Love, lock, stock, and barrel

Love, lock, stock and barrel

To all my lovely friends of the YES group

‘ONLY TWENTY minutes left’… Shreya writes hurriedly. The examiner is standing beside her staunchly… His stolid face unresponsive of the desperate expressions she delivers. ‘How do we prove two triangles congruent?’ she asks herself… She bites her nails, scratches her head and pulls at her locks. Still, the teacher shows no trace of emotion... She looks around and finds that Ruchika has completed her paper. ‘Psst… Hey Ruchi!’ she whispers. The examiner glares at her… She lets go of a guilty smile. ‘Five minutes to go’, the examiner announces. The pen shakes in her fingers, beads of sweat are there on her forehead… She tries hard to recall what she had studied. Vicky asks for another answer sheet and the teacher moves away. She couldn’t let the chance slip away. ‘Hey, Ruchi, how do we prove…?’ She says quite loudly, all heads turn towards her. The examiner shouts, ‘Shreya, your paper is cancelled!’                                                    

Suddenly everything vanishes… The teacher, the desks, the classroom… Shreya finds herself at home. Her smaller brother is watching the world cup finals. She enters the room silently and catches a glimpse of the score- Sachin has hit another century… ‘How was your exam Shreya?’ asked Shreya’s mother. Shreya is drinking water, the glass slips from her hand and falls… Her mother is shouting at her… But she hears nothing… Everything slowly recedes into the background, the cricket match, her mother, the broken glass… Shreya sees blackness… She feels she is being picked up… Faint voices speak quickly to each other… Then everything is still and black… She isn’t able to breathe, something is suffocating her… She is about to drown.

Shreya woke up with a jerk. She was breathing rapidly. She shot her hand out to the side table and fumbled for the light switch. When the light switched on, she quickly drank loads of water and calmed down.

NEXT DAY in school, Shreya saw that everybody was very much tensed about the exam. “Hey, Shreya, are you prepared?” Nehall asked her. “Yes, but not very well”, she said, taking out her book from her satchel. “Oh! None of us are”, said Nehall. They sat in a group gossiping and discussing. After sometime, Ruchika arrived, she was looking very jolly. “Hey, Shreya, may I have a word with you?” she asked in a cheerful tone. “Sure!” Shreya replied and began to pack up. “Yes, why not? After all, Shreya and Ruchika are best friends!” said Chetna, stressing on ‘best’. “Shut up Chetna!” said Shreya and the two of them trooped away. Chetna and the other girls were still giggling.

“I can’t wait to tell you this, Aman was so flattering yesterday! He was looking like a guy from the English or American bands. You should have seen his hairstyle! He went on admiring me and my beauty and I kept on gazing at him and…” “Hey, wait, give it a break”, Shreya intruded in Ruchika’s seemingly endless chatter. Ruchika fell silent. “So your date was good?” Shreya asked. “It was awesome!” Ruchika cried. They both stared at each other intently. Ruchika wore a smile and Shreya was grinning. “You really love him, don’t you?” asked Shreya. “Loads! Not even our Physics sir’s measuring units can fathom how much!” Ruchika replied. “You are so lucky!” Shreya said, laughing.

The school bell rang. It sounded more like an emergency call to everybody. Students hastily had their ‘a last peep at their books’ which usually never came. Some bunged their books shut and sent up a prayer or two. Others just kept on studying, as if it was not the bell but only the croaking horn of a lorry.

Shreya and Ruchika proceeded slowly towards the assembly hall still chattering happily. In the midst of the conversation, Shreya remembered the dream she had seen the last night and excused herself from the talk. Quickly, she produced her mathematics book from her bag and went through the axioms of congruency. When she was satisfied, she rushed to the assembly hall.

“Good luck Ruchika!” Shreya whispered as the examiner handed out the papers. “Thanks, and same to you”, replied Ruchika. Shreya blinked at her.

Shreya got the paper. She began writing with great zeal. After solving two sums successfully, she stretched her arms and drank water. She began writing again, but the questions were getting tougher. She scribbled a lot, scratching and cutting again and again.

After a while, the examiner said “Twenty minutes to go.” He stood beside Shreya’s desk and kept a watchful eye upon the miscreants. Shreya wrote hurriedly. There was a lot left to solve. She gulped. The next question asked her to prove two triangles congruent, and she failed to remember how to do it. She bit her nails, scratched her head and pulled at her locks. The teacher seemed to be oblivious to Shreya’s gesticulations. Shreya swiftly turned her head towards Ruchika. She was bowled over! Ruchika had completed her paper. “Hey Ruchi, listen!” she whispered softly. “Five minutes to go!” roared the examiner’s voice. Shreya noticed that he was looking at her sternly. She grinned.

