The Full Moon Night
In 2012, I was a CA student in a vibrant city called Delhi. I come from a beautiful place called Jambu. None of my friends were into movies, and I was the only one who would always dream of becoming a successful CA for my parents, and an actor for myself.
In 2012, the movie Student of the Year was released. I asked my friends to join me, but none of them agreed. On the day of full moon night, I went alone to the movie in the evening at 5 o'clock. I reached the ticket counter and asked for one ticket for the 5:30 show. I found that the box office attendant was looking way better than the lead actress of the movie, Alia Bhatt. I
still have a clear picture in my mind of her beautiful smile and perfectly framed face. She asked me an unusual question, "Just one ticket?" I said yes, "Just one."
There wasn't anybody else, and she looked around through the window, smiled, and asked,
"How come such a handsome guy can be single these days?"
The moment she smiled and asked, I lost control over my heartbeat. My heart was beating at the speed of a bullet train. I let my flirty character take over the moment. I asked her, "Do you know the facts? In this world, the most beautiful girls and the most handsome boys are single, just because most people think that the person must be already in a relationship. And one more thing, I would like to let you know, that you are way more beautiful than the movie actress Alia Bhatt, and I am 99% sure that you are single." She smiled again, oh my Lord, please help me balance my heartbeat. "What should I understand by your smile? Are you joining me for the movie?" I asked her with a wide smile and 101% confidence.
"Are you just flirting with me or more than that?" she asked, looking straight into my eyes. I was like, oh my Lord, why did you make her so perfect?
"I am completely serious, but you have the right to choose whether I am just flirting or I am serious," I replied jokingly.
I had no idea she would get serious, and join me for the movie. She asked for my ticket back and I did give it back with a happy smile on my face, she cancelled it, saying that she was serious, but she would go to another theatre to watch the movie with me. The other theatre was in close proximity, just a short 10minute walk away.
She had completed her shift and was about to leave the workplace at 5:30. Before leaving, she asked me once again if I was certain to go to the movie with her. I eagerly reassured her, saying yes. She asked me to wait for 10 minutes. I did wait for 10 minutes, but believe me, I can't explain in a few words, what was going on my mind, and how I was dealing with my emotions. I was eager, nervous, and afraid at the same time. Those 10 minutes felt like an hour. She eventually came, and we walked to the theatre. We got to know each other a little bit on the way to the cinema hall. She was the best communicator I had ever encountered. Her facial expressions and word choice were perfectly hitting my innocent heart.
"We watched the movie together. To be frank, I couldn't pay much attention to the movie as my mind was filled with various thoughts. I found myself sitting beside her in the corner seat of the theatre, lost in a mix of feelings and thoughts. I couldn't help but wonder how all of a
sudden I was watching a movie with such a gorgeous girl whom I didn't know at all a few minutes ago. Was this preplanned by a higher power, or was it just a coincidence?"
There was a kissing scene in the movie, and as the characters on the screen kissed each other, Ruhee couldn't hold her feelings back. She looked at me and went ahead for the French kiss. I was taken aback; I was not expecting a kiss from her at all. However,
it felt amazing. My heartbeat had picked up the speed of a bullet train again. We shared the kiss for a few minutes. We both were lost in our romantic world, completely forgetting that we were in the theatre. Fortunately, I didn't have to worry about people, we were in the corner. She herself had selected the seat. My stupid mind was like 99.9% of Indian Girls never make the first move, but why did she make it? I was eager to ask the question and know the answer behind her first move for the kiss, But I held back, I didn't want to disturb her, she was so engrossed in the movie.
You may not believe what I am going to say, However, it's nothing but true.
Something unusual started happening with me after that kiss, I felt like I had known her for a couple of decades. Many blurry pictures and memories started popping up in my intelligent brain. Yes, you read it right, I said, IN MY INTELLIGENT BRAIN, because all the memories were from my past birth life. Memories of going to school and college together, getting placement in the same MNC, falling in love with each other, and getting married to Kalpana, the wife of my past birth life. We had a 7-year-old son as well, his name was Aayaan Trivedi, suggested by my cool and honest father. We were both from Delhi. It was memories from my past birth life. 21 years ago, we had passed away in a Plane crash during a business trip from Delhi to the USA in 1991, that was full moon night.
