Short Story of friendship, love and life!
Photo credit: anitapeppers from morguefile.com
The summer of 2k11 marked the reunion of three best friends who have finally planned out to go on vacations of which they have dream years ago. Life is complicated! Friends change every year, but they were best friends, once in a lifetime sort of.
They dreamed of Europe but their pockets only allowed them to go to Goa. Although they were happy as they knew that they will spend it together.
“Hello everyone!!” a familiar voice came from the back when Rishaan picked up Kiara’s bag from the conveyor belt. “Diya!” shouted Kiara with a delight. She jumped to hug her. Both of them enfolded each other forgetting that they are in a public place. It’s true that to be happy, we must not be too concerned about others. Rishaan stood beside both of them till they were done with the giggles and the hugs. As soon as they were over, Rishaan said in a naughty timber,”Can I also get the same hug?” Kiara laughed while Diya just shook hands with him and gave him a beautiful smile. Kiara said interrupting their hand shake.
“C’mon lets go, the announcement for our flight has already been made!” The three of them headed toward the plane with lots of excitement and thrill shining in their eyes.
As soon as the plane took off, all three were filled with excitement as well as enthusiasm. The plane was on its stature with the morning sun on its left staring at it. It gave a peace to the mind, an eternal peace. With this peace Kiara went into a nap, her face was shining in the divine illumination from the creator of life, as if he have kept his hand on her head assuring his presence to her. Rishaan contemplated the pretty scene emerging in front of him. Soon he was lost into his thought, thoughts of his past, thoughts of old days of MBA.
Rishan is an ambitious spirit whose presence brought cheers in anyone’s life. He was smart and handsome and his hairs always standing added a bit to his looks! His bright eyes could attract anyone to admire his shine. He met Diya and Kiara four years back when they were doing MBA from the same College at New Delhi. Kiara is a sweet bubbly girl, not that her life was easy, but she chose happiness above all. She was beautiful. She was simply adorable, her legs crossing each other at distance while walking and her short hairs bouncing along as if they were as happy as she was made her even more gorgeous. But her real beauty was not the perfect curves of her body, but a single curve of her smile. Diya on the other hand was different from both of them. She was a decent girl, with one hand carrying her books, and the other balancing her specs which constantly used to slide off. She was intelligent but above all had a pure soul.
They became good friends, they shared similar dreams, all of them wanted to be successful. They three belonged to middle class families of small towns. To reach this locus all three of them had abided more than their potentials.
In very less time they were into a strong bond of friendship. Moreover there was a smell of Rishaan starting to develop feelings for Kiara, while same feelings were evolving in Diya for Rishaan. But the cravenness of loosing this sacred relationship of friendship desist them from confessing it.
They started planning of going on vacations together when they will start earning. Their minds were well connected with each other. They discovered the true friendship where words were mere words; everything was understood by eye connections. Rishaan’s feelings for Kiara were growing with each moment he spent with her.
Finally his feelings exceeded the level of tolerance and he proposed the girl he admired the most.
“We are just friends, I have never thought in this way for you!” is a typical answer mostly given by the most beautiful girls to the boys running behind them.
It is just a sentence for others but for the person to whom it is addressed, it is a heart crackling squeak leaving inside anguish and sometimes a lot of hatred. Hatred leads to foolish retaliation which ultimately leads to regret our own deeds. Indifferent from others Rishaan also went to seek his motive to make Kiara jealous. Away from this chaos Diya found herself insufficient to fix up everything again. She just waited, while Rishaan’s search was put to an end with Anika coming into his life.
She was a beautiful girl. She was an immature girl with a bit too mature about the way she looked. Anika was the ‘Miss-Perfect’ every boy desired or maybe ‘Miss-too-Perfect’ every girl envied. They could be easily spotted during the lectures and the breaks. But this charm was short lived and soon they were separated. Their separation was assumed as a break up by the world.
