BEING CALM

It was results time and everyone knew that TANNISHAH is gonna top. She was favourite of the whole staff in the school. She was from a very reputed family and her father was very proud of her as she was the only daughter. She was a very kind girl and always down to earth which was the best part of her life. Her father was a great business man and had a very healthy income. Mom always used to be a bit upset as they didn’t had a boy and she used to think who’s gonna handle them in their old age and who’s gonna handle her hubby’s business.

TANNISHAH was sitting on the bench outside the classroom in a bit upset mood and there came her only friend PREETI. She was the only friend that TANNISHAH had as she was of a bit concerned kind of nature when it comes to trust and PREETI was the only person in whom she was able to develop trust or rather blind trust. The reason why she was upset was that she didn’t had a brother with whom she can spent time at her place, but she didn’t expressed this to anyone not to PREETI or even her mom. DAD and MOM suddenly gave her a voice

“Let’s go dear TANNI your teacher’s calling us it’s your roll number next.”

PREETI wished her ALL THE BEST and also said “You gonna top this year too and there’s no doubt about it.”

“Thank’s” she replied and went away.

Teacher said, “You are the luckiest parents as your daughter is very talented and she’s topped this year too and now the real test will begin in 15 days from now as her school will re-open and she’s in SSC now.”

Dad gave her a hug and wished her good luck for her SSC. The happiness that should have been on the face of TANNI after coming 1st in school was certainly missing but the worst part was that her mom and dad were unknown about it. She always used to help everyone but the actual smile was missing and the reason behind that was the absence of someone with whom she can share all her joys and sorrows. She used to question GOD regularly that

“Why are you giving me so much happiness as I have no one in my life to share it with?”

But every question doesn’t have an answer. Things were just about to change. The same evening mom told TANNI to go to uncle’s place for a week as she had 15 days with her to spend with and as usual she agreed and decided to go next morning.

Uncle resided in OOTY, a great place to spend time and especially great for vacations and even he was very rich and had his own bungalow. There was a Mate’s family who used to stay there they looked after his bungalow and in return uncle had taken the responsibility of the education of the only son they had. Uncle’s son was an MBA and daughter was a DOCTOR and both were in abroad.

She reached next morning and she saw a BOY on the gate with dirty clothes face dark black with marks of coal and was stinking badly. A noise came from behind

“ARYAN move in quickly and take a bath or else you’ll go ill.”

He was that only son of the mate and his mother was shouting from behind and he rushed in to take the bath. She saw TANNI on the gate and came running and asked “Your name’s TANNISHAH right”

“Yes” she replied.

She took here baggage and asked her to go and meet her uncle and aunty as they were waiting for her and then go and get fresh and by that time she’ll prepare breakfast for her and she went away.

TANNI met her UNCLE, AUNTY and went in the guest room to freshen herself and when she came out of the bathroom she saw the same boy standing with the breakfast plate in his hand and she was shocked as he was very handsome. She gave him a smile and thanked him for getting breakfast for her. But he was very angry and angrily he kept the plate on the table and said

“Here’s your breakfast do have it….”

And she replied “I know I’ve already thanked you for it.”

As he was going she stopped him and asked “Why were you so dirty earlier”

and he replied angrily “All because of you, mom wanted me to get bread for you as soon as possible and so I was running and I slipped twice once in coal and once in dirty water.”

“ANYTHING ELSE.” and he went away.

In the evening she went in the Kitchen and saw him studying and she was amazed as she didn’t expect it from him. She went near him and apologized and guess what he smiled and said “even I’m sorry it wasn’t your fault.”

She asked him “What’s your name and you are in which standard?”

He replied “My name is ARYAN and I’m in SSC.”

“That’s wonderful even I’m in SSC.”

