BETRAYER(S)

I reached Prem’s home, I was meeting him after a year, I rang his doorbell, after 3 minutes Prem opened the door, for an instance I thought he is somebody else because he was bald,weak and sick.

“Dude what’s wrong with you?” I asked him.

“Come inside first” Prem welcomed me and shut the door.

I examined his home, it was completely different, he had a shelf full of alcohol bottles they were replaced by books, totally his home had got a decent look, before I could ask him something he went inside the kitchen to bring something and I sat down on sofa and found our farewell party album on the table, I took a look at it, It had photos of Prem dancing with different girls and a photo caught my eye it was of Prem hugging Neeta… My memory rolled back to those days after seeing that.

“24… she is my 24^th girlfriend” Prem told me holding a drink to cheer.

“Cheers…wait wait what’s that in your hand”

“It’s coke Prem, You know I don’t drink” I said in a soothing voice.

“But this is our fairwell party dude… you should at least have a sip or two” he offered me a drink.

“Sorry dude I can’t” I politely refused it “and who is your new girlfriend, and she might be your 5^th girlfriend excluding your ex’s” I asked him.

“Yup… Dude you only remember every detail of my affairs, why don’t you become my personal assistant” Prem mumbled taking another drink.

“By the way she is Neeta, you know her?”

“Ya…Ya I know her, but she is a best friend of chandana and as far as I know Chandana is also your girlfriend I mean one of your girlfriends and Neeta might be knowing everything about your relationship, then..”

“then, what?”

“Then, how she accepted your proposal?”

“Are you kidding, Neeta was the one who proposed me, and nobody cares about such things you know, and what do you think Neeta proposed me because she loves me… no, she used to hear good words about me through Chandana like I am rich and spends lot of money on girlfriends etc., that’s the reason she proposed me… this is a game which you can never understand ‘Game of Love’ ” Prem said on behalf of his alcohol.

“I better never understand your game, that is not worth to be understood and don’t call it love, you have no idea what love is all about” I said completing my coke.

“ ‘Love’ my foot, you know love is like a brand, a good  brand name used to produce cheap products, People like those cheap products but they are ashamed to buy them, so they want a brand name, that is ‘Love’, and your concept of true love only exists in stories and movies, Directors and writers make money by showing something which don’t exist like superheroes, aliens, and… love, and fools like you believe in the existence of Love like children believe in superheroes” Prem’s alcohol spoke this time.

“ Okay man let us go, Say bye to your new girlfriend” I said taking his car keys to drive him back to his home.

He came back after 5 minutes “Man I am in mood I want to drive, give the keys back” Prem said

“Dude you are drunk, let me drive” I said sitting in the driving seat.

“Man, why you are so afraid of cops, if we get caught we have to bribe less than what I have paid for a drink” Prem said tightening his seat belt.

We were stopped by a signal fall, While Prem was singing in the chorus for the song in FM ‘Rab ne bana di Jodi”, a beggar knocked the glass, I let it open, a women who was looking like a classic beggar was standing with a child, She begged me to give some money to feed her child, the child was weak and had torn clothes and the mark of dried tears on his cheek, I took 100 rs from my wallet and gave it to her, she went away blessing me.

I turned towards Prem “Dude, you said true love doesn’t exist, see I have given   for that beggar, see she will feed him even though she is hungry,”

I pointed to the woman who was going towards a bakery with the child, the child insisted for a cake, while we were noticing them, she left the child there and moved inside a nearby bar and bought a drink while the child was crying for cake, I felt shocked, I was proved wrong, I looked at Prem he simply smiled at me, I moved the car when horns from following vehicles increased.

“Good night buddy” I told prem after taking him inside his home, and went to my home walking which was only 100 meters away from his home.

I didn’t eat anything and directly went to sleep, I was thinking about Prem, he was my friend since our college, he stayed alone, his mom was a divorcee and she left her husband because he had affairs with many girls at his office, she brought him up and died three years ago due to liver failure… yes she was a drunkard, Prem had a company to look after left by his mom, with all comforts and luxurious life he never tried to think about love, for him love is like what he explained before ‘a game’.

