Dev Kapoor from section A , Right ? “. Dev’s stomach
lurched with excitement, “ SHE KNOW ME. !?” wondered a voice in his head. “
Well of course idiot ! you guys are in same class. You are ‘Supposed’ to know
each other. Only your are dumb enough to have not known her”, replied the other
voice. He rushed for the keyboard like it was the end of the world & after
a few moments, searching for precise words, he wrote, rewrote & rewrote his
reply, ” Yes Ma ‘am, I am , The one & the only.” He then sent some smileys
after it.
To his reply, came a pop a
notification announcing that Reena Sharma has accepted your friend request.
Then came another pop of a message from Reena with a smile in it. That was the
day when it all started. Since then, the volume of interactions between them
kept increasing. Soon they became good friends and started sharing their
secrets with one another, as a result of that, they became best friends,
understanding, caring & helping each other.
Everything was going well until
that fateful day when Dev’s destiny turned to its ugliest. It was the period of
Stenography. Mr. Bakshi hadn’t come to class yet. Only a few boys were sitting
in the class, including Dev, when Reena entered the class. While she was reaching
for a desk near Dev, one of the boys on back whistled & hooted, “ Hey Missy
! you can use my lap if you want to, its more comfortable you know !” , &
all the other guys started laughing like crazy. Reena, uneasy with the
comments, sat on a desk hastily. But Dev, bursting with anger, clenched his
fist, stood up & went straight to the guy who had made the comment, “ Vyom
!” , he growled, trembling with anger, “Apologise to her, NOW ! “. Vyom laughed
bitterly,” Apologize huh !? Why ? “ . “ Coz you’ve insulted her. “, replied
Dev. “ I won’t & what’s it it with you if I insult her ? “ spat Vyom. His
anger reaching to its maximum, Dev stressed, “ Coz I”, & with a sudden
stress , landed a punch on Vyom’s face ,”Love her”, he completed. “ And if you
ever insult her again, I am gonna kill you.“, he snarled reaching for Vyom,s
throat.
Within moments the class was
filled with growls of the two fighting & others who were trying to take
them apart. The fight came to an end with the arrival of Mr. Bakshi, everyone
went back to their seats, because no one wanted to end up into the principal’s
office. Dev noticed that Reena had left the class. The news of the morning
events spread like jungle fire in the entire college, & with it spread rumors of Dev & Reena. Dev was so much in worry because Reena hadn’t
attended the stenography class continuously for 3 days & nor did she
replied to the messages of Dev. He tried to talk her in person, but she was
always with her friends. One day, luckily, he found her coming alone towards him
in the hallway.
He thought, that finally she was
coming to talk to him. A seed of happiness began sprouting in his heart. Reena
came near him, Dev greeted, “H…” he couldn’t even complete his hi & Reena
passed him, ignoring his whole existence on the planet. The sprouting seed of
happiness in Dev’s heart got crushed by this weight of disappointment. Dev
quickly pulled himself together, turned and pleaded on Reena ‘s back, “ Why
aren’t you talking to me ? What have I done ? Please….. Speak Reena, say something.
“ Reena stopped in her steps and without turning , said, “ Much have been said
and much have been done Dev, I think its time we move our separate ways now. We
must not talk, Dev. “ Dev, pounded with the heavy words said by Reena , argued,
“ But why ?. Look, Vyom was insulting you, what else I was supposed to…. “ “
You were supposed to ignore him like I did. “ Reena cut in abruptly towards
Dev. “ Now look what you’ve done.!, you messed up everything.. Do you even know
what I had to face with after the things you did that day ?! Do you even have
the slightest idea what kind of talks people are making regarding me.. !!
Regarding Us.!.”she said in angry tone.“I just know one thing Dev, that its not
right for us to be friends anymore, Goodbye ! “ And she left, imposing this harsh
judgement on Dev.
With this end of flashback, Dev
almost to tears,smiled with pain.then suddenly he heard a sweet voice calling
his name, “ Dev….. ? “ he got shocked after hearing the voice, “ What ! Reena
??... Reena is calling me ?”, he thought in surprise.” Did she forgave me? Oh
God! Did she missed me to ? “ . Suddenly a chain reaction of thousand hopes
started in his mind. With a new hope, he stood upon the porch & turned
towards her. She was wearing the same yellow suit in which he had seen her for
the very first time. “God! She’s looking more beautiful than ever !” he
exclaimed to himself. Conjuring up all his strength, he replied to her, “ Yes....
Reena ? “. “Mr. Bakshi sent me to give you a message. You are required to meet
him at 2 P.M in his office.” She replied in a plain tone looking constantly at
floor.
Dev’s all hope and strength was
blown into smithereens. He couldn’t say anything. It was taking everything for
him to hold up the tears which dearly wanted to escape from his eyes. So he
lowered his head & nodded. Reena turned away. After moving a few steps, she
turned back & asked, ”Hey… How are you, by the way?”
This.. was the limit for Dev, he
looked up at her forcing a painful smile on his face , said, “ Me.? I am doing
great.“ With this effort of his, a tear escaped his eye, rolling on his cheek,
it fell on the floor & vanished into nothingness.
----------------The
End----------------
