MIRA

MIRA PART2: 1. Second Innings

March 2022

Life isn't as short as we make it to be. In times of misery and heartbreak, we tend to conclude that we won't be able to move on with life as we used to. However, life is much longer than we anticipate it to be. It gives us all a second chance at making the most of the gift of life.

It's been over two years since Mira's breakdown with Vikranth and a lot has happened. Most importantly the global pandemic has made Mira realise the value of life and relations. She now cherished her life, her family and her career even more. Its funny how it took something as grave as the global pandemic to make people realise that their problems are not so big compared to the value of life. Of course, there were tough days of being unable to visit her parents during the lockdown and being confined to the four walls in her apartment and working from home. Eventually, with vaccinations and the easing of restrictions, life returned to somewhat normal for everyone.

After leaving her job at Wipro, Mira decided she needed a career change. She knew her report writing skills and analytical skills were top-notch, so with the recommendation of her former colleague, she decided to give risk analysis a shot. After applying to a couple of think tanks, Mira finally got shortlisted and selected at Prism, a small risk analysis company. She joined during the pandemic so she worked from home for about a year. Initially, it was fun but as the workload increased, so did her stress level. But, she still enjoyed it more than her monotonous job at Wipro. With a relatively small and friendly group of co-workers, Mira didn't have any difficulty settling down.

Living alone and working from home wasn't easy, especially after her heartbreak with Vikrant. Mira tried her level best to not let her thoughts sway into thinking about Vikranth or anything that happened in their last meeting. But, you can only control your mind to a certain extent.

Then one day, he called her, it had been eight months since he left India and the lockdown was in full swing in most parts of the world. Mira didn't answer it. She didn't want to go back and open the chapter that she had decided to close with great difficulty. It didn't stop at the calls, there were texts and she ignored those too. However, those nights she couldn't help but wonder why Vikranth was reaching out to her now. Had he realised that what he did was wrong? Did he want to apologise? Did he change his mind?

She would tell Preethi about the calls and texts.

''Don't even think about it Mira! He doesn't deserve you! Even if he's realised his mistakes its too late now!'', was Preethi's response. The messages and calls also stopped after a few days.

Mira knew Preethi was right but deep down inside her, there was a voice, that still desperately longed for Vikranth. A voice that she struggled so hard to shut down, a voice that did not see any shame, self-respect or self-esteem.

*******

''You ready?'' Naren pulled over and called Mira.

''Yup! Coming down in five!'' Mira said and hung up.

Mira was getting ready for her weekly Cricket practice at the Sports complex. One positive side of working from home was that it gave you lots of spare time which otherwise would've been occupied with the commute to work. So Mira decided to use her spare time to improve her fitness. She initially began with indoor-online yoga classes. Once the sports complex opened up, Naren asked if she was up for the weekly games. The offer was tempting and since then, Mira's become a regular at the Sports complex where she goes and plays cricket with a bunch of young women while Naren plays the same with some guys. Moreover, given that it takes nearly 90 minutes to go to her office, her boss allowed her to continue working from home unless on days when she was required to come to work which would usually be weekly thrice.