Happy Deepawali

Karte hain hum yehi kamana, deep sukhon ke sada jale,

Rahe door hi timir dukhon ka, har din hi samriddhi badhe.

Aalokit Sarthak dipavali, Pawan Preeti ki sada bahe.

HARSHit PRAFULLit jeevan ho, PADMA ka ASHISH mile.

Stuti Vedon ke PRAKASH ki, MRITYU par bhi viJAY mile.

PRIYA suSHOBHIT JYOTI ho, AADI se ant tak OM mile.

SHEFALI ke PUSHPA se poojen, RISHI gyan ki LATA mile.

POORTI kar de sabhi MANISHA, gaurav GARIMA samman badhe.

Vishnhu Bramha KAILASHpati, RAJESHwar ka dhyan Karen.

NEERAV shant amrit ka ARNAV, ASHWINI KUMAR pradan Karen.

Timir- Darkness; Samriddhi- Prosperity; Aalokit- Illuminated;

Sarthak- Meaningful; Pawan- Breeze; Preeti- Love,affection;

Harshit- Joyful; Prafullit- Delighted;Padma- Lakshmi;

Ashish- Blessing; Stuti- Prayer; Mrityu- Death; Vijay- Victory;

Priya- Dear; Sushobhit- To grace the position; Jyoti- Flame;

Aadi- The beginning;Shefali- A flower; Rishi- Sage;

Lata- climber; Poorti- Fulfilment; Manisha- Mental faculty,wisdom;

Garima-Grace;Neerav- Quiet as in meditation; Arnav- Ocean;

And They Lived Happily Ever After - 3 - The Dawn

The dawn brought a new hope in his life. The blood stains on his shirt were dry and lost the bright red tinge like his sadness. He was now more confident and started his studies. Sleep still eluded him. Dreams would disturb his sleep and he used to study all night and went for running. After coming back from running, he did pull ups, push ups with me. He always pushed for another set even when we were exhausted. I could sense fire in his heart reflecting on his face. Annual social gathering gave all of us a chance to see the changed Mahesh. He won prizes for Hindi elocution, singing, painting and running. He won maximum number of trophies. Applause never stopped for him. In the same program he became ‘Mahi’ from Mahesh. Students were chanting ‘Mahi…..Mahi.’ Even the dean of the college asked him in lighter vain whether there was nobody else in the competitions. I could see the expression of shock on Paro’s face. She left the ceremony after receiving her single prize.

Mahi and I studied hard for XII boards and appeared for PMT. There was no bound to our joy when we got the news of admission in the same medical college after counseling. We got admission at Sawai Man singh Medical College, Jaipur. Again we were room mates. Mahi’s hand was very good at dissection. Even our Anatomy professor appreciated his fine and delicate skill of dissection. He would work on dead body as he was doing surgery of an alive person. It was very difficult for Mahi’s parents to bear all the expenses of medical education. Scholarship was not enough as Mahi was very fond of books. He met those expenses by giving tuitions to some students of high school. When other students enjoyed movies, he was busy giving tuitions of Science-Biology. When others relaxed and went to canteen, he worked on his English. We were always together and often called by others as ‘KrishMish’. Mahi never talked with any girl. He never initiated any conversation with them, but would answer them very politely. He was hot favorite of all girls at the college, yet never had a girlfriend. Mahi scored well in Surgery and I did well in Medicine. We passed our UG and started preparing for PG entrance. We joined a multispeciality hospital, it was owned by Dr Uddhao. We worked their as residents,and handled ICU at nights. Mahi’s nightmares continued. Within a couple of weeks we became favorite students cum colleague of Dr Uddhao.

And They Lived Happily Ever After - 2 - The Transformation

Mahesh was glowing. I found him humming romantic songs of Kishor kumar all the day.

One day Paro came to me when Mahesh was not with me.

She asked me “where is Mahesh? Now a days, I find him roaming alone without you.”

“He must be busy with some activity. Why?” I asked her.

“I wanted to tell you that I found Mahesh following me on his bicycle”: she

“I think there is some misunderstanding, Mahesh can not do this”: me

“I caught him red handed twice and asked him why he was following me but he did not answer and ran away, I think you must tell him not to do this again or….. ”: she was serious. I was worried. I spoke to Mahesh but he was not keen to listen to me. Then the day came I always feared. We were at chemistry lab; I went to the teacher to show the color of my solution after titration. I could see Mahesh watching Paro. Paro went to her friends and spoke with them for a while. Then she returned with 3-4 girls accompanying her. She reached near Mahesh and started speaking something. I sensed something wrong. I could hear her voice but did not understand her words. I rushed towards Mahesh. When I reached there she was gone. Mahesh was red faced and trembling. Boys and girls were laughing at him. I took Mahesh outside the lab with me. “What happened?” I asked him. He was not able to speak. That was the first time he had that dream and woke up in sweats.