Her fears were confirmed when Vicky asked for another answer sheet and the examiner walked away. “Ruchi, How to prove…?” Shreya asked abruptly, but too stridently. All eyes were upon her. Shreya was astounded. “Shreya, Your paper is cancelled!” the examiner rasped.

 “It’s the truth!” Shreya yelled. “How can it be? You are lying! I have never heard of such things as dreams coming true!” Ruchika retorted. “Okay, don’t believe me, but if Sachin hits a century today, then will you believe me?” Shreya questioned. “So you saw that too in your dream?” asked Ruchika. “Yes” “Let us see”

Shreya stepped into her house stealthily. Her heart was beating fast. She had her fingers crossed. The door creaked open. Keshav, Shreya’s little brother exclaimed beatifically as she entered- “Sachin has hit another century didi!” Shreya faltered. She couldn’t believe her ears. Trembling, she proceeded towards the kitchen. Her throat had become very dry and she wanted to drink water. “How was your exam Shreya?” asked her mother. She tightened her grip on the tumbler. ‘I can’t let it slip!’ she thought. All of a sudden, her hand started itching terribly and, in order to rub it, she loosened her hold. The glass fell down and the water spilled.

“I am feeling dreadful”, Shreya told Ruchika over the phone. “This is serious Shreya. It cannot be coincidence. Watch your step. I am not feeling good about all this”, replied Ruchika.

‘Don’t do this to me!’ somebody screams… ‘Scream, yell and shout! I won’t hear you. It was you who betrayed me’, says a cruel voice… ‘Believe me! I wasn’t with any guy! It must have been somebody else! You are mistaken!’ the girl beseeches. ‘No, I can’t believe you, not anymore… You have conspired against me, toyed with me! I won’t forgive you! I am breaking up!’ the merciless voice says… The girl breaks into a fit of sobs… ‘Please, you are everything for me… Please don’t go. Please don’t say such things!’ ‘Do you think that when I saw you with that guy, it was a pleasing sight to me? It left a scar on me, an indelible impression… Now you have to pay for it…’ The words eventually became inaudible and then ultimately stopped… Shreya is drowning… She is flailing her arms and her legs but it is useless… She is suffocating.

Shreya tossed and turned in her bed. “Where is Ruchika?” Shreya asked Poonam at school. “I don’t know> Why are you asking? What is the matter?” Poonam asked as Shreya flitted away. She sighed.

“Are you okay? Is everything all right?” Shreya asked a stunned Ruchika. “Y-yes, but why?” Ruchika asked. Shreya let out a deep breath. “Thank God!” she exclaimed. “Why? What happened?” Ruchika pressed upon her. “Ah- it is nothing, just a trifling”, she replied.

After school was over, Ruchika called Shreya, “Hey Shreya, come fast to my house!” Shreya darted off.  “It wasn’t just a trifling”, Ruchika said as Shreya entered. Ruchika was in tears. “No… No… you did not…” “Yes, we broke up!” Shreya threw her arms into the air. She could only half-hear the cries and grumbles of Ruchika. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? You could have stopped it, but you chose not to!” the voice resounded. Shreya held her head, she was feeling giddy. The world turned and turned. Shreya whirled and passed out.

“Yeah, I am okay now…” Shreya explained to her parents. “Okay, good night.” They went away and the lights were turned off. Shreya couldn’t sleep that night… Haunting memories of the past days kept her awake… She had now come to believe that all her dreams were real happenings…

The looming image of the teacher materializes before her… He is chuckling hysterically… He has gone feral… mad… Slowly Aman and Ruchika appear before her… They seem to be scowling at her… They are cursing her, abusing her… They also vanish. That night, after seeing these horrific sights, Shreya saw another dream…

It is dark… very dark… As dark a room as Shreya has ever been in… Shreya watches a girl entering the room… her silhouette is seen against the light that is being dispelled from outside… The girl enters the room… She seems to be very blue… She pulls a chair from a corner, the scraping sound of the legs creating a sense of aversion in Shreya’s mind… The girl gets up and attaches a rope to the ceiling… She succeeds on the second try… Then she gets up the chair and tests the rope by tugging at it…

Shreya woke up. “Oh no!” she exclaimed. “I can’t let this happen!” Soon, everybody in Shreya’s house was awake and Shreya was blabbering on at full pace. From the mathematics examination to the spilling of the water and then to the break up, Shreya fought hard to convince her parents that she spoke the truth.

