The Truth that behold- Loners Introduction

#1




Unusually quiet for a season evening on the beach, alone in the farthest cliff from the shore. The lady who donned a yellow top and pale green pajamas sitting on the lone rock had no one around her but just her blue sandals which were placed one over the other diagonally. 


As I walked further close to her, zooming into her hands holding the 5-inch mobile phone had Instagram opened in it. I thought her to be like any other tourist who kept themselves busy capturing the sunset and waves into unmovable frames for to be never seen again. Things were different as I neared her stood next to her and peeked into her video player while she was playing all the recorded videos.


Living at a time, when most of the celebrities are busy flooding their Instagram posts with the mesmerizing yet creative rewind and boomerang filter, she was no other exception but a common individual who had no media frenzy or fan following for what she posted. But, nevertheless to say her creativeness knew no bounds and every video that she took with the rewind filter had motion sequences in reverse.


Always the curious me, inquisitive of knowing the story behind any incident that happens, had no difference to make even at the moment. Well, for reasons unknown, I never felt apprehensive to interfere with her privacy nor she looked concerned with my presence. Might be the loner wavelength set its sync between us. Excitedly, that I curled my legs to sit near her as she gave a space for me without no grin stare in her face. 


Minutes and hours have always played a great importance in all my previous stories or instances and the pattern repeated here as well on its own. Not long before the sun rose over our head to paint shadows of us sitting over the rock, that we had opened up on a lot of our travel diaries. 


All these time she had that one video of the waves that flushed back into the sea from the rocks as recorded with the reverse filter. In spite of noticing her eyes becoming moist at every now and then that the waves pulled back in the video, I refrained from not discussing on that. Interestingly to my surprise, staring into the video she mumbled


 " The concept of foam from waves that is flushed back into the water in the video is rather more beautiful than imagining my life when thought in reverse "


Not so late after the sunset that we could sit there, for the guards to whistle us out. All we had is a day long under the fading off sun and salty breeze. I guessed a story of misery yet to be unfolded, but I wanted to know what it was about for a lady to be shattered, every moment thinking about her past. 


It was her life in reverse that she saw all through the time looking at the screen. As this story continues to let me put all of them in place to understand what went wrong for a pretty and bold lady to have a shattered past that kept her eyes moist until she finished narrating the story. 

The truth that behold - Steffi mathew

#2

Being an achiever in academics was never an easy task for anyone of the sort. Being a lone daughter in the family where there was hardly anyone to ask anything other than the scorecards and acclaims of overachievements. Steffi Mathew, the only daughter of a successful entrepreneur and a highly ambitious bureaucrat, brought up with the mask of a conservative family, in the rural part of an urban town had nothing to know about what is yet to come, when she realized that she had qualified to the best college in the state.   

She had reasons to celebrate but had no one to share with. The very feeling of getting liberated from the limits of four closed walls and the medicated smell from the room of her ailing grandmother was more than to be said. When these were the reasons for her to celebrate, her mother found utmost happiness in boasting about her daughter's achievements, while she chose to ignore about the fact that her daughter will be away from her for the next four years.

Like any other teenager, even Steffi had a story of love to be said. She was sad enough to realize that her then boyfriend would never be available for her to see whenever she wished. Like, pleasure overshadows the pain, extreme excitement overshadows the sorrow as well. 

Admission process and induction were complete in the next three months. The classes were yet to begin and even before that she had made friends all around. Extremely pretty girl with her unique thick eyebrows which never had to be threaded also had an attractive smile that would never fade away from anyone that she made friends with. Steffi was experiencing a freedom that she had never seen before.

Excited about the hostel diaries of their seniors as narrated by her friends, all she hoped for is a good room partner. She was much nervous on the day of her hostel allotment than she was on the day when her results were published. Being the best college in the state, there was an inflow of students from different parts of the country and to her fortune, it was three girls from northern India who was destined to be her partners for that academic year. 