Few days later, Rishaan and Diya were left stunned by news, news of Kiara’s parents passing away in a road accident. Her small world was shattered into tiny pieces, and at that moment the tiny pieces were again fixed at best by the force of friendship. It is true that friendship is the only relationship which remains same even after many days of separation. This incident marked Rishaan’s coming back to Kiara and Diya as their best friend, again.
Rishaan’s thoughts were put to an end with a sound.
In the middle of the flight, Kiara woke up to go to the washroom. When she returned, she was too lazy to push her way into the middle seat. And with Rishaan readily offering to shift seats, the seating arrangement changed. With 20 minutes still remaining for the flight to land, a sleep starved Kiara took another power nap, this time holding Rishaan’s right hand more firmly. Rishaan’s other hand, though, nervously moved to touch Diya’s. Her heart skipped a beat. Diya pulled her hand away. But a defiant Rishaan held her wrist again, this time firmly and more reassuringly. The changing behavioral dynamics between the three perhaps gave out a foreboding of what was to come in Goa.
When the flight landed at the Dabolim Airport, Rishaan felt uncanny…his excitement seemed replaced by an unknown fear that he found very difficult to decipher.
As planned already about the irregular adventure in their regular land of routines and schedules they decided to halt in a resort at ‘Calva Beach’. Their excitement was on its peak as they were expecting something big from the smallest state of India.
Kiara stood near the window of the room with a harmonious smile watching young kids splashing droplets of joy on each other. It was evening by the time they reached the beach. The parachutes high up in the sky were appearing like some small snails crawling in the huge light blue sky to reach somewhere without knowing their destinations. The wind on the beach was bringing calm to the minds of its visitors. Their souls were flying peacefully in some other world, different from ours, where no one knows anyone- where there is only internal peace. The three sat down under the netted shadows of the palm tree with Rishaan holding Kiara and Kiara holding Diya’s hand. They watched the sunset as a child sees his mother before lying asleep. The sun was going down collecting all his light and the changing sunshine was appearing as if the creator of life is waving his hand to say good bye to the three young souls.
Next morning they went to PANJUM the Western Ghats section of the city. They were fascinated by the nature’s beautiful creations. Later they returned back to the beach and went for swimming. Kiara wrote her and Rishaan’s name on the sand and he added Diya’s name also to it which gave Kiara a strange feeling which was ultimately washed away with water.
The last day of the trip and they went to visit ‘AGGADA FORT.’ It is one of the prisons built by Portuguese. It is kind of fascinating; it locked so many memories in it but at the same time setting all souls free. Later that day Kiara thoughtfully said, ‘People are all prisoners of their past, they keep holding grieves and guilt, but the moment they forgive it, they will be free.’
Rishaan was taken back a bit but he managed to fake a smile even after noticing the questions in eyes of Diya. Kiara was looking up in the sky. She barely noticed their reactions, at that moment, she barely cared.
They detached themselves from where they belonged and were attached to this new place, though for three days only.
Back in Delhi, the life was again back on regular routine…office, work, and lots of work. Rishaan was back to his sweet apartment where he lived alone. Next to his apartment there was a big catholic school from where every morning and afternoon singing of prayers filled his heart with calmness. For few days Diya was staying at Kiara’s home as few days of holidays are still left for her. Basically she lives in Lucknow and works for a hotel as a Manager.
Again Rishaan’s day as usual starts with Kiara’s call on which both of them spent hours deciding what to wear and where to meet. Its common in most of the modern day relationships, couples like to share each and every detail of the life neglecting the fact how idiotic things they discussed but that’s the definition of modern times love story. It’s not been a long time since they are under the tagline of Boyfriend-Girlfriend. But otherwise the feelings erupted soon after the death of Kiara’s parents. She struggled a lot to continue her studies after meeting the college fees and living expenses but with Rishaan by her side she could fight each and every battle of her life.