And coming to me I…I was brought up in the same city my mom and dad loved me a lot but not each other, theirs was arranged marriage, they were married only because they were from same caste and same subcaste, as far as I believe love and affection are more important to live with a person than his/her caste, but they lacked love, they used to fight for silly reasons sometimes for no reasons, after seeing them, I had too much expectations towards my girl, well one can understand what a guy like me can expect from his girl, that’s love love and lot of love…

“Beep Beep” my phone ringed indicating there is a notification, I took it and found ‘Anamika’ online, by the way she was my facebook friend, I usually don’t talk to girls but she was a different case, I received her friendship request on my birthday with the text ‘If you don’t like your birthday gifts reject this request’, I hence accepted her request, then she used to comment on my status updates more like the way to solve my problems.

Once a girl named priya proposed me in our campus, I told it to Prem, his only response was to accept it, I had no clue whom to discuss with at that night I found Anamika online and started with ‘Hi’ throughout the conversation I found she was just like me, more thoughtful, sensible and matured, just like an old friend I shared the proposal matter. She simply suggested the thing which I was expecting

“ Don’t jump into any conclusion unless you know what she feels about you, don’t ask her directly what she feels about you, she will only say she loves you, which may or may not be a true, just tell her you will reply some other day, if she really loves you she will wait” and the next day I told the same to Priya, she said “Well, I will wait, when I have waited so far I will wait few more days”…

Now I again found ‘Anamika’ online, I told everything about Prem’s girlfriend, that beggar and Prem’s thought about love, she replied “Well I know love exists you and your friend will come to know about that one day”. 

Few more days passed, Prem was happy with her new girlfriend and Priya was waiting for my response and meanwhile I got a call for a job in another city and luckily I got that job and I had to leave my family, my friends and my city. Still I joined the job since it paid me well, for some days I loved my job and new environment then I started to miss my family, friends but in those days I had ignored Anamika even though I found her online many times.

then I didn’t find her online after some more days I was all alone and I used to cry when I called my home, some more days later I found a letter on my desk in office with a flower, “How much time shall I wait? I can live without your response but not without seeing you, turn around”, I turned around and found Priya on the next desk she had joined our company, at that time I thought about nothing, I simply hugged her and cried and the whole office witnessed our love moment. I started to love her more than anything because I had found the love, the true love.

The photo was not like other ones, yes it was not usual, I could see in the photo Neeta hesitated to hug him, well I could guess she was shy and none of Prem’s girlfriends were shy, they were all bold, it was a strange thing, no shy girl dared to become his girlfriend, I checked few more photos, in all photos she didn’t seem comfort, Prem returned from the kitchen with two bowls of noodles and two glasses of orange juice, I was holding the album in one hand and a letter (actually a printout of an email) in another, so I made a delay in taking them he took the letter and put the glass in my hand, I felt little bit awkward even though I had brought the letter to show him.

“What is so important in this letter that you even didn’t even put it down” Prem said sipping the juice.

Before I open my mouth my eyes showed their magic and dropped tear on waterproof cover page of the album, the album seemed to tell me ‘there are waterproof books but not tear proof cheeks’

Noticing me crying Prem didn’t say anything and started to read it silently…

 

Dearest Anand,

I have seen several movies in which a girl and a boy love each other but the world don’t like to see them together, right from their parents to saints, from relatives to enemies everyone try to separate them but facing all the odds finally their love wins and the story ends, I always loved those stories and wanted to live such a life, but I don’t know whether the movies are exaggeration or the reality sucks I can’t be in a relationship with you anymore and the reason is not what you think it’s something else:

few days before I recieved a call intimating my dad has got a stroke and is in hospital, when I rushed to the hospital I found my dad’s health condition worse and he was on his deathbed taking his last breaths and then he told me something, his and mom’s marriage was intercaste love marriage, their family became their enemies after their marriage and after my birth my mom fell ill and nobody from her family came to visit her and with that pain she died. Because of this he took a promise from me that is not to do such mistakes in my life and always to take the decisions which make your future happier not the present. To keep the promise I had given to him I am ending our relationship.

