Rishaan was running late for his viola
classes. He is known for his punctuality and today turned out to be an
exception. He has to iron his shirt and withdraw money from the bank. It is
going to be a selection for the international symphony and his presence in the
class is crucial today. He was racing
with time, when heard the calling bell. It was his neighbor aunty who had a
problem with her mobile. “Rishaan, can you please check this phone, my daughter
will be waiting on skype and I am not able to get connected for the past 15
minutes”. Rishaan, in hesitation, “Aunty, can we do this late this night, I
need to step out in a hurry ?” “No Rishaan, that will be too late for her and
she has an all-night party tonight that she cant miss”. Rishaan knew that he
being on time to the viola class is more important than debugging the not so
critical skype probel. But he spent the time needed to fix skype and flew away.
Rishaan did not realise the series of serious problems that he is going to face
because of (t)his quality of lack of saying “NO”
His viola performance stood out
and he, rather than performing in the group, got a chance to do a solo in the
big stage. That stage was his first step, after which he took a leap.
Kiara’s day extended beyond a
day. She is stuck to get the peptide pattern that she wants from the electron
microscope for more time than what she generally takes. This is a crucial day
in her 5 long year research. She is losing interest and was finding it hard to
focus. After an hour, she gave up and broke down. Her friends had never seen Kiara in that bad
a stage. “Come on Kiara, you need a break, lets just walk out, get some good
air and some good music. They should get you back” - -bunch of friends pulled
her from the lab and took her out.
Without being able to leave out her microscope and without being able to
be with it, Kiara moved out with her friends, with lack of control on her
activities. Music reaches you even if you don’t want to receive it and brings a
change in you even when you are not ready for it and not have any idea about
what it is. Reason being, music is beyond all logic and intelligence, it is a
feeling and is a language unspoken. Kiara, felt like a feather flying and she
flew where ever music in the air took her. She did not realize, did not care, and
did not know that it was viola that Rishaan was playing. “If music is the food
of love, play on” – Rishaan served the food, Kiara consumed the same and he
became a regular cook and she had her breakfast, lunch, dinner of what he
prepared. She overate and became musically fat.
Her peptides are stuck in the electron microscopy, waiting forever.
As days proceed, Kiara and
Rishaan slowly realized that, for Kiara, music become from “the language” to
just a language. Rishaan’s love has slowly sidelined music in Kiara’s life. Rishaan
realized this and had no clues how to take care, as for him music and Kiara are
equally and un-equally important.
Confusion slowly penetrated his thought and his life.
On a regular day, Rishaan was
coming back home and on the way, he had to go to a shopping mall to collect few
items for home. When he was in the billing section, that girl, who was waiting
in the next parallel billing counter, exchanged a casual smile with him. Smile
slowly modified into an exclamation and resulted into excitement. She ran
towards Rishaan and exclaimed, “Rishaan – what a day for me, I am your big fan and
the reason for me to be alive today is your music – Thank God, I met you so
close”. Rishaan blushed and said,
“Thanks for your compliment”. She continued, “I am Diya. If you don’t mind I
want to be in touch with you and I want to spend the life you gifted me with
you”. Rishaan became uncomfortable, but that could not stop the exchange of
their whereabouts and contact details.
Meetings become more frequent and
every time Rishaan’s uncomfortable feel was fluctuating. Whenever he was with
Diya, he felt warm, but the thought of Kiara made the warmth feeling turn into
hot. He was not sure whether it was because of his problem in saying NO or
whether he was really enjoying it. Pandemonium propagated throughout.
Can’t we share our affection with
all whom we want to? Why is the restriction of being coupled with just one life
partner? We buy garments of various colors, we eat various cuisines dishes, and
we watch varieties of movies? Why get stuck with one person throughout the
life. It is not about leaving one and taking other, but why cant we live with
everyone we want?
Then came a chance for him to
play in Sun-burn at Goa and he has heard Goa is lovers’ paradise. But he is
still confused about the definition and applicability for the “definition of
lovers”. Some how he could manage to fly
both Diya and Kiara and get adjacent seats for all three of them. Kiara never
liked an aisle seat and she sat in between Rishaan and Diya. Rishaan was
waiting for a chance.