She happily replied. That was the only conversation she had with him

7 days passed and she enjoyed a lot as uncle took her out every day to some new and beautiful places and finally it was the day of going back for TANNI. She was packing her baggage and suddenly realized that AUNTY wanted her to carry some stuffs and so she went to AUNTY’S room. Aunty was speaking to someone on phone when TANNI arrived in her room and that phone call made TANNI change her mind.

Aunty disconnected the call and asked her “What happen dear?”

and she replied “I want to stay here for one more day if you don’t mind.”

“Why not” said AUNTY.

She actually heard aunty speaking to someone about ARYAN she said “Aryan was crying yesterday as he is not comfortable here and was asking his mom that why I am not having a sister or brother with whom I can play I can study.”

TANNI wanted to speak to him once and that is why she asked her aunty that she wants to stay for one more day. She called him in the Garden and asked “ARYAN even you feel bad that you are alone?”

He was speechless, after a few silent seconds he asked “How do you know?”

and she said “That’s not important but even I need someone with whom I can share my joys and sorrows, why don’t you come with me at my place we both are in SSC we’ll get time to spent with each other, I’ll speak to my parents and so do uncle aunty.”

But ARYAN left with a question mark on his face and here comes the reason why TANNI decided to wait for one more day, she actually wanted to give time to ARYAN to think over it.

Finally that day ended and TANNI was upset as she didn’t got any reply from ARYAN neither positive nor negative. She came in the hall with her baggage and everyone was present in the hall except ARYAN. She just said good bye to everyone and left in car which was waiting outside for her and as soon as the car left she started crying badly blaming her destiny and suddenly she saw a letter that was placed besides her.

She opened it and saw it was written “SISTER TANNI YOUR LOVING BROTHER ARYAN.”

Aryan actually wrote a letter for her which said that, “I can understand your feelings but I cannot come with I have some responsibilities here which I cannot let go but this is how we can stay in touch here’s my address on which you can write letters to me and express all your feelings and when is your birthday mine is on 20th November.”

She was really very happy and also thanked GOD for gifting her with a brother. She reached home and the first thing she did was that she replied him an specifically mentioned him that her birthday is on 02nd September and now she was praying for a quick reply. Things started to change in her life she started making more friends PREETI was happy to see that but things were not that easy as it was almost a month and she didn’t receive any reply she posted the letter in the month of May and it was almost June end and therefore she posted one more letter in a hope of reply but again the response was negative

Finally Sep 02nd arrived and she prayed to GOD “It’s my birthday today and I’ll be waiting for ARYAN’S letters today please do something.”

Dad had organized a GRAND PARTY for all her friends but she wasn’t in the mood to celebrate. Aryan always used to surprise her, he made her cry earlier and then make her smile and here also he did the same thing, he prepared a card for her which was very beautiful and with that he also posted a letter which said that

“I was waiting for this day I wanted to surprise you hope you like the card and I’m very lucky that there’s someone in my life who misses me desperately and so do LOVE me.”

TANNI was into tears as this was the best birthday gift she would have ever got and she enjoyed the party to the maximum she did inform PREETI about the letter. Things went on smoothly then both used to write letters for each other and every 15 days both received each other’s reply with lots of feelings and emotions in it so do they promised each other to study hard and score good marks which TANNI was thoroughly committed too, but ARYAN wasn’t yet he wasn’t that good in studies but even bad he was in the range of 70% which is not at all bad.

The best part was that in spite of being such a huge financial difference between both of them there wasn’t any problem with regards to adjustment. On 20th November ARYAN was waiting for TANNI’S letter as he wanted her to wish. He had never enjoyed or celebrated his birthday and this time also the same thing happened. It was 8.30 at night and ARYAN knew that no letter is gonna come. In the upset mood he went out and when he reached a gate he saw an envelope lying on the ground and he picked it up to see and he was shocked as it was TANNI’S letter.

She wrote very small but meaningful thought which was “GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS BE WITH ME AND LOVE ME WITH A KIND AND ALWAYS BE TRUE TO YOURSELF H@PPY BIRTHD@Y.”

