Strange

"I am not ‘strange’...i hate this word"

"ok..I’m sorry...u r not ‘strange’...but people do think like that"

"I wonder why....and today u too said the same thing...oh gosh"

"What do u mean by ‘u too’? And look at u...which girl do you find online chatting with her friends till four O’clock in the morning?"

“What’s wrong with it? U want me to sign out now?”

“I mean…”

“I don’t like such stupid statements….bye”

“Wait…..”

Nisha did not receive the message…google chat bluntly notified.

I closed the chat window in despair, and turned to orkut community. Saw a topic on men-women equality. Someone wrote that women just cannot emulate men’s behavior and proclaim their freedom. I got a strong surge to reply and I replied…”what’s wrong with it? Let them emulate…Let first allow them to think and do what they want to. Who r u to comment on that?”

I signed out, still indecisive on what to do. My routine was to chat with Nisha from eleven O’clock after dinner till she or I get extremely tired of hitting keys. It was hardly 1 pm and I have at least 2 hrs to spend before I sleep. I tried my old trick…got my favorite sleeping pill “World’s greatest Short stories” and it worked as usual.

I woke up early in the morning. For some reasons I cannot sleep more than five hrs and yesterday I slept pretty early. It was a winter time and pretty dark outside. And for someone like me who is born and brought up in Mumbai, this time at Pune was pretty chilling. I got ready. Somehow on weekends, I feel happy if I wake up early and get ready quickly. It extends my week-ends. Otherwise, on most of the weekends, I wake up late in the morning, have heavy lunch and when I get up from the deep noon nap, I see nothing but the evening dusk and with it comes a gloomy feeling of end of holiday.

But that day I had a lot of time. I strolled down the Sus-Road and went to the end where it meets a small trail which leads to the top of Pashan hills. The chilling winds and the Sun-rise… I was living the moment…. storing this memory….don’t know when next time I’ll get up so early on week-ends. My cell buzzed, read the SMS….oh man…I should had been there at the university ground. Our cricket match was scheduled. I ran down the hill to the bus stop…fortunately for me I didn’t have to wait for the bus …and I was at the university ground in next 20mins.

We lost both the matches as usual. We gathered in University canteen….did some dissection of our defeat; blamed each other…had upma and tea. And were about to go when Vicky called me up…

”Sir ji….what’s the plan for lunch?”

“I’m ready as usual…u decide the place….I can come anywhere”

“Ok. Let’s go to some place in Deccan”

“Alright, I am waiting for you near university circle…pick me up”

“Okies, I’ll be there in 20mins.”

As usual I was waiting there for 45 minutes before I saw Vicky’s i10. To my surprise someone was already there in his car. The car stopped. I saw Arun sitting in the front. I opened back door greeting Vicky and Arun. And to my surprise Nisha was in. I hear the traffic police whistle and quickly got in the car. Vicky immediately started.

“I checked in the morning…sun rose from the east” I said

“What….?” This was a chorus.

“Just wondering how on the earth, on weekends Nisha is out for a lunch…”

Everybody grinned.

“Today I’m taking a break. No studies today.”

“That’s great.” I wondered if this has to do with yesterday’s ‘strange’ chat.

“So what r ur plans today?” I continued the conversation.

“Nothing as such” she said.

“Vicky, Arun… what are you up to today?”

“Nothing as such” said Vicky.

“hmm...shall we go for ‘3 idiots’?” Arun suggested.

That was really a good idea…..i usually have nothing to do on weekends…same is the case with Vicky. Nisha also nodded and plan was finalized. We went to Panchwati Gaurav. Enjoyed unlimited thali, especially me and Vicky made it sure that we get what we paid for. After that we went straight to E-Square, only to find that only 7:30pm show is available. It was hardly 3pm and we had almost four hrs to kill. We cancelled the plan. Vicky dropped each of us to our respective homes.

As usual I logged in to my Gmail and opened orkut in the other tab of Firefox. I was about to browse the threads in my favorite orkut community, I got a ping.

“der?” it was Nisha.

“yes bro... U din sleep?” I replied.

“no usually I don’t sleep in afternoons.”

“I shud hv guessed that…the girl who doesn’t sleep in the nights… wud surely not waste her time sleeping thru the noon..  ”

“…what r u up to?”

“Nothing…as usual…was about to enter in the fray of orkut communities.”