In the middle of the flight,
Kiara woke up to go to the washroom. When she returned, she was too lazy to
push her way into the middle seat. And with Rishaan readily offering to shift
seats, the seating arrangement changed. With 20 minutes still remaining for the
flight to land, a sleep starved Kiara took another power nap, this time holding
Rishaan's right hand more firmly. Rishaan's other hand, though, nervously moved
to touch Diya's. Her heart skipped a beat. Diya pulled her hand away. But a
defiant Rishaan held her wrist again, this time firmly and more reassuringly.
The changing behavioral dynamics between the three perhaps gave out a
foreboding of what was to come in Goa.
When the flight landed at the
Dabolim Airport, Rishaan felt uncanny...his excitement seemed replaced by an
unknown fear that he found very difficult to decipher.
It was an easy task for Rishaan
to book adjacent rooms too. Rishaan was sure about finding an answer for his
feeling or, so called confusion.
His performance was splendid as
usual. Once he finished his concert, he was relaxing in his green room, event
manager Riya came over and exchanged all her appreciation with him. Her tone
was not normal and Rishaan was easily able to identify that she is high. She
literally flirted with him, with hands touching wrong places, hugging in
between. She very clearly expressed what
she is expecting from him. He could not control the treatment and just washed
off from the place.
After three days he received a
call from Riya, asking Rishaan to meet her in Colva beach. As Colva is not as
crowded as Baga or Calangute , he could realise what Riya is upto. He wanted to
put a full stop to this and wanted to do it in a decent way. He went to Colva
and waited in the coffee shop she mentioned.
Seconds fell into minutes and minutes crept into hours. It was
approximately 90 minutes since Rishaan reached Colva. He was about to leave,
when he got a call. “Rishaan, this is Riya’s PA speaking. Riya is in a hospital
and she will not be able to meet you. She wanted me to convey this to you. She
will get in touch with you once she is back from hospital”. Rishaan was
shocked, “What happened to Riya ? Is she alright ? Which hospital she is in, I
want to meet her “. “Don’t worry Rishaan, she is fine. She is in Apollo Victor
Hospital, Room number 231”.
Riya was un-conscious. Rishaan
waited. Riya became conscious and smiled at Rishaan. “What happened Riya, are you alright? You
were fine when we met and suddenly what happened”. After a big breath, “One of
our office staff, due to high and persistent alcohol consumption, spoilt both
of his kidneys. Atleast one of them should be replaced. It was planned only
next month, but he started deteriorating and hence we need to prepone the
procedure.” “Fine, but why are you here unconscious?” Riya smiled, “Come on, I
gave one of my kidneys to him and hence I am here with the trips “. “What ??”
Rishaan exclaimed. Riya’s PA entered into the room clarifying, “Yes Mr.
Rishaan, this is the peak of her good deeds. All of us have her blood in our
veins; she has helped us in one or the other instance. No matter whether it is
money, physical help or moral support, Riya is the go-to person for all of our
needs.” He left the room after saying
this. “Riya, I am sorry, I misunderstood your activities on the day of my
concert”. Riya smiled, “No Rishaan, you did not misunderstand. I did flirt with
you”. “Come on Riya, you are such a nice person, you are kidding”. “Rishaan,
Just wait for another two weeks, I will be completely ready and we can enjoy
Goa’s beaches and bedrooms together. Please don’t confuse about my good deeds
and my feeling for you. In fact you are not the only person whom with I am
flirting. I express whatever I feel and I do enjoy my life. That doesn’t mean
that I am bad. It is just that I am clear and I don’t have any hesitation to
help and don’t have any inhibition to enjoy the life I want. These are two
different things in life. Rishaan, don’t be confused, we change cloths
everyday, not only that it becomes dirty and stinky, it is also because we need
change. Again, undressing a garment does not mean that we are ignoring that
particular one. Be clear and wait for two weeks and lets enjoy”, she winked
wickedly and by then, Doctor came into the room.
Rishaan was out of the room
confused about whether he is clear about his confusion or he is more confused.
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