Inquest (Completed)

Close one door, another might open

The eatables were being diminished in size. It was evident that Dhruv will refrain from giving an insight into the series of events that he would otherwise explain to himself, in order to justify his current emotional state. So the doctor had to adopt a different strategy. This was going to be a humanitarian effort for a far greater scale than just Dhruv.

The doctor weighed each word carefully because Dhruv had returned to an even-tempered state, but would easily lose it; he said, "Okay Dhruv, I came here because I really wanted to meet you, and get to know you. So, let's see... Would you like to talk about some memories from school? I will also share one of my college memories: a very personal memory... Are you willing to share?"

Dhruv had quite some affinity to his school. He had been studying in the same school since he was a kid. Since the doctor mentioned school, it brought some nostalgia along with sadness, for having left that dear place. Also, very importantly, school gave him the love of his life --he looked at her-- and that was another reason for loving school.

Krupa was willing to talk about school. She didn't particularly like few students who studied in the same year as her, but she had had close friends and many joyful memories (and few bitter ones too). Moreover, she was more than ready to know how a psychologist interacts, so she wasn't going to say no to any comfortable conversation with the doctor.

They both agreed to share their school memories. The doctor asked Krupa to begin: "In this case, we'll go by the axiom- 'Ladies first!'"

Krupa smiled and began her account, "Let's see... School days..." She met eyes with Dhruv. In order to narrow down the memories, she chose the ones Dhruv had been a part of. "Remember in ninth grade?" She asked Dhruv, then looked at the doctor, "Our school organized exhibition-shows for various subjects, and I was a part of Geography Exhibition. The theme was 'Ocean: Its Features and Stories', and our group had made a real-like-model of Titanic ship! There were four of us in the group: Me, Sheetal, Janvi and Pallavi. I and Janvi painted the ship, while Sheetal and Pallavi did the paper-mache craftwork. Dhruv also helped us in it. He was in the same exhibition, making a model of seabed covered with corals... I think we really enjoyed that one...We even won first prize!"

"Yes!" Dhruv added, "Pallavi had accidentally stuck some tissue paper with the fevicol on my shirt, we couldn't stop laughing then, but later, mum took care of that shirt when I returned home..."

Krupa laughed, "I do remember, but I'm quite certain it wasn't accidentally..." she laughed harder. Dhruv exclaimed in surprise, felt embarrassed, but it was funnier now so he joined the laughter.

"So how long have you known Dhruv?" the doctor asked Krupa.

"Um, since ninth grade I think, so that's more than three years. Actually we were in the same class in First grade, but we didn't interact back then, or maybe I don't remember those days.

___

It was Dhruv's turn now, as gestured by the doctor, and he started wondering which memory he could recount without giving away too much about himself. The most recent one that had been engraved in his mind, which was regarding Krupa was:

"So this happened nearly in January 2015. We classmates were preparing for a musical-performance for our School-Farewell-Celebration."

Krupa came to realize what he was about to say.

He continued, "what happened is, Sheetal was playing the guitar and Karthik was singing. We were going to sing the song 'Ilahi' from the movie 'Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani' --wait, I didn't mean we, because I wasn't singing, I was only going to give feedback and suggestions, or rather, I just wanted to be part of the preparation-- and even Krupa didn't participate in the performance, but she was there. So there was a piano, waiting to be played, as in idle. And Krupa here, wanted to play it,"