No matter where you are in your life, you may be regretting choosing the wrong love.
You may repent of some bitter deeds you committed in the past.
What is it like if life luckily gave us a second chance? Can those issues be resolved at least then for a better life?
"Dude, it's damn cool!", complimented Ishitha, leaning her left ear upon the mobile on the shoulder. The clock struck seven early that morning. Ishitha smiled, as she pushed a spoon of baby aaloo curry into her mouth. Her buff-cut hair overloaded her cuteness as she bulged her eyes and nodded on either side. As she filled a tiny box with the yummy side dish, she commented, "Thanks for your observation, Nisha. I will ensure that I give unique assignments at least to my students hereafter. And your response was swag dude, seriously great! Students these days are just not studying. Remember our college days? We used to be very serious about academic assignments and do them on our own."
On the other side of the call, Nisha nodded, adding, "I don't know why students are losing interest in studies. I wish you and I studied together in the same college!" Ishitha chuckled, walking towards the dining table right outside her food factory. She replied, filling her lunch box with a few chapatis and hot white rice, "Dude, I was specific about pursuing my Engineering only in the NITs. But, there wasn't any difference except for the brand name!" Nisha chuckled, nodding and concluding, "Exactly! Wherever we go, we must study that's all!"
The two friends chuckled again, as Nisha tied her high and long pony with the smooth black rubber band. She, in her dark red top on grey jeans pants, grabbed her bag from the bed and wore it across. She left the room, hanging up, "Nice talking to you Ishi! Bye! I must leave to the office now!" Nisha put on her ID, comprising of a blue tag and white badge housing her young passport-size photo and her name in black block font below it. The tag's synthetic material had 'George healthcare' written in a cursive fashion repeatedly and throughout, from her neck to the metal connecting the tag to the badge.
"Congrats!", said Ishitha, smiling to herself, as she turned her electric stove off. Nisha shrugged, exclaiming, "What! Why?" Her friend began," Your love interest is finally seeing you!" Nisha threw her mouth open. Her fair and pretty cheeks turned a little pink; her dimple appeared as she curiously inquired, "How did you find out about Alok saar? I didn't even breathe a word to you yet!" Ishitha chuckled and smiled to herself, revealing, "Your guy has recently joined as a professor in my college..."
"Yes! Alok beta told me that Dr.Alok was invited to head the research department of their university. Oh yeah, right! You too are a faculty at Rishi University, got it now! I see, smart ass!", interrupted Nisha, sitting on the couch. "But, wait! How do you know your colleague's personal matters? Are you close?...", asked Nisha, at which Ishitha sighed, highlighting, "Dude, I overheard him talking to you over the call and investigated it myself...Just correlations. Don't worry, I'm not that stupid Payal to ruin my good friend's love story. Cunning chubby she is!"
Nisha smiled as tears flooded her eyes. She uttered, "Aww! Do you still remember?" Ishitha nodded, rushing as usual in her fast tone, "She knew that he loved her yet she pretended to be so innocent that she made you, another girl pursue him and even propose to him. She was clearly mocking your feelings. Love isn't a joke and this guy fell for such a toxic girl? Incredible! How can you see your friend falling for a man whom you know loves you? Such a sadist she is...I don't why she had to be so, for absolutely no reason!"
"Ishi, there were times when Payal used to listen to my romantic speeches on Alok saar. I used to feel that she was such a good friend of mine, sometimes, even better than you, my all-time bestie", Nisha recollected and shared as Ishitha swallowed her tears. "And she ended up doing this to me. She made me a joker. Love is such an expensive emotion. How could she mock it? Looks like she used me to test Alok's love for her. The worst part is that although she took my emotions for granted, she got the love of her life-professor Alok whom I still love truly. They are still a happy couple..."
"Oh boy! Why are you doing this to my friend, Alok sir? Just tell her the truth that you and Payal are no longer together. Tell her that you are a divorced gentleman longing for your true love now, finally, in your middle age. Tell her everything, man!", thought Ishitha as the scene of Dr.Alok requesting her to hide that he was divorced, flashed in her mind.
"It hurts when God doesn't give you what you deserve such as my true love. That's when I lost my trust in the almighty. The heavens were completely unfair to me!", completed Nisha, swallowing her tears.
