Meant To Be

Chapter 15. The new guy

    One and a half years. Eighteen months.      
     Sam sat on the terrace of her new rental home, looking into infinity, with Boby's letter clutched in her hands. It had been more than a year since Sam was forced to leave her Khimsar home. Sam and her parents had shifted to a small house (with a terrace) in a village which was near to Sam's grandmother's house, after more than two weeks of staying there and living a life of lies to hide the real truth.
As soon as they shifted to their new rental home, Sam's father immediately decided to stop her education. Sam protested, pleaded for forgiveness (for she thought was the right thing to do even if she was right) but her parents turned a deaf ear to her pleas for forgiveness and mercy and also turned a blind eye to the unending tears that flowed down from her eyes. And with that, Sam's dream of becoming a media journalist, came crashing down like a house of cards.
Life meant nothing to her now. She felt as if her soul was sucked out from her body and just her body was spared. She felt dead from inside, even though she wasn't physically dead. Nothing, that happened around her seemed to amuse her, to make her smile. Many a times, she'd ask a question to herself, 'What is my purpose on this earth, now?' There was no answer to that question. She didn't have anything to achieve, with she not being able to complete eleventh. Her only aim in life, was to see her parents happy.
She didn't have anyone to talk to. She couldn't even contact Nish, Ro or Dhruv (her father had taken her phone away and had thrown it out of the moving bus on their way to Sam's grandmother's house.) She was all alone. She had also stopped writing diary for every page contained the same lines, '........I'm missing Boby........I'm missing my friends........I feel all alone.' At this point of time, she needed someone, who'd listen to her, hold her hand, give her a tight hug and say that everything would be alright.
She'd spend her day by helping her mother to cook (her mother had forced her to learn cooking and other household chores) and doing other chores like washing the utensils, washing her clothes, cleaning the house, giving water to the plants. Her outfits had changed from jazzy tops and jeans to a simple salwaar kameez (a dress worn by most people in Southern Asia) She wasn't allowed to step out of the house, alone. Even if she had to, she'd be accompanied by her mother or her father. She always used to feel like crying, when she'd see other kids going to school, coming back from school, playing on the grounds. Life had become like a prison for her.
In her free time, she'd read Boby's letter and the poem which Boby had asked her to read. She had lost count of how many times, she'd read the letter and the poem, but each time she read, she always felt as if she was reading it for the first time. Whenever she read Boby's letter, she could feel Boby's voice, reading out the letter to her, in her mind.
The poem was Sam's favourite too. Even though she'd read the book, poem no. 68 was her favourite one. The poem was about a boy who was forced to leave his home, his friends, his loved ones and shift to a new house and how he finds love in the most beautiful thing that he had failed to notice in his new house- a rose flower.

A few months before, she'd turned eighteen. Her eighteenth birthday was nothing like her seventeenth one and the ones which she'd celebrated in her Khimsar home. There was no one to wish her, no birthday cake, no celebration...nothing. She hadn't wanted one.

The voice of Sam's mother calling her from downstairs, snapped her out of her thoughts and brought her back to the present. She went downstairs and found her mother in the living room, standing in front of her father, who was sitting on the living room sofa, with his hands folded and his expression grim.
"We want to speak something important to you." her father started, avoiding her gaze. He had started avoiding her gaze, from the time he had stopped her education. There was no informal relation between them anymore.
"Since...you've turned eighteen this year and can now legally be called as an adult" he continued, taking a deep breath. "We have decided to get you married. And...." he added, "....we are not asking you we are telling you. Since you aren't getting any education and you don't have any qualification, you won't be able to get a job. Instead of spending your entire life here, with us, you settle your life by marrying someone. In that way your life will be settled and we won't have anything to worry about in our life."
The little hope which Sam had got when her father had said that he wanted to speak something important, had vanished in an instant. She didn't protest. Maybe this was the right thing. Even if she didn't want to, she had to. She couldn't have imagined marrying someone else, but now... she had to. Somewhere in her heart, she had known the brutal truth: with Shammi, Boby can never be hers and she can never be Boby's.
"The boy and his family are coming to see you tomorrow." her mother said stiffly. Sam was surprised at how eager her parents were to send her away forever, without even informing her in prior. Sam nodded slightly and when no one said anything further, she took it as a signal to leave the living room.