The interesting part was that she didn't experience anything like me. Oh shit, I forgot to tell you. her name was Ruhee, Ruhee Akhtar, the girl with whom I went to the movie. I found three things common between Ruhee and my past life's wife Kalpana. a four-fingered right leg, dark eyes, and a three-dot flat mole on her neck.
I tried to tell her as soon as we got out of the theatre. It was 9 PM, but she was already running late. Her mother was calling her, she was in a hurry.
Her younger sister was already waiting there for her with a scooter. She had told me not to say goodbye. she didn't want to get caught with me. She said that She would text me after getting home.
We had exchanged our contact numbers during the interval. I returned to my hostel with a puzzled and lost expression on my face. One of my friends noticed that something was wrong with me, and he asked me about it, but I didn't bother to answer his question, he had cooked dinner, but I wasn't hungry at all. I went straight into bed after spending a long hour in the shower, wondering about Ruhee and my past life's memories. I waited for her text till midnight, but I couldn't hold myself back, so I texted her to see if she made it home safely and enjoyed the movie. I got a reply from her 1 hour later at 1 AM in the night, " yes, I did enjoy your company and made home safely. what about you?"
"Same here " I replied
Without wasting a Second I asked the question, why did she make the first move? Her answer was mysterious. She didn't even know why did she make the first move? I asked her one more question,
Why did she agree to go to the movie with me despite me being a stranger? She gave me the same mysterious answer, that She didn't know at all why did she do that.
I confessed everything to her that I had been going through, my past life, and Common things between her and my past life's wife Kalpana. I asked her to meet me again the next day and see, how fortunate I was, the next it turned out to be her day off. She was exhausted that night, went to bed and asked me to meet in a coffee shop the next day at 8 in the morning. I couldn't sleep the whole night. The past and present, both life's memories kept fighting throughout the night in my mind. By the morning, I had discovered the address of my past birth life in Delhi, as well as the school my son attended. I had decided to visit my past life's family, I went to meet Ruhee first at the coffee shop She had invited me over. The most surprising fact was that I reached there 15 minutes earlier and I found her there already waiting for me, My puzzled mind kept wondering, why she was so excited to see me again.
Did she also feel the same as I felt the last day?? As soon as Ruhee saw me, she walked up to me with a happy smile and hugged me tightly.
I discovered the 4th Commonality between Ruhee and my past life's wife Kalpana. Whenever I would meet Kalpana, she also would smile and hug me first before uttering any word.
We talked on coffee about it, she also confessed, that she felt like she had known me for a decade. My mind and heart both were saying that she was Kalpana my wife in the present life, But the saddest thing was that she didn't have any memories or realisation of her past birth life.
I requested her to come with me to Vikaspuri, that's where my past life's Family lived. She agreed. I reached the place where my home was, but that Residential Area had been completely transformed into a crowded Market in the last 23 years. Hospitals, Shoppingmalls, and many stores had been open, but the park was as it was.
As soon as I entered the park, all the past life's memories were flashing before my eyes. I asked Ruhee If she could remember something about her past life, but she didn't experience anything.
We both sat on one of the benches, my memories of both lives were still fighting in my mind, Ruhee did something unusual again. She started kissing me right away, I stopped her and asked, "What are you doing, what happened to you?" " Oh, I am sorry, I don't know why I am feeling this way.,"
I noticed the little foggy weather, and I came to know one more commonality between Ruhee and Kalpana.
She also would become Romantic in foggy weather.
She wouldn't skip even a single foggy day without Romance. So far, I had discovered the four commonalities between Ruhee and my past life's wife Kalpana, And one more surprising fact, our birthday was on the same day of full moon night.
I tried everything possible to remind her of her past birth, but she couldn't remember anything.
One thing she clearly confessed to me, that after meeting me she didn't feel normal. She was experiencing Something unusual, but she was not able to figure out the cause of that strange feeling she was dealing with.
We went to visit Ayaan's school, and somehow we got a chance to meet the principal, I shared everything with him, His assistant laughed very loudly in disbelief after hearing my story, but fortunately, the kind principal was very patient and compassionate personality, He turned out to be a believer in reincarnation. The principal checked the school records and found that indeed there was a student named Ayaan Trivedi who attended the school 21 years ago. He was surprised by the coincidence and agreed to help me in my quest to uncover the truth. I was 21 and Ayaan was 28 at that time in 2012.