"Dude, take a deep breath. It's fine! It happens! I too don't understand why the evil wins nowadays", reassured Ishitha, as Nisha nodded along and faked a smile at Sandhya who came out of the common washroom after her morning shower. "I hope you get a chance now!", wished Ishitha at which Nisha shook her head, whispering, "He is married, right? Although he is far better with me now...he gifts me, cares a lot for me like never before, sometimes we come closer...but it's too late for he is settled with his family now. His world shouldn't have any place for me."
"Bye!", winded they and hung up. Nisha leaned back on her couch and closed her eyes, as the scenes of her falling on Dr.Alok that night when he offered to drop her home after her car broke down, the mechanic delivering her car's keys and gifting what Alok had sent for her and them hugging outside the lifts as she freaked at the arrival of the ferocious dog, flashed within her mind. She opened her eyes, leaned forward, and smiled, looking at her reflection on the glassed surface of the teapoy.
The very evening, around five, as Dr.Alok entered the research lab-the only illuminated room of the entire corridor after college hours, the five teams of around twenty students from undergrad and postgrad, in all, stood up to greet him. He smiled and gestured for them to settle down. He glanced at the entire lab as his students, at once, got back to setting up their electrical breadboard or Arduino circuits while the others stared at their computer screens to fix the bugs. He observed the mixture of teams with girls and guys, some being only girls.
"Now, the lab sounds better with more innovative minds", acclaimed he, looking around and smiling as the young and budding researchers grinned."Update me on your progress now", ordered he, at which all the teams geared up with their laptops at once. He shrugged at them as they stood up from their seats and began heading towards him. "Sexy!", exclaimed he, at which the teams burst out a round of laughter. He laughed, questioning and joking, "How can I hear all of you at once? I appreciate your enthusiasm but I am a poor human, guys. I am not supernatural..."
The students laughed again along with him. He went to the team occupying the first row of computers. He gestured for them to sit along as he sat in between them like a leader! "Sir, our gesture recognition project is getting confused between the alphabet A and U, H and W...", reported a short and stout girl with cylindrical spectacles. Her tall teammate-a guy included, "Y and T as well. What can be the possible solution to overcome the dilemma of the model, sir?" Professor Alok nodded at the screen as the other guy stood in front of the laptop's camera and gestured a 'G' in his hand. "G", they read out as it displayed in bright green on their website.
"OK. Data augmentation can be considered to retrain your models. Guys, send me the images your system was puzzled at. Hurry up!", suggested Dr.Alok. The guy who was demonstrating their project responded, "Sir. I will Whatsapp them to you immediately." He grabbed his mobile from his pocket and forwarded the ten images from their group chat.
"Nisha!", exclaimed Dr.Alok, waking up from his rolling chair and breathing hard with his eyes raging at the photo of Nisha anxiously exposing her bandaged left hand and ailing in pain. As the other students gazed at him, he inquired at the teammate, "What happened here?" He wondered why his professor cared loads for a stranger. "Sorry sir, it was in our chat. I forwarded it by mistake. She is my classmate's mother who was hurt last night. Alok didn't share his Data Communications assignment due to the same...."
Dr.Alok rushed towards the lab's door, announcing, "Guys, please excuse me. Let's discuss your updates tomorrow. But, carry on your research!" The students shrugged, gossipping, "What happened suddenly?"The other shrugged, whispering, "What's wrong? I have never seen our professor hurry back home like that. Remember he always said that research was his only family?..."Their team nodded and got back to their projects.
Ishitha spotted Dr.Alok hurrying inside his cabin and barged in, reminding, "Team-10 needs review again. They were absent, remember?"
"Ma'am, your friend is serious. Why didn't you tell me?", asked he, with a mixture of anxiety and curiosity. Ishitha shrugged, rolling her eyeballs in surprise and thinking, "What happened to Nisha?" He sighed, wearing his bag on the back and informing, "Ma'am, Nisha has lately injured her left hand. I just heard about it...Didn't you know too?"
Ishitha controlled her smile, recollecting Nisha telling her about the prank she played to save young Alok from the pressure of assignments: "Dude, I simply bandaged my left hand and asked my son to shoot. It worked! Come on, students are becoming lazy nowadays...." She nodded vigorously, interrogating, "She told me over the call this morning. But, why do you care?.."
