High School Romance Revisited

Chapter 33 - The Backstory

People say photographs are not just memories, they are the documents of the past and hides a lot of clues that can guide us forward. With that in mind and a streak of hope in my heart, I had taken out all the old photo albums in my home.

"The answers you are searching for are not there," my father said when he found me looking through the photographs desperately. He sat beside me and pulled out an old torn album from the lot.

My mother put down a one-litre water bottle on the table with a thud. "Drink. I don't want to hear that you fainted due to dehydration again." She threw me a disapproving look and left. Well, that's what Chitra and Rai had informed her. According to them, I had fainted due to dehydration and work stress. As for the actual reason, it remained between me and my friends. 

Later, the hospital investigation cleared out that it was the incompetence of the staff and apparently Mahen's medicine chart got switched with another patient's. I was relieved that this time it wasn't Shekhar's attempt. However, the damage was done. On one hand, Mahen was under house arrest after that incident and here my mother had grounded me to keep a strict eye on my diet.

And in these three days I didn't meet him nor did I took his calls. He had sent a number of angry messages, which I ignored. I had vowed not to meet him until I had clues that would prove Shekhar guilty and clear out the misunderstandings that Vasundhara aunty harboured against me even today. One incident might not involve him but the major one does.

"Do you recognise them?" my father was holding a very old photograph in that sepia mode. Three boys were standing in front of the Basilica of Bom Jesus in old Goa.

"Isn't that you?" I pointed at the boy in the right corner.

"Yes, but do you recognise the others?" he chuckled. I frowned and took a close look at the picture. "No, I don't!" I tried hard but couldn't recognise the others. Must be my father's friends or cousins whom I never met.

"It's Biren Ganguly and Ardhendu Mukherjee."

"What?" I yelled as my eyes widened with surprise.

"My best friends. It was our last trip together before Biren's marriage. We were twenty-four then. Ardhendu got married at the age of eighteen, and Biren was about to get married then and I was the last one of the lot to bite the dust!" he laughed. I saw how his face lit up while remembering those old times.

"You all were such good friends! Then why didn't you tell me before? What went wrong between you two that changed Vasundhara aunty so much. Why doesn't she speak to you or maa?" I was getting irritated with these past revelations. Why can't parents understand that their secrets can sometimes become too much for the children to handle!?

"Do you know what was Vasundhara's age when she got married to Biren?" my father asked. I shook my head.

"She was sixteen and at the age of seventeen she lost her first child," my father revealed. I gulped. Seventeen? She lost her first child when she was seventeen! No wonder she shrieks if anything happens to Mahen.

"It's not only us, she became a closed person for almost everyone except Sujata but that's because Sujata is her childhood friend. Deepa, I know you are not telling me everything or what is the problem between you and Vasundhara but I assure you she is not harmful. Moreover, she loves you a lot because you are her husband's best friend's daughter. So whatever the problem is, go and speak to her, sort it out. You are a big girl, can't you handle your boyfriend's mother?" he asked raising his eyebrows.

"Was that sarcasm?" I asked rolling my eyes. 

"Words are mine, thoughts are yours!" he shrugged.