A Thousand Truths

Chapter 1

It was after seven long years that Arohi was finally returning to her home. She was sitting in a bus that would take her to Raisar city, where she had spent the first sixteen years of her life. The journey, though of just four hours, seemed very long. She looked out the window, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the pleasant monsoon winds.

So many thoughts ran across her mind, the first being that she was happy because she would now get to live at her home, in her room. During the last seven years, she came home for only fifteen days every year during the holidays. The time of her stay every time was so short that she never got enough time to decorate her room the way she wanted. As a result, her room over the years, started looking exactly how her sister wanted it to look.

Her sister.....Akshara. Her thoughts went back to their childhood when she was nine and Akshara was eleven. Akshara had insisted that both of them share the same room and everyone agreed. Though Arohi did not want that, she never voiced her opinion and shifted in with her sister. Since then, she had always felt like the room belonged to Akshara and she was just .....living there.

But not anymore. Arohi had decided that this time she was going to make the room look more like hers, by decorating it with pictures of her friends, college, and her life. From now on, the room will belong to her also.

The bus suddenly stopped with a jolt; Arohi came out of her thoughts and read the signboard that said that Raisar was just an hour away. Her thoughts drifted away from her sister to her family. The Great Goenka family - that was always so enthusiastic and so predictable. Arohi knew pretty well that they would have made a big deal out of her coming back also. That was how the Goenkas functioned; every small occasion was a festival for them.

She knew very well what was about to happen the moment she steps out of the bus. As soon as she collects her luggage from the luggage carrier she would be crushed in a big bear hug by her cousin, Vansh. Then her chote Dada and Choti dadi would hug her and immediately give her a big bottle of homemade juice because apparently, a four-hour-long journey is very tiring. She would then reach home and right at the main door, she would find her dada waiting for her. She would greet him, give him a sweet kiss on his cheek, and then enter the house. The entire house would be filled with the amazing smell of her favorite Dal Dhokli that her Dadi would have made for her and the chocolate cake that Akshara and her brother Kairav would have baked for her. Just then, her great grandmother or Mimi as she liked to call her, will come and give her Prasad from the pooja she did for her safe journey. She would look at their faces, all of them smiling and laughing, such joyous and radiant smiles, reflecting the happiness of their hearts because Arohi was back. She also knew that she would feel the same happiness because after all, she was where she belonged.

And the moment the bus stopped at Raisar, every single thing that she had thought of happened exactly in the same way, every one in the family was so happy and in the mood to celebrate. Nothing was different from what she had expected, nothing, except the fact that even after feeling happy, Arohi did not feel at home, she did not feel as if she belonged here. And suddenly, the intense desire that she had to make her room appear more like hers, vanished.