7 years ago….
21st March 2018
Today was the happiest day of my life! A new chapter for me was going to begin. After struggling and resenting myself, I had reached that part of life where I wanted to see myself.
Today was the day when I joined my dental college. Can still never forget the first day of my college. As I entered the gate, I saw everyone walking in white coats, with messy hair with dark circles under their eyes as if they all were sleepwalking with a big fat book in their hand. Seeing all these made me feel edgy. Walking down the alleyway made my heart thump loudly. It was so loud that I almost fainted. On the campus where I had come twice, out of anxiety, I lost my path. Then with a shaky voice, I asked a person," Where is dental college?" He pointed to the building with his finger and with a nervous smile I whispered "Thank You".
As I walked down the road towards the building, I saw many people like me. Unlikely, they were with their parents and a lot more confident whereas I was all alone, edgy, and tensed. I entered and sat in a corner. Everyone stared at me and it made me more nervous. Being, an introvert I was always timid, but this scene made my body run chills through my brain. As I prayed to see a familiar face. I saw my junior college friend. I quickly ran towards her, where we hardly ever had a conversation with each other. Now she seemed to be a lifesaver. She was also all alone just like me. This scenario comforted me.
We were all instructed to go on the 3rd floor from where our orientation program began. We were around 50 students along with some of their parents. We were divided into two. The General Secretary of the college led us and the other half was led by the co-general secretary.
On each floor, we climbed my nervousness faded away and I became much more confident. We went to the Pediatrics dept, Endodontics dept, oral surgery, and many more. Lastly, we were made to sit in a classroom which was also a working lab for undergraduates. We were introduced to our curriculum, our books, our teachers, our fees, our instruments, our exam structure, and each and everything which was necessary to be introduced at that time.
Just then an intern walked down to us,
" Hi! My name is Rohan." As he said, he winked at us.
I and my friend smiled. It felt weird but it was kind of funnily friendly. He passed us a paper on which the schedule and the required instruments were listed as the ones needed for that particular year.
Well, was it all for that day? Aha, there was one more excitement waiting for me for that day! It was my boyfriend. His name was Meghnath. The one whom, I never considered as my boyfriend, but for him, I was all. Well, that is what my dumb brain thought at that time. He got admission to the same college as the one I got into. But it was a different branch. He was there to study engineering. We went to the same junior college and prepared for the medical entrance exam. But then he decided to study engineering because of his grades. He left his admission to Pune college, just to study with me in the same college. Now if I think of him, he was too perfect to be mine and to be real. That is why dumb me could not realize he was cheating on me.
Well, after three months I was meeting him! Of course, the meeting was special and he waited for me to carry all the heavy books to the auto. That was not all he dropped me by the house. Thus, it had become his daily schedule. We would eat and he would accompany me to my home.
But this was all a secret to my friends because I did not want to reveal all these things to them.
Meantime, I made new friends. Felt proud about it. We were 8 of us, 6 girls and 2 boys. We were great friends and we shared a great bond. Slowly, as we grew comfortable with each other slowly we all revealed our secrets. They met my boyfriend. It was a weird meeting they caught me on the road while returning back home.
But, little did I know that my boyfriend was cheating on my best friend, Shanaya. My best friend and my boyfriend shared more secrets than I did.
This is when I decided to finally put an end to this relationship.
One day my best friend called me and told me all the truth, that she was not the one who was cheating because she had realized that I was not talking to her.
The next very moment I blocked my boyfriend from all my social media accounts except one. But to my surprise, he did not even care that I had blocked him. I knew he was a flirt but never he had the power to piss someone off. I felt so horrible for two and half years I dated him, even after her mother troubled me, and bullied me. His family had tried to rust my name in school which I had apparently maintained after a lot of hard work. But, their two meetings with the teachers paved a path of hell for me. Even though in my 12th I got medal for highest marks in geography they taunted me when I went to college to collect it. Now, if I look back if it hadn't been for my ignorance, I could have easily made his life hell. But, I did not so that he can do what he wants to do! Was it love that stopped me or was it the habit of him having beside me this thought still haunts me?
The next day we met in front of my college. He brought one of his friends and his present girlfriend, with whom he was cheating on me. After seeing her, my crooked mind smiled and thought,
" Wow for this girl he cheated on you! Thank God he did! He has no value for you!"
I generally don't go on anybody's looks. But that day I just could not stop thinking that how could he even cheat on me! Maybe this is why it is always said that we should listen to our parents. But apparently, we don't learn unless we make mistakes ourselves!
But my heart and my mind somewhere knew that this was going to come. Yet, I was waiting for the misfortune to unfold.
He came and smiled. His smile made me uncomfortable. He tried to hug me but I moved away.
"Is it his game or he is genuine? Am I doing a mistake? Or he is a mistake?", my stupid brain still continued to think this way.
My best friend pushed me towards him because unknowingly I was walking away.
"Hi! What did you want to say? Everything is good, right? I see Shanaya standing beside" and he winked at her.
"Meghnath!" she screamed. "Have some shame at least! I am standing, your girlfriend is standing"
"Namrata, will you speak something?" I felt my fingers numbed and my mouth froze. I felt disgusted to even stand and breathe the same air as his. I gathered up my emotions and said, "Meghnath what is all this? Do you have any kind of shame or do you feel any kind of sorry? How can you flirt around girls when I am standing right in front of you? Anyways neither your explanations are going to work on me nor any excuses just disappear from eyesight that is all I can say!"
"Ok.Ok.Ok..don't get so heated up. I will leave you guys alone! Anyways who would want to date a faulty piece like you?" He replied calmly but with a smirk.
Even in my dreams, I could not tolerate this and I woke up from my deep slumber. It was 4 in the morning. The dawn had just broken. The sky and the lights were shimmering through my window. 4 more hours left and I am still clueless about what am I supposed to answer to his proposal. Will it be a yes or no? Oh, God! Why am I so clueless? If yes, will it be a compromise? If no, a sacrifice?
As I thought, I opened my mobile. I saw the lock screen and the wallpaper. Remembered the day, the day when it all began. The day I fell in love.