“hmm…”

“You gave me a shock yesterday….u signed off the chat…what was so wrong that hurt you so much”

“Cut it…”

“Sorry.. Can’t do that…I was thinking about it since last night… lets sort this out first”

“u want to start fight now?”

“r u afraid of fights?”

“no, I don’t. It is just that I don’t want to make you sad once again”

“Once again? What do you mean by that? You made me sad? It’s not possible.”

“ok. Then listen. Since childhood people think I’m different. It’s nothing new I was hearing. You too thought I’m strange, I was just surprised…even that was ok…but the reason you gave…that was ridiculous….u said girls don’t stay late in the night chatting with friends. It shows ur typical mindset. I got annoyed mainly because it was not expected from u”

“ok..ok. cool down. I was just telling u that if people think u r strange, it is not their mistake….they have developed their mindset and if u think from that point of view, u too will find urself strange.”

“Oh…since when u started thinking normally? :P”

“What do u mean by ‘thinking normally’?”

“u only said…u think from common people’s point of view. I’ll say it’s an improvement”

“I am a common man. What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing is wrong with it. It is just that I don’t like talking to common man.. ”

“hmm…so u want me to sign out now?”

“ See… I told you…you will get sad.”

“I’m no way sad…..i was just trying to do the same thing to u which u did to me last night…and if I would have really sad…I wud hv blocked u from my chatlist …. I swear”

“oh…so till u block me I’m safe… r8?”

“”

“you know what? That guy called me up today”

“Who? That Microsoft guy?”

“yeah…that moron”

“Boy…looks like he really has fallen for you. Why don’t you understand, he loves you. And there is hardly any chance that u’ll get someone better than him”

“I don’t want to tie-up with any such fickle minded moron. What’s the point? He came to see my cousin and not me. He was not given any choice to choose one amongst us.”

“So what? I know it doesn’t look good. But if u think practically, for the girl like u, in ur society, it is difficult to get such groom.”

“Anyways, I’m not searching for a partner and have no marriage plans as such.”

“Or…may be u want to search on ur own?”

“No way. That’s the only thing I promised Papa. I’ll not do anything like this.”

“What’s wrong in breaking promises?”

“Nothing wrong, but breaking promise is equivalent to breaking bones in this case. I told u about my family r8?”

“oh yeah…that political background n all. It’s too much in ur place. So what if u fall in for someone?”

“I don’t allow it to happen.”

“Don’t tell me… such things do not happen by choice”

“I know, but I hv drawn a line. And u know what?”

“What?”

“Many boys proposed me earlier.”

“really?”

“yeah…at least ten boys as I remember”

“That’s something to be proud of”

“”

“I can tell you… most of them were my good friends. I kind of liked them. But don’t know why they thought I’ll fall for them. All my mistake”

“So u think it was a mistake rejecting them?”

“No…….. It was my mistake that they thought this way. Every time I’d to give justification of every small incidence. And after every time I decided I’ll not allow the same mistake to happen next time”

“That’s pretty thoughtful of u ….those ten poor guys”

“…don’t know why I’m telling you all this”

“It’s ok. I know ur not telling me all this because u think I’m a probable candidate in that list of poor guys ”

“lolz…can’t even think that way….and nyways u r a safe guy…u r already committed. By the way how is Tara?”

“she is doing good”

“You guys are still doing maggie talks?”

“what maggie talks?”

“Just 2 minutes…n maggie ready… “

“lolz…those noodles…trust me as of now there is nothing cooking between us”

“then start cooking….”

“I’m trying…but I can tell u… I like her but it’s very difficult….I talk just because I’m supposed to.”

“Don’t worry…like everyone u too will start spending hrs on phone.”

“I wish I can do that…and trust…once that happen...u won’t find me on google chat ever”

“Then do it fast…I’ll pray to God….I can’t bear u daily…that’s too much. Have u ever found an audience like me? ”

“Never  … u know what…I used to talk with my younger sis like this…… I feel the same way when I chat with u…. after her marriage and my coming to pune, I kind of started missing her. But soon after that I got involved in the project work and u must hv heard abt it……we used to work for hrs day in day out…even on weekends. The team was new..i made new friends…all freshers…new to this industry…raring to go…but now everyone has established themselves...many of us left the company, some went onsite…the project pressure is no more, I get spare time….”

“u became senti man….I can imagine tears flooding ur eyes ”

“no way…. I don’t remember when I cried last time…I just got nostalgic”

“hmm…as if nostalgia is not a sentiment ”

“Enough leg pulling now…I’m going out…will catch u online in the night…u get busy in ur GRE studies”

“I’m not studying today. I’m taking rest  . I’m abt to finish ‘Two States’ and will start with ‘Mein Kamph’ ”.