Difficulties in understanding the language and her craving to share about her haunting past were so evident in the first few months. She never opened up to them nor did she try to make friends with other fellow hoteliers. She found refuge in texting her fading away love interest whenever she felt low. College is the time when most of them try to find one person for themselves, nothing was different in case of him as well. He eventually had stopped talking and listening to Steffi as he had found someone more compatible in the place he went to. 

Her last source of refuge ended as he stopped texting back and she realized that it is her call to take the life forward either interestingly or sober. All she wanted to was to live a life to her heart's content and she forced herself to go with the flow of the stream. Six months had already passed. By then she had cultivated an image of a studious yet reserved girl even among the people who she made friends with before the classes commenced. 

Initiation of the big line of curve started the next day, and that first puff of cigarette she shared with her roommate was just the dot before the longest sentence which was yet to be written.

The truth that behold - The rebound

#3

One year in the campus, Steffi had already made her place in the hearts of teachers and her classmates who once thought her to be strange and reserved. Cigarette puffs that she took a year ago were no more clean of tobacco alone but were adulterated with marijuana as well. As the addicted sages usually say, "A narcotic bond is something more than the bond of a mothers milk".

Her life was the most suitable example in the whole of that campus. Exposure to addictive high and immense freedom took her away from the track she was in. She chooses to ignore and gave it up completely. Steffi, often referred to her friends that it was her haunting past or the boyfriend who gave up on her which kept her away from being normal again. 

Being a studious girl attracted many eyes on her since the results of her first semester were announced. Her persistence and consistency in the next two semesters in spite of giving into the world of addiction was the factor that found a unique place among her batch mates and seniors. Vivek had notably made moves to get into the good books of Steffi. Two years senior to her, Vivek was passing out from the college that year when they started knowing each other. Coming from a noble background as what he had explained, Vivek was notably a tech-savvy yet intelligent young man who was assured of a job by the pioneers in the industry for his expertise in hacking and networking.  

Impressed with his good looks and sizable knowledge in the curriculum, Steffi easily bonded with him in the last few days of his college life. It was mostly them in the college even when the classes were empty discussing the pitch and patches of what their lectures missed in the class.

Steffi's ability to grasp something out of the curriculum often surprised and impressed Vivek in turn. They shared everything from books to notes to drugs in the coming days. 

Vivek, being a loner from his childhood after losing his mother at the age of 5 and his father getting married to a widow had only a sister to look after him. Steffi's company garnered utmost care and affection for him to become obsessed with her presence. Whereas she who was recovering from the lost boyfriend found a shoulder to lean, in him. Little did she thought about knowing him nor did she make any efforts.

Anything that he said went down her throat without a hiccup and that was her trust for him. They spent days together in the campus and nights over phone calls. By the time that the year ended, Steffi had given in to addiction and the adulterated cigarettes were not a normal high. Fortunate to her at the moment of time, she had her closest circle who had profound knowledge about the availability of high dosage drugs in the market. Her hostel room became one another narcotic dump yard. 

It resembled nothing of a girls room anymore. Exams were the only thing that kept them serious since the third semester of that year. Steffi cleared the scholarship in the same year and her fees were never a burden anymore. Lots of cash, lots of drugs, lots of people around. She saw nothing but happiness in front of her. Her techie savvy friend was now more than a friend who she used to hang out with. They made financial transactions at times of need, they had no unshared passwords and they continued to live as one soul until Vivek graduated from the college.

The truth that behold - Interim ecstasy

#4

Anyone who knew Steffi had not seen her or heard about her for the past two years since her graduation. It was just a handful of random people who had nothing to do with their identity they showed to the real world. While her friends from college still wondered about her absence, she chose to be away from being normal. Passing out as a topper from the college and getting placed in one of the best companies in the country at a salary that no experienced professional can even think about, the last thing anyone would expect is her to abscond. 

