ONE
At half past midnight, the telephone rang. Why would that goddamn thing ring at this hour? Maya picked up her phone. She could barely open her permanently tired eyes.
It was Esha, her friend. Her name blinks on her phone after a long time. Why today? Why now? She answered the call with a whispering hello. There was a pause for a second.
“Maya,” answered another whisper, “Were you sleeping?” her voice was stressed, deeply stressed.
“What happened?” Maya felt her heart sinking with a weird anticipation.
“Nemo's dead, Maya. He killed himself a couple of hours ago.”
Struggling to comprehend what she heard, Maya put the lights on and sat down on a chair. She was bewildered, not sure if she was awake or asleep.
“What the hell are you saying? He can never kill himself! It can't be true.”
Of all the people she knew in the world, he was the one she would never have expected to take his own life.
“He jumped into the sea from a bridge.”
“I don't know what to say…Why?”
“No one knows yet! I wondered if you would know about it and I thought I must tell you.”
“Yeah, yes ofcourse,”Maya's voice failed her.
Strangely,but instinctively she opened Facebook. Once in a while she would check his page to read his work.
Yes, there it was.
R.I.P. Nimesh Tanna.
Someone had gone ahead and liked it.
Oddly there is nothing you could dislike on Facebook. How similar it is to an already destined life, where we can't dislike what God gives. Whatever happens we have to accept it wholeheartedly.
Dead! He could not do so. Maya felt a sense of guilt. She remembered their last meeting a few months ago, the day before he left for Australia. How she had told him that she was too old for him. That there was someone else, besides….
She had hoped that he would soon get over it and realised it was no more than an infatuation. Obviously, he hadn't.
Maya Dewan, senior editor, Republic Publishing House, did not know what to think. The news hit her hard because Nimesh was synonymous for his cheerful smile. Her hazel brown eyes looked past the belt of universe at that moment. She herself was a lost cause trying to figure her life out. Why did this happen to her? What role did she play in Nimesh's death? Did she even have any?
Dead, he can't be. For God's sake, he should not have killed himself. What could have gone wrong in his lively and lovely life? This jigsaw puzzle of life, confused Maya. She had no idea of what to expect from it.
Too many things go unexplained, anyway. And now this, unless Nimesh comes alive again, the reason for his death will be a mystery.
She still remembered the misty evenings she spent with him. Though she wasn't in love with Nemo she sure loved the moments together. Besides, then she didn't believe in love. Not anymore.. She did believe in those moments as they distracted her from the turmoil that twirled inside her.
Nemo's face was sketching up on the wall. It changed colour every second. She wanted to cry, but she couldn't. Maybe the flood marks of her soul had reached a different high level. Floodmarks
Life has a unique method of passing lessons to generations. She learnt that it gives the most painful stab by cutting deep inside and makes us more human. A broken heart is always a kinder heart. She recalled how close friends turned bitter in a second. More than once she had been hurt by the people she met in her journey of life. She was struck by the kind of lives they were going through. Her own life too was no better. Life was a series of mistakes, she thought, her's at least was. She was loved and abandoned. She had been honest, but she had lied too. She had always been fearless, but at the same time she felt fear too. She loved passionately to the extent of being desperate. She believed in herself so much so that she felt was the master of her own life. Yet she was insecure and weak. She wanted to be held while she dealt with her own complexes and flaws. She was everything black and white. Not even for a moment she was a fake or a coward. Never, she was genuine, always. She had her own set of pale, honey drenched episodes that seemed like some misplaced dreams.