The Perfect Match

Diya's Story

I was already disturbed after seeing Arjun and Disha together in the puja. Just the sight of seeing them sitting close together made me so depressed then I don't know how it's going to be when I attend all the functions. I believe my head will blow up that instant...I need to carry my anti-depressants all the time or else I will be back into the same state I was left in years ago.

I took a seat on the bed of one of the guest rooms in the ground floor itself. It was past the staircase, that's in the interior part of our house and nobody comes here when there's a function in the house or something. It's a safe place and Diya knows about it too.

Five minutes later, Diya came inside the room and shut the door. She didn't lock it though.
She sat down on the couch placed in front of the bed and said, "It hurts,"

I didn't understand what she said but I knew she was talking about us.

"We haven't been so close Amaya di...still I want to share my story with you. How strange," she added, sadly Diya seemed to be really alone.

"You can share anything with me," I reassured her. I didn't want to give any signal to her that I wasn't interested or she couldn't confide in me.

There was a comfortable silence between us. We could hear the chanting of the Sindhi pandits. The mantras echoed in my ears and the days of past haunted me...

It sounded so rhythmic. Such pujas were conducted almost every year in my house. Those days were also associated with a dark secret of mine. I think it's dark because it exploited my body. My soul used to tear apart whenever a pandit arrived at our place. I used to loath them.

"The night you left, it was my birthday. I was waiting for chachi's ( Amaya's mother ) call to wish me. I didn't know that the situation was so tense at your place. Disha di was preparing a surprise for me but little did I know that I will get the shock of my life the next day," she said.

"What happened," I asked, not knowing what shock she was talking about.

"Chachi informed mumma about how you left," she said.

"Wait...I left? Why do you say that? I never left," I clarified. Yes, it's true. I never wanted to leave. I wanted to stay.

"What? But mom and chachi told me that you left on your own...like you just disappeared and-"

"Wait...are you serious? I was thrown out of my own house that night," I put forth my side. Never ever in my wildest of dreams I would have thought of leaving my family. No matter what!

"But mom told me that you left everything...even Arjun for your boyfriend," she said...so this is the story that has been told to everyone. I left them for my boyfriend!

"Boyfriend? Which boyfriend by the way?" I asked casually. I wasn't taken aback with this statement. I was just a little hurt. I never had a boyfriend. Never.

"Umm...He was not known," she said.

"Is that what my mom told you?" I enquired.

"Everyone says that...the magazine had printed about Parth and you but when you left Parth was still here so they interpreted that Parth was unnecessarily dragged into it and that YOU had done everything," she said.

"Okay...I don't want to clarify this...I just want to say that THIS-FUCKING-STORY-IS FAKE." I stressed on each and every word so that I make myself clear that all this shitty gossip that my mother has cooked will always be false.

"I can trust what you say," she suddenly said.

"What do you mean?" I enquired.

"I mean that to save their drowning reputation, they can go to any extent," she cleared.