She had found refuge in many things during the course of time since her college life ended. Ecstacy was all she wanted. Ecstacy is all that she experienced. She had confined her identity to just a voice that is heard over a phone call. No one knew how she looked, no one knew what she felt. Steffi was the talk of the town. A town that remained virtual. Anyone who entered that virtual world considered it to be a black hole that sucks them forever. An alarm clock app that had become something more than what it should be.

Many a people who started off the conversation as strangers ended up in one night stands or as photos in private messages. Steffi held her principles high and did not give up into the sexual ecstasy. Instead, she was carried away by the care and attention that she received. She never had a better reception every day and the other, even at her house where she used to go all once in six months. As the modern entrepreneurs say "three months in a startup is like 3 years in a traditional company". Same was in the case of this virtual world. Three days in the there were three months in real time.

The addiction was that high that any user who creates an account stays within the 5-inch mobile screen instead of the four walls that surround him. Steffi was no exception. The extremely intellect lady had now attracted many with her voice and shrewdness this time. As silky as an edible oil, Steffi managed to slip out of the hands of anyone who wanted to get close to her burying deep a few of her interests. She was thoroughly enjoying the stranger's spotlight. Few of them who managed to become her closest friends understood that there is some tale of misery that she is coping up with. No one could figure out what. " Staying drugged and high was is my refuge ", she confessed to one of her friends in there for the first time since being there for two months already. There was no why in any of the conversation she had with anyone. An intelligent yet smart scholar was so professional in making the close-ended questions open. 

A few of them who know her asked her to take up the role of a recruiter while a few others to take up sales. Exponentially commendable convincing skills and her strength in numbers were the best traits. With her unique boxed laugh, she slipped away from those compliments as well. The next three months for her was a roller coaster that she alone knew. Her identity was a well-protected secret as that of a CIA agent in Russia. Once the cover is blown, there is always a list of stones unturned, thereafter. Steffi had found a lover boy in few of her closest strangers but she chose to remain apprehensive in taking those relationships further.

Into the crowd whenever a stone is thrown, there is always one person who gets hit. It is the perspective that decides that if he was chosen or was he to be hurt. Among the worker bee's that surrounded a queen bee, there was one. Another stranger from another mother, who had nothing to do with any people whom he met. Contradictory to his screen name, the lover boy confessed himself to be Rustam, a creative lad from central Kerala. Steffi had a theory to explain when asked about the identity. "Anything that I say is true, but I choose what is to be said". The smart yet provocating theory never made Rustam be skeptical in whatever she said. They synced more than the radio waves that syncs with a music track, they left it to the destiny to decide what the confessions should be about.

The truth that behold - Haunting Confession

#5

Screen names were long forgotten, It was Steffi and Rustom now.

He thoroughly enjoyed his every failed effort to unearth her identity. Steffi's boxed giggles over the phone conversations sparked his love for her. Often that, he narrated the beauty in the tone of her laugh. Every time that he heard her laughing, even the minute details of a gap between every giggle resonated into his ears. His love for her was not about the beauty of the girl in the photos that she showed him but was for everything she was. 

That rainy night, when it was late past 11, Steffi quizzed about his love for her. Often it looked so much alienated because there were no one other than them in the sequence of incidents that happened. A virtual world that they build up for themselves. Trees and leaves in them were designed to their will, the animals and birds were chosen ones. Another human interference was never a subject of the story. Rustom, wanted him to be the happiest man in the world and so was him alone other than her, in the virtual world that they created. Waiting for a reply, Steffi reminded him of the unanswered question. Rustom dialed her to ask 

"How much do you trust me ?". 

"It is just me that I cannot trust", She replied!

The intensity of quiver increased as Rustom was forced to react to this unexpected reply. For the first time in four months, he persistently asked

"Is there anything that I should know ?"

Yes, that I just want to be normal again,

 "The reply that made Rustom Clueless"

She continued to explain her addiction to narcotic substance and that she had gone through trying to quit. All these time she was expecting him to leave the conversation midway, not turning up anytime sooner. Love had conquered Rustom and in turn, had blinded the code of morale. All that he believed in and valued was the present and so, patiently he listened to everything that she said. He reiterated after a long pause

"How much do you trust me"

Clueless Steffi stumbled before she murmured

"Much more than I trust Myself".