“What a combination…’Two States’ n ‘Mein Kamph’……carry on. If u sleep reading these books I’ll catch u in office tomorrow”

“k..c ya”

“bye”

“bye”

As usual I logged in after dinner, Nisha was not online. I did my routine orkutting, replied scraps, debated on communities, chatted with 4-5 friends. I got bored soon and I logged off.

Next day we met on tea, she looked disturbed. I asked her about it and she said she is fine. While going back to the desk, she told me that she is going on a long leave due to some family problems. She did not tell me the details. Even I thought not to dig in the details. It was not like we share each and every detail of our personal/family life with each other. I don’t remember how it started, but almost all project colleagues are in my chat-list because of the Orkut. Our chat is usually a pure Time-Pass activity and it became a habit. But I was pretty much impressed with this girl Nisha. Her thoughts were razor sharp and clear. It was very difficult to make her change her stand. I initially thought she was stubborn, but later realized that she had her own justifiable reasons. We became good friends. Chatting is a weird thing; at least from my experience I can say that I tend to be more extroverts on chats. Don’t remember now what I told her on chats, but I’m sure I had never told the same things to my best of my friends ever. And that’s how it was.

These memories are still vivid in my mind. It has been couple of years now. Things changed drastically in this period. After Nisha went on long leave, I went to United States for a project work. There I got the news that Nisha left the company, she put her papers while she was on leave. She never came online and did not reply to any of the mails. I tried calling her on her cell phone but the number was discontinued.

I came back to India for my marriage. I knew Tara, my fiancée since last five years. I was a seasoned trekker and knew every small corner of Western Ghats. I used get invites from new groups to lead them and I used to enjoy the responsibilities. I met Tara in an amateur trekking group. During that trek Tara somehow got lost in the jungles. I found her out and that was my find of lifetime. I saw her from a distance.

“Hey Tara….what r u doing here…we are searching u all around?” I shouted.

“Nishant !!!…thank god u came..I lost the road completely and was really scared now…was not able to find anything nearby…there is no range on mobile” she looked relieved.

“It happens…. Don’t worry. Let’s go now” I was trying to hide annoyance in my voice.

“Ok..Actually I was very tired and decided to take a quick break. I thought I could catch u guys, but couldn’t and lost the road somewhere. No one was in my vicinity.” She made a move.

“Alright, you don’t have to sound apologetic for this. This happens and that’s why I’m with ur group” I tried to be sympathetic.

“Can’t imagine, hv u not been there” She was yet to come out of that shock.

“hmm….cut it. Have you ever gone to treks before?”

“Never, this is my first trek. During college time, my parents never let me.”

“So now they do allow?”

“They will never if they know this. But that’s the kind of freedom u enjoy when u r away from home”

“oh, so u r not from Mumbai…which place r u from?”

“I’m from Jaipur, born and brought up”

“The pink city..huh..I have been to Rajastan for many times on trekking tours in Aravalis. It’s really a nice place. How do u find Amachi Mumbai?”

“The best thing here is the kind of freedom gals enjoy. The safety.”

“Oh…the safety…so u knew it already….You could not have lost in jungles with the mumbaikars like me in the group” I was trying smart.

“ha ha ha…but really mumbaikars do help each other. I can travel anywhere in the city without knowing a single route. People help out in general”

“yeah..that’s one good thing about Mumbai.”

“So u r a mumbaikar. What do u do apart from leading such treks”

“I work in Revosys as an Software engineer, but trekking is my first love. I’m into trekking since I was 13, almost 12 years.”

“hmm…that’s pretty impressive”

“What do u do? “ I asked to continue the conversation; we were yet to walk for an hour before we reach base camp.

“I work in Eros Consultancy as a finance associate. Completed my MBA last year, got this job in campus placement. Finished my six months training in New Delhi office, And now in Mumbai since last six months.”

“Cool. So what do u do in the free time?”

“I just forgot how free time looks like…the last one year was so hectic. I’m just settling down in my job. The work pressure is too much. I could come here because this trek is organized by our office, almost everyone has come.”

“Same is the case with me as far as work is concerned. But I make it sure that I finish all my work before Friday night…may what it takes..i make myself available for weekend”

“Cool. I wish I could do that. I would luv to trek every week end”

“oh…really? R u enjoying ur first trek?”