Mahesh was totally changed. His smile and the glow were vanished like a drop of water in hot summer. Humming of songs was replaced by deadly silence. His sleep was gone; whenever he tried to sleep that dream woke him up. First semester result were declared, I passed but Mahesh failed miserably. His parents were informed. They came and were shocked to see Mahesh. Mahesh lost weight and with dark circles around eyes, he was unrecognizable. His parents were ready to take him back to the village, as they did not want to lose their only son. I tried to explain that he would be fine within some weeks and they agreed.

One fine day I sat with Mahesh and asked “Mahesh! Tell me just one thing, why did you come to Jaipur?” He remained quiet. “Didn’t you want to be an influential person? Didn’t you want to be a respected person in the society? Didn’t you want to make your parents proud?” He was shaking his legs, stretching his fingers. The sound of his fingers was the only response from him. Now I lost my temper, I stood up and blasted “Don’t answer me you coward! You are running away from your responsibilities; don’t ever dream of becoming something, OK? Go back to your small village and live like a villager throughout your life. Let the people make fun of you.”

“Ye……sss! I am a stupid villager. I am a coward. I don’t want to live here anymore. Nobody understands me, nobody respects my feelings. I am wasting my parent’s money. I will go back to village and help my pitaji in farms.” He was crying and struck his head on the wall of the room. I stopped him, he turned, blood was oozing through his wound. I held him close, he kept his head on my shoulder and cried inconsolably. I let him cry for a few minutes and then made him sit on a chair. I wanted him to flush out all his sorrow and anger through his tears. I applied pressure on his wound and stopped bleeding. “Kkrish! You too consider me a stupid villager?” He asked. “No, I know you are more intelligent than others but you need to become smart,” I told him honestly. “Mahesh! I am ready to help you by all means. You can answer all taunts and mockery by doing that, which other people expect the least from you.” We were talking for almost all night. He was now a different person.

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And They Lived Happily Ever After - The Nightmare

“I was looking at her; she was talking to her friends. I could sense her sweet voice like ringing of bells. I was spellbound. Her beautiful face was like a princess, fair, pink, big light blue eyes like deep waters. Her neck movements brought her golden brown hair on her forehead. She whistled them away with a puff. Suddenly she turned and started marching towards me. Her friends followed her. She stopped in front of me and opened her mouth with angry voice ‘What do you think of yourself? How dare you follow me everywhere? Don’t cross your limits you stupid.’ My ears, cheeks and the whole body were turning red and felt like burning. I could not utter a single word. ‘Who has given admission to these Hindi speaking villagers?’ she turned and went away with her giggling friends. I woke up, sweating and still feeling hot. Hot glare of sun was falling on my body.” I woke him up as he was very uneasy and sweating. I was listening curiously to Mahesh. This has happened innumerable times. Every time he went to the bed, he had the same dream.

Mahesh and I are friends for more than 14 years. I took admission in Sandipani Jr. College at Jaipur. There were two people; I met on the very first day of my college. I can not forget them, one was Mahesh. I found him sitting next to me on the bench at the class.

“Hello! I am Kkrishna” I said.

“ Haan? Hello, I am Mahesh,” He said.

“Mahesh?” I enquired with a smile.

“yes, Mahesh” he was nervous, shaking his leg continuously.

He was from a small village near Jaipur. There were no facilities for further studies after SSC; therefore he came to Jaipur to continue his education. He wanted to become a teacher, as teacher and the post master were the only person at the village who were educated and respected a lot. He was a simple, thin, medium height boy with wheatish complexion and lot of oil in his hair. Anybody could recognize him with the fragrance of amla oil in his hair. We were allotted the same room in the hostel. He was hard working and intelligent. He finished his high school in Hindi medium. He stood first in rural division. That was the reason his parents decided to send him to the big city so he could become something. Second unforgettable person was a girl.

She was fair, tall, breathtakingly beautiful with big blue eyes and golden brown hairs cut in steps up to shoulders. She walked like a princess, straight and carried poise, her name was Ms Paro Singh. Mahesh and I watched her with our mouth open. Nobody could ignore her presence. Her soft and sweet voice added with an English accent made her unique. She belonged to a different world. Her friends and she used to speak continuously in English and laugh a lot at other people who could not speak English. When some senior boys asked some questions to our batch, she was very confident. Mahesh fumbled with words and then spoke in Hindi. That made seniors and group of the girls laugh.

Paro, Mahesh and I were in the same group for practical. Mahesh was very particular with studies. His practical records were always up to date. His drawing was very good. Paro always asked for his practical records to complete her practical book. One fine day I noticed, a pencil sketch was drawn on Mahesh’s copy; I recognized at once, it was Paro’s sketch. It was a very good sketch, so alive as real Paro. Mahesh never showed it to anybody. Paro once invited us at her house for her birthday. Mahesh drew a beautiful portrait of her. We laminated it and gifted her. She was very happy to receive such a beautiful gift with personal touch and she declared it the most precious gift among so many expensive presents.

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