The first base of their relationship was cemented there. 

Steffi had something to confess for a long time now, something that she has been apprehensive about talking to her friends in college as well. The conversations that they had in the past few months clearly hinted Rustom, that Steffi had a story to say. Probably a story of grief and misery.

Surprisingly, the story started with a dream that was haunting her all through the life. A naked boy aged somewhere between three to six standing at the door with folded hands had his shadows extending to her bedside. She first saw that when she was six and that has continued to be with her until now. Neither the boy have grown older or the dream has faded away. Rustom, easily related it to be some hurtful episode of her past that she had a witness or had to be in. 

She continued to say about her uncle who repeatedly manhandled her at the age of six leaving her with bruises until he went away one fine morning. No one she had to complain to. Anyone who examined her bruises accused her to be careless about falling and hurting herself. She cried out the pain and as the pain was gone, it got super impressed with her subconscious mind as an animation which remained to reiterate every time that she felt insecure. 

The truth that behold - First Time

#6

Hours, days and months passed. The branches of withered leaves grew back into hush green as the monsoon flourished. Without him in the campus, Steffi had a real hard time. Whereas Rustom had become a vanishing sorcerer. Every time he came back to meet her in the campus, he had something with him that would tell the tale of his absence. Isolated campus classrooms on a holiday and lightly crowded campus canteens during the class hours became their spot for cuddles and candlelight dinners. Narcotics had never left both of them and that unreasonably bonded their time together. Rustom had learned to master the high, while Steffi still lets it for her surroundings and people around to keep her safe. 

Wearing a big black round earring that had bells rhyming the jingles of the tune that slipped through her lips painted in a strawberry pink lip gloss, with her shawl jumping over her shoulders, she ran down through the step to meet Rustom who had come to see her after a break of two months. She hugged and sobbed as she met him citing his longtime absence. With a gentle pat on her shoulders, he took her for a walk to one of the classrooms which had already become their favorite spot. Being the second day of a long weekend, there was no one in the campus

other than them. A box of country chocolates that flavored orange and lemon was that he brought to explain his two months away from her. She slipped everything that he said, into her heart. 

Rustom had brought with him a dozen tablets covered in that of the aluminum strips with Vitamin tablets written on it. Nothing other than banned substance was inside those packed covers. As the day's light faded, he offered Steffi to have one. Rustom was her drug for that day until then and so, she had not thought about any other intake. They were intoxicated and dozed off between their discussions. That was Steffi's first attempt at narcotic intake outside her confined space. As the trust would have it, she had left it completely to the man she believed to be her's.

Next day morning, inside the washroom, was a pretty and bold young lady who stood five foot and seven inches tall, standing shattered and broken. Though the stains of blood in her panties and the unusual pain in lower abdomen raised doubts of wrongly cycled periods. They did not last long as she examined her body, which had love bites that she never knew or felt. There is no first time anymore was the thought that disturbed her the most. Virginity was a sacred thing for her and loosing that in an unprecedented situation was the biggest blow. For a moment, and in the years that continued, she lost trust in anyone that she saw. She was confused with whom to talk and whom to believe. She refrained to speak to anyone and ringed him to clear the doubts.

Her last hope on trust died, not when Rustom accepted to have done what she believed to have happened. But when he said, It was to not let her go. Though Rustom anticipated a heated argument, nothing of the sort happened. Instead, the phone ended short with a one-liner from Steffi

" Never shall I be yours, Nor shall I trust you again!"

Unpredicted reactions or situations agitated Rustom even earlier. All these days together, it was Steffi who made sure that Rustom would not have to face any situations of that sort. Little did she care about his thoughts and gave her completely into medical combinations of drugs that kept her moving. None of her friends in the closest circles knew about why Steffi kept crying all through her days in college, since then.