“yeah…I’m. See I already have one exciting experience of getting lost in the forest”

“Trust me…u shud hv seen leopard…ur excitement would hv no bounds”

“ha ha ha..don’t tell me…u must be joking. There are no leaopards here in this jungle”

“In fact, since last few days, leopards have created havoc in the foothill villages. So always be with the team. Over-excitement is bad.”

“yeah..must be” she grinned.

For next one hour she was continuously talking with me. She has a pretty face, with decent height, And there was something in her talks that I kept me interested all the time. By the time we reached camp, we already became friends and we shared quite a lot details with each other.

After that trek, we started talking to each other over cellphone..it was just regarding the trekking plans n all. She started coming with me on the treks. I developed feelings for her, but could never dare to tell her about it. She had no boyfriend and I could make that out. Otherwise which girl would join me on my treks over the weekends? But it took me four damn years before I propose her. In fact I did not propose her. It was Nisha, who helped me out. I met her in Pune. I got a transfer to our Pune development center. Nisha was in my project. We became friends. There were so many similarities between us. We both used to chat late in the night and that gave us time to know each other better and we became best friends. Nisha came to know about my problem. One day she said she wants to meet Tara. Tara was coming to Pune on weekends. I planned a lunch with these two ladies. Over the lunch…I introduced them first and since I could not think of anything, I started talking some rubbish as usual. Nisha intervened.

“Tara, Did Nishant tell u?”

“What is it about?”

“He is in love”

“What?” This ‘what’ came from both Tara and me.

“Yeah..but he is still afraid of telling it to that girl”

This was a googly and I can still remember Tara’s face at that time. I never saw such a confused reaction on her face ever. She was like

“What? Really?”

“Hey Tara, I told u about Nisha no…she is just joking….don’t take it seriously”

“Nishant!! ….You mean you are not serious about Tara?” Nisha asked me bringing all the expressions of shock on her face.

“C’mon Nisha…that’s not fair..” I said. It was an embarrassing situation for me.

“Oh…not fair? And will it be fair if u wud have never told Tara about ur love?” Now Nisha was at her assertive best.

“I was going to tell her…”

“Wait folks…what is this going on?” Tara was still holding the same expressions.

“Tara…look…I was going to propose you. I mean I was preparing my mind for quite a long time..but..”

“But what? Are you not yet sure whether u love me?”

“Off course I love you…but It’s not that easy Tara…I mean I tried proposing u many times…but” I couldn’t speak further…I turned to Nisha..”Nisha..I’m gonna kill u for this”

“You shud say ‘thank you’ to her Stupid” Tara screamed.

And that was pretty much the end of it. Tara and I, we always were in love with each other, but don’t know somehow couldn’t express it. And after this episode, we both got assured about each other. Tara told her parents about me. And I was invited to Jaipur. I spoke to her parents. Contrary to their image in my mind, I found them much more liberal. Her dad just cross-checked me, and I think I did a good job convincing them. My biggest problem was telling my parents about this. Due to my frantic chat sessions and phone calls with Nisha, my parents thought there is something cooking between us. Couple of times they asked me about it and I tried explaining it to them. I don’t think they were convinced, but somehow I didn’t find it necessary to convince them about this. Nisha used to visit my home frequently and my parents liked her too, she used to talk with them a lot. On this backdrop, one day Nisha came to my home. My mom n dad were at home. And she started..

“Uncle, aunty…u know what…”

“What?”

“Nishant is in love”

“I’ll shoot u Nisha, what r u doing? It’s none of your business” I shouted.

“Cool down…Why r shouting Nishant? She is just kidding” My dad said.

“She is not joking Papa. I was going to tell you about it.” I started. I didn’t want to repeat ‘the propose’ episode with my parents.

“Who is she son?” mom asked.

“Tara”

“Oh…Tara..the one who talks to you about treks?” mom said.

I was really embarrassed. My parents knew what I talk to Tara on phone. And that was true. I loved Tara, but the way we used to talk with each other, nobody would have thought about it. Those subtleties always went unnoticed from everyone except Nisha. It was all because of Nisha that I got formally engaged with Tara. And now when we finally got married, Nisha was nowhere. I missed her the most during those days.

After marriage, Tara also relocated to Pune . The life was cool now. After a year to our marriage we went to a Himalayan expedition. And there I saw her. We went to Dharmashala. Just for a curiosity I entered the famous Buddhist library and was just browsing some books. I heard familiar footsteps from the other side of the rack. I went there and saw Nisha. I was stunned. All the memories ran through my eyes. I gathered my words and called her.

