Terror on the Divine - Part 1 : Behind the mask

Chapter 2 - Break up

There was nobody except me standing in the middle of the football ground, waiting under a shower of light rain, a beautiful girl coming towards me, adjusting her hair behind ears, whipping the raindrops from her face, and blinking. She said, "It's raining," brushing her hair. "So, all ready?" she continued. "When are you leaving?" She glared at me.

I was speechless, my emotions were running high but I tried to pretend as if I was fine and said, "This evening, we four are planning a trip; they are making arrangements for a trip." As I spoke, the raindrops hid my tears. With great difficulty, I asked, "When are you departing, Sahana?" That's all, my emotions busted, I hugged her, crying uncontrollably before she could give her answer. She stood without reacting. My silence had no words, but it had meaning. Her silence scared me at that moment. Losing a special one is a heartbreaking moment; I had no interest in anything. I had already considered her as my better half and was expecting the same from her end. I felt it was not going to happen. Losing hope, I bent my knees and knelt on the ground, keeping my head down as the tears fell. She stood still without reacting. All I heard was my loud heartbeat; all I felt was a heaviness in my heart, which was burning from inside.

After a while, she sat in front of me, glaring deep into my eyes, raised her arms towards me and said, "I think, you understand the meaning of this ring," she said, pointing at the ring on her finger. "It's too late," she said. My tears continued to fall in the heavy rain; controlling her emotions, she stroked my head and started moving backwards towards the girls' hostel.

After moving a few steps backward towards her hostel, she said, "If you could quit cigarettes that would be the justice you give for our friendship." Her eyeliner was disappearing slowly due to the heavy rain.

"Justice is when you accept my proposal, justice is when you grow old staying with me," I said in a higher pitch.

She was speechless, standing still.

Whenever we followed Mr Adyapak, she hated him. She thought society was such that one man can't change things; she believed that he was ruining the careers of the student. She may have been right in to some extent, but all his followers including me always had a different opinion on that. During the freedom fight for the nation, Subhas Chandra Bose took a different way of approaching the British as compared with Mahatma Gandhi; their techniques may have been different, but the goal was the same. There were mixed opinions among people during those periods too. Mahatma Gandhi's followers believed that it was a victory of nonviolence, but Subhas Chandra Bose's followers said that we got independence due to the army created with the help of Germany. As always, there will be different opinions, but the goal is to do good deeds. Adyapak also had an ambition of giving a better life to the poor, justice to taxpayers, and he also always tried his best to develop patriotism in youths. He always taught us the shlokas from the Mahabharata to understand life better. Adyapak was a personality who never asked any to follow him; but people got inspired by his thought process and his fight for the good, which brought him many followers, especially students.

"I can't explain you, you are too precious to me." I stood up and started moving towards her. She avoided me and when I walked close to her, she pushed me and ran towards the girls' hostel without looking back.

I stood in the middle of the ground in the heavy rain, staring at her until she disappeared from my eyesight. I stood like a statue waiting for her return. One hour passed; she did not come back. I waited for a long time; I finally understood that she was not going to come back so I started moving towards my hostel, unaware of continuous calls from the boys' hostel landline number.

*

Balram had a typical Indian Ambassador car, and it had an all-India permit license, so we planned to take her with us. She was a white lady with a Bidar registration.

They all started shouting at me after looking at my wet clothes, and they ordered me to get ready in a few minutes and to get into the car. The entire luggage had already been placed inside the vehicle. All the juniors were there to send bid us farewell by presenting us with gifts. Everyone greeted each other, sharing contact numbers and asking each other to be in contact. The rooms were getting empty; it was a time to keep the memories and move forward towards one's destined life, but Sahana had settled in my heart permanently, she was not going to fade away from my memories quickly. Even though there were hundreds of known faces, my soul was searching for that one face which could make me happy.

*

Satwik forcefully took me to get a group photo with the gang from the boys' hostel. We all walked around the campus together and went inside the classrooms. It was true that I was physically present, but I was missing someone special. Roaming all around the college, one by one, everyone slowly started departing; still, my eyes were in search of Sahana.

Chirag, inserting the car's key in the slot, screamed at me to get into the car, glaring at the black road leading to the girls' hostel. I got into the vehicle holding a cigarette. Chirag, sitting in the front seat, operated an audio device which sung: Goodbye to you my trusted friend we've known each other since we were nine or ten. Together we've climbed hills and trees, Learned of love and ABC's. Skinned our hearts and skinned our knees. Goodbye, my friend, it's hard to die when all the birds are singing in the sky. Now that spring is in the air. Pretty girls are everywhere, think of me, and I'll be there. We had joy, we had fun we had seasons in the sun, But the hills that we climbed were just seasons out of time

(West life: Seasons of the sun)