  

The truth that behold - Love over Hate

#7

Steffi woke up to a call that she had been ignoring since that day. The number on the display was that of Rustom. Thinking of to end it once for all, pumped up Steffi pressed her thumb hard onto the phone symbol painted in green. Before she could start talking, an irked Rustom on the other side of the call, demanded her to continue talking without showing any hate. Steffi was never familiar with the tone that he just heard and that made her numb. She still gathered her courage to bluntly say

" Little did I expect, every time you said you will surprise me. This was cruel, this was barbaric, in the name of love"

Realizing the situation that is already out of his hands, Rustom played his last card to keep her with him. The deadliest two minutes of conversation with more pause and syllable than words, in a sentence.

" My love for you is spellbound and there is nothing barbaric in what I did.......

Had you not made me insecure....., nothing would have happened

Now that the damage is half done, lemme remind you......

The world shall see what I should alone have seen! "

As he completed the last sentence, the world paused at that moment for Steffi. That was a pure threat of blackmail. The orthodox girl inside her who was long forgotten woke up to that context and the mutiny of life and death started within her. With nothing left to say she dropped the phone and sobbed. Rustom was the only guy in the entire universe that she hated, but she was the chosen one to love him and it was him who had chosen her. Rustom was obsessed with her love and care for him. A unpleasant family life was what Rustom had gone through, with his mother's early demise and his father getting married to a younger lady who ill-treated him. He had never experienced that kind of care from anyone before and all he thought is about never losing it. 

Steffi adjusted herself to the new normal. Every morning wishing herself looking into the mirror

"I just want to be normal again".

She picked the calls of Rustom even faster than she used to pick. But his attitude went for a toss and was swinging at a faster pace than that of a boomerang. He had found a fascination in keeping her edged in her toes. His methods of torture differed each time from the previous ones. It was his belief of right over her that made him do all that he did, while it was her family reputation alone that she kept listening to anything that he said. She was forced to love him over the hate she had for him. Her final year ended, but not the calls of fear and threat.

Insomnia had become another normal for her and the only relief to her was the time intervals of intoxicated blood circulation. The moment she left the campus, she rubbed off her image from the atmosphere that she existed. She had gone elude. Steffi was no more seen or heard.

A half day had already gone and I never wanted to move even once, from the place where we started the discussion. I had made a heap of stone that resembled a mountain in the Western Ghats. I understood that it was a long story short. She accompanied me to the nearest mess for the lunch and we spoke nothing about the story during that brief 1 hour.

The truth that behold - The marriage

#8

I accompanied her to the scenic Swami Vivekananda memorial meters away from the shore, seated upon a cushion of one big rock. Left side to the mighty mandap of Swami Vivekananda was the calmest open corridor where we could listen only to the sound of waves. Steffi paused for a brief moment before she murmured

"I never knew worse was yet to come"

Steffi managed to graduate from the college as a topper while becoming the only girl from the college to be placed in Microsoft. Her ambitious parents had more plans for her. As she reached back home with all her miseries unshared, no one noticed the unusual full sleeve dresses that she was wearing. A girl whose hands were full of Mehandi designs had marks of syringe that pierced into her veins. The job which was assured in her name shot up her value in the marriage market. Friends and relatives who knew her had proposals for her. One among them was an irresistibly handsome IFS officer. Added to the good looks, his cool and composed behavior impressed her parents already.

Her marriage decision was not by choice but by force. If her parents had given her the time to listen about her apprehension concerning the marriage, things would have been better. Substances alone kept her life moving and every time she decided to move away from Rustom, he made sure that she suffered the utmost misery of torture. Those few months were the ones when she realized that a person need not be near so as to cause damage.

Little did she know about Rustom keeping a track on her bank account transactions, phone calls and WhatsApp chats. The tech-savvy engineer pushed his limits of knowledge to hack into her personal life, staying miles away.

His access on her laptop paved way for him to get into the details of her email id registered from it, whiles the credentials alone was enough for him to get into the activities or websites that she registered.