“Hey Nisha..”

“Hey...” she too was looking surprised…or rather speechless.

“Where are u bro?” I said going near to her.

“oh man…u are still the same…” she laughed.

“Silence please…we are in a library” I said…as couldn’t think of saying anything.

“Then let’s go out of this place” she whispered.

We came out of the library. I called up Tara and asked her to come to a coffee shop near library urgently. I didn’t tell her about Nisha. She said she will be there soon. The coffee shop was pretty decent. We got a table beside a window.

“Yes Nisha, tell me….” I started…there were so many questions in my mind.

“What?”

“tell me…where were u? what r u doing here?”

“It’s a long story”

“I have whole lot of time…I want to hear everything”

“But I don’t have that much of time Nishant”

“I’m sorry…but you will have to take out the time.”

“Listen Nishant….these are my personal family matters..I’ll not like to talk about it”

“oh…personal matters n all...as if my marriage was a public affair of national interest and that’s why u were so keen to help me out.”

“That was a different story and a different time Nishant. The times have changed” She said in her usual stubborn note.

“Ok. I have devised a time machine. Let me take back to that time. Two and a half years back, your last day in office…you said you are going on a long leave but din tell me when it starts. And I still curse myself for not asking you the details”

“Ok. I think it is enough for you to know that my entire family was under threat due to political reasons and I had to move to a safer place and disconnect myself from the world.”

“But you could have at least told me this much. C’mmon you could have trusted me”

“And what you would have done? Tell me? Apart from asking me to take the police protection?”

“C’mmon. I’m not that naïve. I could have come up with better solution” I hate my jargon..but can’t help it.

“This was a real life issue Nishant and not one of your programming bugs” She grinned.

“Oh..So you think I’m good for nothing when it comes to practical life?”

“I didn’t say that…but I know how ‘the brave’ you proposed Tara and told your parents about her.”Now she was laughing literally.

“Okay…enough….now will you tell me whether you are safe? “

“Nothing is permanent in politics….friendship, animosity it’s all a part of the game. I think my family is safe now”

“What do you mean by you think? You still are not sure?” I th

“Do you really want to hear all?”

“Yes off course”

“Ok. Listen. I ran away from my family.”

“What?? Did they fix your marriage?”

“Yeah…I ran from the pandal just before few minutes of actual ceremony”

“I always knew that…ha ha ha”

“I could not have married that moron”

“Oh..the same Microsoft guy?”

“No this guy was different. Actually I hated them all…the entire family”

“Why?”

“Why not? Those were the people who wanted to kill us some time back. Because of them we were moving to places. My marriage was just a compromise. I felt like I was going to be a hostage to those morons, just to convince them that my family is no threat to them”

“Its bit confusing…. Who threatened whom? I thought it was your family which was under the threat”

“Off course my family was under the threat. In politics foes become friend and friends become foes. My family compromised with them. But they were afraid of retaliation and therefore it was decided that they will also have family alliance, and that’s how my marriage was fixed“

“Ok…so why did you wait till the D day?”

“I was not able to make up my mind… “

“hmm…so now you think your family is safe”

“Yes, actually they have regained that much of muscle power. I’m not worried about them”

“So… your parents know you are here?”

“Yes, I called them up once after a month of that episode. But you know the usual filmy drama. They said I’m dead for them and all”

“Sad..”

“hmm.....leave it. I’m happy now. I work in the library here. Life is nice and cool.”

“You are librarian?”

“No I work as a manager here”

“I thought that’s what is called as a librarian…the one who manages library...you know?”

“so you still are a developer?”

“Off course not.. I’m PM”

“What’s the difference PM or developer”

“Okay…I got it. You are a library manager.”

“Ha ha ha”

“I too will like to know how to become library manager in such a cool place…” This came from Tara. She just entered in the hotel.

“Tara…hey…how are you?”

“I’m good…where were you Nisha…we missed you so much” Tara’s voice was heavy with tears in her eyes. I always wonder how girls manage to cry at their will.

After that Nisha repeated the whole story. Tara became so emotional; it took me some time to bring her to normal.

“Why don’t you come back to Pune?” Tara asked Nisha.

“Now it’s not possible, I’m almost settled here”

“But what about your career, do you think this job will take you anywhere?”

“I don’t think much about it. It is just that I’m feeling comfortable here”

“And what about your marriage? You are already twenty nine I guess.”