"Come on, ma'am! She is my friend. Why didn't you visit her?", shouted Dr.Alok, at which Ishitha stood startled. "Your friend is suffering and you don't wanna visit her. Nois friendship!", he screwed her, leaving his cabin and banging the door behind him.
"Ramlal, hurry to the university with my car", he ordered, over his mobile, tapping his hand hard on the corridor's wall.
Ishitha slowly opened the door and chuckled, grumbling, "Nisha! Dude, catch him firmly this time. He badly wants you to be in his arms." She chuckled, grinning and murmuring, "How much do you care for a fake injury, Dr.Alok? I have never seen him so tensed so far since he joined here. And, today, wow! Just let out your other face to Nisha and you will be the luckiest man on Earth."
Around an hour later, Dr.Alok reached the Sunflower Residency. "Sir, stop!", said a security guard, in a blue uniform, blocking his car. His driver, Ramlal lowered the window's glass while the professor, sitting in the back, bet his head against his seat, grumbling, "Apartments and their tough procedures. Fuck!"
"Flat number?", asked the guard. Ramlal turned behind to face his boss.
"Tulip block 502. Nisha Verma", answered Dr.Alok, frowning at the guard who then asked his details, "And you?"
"Oh god! How long do you take?", screwed the professor, at which the guard explained," Sir, we have been appointed and paid to safeguard our residents. It's our duty. Hope you understand. You ought to answer us..."
Dr.Alok joined his hands and introduced, "Yes, I am a guest here. Dr.Alok Sharma. You mention my name and my hosts will know!" The guard nodded and rang up their intercom.
Meanwhile, young Alok entered the kitchen to fill his bottle. He gazed at the landline ringing aloud. "Oops! Mom is downstairs and granny has gone to her bhajans. I hope it's not the annoying cousin maasiji or cousin maamaji.", he hoped, leaving his bottle on the slab. He picked up the phone just on time and nodded, approving, "Yes, we know Alok sir. He is my professor. Send him in."
"Why is Alok sir visiting us suddenly?", wondered Alok, waiting at the door. He opened it as soon as he heard the bell ring. "Good evening sir!", greeted he, inviting Dr.Alok inside. Dr.Alok stood silent and relieved for a couple of seconds, smiling back and wondering, "Does Alok beta have a magic spell? How am I calm after seeing him?"
No sooner did Dr.Alok step inside Nisha's flat than he called her out loudly, "Nisha!Nisha!Where are you?"
"Sir, did you come to meet mom?", enquired Alok, at which Dr.Alok nodded, catching his hands and asking, concealing his tears, "How is Nisha now? How did she get hurt? Why is she so careless and why don't you look after your mom properly? I used to be like my mom's shadow back during my days. You aren't as sentimental as me although you claimed to love your mother during the lunch break that afternoon..."
"Hurt?", thought the puzzled Alok. The scene of him capturing his mother's bandaged hand, pretending to be injured, flashed in his mind. "Oh! Did he too learn about it? How come? I only sent it to our unofficial class group!", thought he, replying, "Yes sir, she is fine now. She closed the door with her hand in between and got a little hurt. Nothing to worry about..."
"I want to meet her right now. Where is your mother?", demanded Dr.Alok, jumping to the point.
"Nice to see someone else apart from my family caring for mamma. I hope you somehow fall for her, sir!", wished he, answering, "She has gone downstairs to the park.."
"Take me there", ordered Dr.Alok, at which Alok nodded and closed the door behind as the two Aloks stepped outside the flat.
"Uncle, can you look after my house till I return? I will show sir, the Tulip park and return in five minutes", requested young Alok to the tired Raftaar, in a black suit and Lily Shampoos ID hanging from his neck; he had just returned from his office. The sweet neighbor nodded.
Dr.Alok looked at him and exclaimed, in surprise, "You again! Why are you here?"
Why does Dr.Alok care for Nisha? Is it due to friendship or is he falling for her?
Dear readers,
Thank you for following my series and reading the episode. Rate it and write your review, give it a heart and share it in your circle whenever you are free. Your voice matters a lot to me.
