This is a work of fiction and any resemblance with any person living or dead is purely coincidental and unintentional.
Four
Smriti hated the long
holidays, especially the unplanned ones. The weekends seemed long enough; long
holidays meant days when she couldn’t figure out how the day had to be spent!! Unlike
most people her age, she loved the working days at office because they sped and
got over even before she realised the day had passed. Whenever she was aware of
consecutive holidays approaching, she planned a trip to her parents’ or her
elder sister’s place. But this was an unexpected one; their office was shut
down till the rainfall situation was under control.
Mumbai literally flooded in the rainy
seasons and this year the rainfall was exorbitant;
it added to the woes of the people to the extent that local life had shut down
to a nil. Everybody had been asked to stay indoors till the floods in the
street diminished fully. However the downpour exhibited no signs of stopping or
mercy. The black clouds hovering over the sky continued pouring and further inundating the city.
Smriti opened her outlook, finding there wasn’t much task to
be done, she shut down the laptop. She wasn’t in a mood to read anything. As
the dabbawalas were non functional owing
to the rains, she had to step into the kitchen to cook her meal. It had
been quite some time that she had actually
made herself a good wholesome luncheon.
She opened the refrigerator, which was
pretty much empty, stood there negotiating her food menu options available. It was
time she did some grocery shopping for emergency situations like the current
one; she made a mental note. Not
finding much, she ended up preparing plain daal, egg curry and rice. After the
lunch and the kitchen clean up, which
she did as slowly as she could to kill the time, she retired to her
bedroom; the TV signals were down too due to the rainfall situations. She opened
her almirah and found out the contents were too messy and needed some tidying
up. She felt elated, she finally had a
task to do, which would almost take the rest
of the day.
After cleaning the cupboards, she progressed to the locker.
She took out the contents, lined them up on her bed. There were jewellery sets
her mother and sister had gifted her,
which she rarely wore, mostly for office parties. There was a money bag
with a wad of notes in denominations of thousand, her safe deposit. There were silver coins of Goddesses which her
mother had instructed to be kept in the locker at all times, so that her wealth status would grow. There
were some ruby and diamond rings, gifts
by her father, which she wore only when she visited her family. At
the far end of the locker, there was a fat old diary which had a small lock on
it.
The moment she took the diary in her hands, a cold shiver
ran down her spine. She shuddered feeling cold and dizzy. “Do not open it. You already know the content by heart. Reading it would
do you no good.” She could hear her brain whispering into her ears and she
knew it was right. She kept it aside and carried on with her cleaning activity.
Within an hour, the almirah was organised,
clean and looked much better. She lied on her bed exhausted. While lying down her hands brushed a paperback, she scanned
her bed for the source; she had forgotten to keep the diary inside.
“Read me.” She
could hear the diary almost whispering
out to her.
She held it in her hands. She tried to remember the last
time she had read it fully; she realised never.
Whenever she started reading, she would stop midway. After reaching a point, it
would take a toll on her to the extent
that she would need to discontinue. It was a long time ago she had
attempted to read it, now things had changed, she was more determined and brave, besides she had outgrown the
pain, she thought.
She looked outside towards the sky. The rains would not stop
for some days, the meteorology department had predicted and she didn’t have
much to do. It was time she read it once fully, that would refresh her memories and make her more determined
to do what she ought to do.
She opened the diary which smelled of the rose petals, she
had used as bookmarks in many pages.
3rd
January 2004
Dear diary,
Amruta gifted me this diary today, saying it
was a good idea to record teenage, so that when we grow old we could
look back to the journey. How silly of her to do that. I love reading, not
writing, that too wasting time recording day to day mundane activities!! How
childish of her, she is only an elder sister by age, but mom says am the more
matured one. I asked her whether she had done so when she was in her teens, she
showed me her floral note book; in which she had scrambled about all the
important incidents of her teenage. When I asked if I could read it, she said I
wasn’t old enough. Whatever that meant, I have decided to read it when she goes
out the next time. I hope she doesn’t do the same, else the very first entry is
gonna make her cross with me.
I do not know what to write. Let me think.
Should I talk about college or should I rant about my family and friends. I have
no idea how far this diary writing is going to proceed. Am not even sure if I
would be able to fill some decent pages!! My life isn’t quite happening yet, I
turned 16 few days back. I joined college few months ago. Despite the big fuss
about college life that I had heard, I find it quite boring on the contrary. My
friends bunk classes and go for the movies and all, but I am not in favour of
skipping classes and then attending the tuitions. That would be foolishness.
