Alone Or Lonely?

THE BEGINNING OF A NEW CHAPTER IN COLLEGE

After an exhausting evening and more probably because she had slept late last night, Mira's morning alarm clock had gone in for a toss! However this did not bother others much in the house as the Mathur household seemed to move at a swift pace, Mr. Mathur had left early that morning for some breakfast meeting at a nearby café, Mrs. Mathur was all pepped up for the day and seemed busy in the kitchen making preparations for lunch with a volley of their house maids for her assistance.

Though Mira woke up late that morning, she did not waste much of time in getting ready. After a rapid brushing of teeth and a quick shower, she promptly pulled on a denim and a tank top, brushed her hair, took out her college bag pack and headed for breakfast towards the kitchen.

"Good Morning dear, had your share of sleep last night?" her mother asked."Yes mom, I was pretty fortunate enough to have a sound siesta!" she exclaimed. "I'll just wrap up with my breakfast as I need to rush for college." Having said this she hurriedly gulped up the vegetable sandwich and chocolate milkshake on the breakfast table and within a matter of few minutes was heading out of the door. Her mother looked perplexed by her hurriedness that day, but like always never bothered to ask anything. She and her husband never took a great deal of interest in any of Mira's college affairs, be it academics or extracurricular or simply anything in particular!

After about twenty minutes, of driving her cozy little two- wheeler through a busy cross road, Mira reached her college parking. She parked her vehicle and waited there anxiously as though she was expecting someone to arrive. The anxiousness on her face was equally accompanied by a feeling of nervous excitement that made its appearances in the form of slight giggles on her subtle face.

Suddenly, in almost fit of a second, a hand grabbed her shoulder sharply from behind and a peculiar aroma of lily penetrated her nostrils. Almost startled, she literally skipped a heartbeat but audaciously turned around to face................ Rina.

"Oh dear, its you!"she exclaimed heaving a sigh of relief. "My heartbeats were literally going in for double shifts!! And what is it about that perfume?.... you very well know that the scent of lilies creeps me out!!"she argued fiercely. Rina tried to calm her down and said, "Relax Miru! It was just a little hoax! It is the morning that instigated this rogue out of me, and I bet I thought of you as the softest target provided I took a bit of help from the lilies! I didn't mean to freak you out" she defended with a subtle expression"...... Try and overlook this as one of the many sheepish tricks I've pulled on you all these years and now let us actually move out and get going with the real work."

St. Mary Mount College of Computer Graphics was a prestigious institute with a history of producing laurels each surpassing year. It had a spacious campus located in the centre of town, loaded with all the necessary amenities that techno lovers needed. It was not just Mira and Rina, but a huge crowd of enthusiasts that lay in the indoors of the campus, the day was a big one indeed for all of them. A big Electronic Games Group all the way from the States had held a talent search to hunt for a master mind that could generate a unique and indigenous graphics design for their new game. Participants could participate in groups of two or three. Mira and Rina, being passionate about the Art, had given it a shot too. Any six groups were to be awarded notable scholarships and an all expense paid trip to the States for a full week!

It was the result declaration day, many hearts were pounding simultaneously as a bustling crowd began gathering in the college hallway, near the notice board. Pushing others away from the way, Mira made slight advances through the crowd, as Rina anxiously waited in a corner of the main corridor. With a heavy heart Mira began searching for their names as she neared the notice board.....

In just about a few seconds a loud voice was literally heard yelling from amidst the crowd, "Hurray! We made it, Rina." Saying this Mira came running about with such great speed that she almost collided with Rina. The broad smiles that lightened up their face clearly showed that their happiness had no limits! "Destination: USA calling..." they screamed in chorus joyfully. It was the end of the year in college so being present for lectures just for the mere attendance part of it was no big deal!

The Mathurs were obviously very proud of Mira's new achievement after all it was the latest addition to a boxful of them!

At the dinner table that night,

"So Miru, just you n Rina chilling out in the US for a week, sounds like icing on the cake!"exclaimed her father in glee. Her mother's constant blabbering about this new escapade too was evident enough to share her dose of excitement. This was Mira's first trip as a lone traveler across the two country borders. She had been to places outside Canada, be it Mexico or the Bahamas, but all of those were trips with the family and relatives. Ever since her Dad's business had shifted from Gurgaon in New Delhi, they had been loyal residents of Canada. Every summer, they would venture out of the country borders to explore new lands, but of late the business expanse had been tremendous, leading to barren summers since the past four years! Since then her mother too had engaged herself immensely with the other socialites in the town.

"Yes Dad, seems great fun! Our flight is scheduled for tomorrow evening and I already feel the significant mass of a lot of unfinished packing on my shoulders!!"she chuckled wittily. Something was different that day, there was talking at the dinner table, some real conversations indeed. Some talks that reminded the three of their old picnics, some that made them realize the years that they spent without picnics, some that particularly had Mira as its centre and most importantly some talks in a long while that were only about THEM!!!

Dinner was real long that day, however after dinner as EVERYONE, as in including the maids of the house got busy with their own work. Mira too significantly isolated herself in her room. For almost an hour or so the vivacious young lass was literally moving up and down her room with clothes, accessories, make up, shoes and other stuff doing simultaneous rounds in her hands. She was getting really baffled about WHAT TO TAKE N WHAT NOT TO>>>> with each new stride that she took up in her room!

Finally after much reverence of almost each item in her wardrobe, and two complete rounds of the hands of a clock, she was ready with something that could be called as her travel associate for a week!

A satisfactory smile enlightened her cheerful face, but may be that smile was not big enough to lighten up the room. Looking dark, gloomy and clumsy it was as if the room was sobbing in disgust for there actually seemed like a big hurricane had snapped upon its orderly arrangement! Clothes, shoes, bags, books,  accessories and clothes...and more clothes lay scattered in every possible inch of the room. The room needed a complete makeover for itself!

It was late in the night and everybody in the house had dozed off to sleep, nevertheless Mira still lay awake in her bed as sleep had not yet descended in her eyes. Certainly, it was the excitement for this big vacation that was to be blamed! Somewhere amidst a bit of anxiety that lay in her mind for having to stay independently in a new country, there was an interesting pinch of infant happiness that was bubbling in her heart with full vigor. It was not because this was the first trip of its kind that she was about to undertake in a couple of hours nor it was because she had been one of the achievers of this unique prize, maybe it was simply because she was going to spend an entire week AWAY from her family, her neighbors, her relatives, most of her acquaintances and most essentially with dozens of unknown people all around!!!

A/n: Friends or Family, its really easy to make a choice between these two. If one of it makes u upset, u always have the other one to heal you. But what if given a choice between friends, family and a stranger
What would you guys choose?

Difficult isn't it?? But why does this question even arise?

Stay tuned. Mira's story might as well help you find answers to such questions and even answers of such many more of them to come!

Vote and comment....
Eagerly waiting for your comments, hoping that you might have started to think upon my question... ;) :p