Steffi's marriage was fixed and it was decided that Mr. Joseph Kavumkal IFS popularly known as Jk In his friend circles will be the Groom. The deal of not leaving Rustom was about to be broken and he was not heard of for a brief four months. Steffie, reluctantly spoke with JK over the phone a couple of times and each time she anticipated a call from Rustom asking for an explanation about the call. JK was deeply in love with his future wife and wanted to make sure that she does not feel uncomfortable with him.

With two days left for the biggest day of her life, a call from an online number flashed on her phone display. Unsure of who it is, Steffi picked the call. The familiar sound conveyed a tone of anger and frustration. Explanation about her parent's compulsion went in vain. Sounding like a ruthless sadist, before hanging up the call he shouted

"Let your father decide his daughters future after seeing what has happened to her"

Steffi went clueless on what she just heard. She rushed to grab her father's phone and waited for hours to see her own motion clip. The most awkward wait in one's life. All would have ended in one sentence if she had confessed everything that happened, to her father. A little courage was that she needed and the same little courage is what she did not have. A guy who knew her emotionally was so sure about the extent that she could go. She waited for the next call forgetting that there are only two more days left for the marriage. Everyone who saw her tensed thought it to be her fear over marriage but for her, it was not the same. Their house was filled with guest even prior to the marriage. The only person who was not happy about the occasion was Steffi.

A text that beeped in her mobile read

"I don't want you to leave me yet! And I don't want him to touch you until then. Either of it happens and then the world sees what I saw".

The truth that behold - Hits and scars

#9

The sound of the fastening footsteps running down the stairs shocked everyone in the living room. It was only the second month since Steffi became the member of their family. There were no signs of JK following her traces and that is what everyone who glared at the expression of Steffi was looking for. The unusual moans in the night were ignored until then. Collective analysis of incidents prior to the incident since the day of marriage narrated a different tale of the married couple who never showcased any kind of unhappiness or discomfort. The reputation and stature of JK helped him to ward off all the raised eyebrows staring at him for an explanation. For the dilemma prevailed as Steffi was more loved within the span of two months. 

On the same night, when the kids in the house were fast asleep JK's parents and brothers were engaged in a serious conversation about the occurrences and changes that happened in the past few days. The intense conversation came to a pause with a loud bang on the door. As Joy, the eldest brother of JK rushed upstairs, it was Steffi being kicked in her abdomen to bend like a C clamp gripping on to her salwar stumbling on her foot before she fell in the feet of Joy. The darkest bedroom secret was now exposed. The moans that escaped through the air holes were cries of agony while the scars in her neck and upper body was not that of love. Angered and agitated JK was an unusual sight for anyone among the gathering. He was pushed away to the corner of the room while the crawling Steffi was rushed to the hospital.

Beloved father and the ambitious mother now cared more for their daughter struggling to survive in the ICU while JK expressed no sign of regret. The doctor's word was only that could bring relief to anyone else in the patient's room. The tension and intensity of situation that prevailed in the room was something that could be unexplained. A whisk at the moment alone could have ignited a huge ruthless reaction. Everyone choose to remain calm until there is a word of explanation from the doctor. He looked exactly like a queen bee surrounded by its workers as he came out of the ICU.

Steffi's father expressed a sense of surprise and shock as the doctor explained

" She has been manhandled and mercilessly tortured for over a reasonable period".

The couple's parents alone entered the ward looking for her to explain the quantum of the episode. Neither of them chose to listen to JK and he never bothered regarding the same. The only instance that involved him in the entire episode is when his father slapped him on his chin with all his might of a sixty-year-old. 

The Truth that behold- Stranger

#10

"To swim against the tides is tedious only when the way you swim is wrong":- Life

This very quote redefined the life of a young woman who had miseries and hurdles alone all through her life, exclaimed the speaker. The motivational speaker had a stream of words flowing from his mouth. At times his thoughts traveled faster and sharper than the listeners in the gathering. It was when he noticed a restless young woman who had a zebra stripe like the scar on the forehead in the size of an eyebrow. She looked strange to him for why she was in a counseling session and yet outside the classroom, sobbing. 