Aryan had now all reasons to smile. He didn’t speak to anyone in school and that’s why no one knew about his birthday it was only his parents and TANNI knew about it. Every story has a good part and a bad part………………

It was time to stress in studies as board exams where on the doorstep so they both decided that now no more letters and TANNI said as soon as our exams get over I’ll come to meet you and both wished GOOD LUCK to each other exams were very nice TANNI knew that she is gonna top once again the last paper was Geometry and there was a gap of two days so she informed her mom that pack my baggage as after the paper the next day I’m going to go OOTY at uncles place and her mom did that.

Next morning she had to go to write the paper it was 7.30 evening the phone was ringing and she received the call and it was her aunty.

In a serious tone she asked “where’s you mom?”

and TANNI replied “she’s here only but is everything fine.”

“Give the phone to your mom,” she said.

TANNI’S mom spoke to her on phone and after disconnecting the call she told TANNI “you’ll go OOTY after 15 days and not day after tomorrow.”

“Why” she angrily asked and muma replied angrily too

“because I’m telling you.”

She went to her bedroom and started crying and so do she got fever but any how she went to write the paper and things went really wrong she fainted in mid paper. Teacher provided with some water and asked her that will she be able to continue writing “YES” she said and started writing but she was able to attempt on half the paper. She cried badly in front of PREETI but PREETI asked her not to cry and said she’ll pass comfortably but TANNI knew she’s gonna fail. She decided to write a letter to ARYAN regarding whatever happened which she did and in that the next morning she wrote a letter and was going to post her and on the way she saw ARYAN waiting for her and she was into tears both spent more then an our with each other she gave him the letter and also informed him about the last paper incident and ARYAN replied “I promise you, you’ll top this year too” And she was very happy as she trusted him a lot.

She asked him that how come you came over here and he said that I came here with my dad and he also told her not to inform anyone at her place or her uncle’s place that she met him. She promised him. He gave her a hug took that letter and went away saying that I’ll wait for you over there as you’ll be coming soon. Mom refused her to go there after 15 days too and so she was very upset the only option left was to write the letter. Again she did the same thing she wrote the letter and was going to post it and she met him again and she was shocked to see him once again. She questioned him about his presence once again there and he gave the same reply I’m here with dad don’t inform anyone we both met and don’t go OOTY as I’m going SHIMLA with dad and will come back after results and again he gave her an hug took the letter and went away.

She came back home and was very upset but was happy too as she met ARYAN once again. It was results time with just 24 hours to go and she was very upset as Geometry paper was playing with her mind, it was 10 in the morning mom came in her room as saw her upset face and told “why are you so worried?”

and she replied “It’s results tomorrow muma.”

Muma said “you pass comfortably.”

“I don’t know” she said and was going to the wash room and muma stopped her and asked you want to know why I didn’t let you go OOTY. She turned around and asked her of course “YES”. Muma said you remember the phone call that you received that evening and she was upset “YES” TANNI replied. She actually had called me to inform that there was boy in their bunglow who’s name was ARYAN and he was also in SSC and that day he went to get some stuffs to prepare food and he met with an accident and lost his life on the spot.

TANNI wasn’t ready to believe she rushed out of the house where she met ARYAN twice and she both those letter’s lying on the ground and she came to know that it ARYAN’S sole and not ARYAN she came back home and she felt that she’ll fail as she wasn’t able to bear the news about ARYAN’S death. She had promised ARYAN she won’t inform anyone that they both met twice which she did. At night 12, in the fearing of failing she committed suicide and she died, the next morning the results were out and she topped although she just got passing marks in geometry but she topped.

Before committing suicide she wrote a letter for her mom and dad which said that

“I know I’m going to fail and therefore I’m going away from both of you as I don’t want to let you down but my last wish from you is that adopted a BOY keep his name ARYAN and help him in becoming a successful person.”

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