“We will see to it tomorrow morning”, said Shreya’s father. “No!  You shall see to it now!” Shreya cried. “Go! Inform her parents. I can’t let her suicide… No!” Shreya broke down. Her mother’s soothing words and solemn promises lulled her to sleep.

“This is serious”, said a dour-faced Shreya’s mother the next day at Ruchika’s house. Ruchika’s parents sat around Shreya and her mother and listened attentively to her narrative. Shreya’s father wasn’t there. She spoke swiftly and in a firm tone. Her tears had just dried up and they had formed salty patches on her face. As she spoke, she moved her hand to add emphasis. She had made a remarkable impression on Shreya’s parents by the time she had reached the event of the spilling of water.

“I held firmly to the glass”, she said, “but something caused me to scratch my hand and it fell. It had to happen, I couldn’t stop it, but I am feeling that Ruchika’s suicide can be averted…” she spoke at last. “Ruchika’s what?” blurted out Ruchika’s mother. “Her suicide… Yes, yesterday night I saw her hanging herself and I came here to inform you right away”, said Shreya, speaking in a more diplomatic fashion. Then she explained the break up between Aman and Ruchika and the harmful impact it had made on Ruchika’s mind. “She is very much hurt”, Shreya said. “Where is she?” she asked after a certain span of muted time. Ruchika mother spoke- “She is still asleep. I can’t imagine…” “I think we should believe in her. It won’t harm us if we be careful for just a day. One day, isn’t it?” asked Ruchika’s father. “Yes, it is only one day”, said Shreya and these words were followed by a deathly quiet.

The day began. Ruchika’s mother wouldn’t let her out of sight for the first few hours. She didn’t speak to her harshly, but kept calm and silent. “Why are you acting so strangely, mumma?” Ruchika inquired. “It’s nothing. I was just wondering if you were okay…” said Ruchika’s mother. “Yes, I am perfectly all right, but you seem disturbed”, said Ruchika. So the day saw many other such disturbed moments. Ruchika was never left out of sight. Shreya stayed with her the full day, taking all the care not to let her get depressed or even annoyed. “What has happened to you?” Ruchika stammered when she broke a costly glass piece and her mother didn’t even speak so much as a word. “All of you are acting so strangely! Why?” Shreya looked at the troubled form of her best friend. This was the moment she had been waiting for… All of them were waiting for… Ruchika kept on screaming and Shreya stood there fixedly… Stunned… Stunned at the way her best friend was behaving, stunned from the memories of the past night, stunned from all that had occurred and all that was coming… All the events had uprooted her life… She wasn’t ready for anything like that… But life plays its own games…

Shreya’s father arrived there. He couldn’t bear to see Ruchika’s condition. He He was flared up. “Poor Ruchika has to pay for your stupid dreams. Now get out of here before I thrash you!” roared Shreya’s father. After apologizing for his daughter’s foolish behavior, he returned home with Shreya. He took her straight to his room and locked the door behind him. “Who do you think you are? Do you think that you are the daughter of a rich merchant?” Shreya was taken aback. Her father was very furious. “No! Do you think everybody will hear your silly pleas? Keep them to yourself! Shut up or I will beat you like anything! Next time you open your mouth and speak your stupid dreams, you wait and watch what I shall do! Bloody orphan!” Shreya’s head whirled. The words echoed in her ears. She let out a quail of terror. “Yes! You are just a bloody orphan! Your parents died in a flood and it would have done us good, if you had died with them! Damn it! Why did you survive?” he barked. Shreya couldn’t bear it anymore. She ran out of there, into her room, slamming the door shut. Her heart felt like an anchor, always sinking down. Her eyes felt like they were overflowing mugs, tears brimming in them and spilling all around. Her arms and legs felt like pieces of raw meat, worthy only of being thrown to the vultures. Her whole body seemed to have become a tool for others for their self-fulfillment…

Shreya slept…

After a short while, she got up… It was dark… very dark… As dark a room as Shreya had ever been in. ‘Bloody orphan!’ Shreya seemed to be very blue. ‘Your parents died in a flood’ She pulled a chair from a corner, the scraping sound of the legs perturbing Shreya’s mind… Shreya attached a rope to the roof, she succeeded on the second try. ‘Why did you survive?’ Shreya tugged at the rope to test it. ‘It would have done us good, if you had died with them!’ She closed her eyes. ‘You could have stopped it, but you chose not to!’ The chair slipped and fell, its crashing sound echoing in the depths of the night…