Of late, Alisha had become quite
busy and wasn’t getting as much time to spend with me as she used to before. Mallika
and Kavya said they had joined some dance classes, and George had to rush back
home every day for his basketball coaching. These are the people I hang out
with in college. And now with none of them free anymore, I was getting bored to
death. I was also mighty pissed with them for leaving me alone and disappearing
all at the same time.
That’s when I decided to venture
out of my comfort zone and try and make friends with others in class. They
seemed to like me, but did not persist much in conversation. I was beginning to
feel loneliness tightening its grip upon me day by day. That’s when, out of the
blue, I bumped into Mary from school one fine day. She had been one of my
closest pals, but living at two ends of the city had afforded us fewer
opportunities of meeting in these past three years. Now as we saw each other
unexpectedly across the opposite ends of the road, we ran towards each other
with a prolonged and boisterously unending “Hiiiiiiii!!!!!” But the moment we
came into each other’s arms’ length, to enter into a hug, her genuine and
blissful greeting suddenly cut short, the smile and cheerfulness completely
wiped off from her face, and her mouth shut tight. The hug did happen
naturally, but something seemed to have dulled her immediately. The unexpected meeting, which should have
lasted at least a half hour, as it used to earlier whenever such surprise encounters
between us occurred, was cut short to a matter of few minutes this time. I was
really puzzled as to what abrupt transformation had appeared for such a close
friend of mine to behave in such an unnatural manner.
The days that followed plunged me
into an abyss of forlorn dispiritedness. I felt everybody abandoning me, and
little interested in talking to me. Even the landlady Gabriella aunty who
chatted hours with me seemed to have become busy like everyone else. I became
increasingly despondent. Nobody wanted to talk to me anymore or hangout with
me. Why God, what had I done?? I lost sleep thinking over my actions for the
past several weeks, even months, and the year gone by. Hours passed into days
of introspection and self-questioning. Existential questions began to grow its
ugly and dangerous roots inside me. I lost all interest in everything. Stopped
talking and meeting others. Don’t really remember when I lost my appetite, was
it when I started developing distaste, or did the distastefulness come into my
mouth later. My mouth had become so dry by not talking, that the saliva had
started thickening when I woke up in the morning. Now my mouth used to open
only to release the innumerable burps that kept emanating from me throughout
the day.
Finally the holidays arrived and
I packed my bags for home. I had been waiting for the vacation so I could just
get away from this hell-hole of despair. I found elation overcoming me as I
neared home. Slowly the gloomy thoughts were draining away and joyful
expectations were clouding my mind. Finally I rang the bell and waited in uncontrollable
jubilation. A click sounded and I saw mom’s beaming face arising like the sun
from behind the door. “Maaaaaaaa!!!” My delighted call was arrested in its trail,
as my mother took a doubleback, eyes squirming and face contorted. The only match
to such a dramatic reaction was my own response of popping eyes and stunned
face. I wondered what blaze had I brought that threw mom back in such a
histrionic fashion. The next sight of my welcome was mom clutching her nose and
giving a sheepish smile.
Later that evening, as I reclined
in that comfortable chair, I recalled the horrors of the weeks gone by. The
turning of faces, the stopping short of smiles, the aborted meetings, the distastefulness
of mouth and life. Just when I had started doubting myself, Dentist uncle saved
my life.
