Prologue
I have always heard many love stories start in the libraries of college. But I did not believe it until I experienced one at the same place. It was the first day of my undergraduate course; I came across a girl in the library. Her mesmerizing eyes captivated my entire thoughts in a fraction of a second. I stood like stone until my friends shouted my name,
“Arav, where are you? We have to go to the classroom soon, and the break time is about to end.” The voice was hushed from a far place. I searched for my mates around the library, but I found them in a corridor outside. As soon as I noticed that they were searching for me, I joined them. When I explained what happened at the library, they asked thousands of questions about it. They were curious about the girl rather than the incident. Along the way to the classroom, it was a hot topic in our gang.
We entered the classroom, and to my surprise, the girl was sitting next to me at my desk. I forgot the blackboard as my eyes caught her again. I could not hear a single word from the lecture. I couldn’t resist myself even after my friends started teasing me with her name. Her name is Ananya Singh. We were in the same batches for our laboratory studies; that is where I got the opportunity to start a conversation with her.
“Hi, I am Arav,” I said.
“Hi, I am Ananya,” she said. Her voice was meager.
Yes, that was the first time I heard her voice. Slowly we started to converse with each other, but the topics were limited to studies.
After completion of a year, I took the courage to start an informal conversation with her. It was her birthday. She was wearing a white salwar and a pink dupatta. As she entered the college, I approached her,
“Hey,Ananya, wish you a delighted birthday,” I gifted her chocolate, admiring her pleasant smile.
“Thank you very much,” she said, and she invited me to her birthday party in the evening. It was one of the miraculous events of my life. I expected her friends and relatives at the event with a big bash celebration. To my astonishment, the guests were the children from the blind school; a school taken care of by an NGO. I stood watching them at a corner, and a bus full of people entered the ceremony. They were from an old-aged home. I was curious to ask her about such a celebration. I went to her and asked,
“Ananya, who all these people? Where are your friends? Why are these people here?”After questioning her, I noticed that no others from our college or any other friends were present at the venue. I was speechless at this fact, and I just looked at her expressing my shock.
She smiled and said, “I know you are surprised to notice unusual people here, and none of my friends are present. Arav, these are my family since my childhood. I have brought up at an orphanage in Surat. The deteriorating health of the orphanage’s owner and few other circumstances led to its shutdown and all the people of the organization scattered throughout the state in search of jobs. Its owner always showered his affection towards every person in the orphanage, but his sentiment towards me was quite different. He adored me as his child. During his last period, he handed over some money to my hand and asked me to continue my studies shifting to Ahmedabad; he had also asked me to serve people to the possible extent, maximum. I do part-time jobs to fulfill my daily needs, and I have plans to save money every day to celebrate my birthday in this way. I am excited to start it this year.”
I listened passionately to her, and I was overwhelmed to realize I was in love with her. I did not comment on anything to her story, but she said something next, which stood me on cloud nine. The sentence was so blissful that I could not control myself to shout out aloud, “Arav, I have noticed the way you hold your gaze when you look into my eyes. I have understood your feelings for me. To be honest, your eyes filled with love gives goosebumps for me. That is when I realized even I am in love with you. I never realized my feelings for you, nor do I know when it all started. But, I am in love with you too.”
I hugged her tightly, and my tears rolled down my cheeks. The happy tears silenced all my words. The feel was just out of the world. I didn’t even realize how the next year wrapped up; the entire journey was filled with sweet sequences of her. One funny thing I noticed is her love for food. Her dream is to taste every possible vegetarian option around the world. Her characters were peculiar to the girls in our college. Her idea of life was very simple, she wanted a small family and to help as many people as possible. She was very creative too. She was a poet in the Marathi language; her writings were always devoted to her mood swings. She always used to encourage me to write letters to exchange our feelings. Writing can express more than what you can convey through speech: was her firm belief. But I never knew about my writing skills. She is the one who influenced me towards it, and she is the inspiration behind this novel. Our last meet in college was our last year; I enrolled in a technical paper presentation competition held in Delhi. I had a week’s trip to participate in it. When I informed Ananya regarding this, she wished for the best and encouraged me to win the competition. I went to her place to meet her once before leaving for the competition. But her eyes were dull, she looked depressed. When I asked the reason, she said,
“Nothing much Arav, I am just feeling low that I cannot see you for a week.” Her eyes were filled, I consoled her,
“Anu, I am going for just a week. Don’t worry; I will return soon.”
"We will meet again soon. Is it right,Arav? Yes, we will meet again,” she consoled herself. I left for the seminar.
I won the competition and returned to meet her all excited. When I entered the town, I went directly to Anu's place to meet her. I shouted her name at the gate, but a woman appeared with few things in her hand. She seemed upset.
I asked her, “Where is Anu?”
"Arav, Ananya left us. She met with an accident. We saw her in the hospital where she was admitted by the people nearby to the accident, but the doctor denied her chance of survival and she did not keep her life for few hours. We could not wait for you too to complete the rituals. She asked us not to inform you until your return. These are the few things that belong to her. Please console yourself. Let the god give you the required strength.”Her words shattered my life into pieces. I was devasted. I felt the world came to an end. My knees went weak, and I fell unconscious. That’s all I remember about that day.
Recovering from the grief after two years of her dismissal, I completed my course, and I decided to concentrate on my further studies to achieve something in life. That is how I ended up as IGPof Mumbai Police.
