Light rays entered the room peeping through the window like
a nasty neighbor trying to eavesdrop the
gossip going nearby, and succeeded in unsettling her peaceful journey in her
dreamland. She twisted sides, but her dream was already shattered and her eyes,
even though closed, could reciprocate to the shining day-light, waiting for her
consent to enter completely and lit up the entire room. Finally diminishing the
urge to hug her blanket tight, she decided to wake up and begin her day.
Sitting on her bed, she looked out of the window… and the sun rays, like an
obedient apprentice, shone even brighter and her evenly tanned skin was glowing
a bit more giving her the perfect silk look and to add to it was her innocent
fresh smile like a newly bloomed flower with water-drops adding more beauty to
it.
Amidst her dream-world, she realized, she has a train to
catch in the afternoon.. and holy shit!
It was 8.30 am and she had bags to pack, certainly not an easy and fast task
for a girl.. a girl like Shanaya. She is a girl living in her own world of
happiness and colors. With darkness, she meant night and which further
described- Party, lights, music, dance.. She had her own dictionary with her own
creation of synonyms. People around, envied her as they never saw her crying or
complaining about life which was not at all perfect but which she treated like
a perfect gift to her from God. But little did they know, her smile was too
influencing and her tears were too opaque. She believed, Life is how you see
it, take it, and enjoy it. She loved being chirpy, loud, crazy and people
couldn’t not love her. She believed
in extremities, creating her own boundary. She loved her friends beyond limits
and she hated her enemies, even though very few, to the extreme. “Love” was always a fantasy to her. From all
sorts of romantic movies to books, she never resisted the concept of love..
Loving and being loved! Dream dates to surprises… A Prince charming and a Grand wedding, she
had it all in her mind. Not once, but hundreds of times. 5 years back she found
her “Mr. Perfect”… Yes, with all his flaws, he was still her perfect guy as she
loved him with all her heart and her “extreme-ness” reached to a new level. A
perfect-couple, as people said and they were nothing less. Rishab was “the guy”
she realized and they decided to fulfill the dream of a grand wedding of
theirs.
In a week, Shanaya would be living her dream in a gorgeous
designer lehenga and jewelries in a perfectly set stage for their grand
wedding .. She and Rishab would tie
their knots forever. Before that, both of them planned to spend a two-day
Pre-marriage Holiday, together. Nothing would change after a week, they knew,
yet, they decided over a lame excuse to be together. Shanaya decided to travel to
Rishab’s place and that too by a train, unlike always. She always believed in
being different and crazy.
But little did she knew, the journey would leave a different
impact on her .. With memories flashing
back and promises she couldn’t keep. Even though the impact was for a short
period, memories came back only for a moment, but the intensity was beyond
limits..
Coach S-4 Berth-7, Shanaya Rawat. She was struggling with
her luggage- big enough for a two-day trip. Finally she reached her destination
after a lot of hard work and relaxed on her window-side seat. With a smile
glued to her face, like always, she was waiting for the train to start and
experience a journey new to her and above all, the happiness of meeting Rishab
after hours of waiting and travelling. She rested on her seat with a playlist
of her all-time-fav songs in her I-pod and the Train began to move. She looked
out of the window and let the breeze play with her hair like those in her
favorite Hindi-movies. Shattering her perfect scene of a romantic movie, out of
the blue, she heard her name being called by someone. She detached her
ear-phones and instantly looked up, and to her surprise, she met a known-stranger amidst the crowd.
Shanaya must have never thought of coming across him, again,
not this way at least. It was Priyansh, her Best-Friend from school. They were
buddies meant to be forever, or that is what everyone thought like and they
shared Friendship, everyone envied of. Not a single day people could see them
detached, even during their fights, they stayed together without talking ..
though for a short time always. They were BFF’s and they promised to be
together forever.. Little did they knew….
Life was perfect. Till,
one fine day, Shanaya told him about the guy in her life, the one she
considered to be her “forever”.. Rishab. With her innocent smile and chirpy
voice, like every single thing, she shared this happiness of her with Priyansh
but she had never expected a reaction full of rage and hatred. The guy she
considered to be her best friend since years, was silently falling in love with
her each day and a bit more every passing moment. But the very thought of
losing Shanaya, an important part of him, stopped him from speaking out his
heart. It was their last year of school when Shanaya informed him about her
newly found love, Rishab and he couldn’t tolerate her words, words of love for
Rishab. Recovering from her shock, Shanaya had asked for an explanation for his
rude behavior and that was the day, Priyansh finally confessed his love towards
her. There was no Proposal, no acceptance, no rejection.. rather followed a
broken friendship, tears and misunderstandings. They never talked about it
again, never tried to sort it out because Priyansh’s love for Shanaya was
beyond words, explanations and Shanaya was head-over heels in Love with “her”
Rishab and distanced herself from her “Best-friend”. Nobody was at fault, it
was Cupid who was at wrong. Few months of their “last-school-year” passed and
they never met after school ended. But on the last day of their school,
Priyansh gathered some courage and walked towards Shanaya to talk. Seeing him
approach, she got conscious but even she was dying to hear his voice since
long. He told her that he is leaving the city after the exams and certainly
they are never going to meet again, until fate decides and gave her a letter.
She blinked rapidly to stop her tear from flowing but in vain.
She still had that letter with her where Priyansh described
his love with the perfect words and for the first and last time, he deciphered
his eternal love towards her. He wanted her to be happy and so decided to not
cross her path again as he was not unaware about the pain she received with
their detachment and her disability to correct things. He couldn’t see her sad
face. He decided to leave.
Continued to Part-II