Next day it was planned to have the breakfast together at Rishaan’s place before going to work. By 10’o’clock Diya and Kiara reached his home to help him out in preparing breakfast. It was a nice sunny day with birds chirping and the buzzing sound coming from the school was reminding them of the good old days. All of them loved their days and that’s obvious because those days were the only days when a person lives his life beyond the boundaries of pleasure.
Suddenly Diya asked to use washroom and Rishaan helped her with the way to his bedroom’s washroom. Kiara felt strange that he didn’t tell her to go to the one in the drawing room but she ignored and continued to cook. After a few moments Rishaan slid through the way to his bedroom. This time Kiara felt something has been cooked between Diya and Rishaan apart from what had already been cooked on the stove. As Kiara moved towards the room she heard Diya shouting, “How can you cheat us?” while Rishaan uttered,
“Listen to me! Calm down!” he was interrupted by Kiara entering the room,
“What’s happening guys? Who is cheating on whom?”
With a sudden reaction Rishaan said, “Oh nothing!”
Diya with utmost anger shouted “If you don’t tell her everything, i will!!”
Now Kiara understanding the seriousness of the situation got anxious and said, “What is it? Tell me Diya?”
“He has been cheating you Kiara. He is still in relationship with Anika.”
Diya added and told her that she came to know about this two days before the trip when Rishaan sent a mail to her by mistake which was initially to be sent to Anika. She further told her that Rishaan convinced her that he will tell you the truth just after the trip and leave Anika forever. But till now he didn’t show up any signs of completing his promise.
This was enough for a bubbly girl to run into silent tears, wiping them off, Kiara ran out of the place without uttering a word followed by Diya who said to Rishaan, “You spoiled everything Rishaan, everything.”
Rishaan stood still pondering upon the mistake he knew he did. He sat down on his bed without any movement till after a few moments his phone flashed “Diya Calling”
“Where are you? I am looking for Kiara and she is nowhere…could you go to her office and check whether she’s there or not. If you can please do this much.” Diya said in a mixture of taunting as well as angry timber.
Soon Rishaan reached her office hurriedly. He asked the watchman and inquired a few colleagues. She wasn’t there. Her phone was out of reach. He called Diya informing her and told her that he will look in the nearby cafes and parks of his apartment. After searching everywhere possible he went back to his apartment hoping that her Kiara must have returned with questions and anger in front of his gate. He reached there and finding empty walls and a hollow heart he soon burst into tears. The sorrow of losing a friend is much more ahead than losing a girlfriend.
His phone beeped. It showed a message from Kiara: “I never expected this but life has always given me amazing surprises, I lost everything I loved. Now I am going to give away the only precious thing I’m left with, MY LIFE…BYE!!”
The tears soon changed into fear. Rishaan stood still getting pale. He could feel faintness capturing his body. The sweat crawling down from his head appeared as the biggest burden of life. His hands and legs went numb. He tried calling her like a thousand times repeatedly without a stop, but he received only a single note
“The number you are trying to speak to is currently switched off”
His head became heavy with the weight of guilt. How could he do that? How could he lie to the girl who gave him her everything? How could he not save her? How could he let her die?
These questions surrounded him after his every effort to find Kiara failed.
He went to the roof of his apartment; he could sense nothing but guilt. He could hear the afternoon prayers
“Where the mind is without fear, and the head is held high”
Rishaan called Diya again,” Did you find her?”
“No but I did receive a message. I am frightened. Where are you right now?”She answered.
“I cannot handle this. She gave up everything because of my sin. I am going to find her where she is because of me.”
Diya shouted, “What are you saying? Stop!! Listen to me it was just a..”
Till then Rishaan already hung up the phone.
“Where the world has not been broken up”
He climbed up the boundary. His phone in his pocket was again vibrating. With a sudden sound Rishaan was lying on the earth.
“My father let my country awake. AMEN”
Rishaan left the world.
The phone still vibrating showed “ KIARA CALLING”
__END__
