A Little Hope

I was sitting on Marine Lines, watching the waves hitting the shores. Everything seemed blank to me; I wasn’t sure where life was taking me. I was unsure if whatever was happening to me was right; I was confused. Everyone said that it was pre-wedding blues, and every person faced it. Still, no one was there who could actually understand my situation.

After sitting there for long, I returned home. Mom looked pissed off, as did my elder brother; as soon as they saw me entering the home, they started yelling at me. Thankfully, Dad came to my rescue and calmed them down.

‘Where were you, Maan? Everyone was worried for you!’ Dad asked.

‘I was at Marine Lines, Dad! I just wanted to stay alone; I don’t know why, but something feels wrong.’ I replied.

‘Let’s do one thing, my boy; you must attend all these rituals, which will take hardly an hour, and then we will go on a drive. We will sit and talk; we can drink if you want, like father and son or friends.’ Dad said and left me alone in the room.

That was a good offer for me; talking to Dad was my only option. He was my friend, philosopher, and guide; he was everything. I changed my clothes and went downstairs to attend the rituals. The clock showed 10:40 pm when everything was over, and I was allowed to go and rest. I quickly ran upstairs, returned to my normal clothes, and ran to the parking lot. As promised, Dad was waiting for me in the car. We left for a long drive, and I was in a relaxed state of mind after so long. Dad seemed comfortable, too.

He parked the car near the Worli Sea link, and we sat nearby, facing the shores. We sat there for over 20 minutes when Dad broke the silence.

‘What is running in your mind, my son? Will you speak it up now or not?’ He asked.

I was still looking at the waves, but then I narrated everything.

Ten years Ago-

It was during my school days when I first met Payal. She came like a soft fragrance in my life. We gradually became friends; our group was a crazy one in school. We used to hang out after school and enjoy everything we could. Life seemed very beautiful to me when she used to be around.

At home, Mom used to support Bro all the time; for her, I was the ruined kid. But the fact was the opposite, but Mom never noticed that. I hated it, and all my frustration came out when I was with my friends. During such times, Payal used to understand me.

Slowly, I fall in love with her. I always had flings and crushes on girls, but this was different. I was sure what I felt for Payal was different. I started caring for her more; I always tried to see if she was safe. Her happiness meant a lot to me. When I realized that she had some feelings for me, I took a step forward and proposed to her, and she said YES!

Our relationship started on a wonderful note. Everything seemed amazing. I used to pick Payal up for classes, drop her back home, take her for rides and ice creams, and give her gifts. In one line, our relationship was beautiful. Everything was perfect. She was the only one I wanted to be with all the time. She was my love, my strength, my weakness, my everything!

Time moved on, but our love remained the same; we celebrated four years of our relationship. All our friends gave us a small party for that celebration. We both were happy, and so were our friends. Everything was perfect until that one eventful day.

We were both returning from a lunch date I had taken her for. It started raining heavily; she asked me to stop somewhere and wait for the rain to wait. But I ignored saying we should enjoy the rain instead of avoiding it. I was riding the bike and didn’t know what happened. Suddenly, the motorcycle skidded, and we met with a bad accident. We were hospitalized, and our parents got involved. Everyone got to know about our relationship. According to them, we were not at the right age to fall in love; it was just attraction. Surely, they weren’t aware that we had been together for the past four years, nor did we want to share that fact with them.

After we got discharged from the hospital, our families started forcing us to stay away from each other. Mom didn’t get involved much in my case, but Payal’s family restricted her from so many things. She felt helpless, and knowing that her family didn’t like me and would never agree, she decided to break up. We even discussed the matter with our common friend, Shama, my best friend. With Shama’s presence, we, on mutual understanding, broke up.

I made myself restricted to love. I decided that now I didn’t want to go into any other relationship and couldn’t be in any serious relationship with anyone else and hurt that person. I indulged myself in my career and kept myself focused on that. Payal and I used to meet sometimes, but as friends, because of the get-together which used to be planned by my school friends.