Next Day-
When Shradha met Nishant in the college, she noticed that he looked stressed. It was first day of 3rd semester and Nishant was studying as though exams were near. Although the first day was different than the 2nd semester where they both had prejudice about each other, Nishant was still sitting with his 'first bench buddies' and Shradha was back with the last benchers. Something was not right and Shradha could feel that. So once the lecture ended, Shradha walked up to Nishant and asked him to come with her.
"I need to speak to you. Come with me." Under the watchful eyes and surprised looks of their classmates, Nishant and Shradha left the room.
"What happened? Why do you look like you have the burden of the world on your shoulders?" Shradha asked as soon as they sat down in their usual spot. It was the campus garden and they were sitting on a stone bench under the gulmohar tree. Over the last few months whenever they were in college, they always came to this place. It was situated in a secluded but slightly elevated area of the college campus and they could see most of the department buildings from there.
Nishant's silence irritated Shradha. " Tell me. What happened? Why do you look so serious? Do you want to go watch a movie later? We can even go for a long ride. What do you say ?"
"I don't want to waste my time when I should be focusing on studies. You know how my parents want me to go to USA for higher studies right? I need to maintain good grades, and have a good academic profile for that. And if I keep on taking things lightly, it will reflect on my studies. So I have decided to seriously focus on what is important."
"So are you saying that spending time with me is a waste of your precious time?" Shradha could feel the anger rising inside her.
"No no, I am not saying that. I just mean that I should stop reading novels and read more about the latest technologies and languages. I am not going to go for any movies or any other activities. That's all. We are friends and I really like hanging out with you. We can study together after the classes. I am sure you are going to be serious about studies this time. So we can do it together."
"Why do you have to take things so seriously? I understand they have expectations on you and you want to fulfill their dreams. But that does not mean that you give up on everything else. You remember what I told you about my therapist right? She said this is our time to enjoy. These years are never coming back in our lives. We should not ignore studies but we should also not deprive ourselves of fun in student life! You might not remember what you learnt here in the future but you will always remember the goofy things we did! "
" Yea, you are right Shradha. But you are not understanding my situation here. I am afraid that I will end up disappointing my parents. They have sacrificed so much for me and it is my duty to fulfill their wishes. "
Shradha was not liking how this conversation was going. "How can you be so obedient towards your parents? Its their job to keep on nagging about everything that is related to us. That does not mean that we should listen to all of that and stress ourselves! You only had told me the other day that I have to live for myself and I have to ignore their negative words. Now you are also doing the same thing. You are blindly believing in their words and from what I can see, you are leading your life in their way. Have you ever done anything for yourself ? just for you ? their dreams, their expectations; everything in your life revolves around your parents. What about your own dreams? Have you ever thought of that ? please don't be a puppet and lead your life based on their directions. "
Now it was Nishat's turn to be angry. " what are you saying? You sound as though my parents are pushing me into doing things in their way and their suggestions are wrong. But you know they only say things for our own good right? So what is wrong in trying to live up to their expectations? You always look down on me because I listen to my parents. It is not a bad thing you know!"
The conversation was getting heated up and both Shradha and Nishant were not in the mood to back down. They sat in silence for a few minutes before Shradha spoke, " if you are going to be like this, then be like this. Don't expect me to give up on my life for studies. I have no plans of spending all my time buried in textbooks. I have to go now."
Shradha simply got up leaving angry Nishant behind.