Crushed-part 5

I stared with bewilderment at her father and couldn’t believe what he just said now,“ She has decided to go for  group study with her friends. I don’t know what is wrong with her. It was so much better when you were teaching her. Oh! I don’t know who induced her to do group study. Never mind! Anything is fine unless she is studying. Hope you don’t feel bad.”

I nodded, assuring him that I didn’t feel bad. But I felt bad deep inside my heart. I knew the reason of her well planned ‘group study’. She did read the letter and now she was avoiding me. Many days had passed since that incident and she didn’t reply back. This meant that she never treated me like as I did.

I was heartbroken- I knew this would happen before I fell in love. But love is something that makes you follow impossible dreams. It manipulates your heart with beautiful lies. In the end, you end up with disillusion sight of everything in life.

I tried to divert my mind towards work and mundane things in life. I would stay out till wee hours in the night. Initially my mother became too anxious about my daily outings. She would scold and accuse me for my indifferent behaviour. But I would emotionally blackmail her that I was doing this for the bright future of the family.

Preeti had pushed me out of her life. She would preoccupy herself at her room whenever I came to her house. Her innocent dad would give various reasons for her absence. I had heard from my mother that Preeti was keeping unwell for past few days. She had reduced her weight drastically since I last saw her. Everyone around her blamed her ill health on the academic pressure. But  I knew the real reason behind her sickness. I had to do something to keep her from worrying about us.

Finally an opportunity came at my doorstep. I was called by an eminent personality in wildlife photography to be his intern. I grabbed it after too much thought on it. I didn’t want to get away from her. But I had no other option. I had to get away from her in order to help her come out of this mess.

************** 10 Years later*********

I was surprised that she hadn’t forgotten me. I saw her with same gleaming eyes. She looked more beautiful than she was at her blossoming years. She stood next to her husband while she was being congratulated for the new life. “ Hi Rahul anna, I am so pleased to see you here.”, she said. For the first time I didn’t feel the pain. I was happy with the decision I made that time. Maybe my heart did heal within these years. Maybe I fell out of love with her. Maybe it was called growing up. Whatever it was called, I was happy that we had moved on with her lives.

**************  The end***************