Steffi had taken a break from her routine life and had set off on a travel spree. It was already six months since she was discharged from the hospital. There was no one in her family who dared to stop her from taking a decision. For every decision in her life was advocated or influenced until then. She set off the trip with just three sets of clothes and no questions asked in the darkest hours of a no moon night. A note that was stuck to the mirror in her room read, 

"I do not intend to run away, I have lived your choices for all these years unquestioned. Now it is my decision to experience peace and hence, leave unquestioned. I shall not be long gone, nor shall soon return."                                                  :-            

                                                         With pain and love

                                                                              Steffi

Vivek did not choose to stay away from her life even then. He made sure that she carried the pain of regret for choosing to leave him. Never did he think that it was he who turned the wrong cards thinking to strike the jackpot. Steffi was traced every moment and that had become her new normal. She was drained of fighting against the tides and had finally accepted to live with it, leaving the choice of disconnect to Vivek. 

Sitting in the busiest area of the premises, Steffi was preparing herself for the next few months of her life in all new places that she is yet to see. In the meanwhile, the speaker had winded up his session for the day and started walking towards her. Her brightest smile sent a happy vibe to the speaker, whereas her moist eyes confused the earlier emotion. He comforted her by patting on her shoulders before saying. 

"If you are that Steffi who have come a long way from home, there is a stranger who wants me to tell you, You did not loose, you let them win."

She was taken aback and before she could ask anything, he said

"little do I know about the guy who asked me to tell you this, there were over a hundred people today and we do not have any data about their identity that includes you too"

The truth that behold - Curious search

#11

One week in the meditation center molded her significantly. Unlike for the regular trips of South Indian crowd, Steffi had started her travel odyssey from the banks of Assi Ghat, Varanasi after her life awakening session with the speaker. She had no one to think about nor she bothered about anyone who thought about her. It was Steffi alone, in her travel that she had chosen. 

Mesmerizing practice sessions by the students of Banaras Hindu University with varieties of flute, sitar and veena combined, in the echoing corridors of the old structures, expecting zero audience for their performance had one permanent follower for that whole week. And that is when she decided to travel through places that highlighted cultural and traditional values. In the next few weeks, she explored the streets of Gaya, Nalanda, Puri. 

It was her second month away from home and in the meanwhile there was only one letter posted to her house. The letter read

" Amma, Acha,
                     Thank you for not stopping me, I don't have anyone along who knows me but i have many who loves me for the person i am. No, nothing was your fault nor mine, nor their's. We were all so narrow minded that we forgot to see a way out. All we did is to fit into the way and make our life look comfortable, even if it is not. I will be back soon."
                                                              :- Steffi

As she was writing the letter, her final meeting with the speaker stroke her thought. She wondered, who that person could be. She had totally disconnected herself from her usual life that even Vivek had lost trace of her. Somewhere at some point he had also stopped looking for her trail. Steffi made sure that the trail was so carefully wiped away. And that being the intention behind writing a letter instead of a phone call. She embraced that feeling of being freed from the threats and blackmails of Vivek. 

" I feel Orgasmic.", Sarcastically, she wrote down in her diary to express her happiness of being freed. She had started to taste the essence of success and that convinced her this time with the words of the stranger, " It is not them who lost, it is me who won".

Steffi, stepped down in Nagercoil railway station, before taking a bus to Kanyakumari. Kanyakumari, being her last destination. As she grabbed her luggage to keep it in the trunk of  hired taxi she found a chit sticking to the nameplate in the bag. The name read "The Sorcerer's apprentice". Startled with the name slip, she looked around to check if she was being a target or being followed. She carefully checked to confirm if it was her bag and she left for the hotel without waiting for long at the railway station.