The betrayer,

ANAMIKA

 

“What the heck dude? Were Priya and Anamika same?” he was more shocked because of this fact than Priya’s separation from me.

“Ya, Priya and I were not from the same caste, she was Christian,  she might have left me thinking the same will happen in our case” I said taking back the letter.

“How could she think like that yaar! And I think her father didn’t mean that”

“Ya, I know but fear and cruel past might have forced her to understand like that, Your theory was true ‘love is a game’ and a game should end, see how mine ended” I said keeping the empty glass on the table meanwhile someone entered the home, it didn’t take more time to figure out who was she, she was Neeta, it was my turn to get shocked, so many questions stroke my head and Prem understood them and brought an envelope…

He took some medical reports from the envelope and handed them to me, I examined them even though I couldn’t understand much of the medical terms I clearly understood that he had Fatal Familial Insomnia I asked him about the disease.

“It’s sleeping disability dude, which causes the patient to lose his sleep hour by hour and to finally attain sleeplessness” Prem said in a serious voice.

“Bro you really scared me to the hell, I thought it’s some deadly STD like AIDS or even worse” I laughed at my own poor joke.

Prem and Neeta were still serious and Prem continued “It’s even worse friend, it has no cure, no treatment… few months ago my company went into crisis and I was not able to save it hence  it finally closed and I was left with very little money to live with and all my so called girlfriends left me, some including my ex’s helped with little money not more I spent on them for a dinner, but Neeta didn’t leave me, that’s when I started to believe in love but it’s too late I have only 8 months to live or even less, my condition is getting worse, doctors have told I will lose my mental stability very soon, but she is not gonna leave me” he told the last phrase holding her hand.

I wiped my tears and went outside since I was not able to handle the situation… I was driving back to my home, I had made a firm decision to leave my job and to move to a far place, where her memories won’t trouble me, I knew it was not the solution but it was the least I could do.

The next day I was going to the city to give my resignation letter while I was stuck in the traffic in my town I saw a woman running randomly across the road checking every vehicle, when she came closer to my vehicle I saw her clearly, she was the same women whom I had given money to feed her child on that party night, I got some curiosity hence parked my car near that bar where she had bought the drink from and asked the bartender about her strange behaviour, what he told was another shock,  that women actually loved her child and some people from orphanage took the kid away in a vehicle, since that day she was gone mad and she started checking every vehicle hoping she will get her son back.

That day had shown me lot of facts and philosophy of life, how we setup our own theories in our life based on our life experiences and believe that it is universal truth while truth strikes disproving our theories and teaching us how foolish we are to make judgements… at first I believed in the existence of true love while Prem didn’t but when Priya left me I lost the faith in love and when Neeta held Prem’s hand at his worst he gained his faith in love and this beggar woman’s incidence all had brought chaos in my mind…

I was in my office preparing my resignation letter and I noticed a letter on my desk, I started reading it…

Dearest Anand,

MOST OF THE TIME THE RELATIONSHIPS WE REGRET FOR BEING IN ARE THE RELATIONSHPS WE NEVER DESERVED, the oath my dad took from me was to take decisions to make my future happier but it took me some time to understand that both my future and happiness is you, all that stuff about the caste was my fear and madness… I want my future and happiness back.

The betrayer mad lover

ANAMIKA

PRIYA

I turned back, she was there, I simply hugged, this time nobody seemed to care.

“You hurt me so much and didn’t even apologize once, why so?” I asked her releasing myself.

“Because I am a girl” she replied.’ BEEP BEEP’ my phone ringed, I checked it, it was a notification stating

‘ANAMIKA IS ONLINE’.

__END__