A pain ran through Nisha’s face…I looked at Tara…she also noticed it. The next second Nisha started crying, it was very uncharacteristic of her.

“What happened?” I asked. I have no better words….or you can say I didn’t know how to react.

“You don’t yet know the full story Nishant” She controlled her tears.

“What do you mean?”

“While in Pune, I had a boyfriend”

“What? You didn’t tell me about it. Who was he?”

“I did not have courage to disclose this to any one. I was making up my mind to first tell about it to my Dad. But I could never do that. Then suddenly I had to run from Pune”

“Who was he?”

“What will you do by knowing his name?”

“I can help you for sure”

Nisha ignored my statement completely.

“You know when I ran away from Pune…he tried to search me every where. He even went to my native place. He somehow found my whereabouts and one day he came to meet my Dad.”

“Then what happened?”

“He was not able to convince my family members. But he was happy to know that I was safe. He told me that he will try again and he returned back to Pune. But it made my condition worse. I lost the trust of my parents. I told them that I did not do anything wrong, but it seems they could not believe me again.”

“oh..it must be terrible for you, where is he now? Does he know you are here?”

“When I ran away from the Pandal, the first thing my family did was to catch him. He was tortured to death in police custody.” Nisha’s voice was so heavy.

“What?” I was shocked

“Yes….that was what I came to know when I called up my Parents after a month” Nisha was crying like anything now.

“Oh my god” I noticed Tara crying as well.

“It was my entire fault. I should have at least informed him about my plans.”

Nisha broke out. I did not know how to react. I just kept quiet. I expected Tara to solace her, but she was also crying. Nisha had gone through so many things and it was all coming out for the first time. After a long time she got chance to open up her mind, it took her some time to recover. I had seen such things happening in films, had heard about them in newspapers but when it happened to someone so close, I felt a kind of helplessness. What was the fault of that poor boy? He became martyr in this family drama. I wanted to ask Nisha all about him, but it was not the right time.

“Hey Nisha, I know it is much easier to say all this …you might think its all crap as you had been through very tough times, but I think you should move on in your life. Living in this secluded area will not help. You will not be able to keep your mind busy here….the memories would haunt you. Think about it, come back to Pune, you can start again in IT. I can help you out. “

“Pune? Never. Without him I can not imagine Pune. I can’t go there. “

“So what are you going to do now? Are you going to spend your life managing this library? C’mmon Nisha you can do better”

“Look Nishant, I’m fine here. I live in the colonies of Tibetan refugees, I’m safe. When I talk to them I realize my pains are nothing as compared to theirs. I’m almost settled over here. I don’t want to go back in my past. You know what? you are the only people who now connect me to my past.”

“Don’t say that Nisha, your past was not all that Sad…why do you want to disconnect yourself from your past? And is it even possible that you can forget everything?”

“It’s not about my past. It’s the way I want to pass my rest of life. Please leave me alone. And please promise me….u won’t ever try to contact me.”

“Stop making these filmy dialogues Nisha, what’s wrong with you? You are so young, you have your whole life in front of you” Tara’s voice had a tinge of agitation in it.

“I wish I would have got my whole life with me”

“Again filmy…What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing….but it is not filmy, it is my real life….. I spent so much of my time fighting against all the odds. I feel like I lost 29 years of my life. Now I’m tired of everything and now I need some respite. And you guys would always remind me of my past. So please…”

Nisha did not complete her sentence but we got what she was trying to say. I felt as if there is something which she still was keeping secret. But there was no point probing her for that. She did not want to keep in touch with us. We were kind of hurt with that. We gave up that topic. We talked to her for some time and then we said good bye to her. We headed for our trek from there. It was not that easy to leave her alone, but knowing her stubborn nature we thought we will try sometimes later again.

After that we returned back to Pune and started our regular life. One day I came back from the office in the evening. As usual I switched on the TV and tuned my favorite news channel; Nisha’s photo was shown on the TV. Her work amongst refugees was praised. I got curious. I called Tara to watch the TV. It looked like Nisha was doing really good in her spare time. We felt proud….but the next emotions were not going to be the same….the news was to urge people donate funds for Nisha... she was suffering from a third stage brain tumor and needed money. So refugees with the help of some journalist were running this campaign to collect money for Nisha. There were still some chances. And then came the breaking news….”Nisha committed suicide”. It was all over. She logged off from life with her own peculiar strange way leaving us stunned and speechless.