The truth that behold- Sunset

#12

Steffi, a girl who had wrinkled skin in her forehead, shabby hairs and sleep deprived eyes, shined brighter than the reflecting lenses arranged in the shops of roadside vendors. She walked greeting every other shopkeeper down the line she has been there for a long while. It was her third day in Kanyakumari and there were no places left for her to see. She had made friends with the shopkeepers down the line as she was staying close to the street. 

Her fourth day was meant to be the last day for her in Kanyakumari and thereby ending her forty-five days away from home. Vivek was not in her life anymore, nor was Rustom. She did not bother about what they knew about her. The courage that she had built within her was the result of her decision to defeat others predictability on her behavior. 

After days of self-realization, understanding and dealing with people from all walks of life, she had made up her mind to relax in the southernmost tip of India where the sunrise and sunset can be beautifully seen. It was a fine evening when she chose to walk to the beach. The crowd had started gathering along the coastline to see the sun drowning in the ocean, for one last time until it rises from there again on the next day morning.

She walked to the farthest end, placed her colored pair of slippers next to her as she bent her knees to sit on the rock. There was no obstacle in the view between her and the sun. Anyone who walked by the beach could easily notice her for the colors she had chosen to wear. With the mobile phone in her hand, she was recording the waves hitting the rocks lying in-front of her. She quietly thought to herself with a smile, remembering an advice that she received during her trip to Puri.

"All you have been doing is trying to keep others away from your life and in the process, you are giving them more importance than what they deserve. The only thing that has to be done is to keep yourself away from them."

Staring at the screen for a brief long time, leaving her mind to wander in her own memories, she failed to notice a young man approaching towards her. He was not so late before he curled his legs to sit next to Steffi. 

The truth that behold- A walk Back

#13

6.30 pm, read the lock screen of my mobile. I had totally lost contact with the real world and was living in the story that Steffi narrated to me. I never saw the sunset that evening. I could feel an aura within Steffi as I looked into her eyes, that shined like the water shining from moonlight. I gave her a hand for her to stand up and we walked back. Next day was her last in Kanyakumari and had prepared herself to resume work at the same office where she had to take a break from owing to marriage. Her brilliance had the reputation within the organization that helped her for this second innings. 

I quizzed her surprisingly as she said, the same office. 

" So what if Vivek comes back to you? aren't you preying yourself by doing this?" 

Steffi took a deep breath, stretching her arms to the air, as a soft sound of giggle escaped from her mouth before telling me this

" He now knows that he doesn't need me, he also knows I don't need him"

After listening to her nail-biting story and narration for more than two and a half hour, I felt proud of her for the way she had molded herself and come back in life. My one last question, I stressed.

Me: Are you so, now content with this trip, can you start everything fresh?

Steffi: I could have, but now I have a curious stranger to find.

I laughed as I stretched my arms for a good-bye shake hand. We felt like the entire universe is happy for us and there was only happiness in the air. Holding my hands for a shake-hand she asked my name. The moment was the happiest as I thought this meeting would go without her knowing my name, but I refrained to express. Instead, with a firm voice, I replied

" Goutham ", and you win this time, they lost.

Her smile narrowed as her handshake became firm. Her eyebrows raised in question. My heart froze until she reacted. I gathered back my senses and blurted out saying.

" I have known you for a long time now, I was the one that you feared to meet. Every time that I wanted to take it forward, it was your past that kept you away from me. I was happy to see you for the first time and I wanted to come next to you on that day. At that point in time, I knew you had your problems and I did not want to become one. I could not ignore you as another digital infatuation. I felt influenced in you and I wanted to sort things out for you. I stayed at a hands distance from you where ever you went. I made sure any person that you see influences you to get over your concerns. I wanted to break your comfort zones. Having all done, I wanted to know what exactly you had to go through. And now I have everything, everything that includes you as well, Steffi."

I do not know that if my story ends here or begins. I never waited for her to reply and so I do not know what she had to say, for me. 

Life is not all well when you decide your climax.
Love is all well when you decide your climax.