There are few cute guys in my class but all are nerds. I don’t feel anyone
matching my level. Every guy my age is busy hitting on a pretty girl and every
girl my age is busy giving airs to herself or turning any guy who is after her
into a pet dog. I mostly hang out with Amruta(my elder sister) and her friend
circle, especially Nisha didi, Siddharh bhaiya and Sanjeev bhaiya. They are into engineering
college now and I feel their discussion suits my taste. I feel more involved in
their debates about politics, current affairs and future of India rather than
the color of nailpaint, the shopping and the other stupid things my friends do.
My friends call me boring, which I don’t object. Amruta is a sister as well as a
best friend. If she feels this diary is going to be an object of happiness in
my coming days, then I trust her judgement. Honestly by the end of two pages I
feel you are turning out to be a great friend. You are listening to me silently
and without any opinions and judgements!! I think we are friends now. Will see
you soon.
Goodnight
Smriti
P.S – Am excited about the trekking trip
with Amruta and her friends, planned for the coming Sunday. Am sure it’s going
to be fun.
9th
January 2000
Dear diary,
I just got back home
few minutes ago. I couldn’t wait to pen down the happenings of the day. We
trekked all the way to the top of a mountain with backpacks filled with juice,
fruits and some water. The ascent was tiring, everyone was exhausted. By the
time we reached the peak, I was sweating profusely. I simply said I wish there
was an AC room here and the next moment a resort appeared out of nowhere. I
went mad with happiness. Sanjeev bhaiya made fun of me saying I was really a
kid, which I vehemently opposed. At the rooms Nisha di, Amruta di, Siddharth
bhaiya all retired for a short nap. But I wasn’t sleepy at all neither was
Sanjeev bhaiya. We decided to explore the nearby jungle on our own. It was so
beautiful. There were trees everywhere, there were all kindsof tiny insects and
we saw some rare vareity of birds too. We discovered a beautiful lake!! I felt
I had stepped into one of those English movies with beautiful sceneries in it.
We chatted for quite sometime. He told me about his future plans of making it
big in core industry. He had already started working on some business proposals
that he would offer the companies before his college ended. He didn’t want to
be a slave in any IT or any other industry, working under somebody. He wanted
to be a freelancer. I felt quite nice to talk to him. Although we had spent a
lot of time together as a part of a big group, this was the first time we
actually talked person to person. I felt happy Amruta had such nice decent
friends, I wished I had some too. When I said this aloud, he said I was a part
of their group even though I was younger in age. He said I could always count
him in my good friends. I felt kind of happy to hear that.He asked about me and
my ambitions in life. I said there was nothing much to say, so he started
asking questions on books I had read. He predicted my life’s pattern on the books
I had chosen to read. He said reading was a very nice habit which I should
never give up, even when I would become busy in future, I should always take
out time to read. That was a nice thing to say. He said he would gift me his
collection which he had hardly read. He said he would read books based on my
feedback, he said he trusted my opinion. I was touched by his words and the
generosity he showed while we talked. Not even for a second I felt I was
talking to someone elder to me or an unknown. After an hour or two we went to
the resort to find all of them awake and freshened up. We played dumbsharaj,
truth and dare, word games, antakshari. It was an awesome day. I enjoyed each
and every second of it. I thanked Amruta after we got back home. My parents were
happy to know that I had enjoyed myself, which I rarely did, in their opinion.
Of all things the
strangest and most funniest thing that happened today was during truth and dare
I chose dare and Siddharth bhaiya asked me not to use the word bhaiya while I
addressed Sanjeev bhaiya. When I gave a queer look he said that made them sound
old. I asked why should I not use
the word bhaiya for Sanjeev bhaiya only and why not for him also. To that he simply
shrugged. Finally this is what I said “Ok I won’t call Sanjeev bhaiya, bhaiya
from today.” Everyone laughed a lot hearing my statement. Personally I am not
very sure how far I am going to stick to this resolution!!
All in all it was a
memorable day. I loved the lake side view and the discussions we had. This was
the first time in my life I talked this long with somebody and opened my heart
out. I felt safe in his company and I felt happy to share with him. He earned
trust with his words. Although he looks very nice but I think he has a very
nice heart.
Signing off
Goodnight,
Your pal - Smriti
To be continued. . .
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