He was 7 years older than me because He was already 7 when the plane crash tragedy happened in 1991. He had become an I.A.S officer. He had completed his schooling from that school itself. My heart was filled with happiness, and great respect for his grandparents. They were not just his grandparents, they were my parents as well in my past life, believe me, they were one of the best parents, they allowed me to do all the things I wanted.
Ayaan was posted in Noida as an I.A.S. You might feel hard to believe it, but one more coincidence happened, the next day Ayaan was going to come to the school as a chief guest to motivate and share his journey with students. The kind principal asked both of us to attend that event the next day. We did attend that event. There were more than 500 students in the hall with their parents. My Ayaan entered the hall in a Black suit and frameless glass. He looked perfect IAS officer in that attire, and as soon as I saw him, I burst into happy tears😭 thinking that my Ayaan has become a great human being.
He praised our parenting, He also mentioned in his speech the difficulties he faced after that Plane crash tragedy, and how his grandparents supported him throughout his life. He also shared the quotes, that I had told him when he was 5 years old, "The ultimate truth is that nobody knows what is wrong or right, everything is belief and perception." "Honesty matters for everything and anything."
I couldn't hold my tears 😭, Ruhee was trying to console me, everybody around me was looking at me crying.
I saw Ayaan's grandparents, and my past life's parents. When they came onto the stage to receive the award for the best parenting. I immediately recognized them and again burst into tears😭, I desperately wanted to hug them, but I was told not to do so in front of the public.
The kind principal arranged a private meeting for two of us, Ruhee, and me with all three of them. I opened up and shared every detail I remembered about my past life, describing my experiences vividly. Tears filled the eyes of my past life's parents, Ayaan, and the principal as I poured my heart out. We all, including
Ruhee, couldn't help but cry 😭 for about 30 minutes. It was an emotional release, overwhelming but cathartic.
Eventually, As Ruhee embraced Ayaan to console him, memories of her past life flooded back. It felt like a floodgate had opened, and a rush of emotions and connections from the past came pouring in.
She also shared everything she could remember, but at the end of the day, we had to accept the reality soon, I was from a very Conservative Hindu family in Jambu and Ruhee was from Delhi itself from a Conservative Muslim family. We all decided not to reveal the matter of reincarnation to anybody, especially to Indian media to enjoy our private life peacefully.
We did lunch and dinner together. We talked and shared joy as much as possible. Later we had to be apart from our past life's family. Eventually, we all accepted the reality that we couldn't be together again.
Now, we had a very big challenge ahead of Ruhee and me. We never wanted to be apart from each other At any cost, in any conditions, but the saddest thing was that Ruhee was born into a Conservative Muslim family. Ruhee's brother was a mafia, totally spoiled and influenced by underworld gangs.
Ruhee didn't dare talk about our relationship with her family. She was afraid of his mafia brother, that He would kill me if he found out about our relationship. She didn't want to lose me at any cost in any condition. I was in my final year of graduation 🎓 I continued my study and relationship with Ruhee. We spent 3 years like that, but we both were fed up with that type of life living in secrecy.
We wanted to get married as soon as possible, one day in 2015 we got great news like
1947. India got independence in 1947, but Ruhee and I got independence in 2015 after Ruhee's Mafiya brother's arrest and was sentenced lifetime in prison, his offences were a mass Murder and Rape.
We both were over the moon that week.
The next week I got my CA exam result.
All my friends had passed except me.
I was terribly sad after knowing that all my papers had gone well. Despite that effort, failing was very unfair to me.
The biggest deal was that in CA Exam we never get
2nd chance, I had to start from scratch again🥲. Ruhee was more disappointed than me. My friends had already told my parents about my relationship with Ruhee.
I went back to my hometown jambu, nobody was happy at all, all my family members were angry 😡 with me, not because I failed the exam, because I had a Muslim girlfriend.
My father: " I spent 40,000$ on your education and you came back with empty hands, you didn't pay attention to your studies at all, and I know everything about your Muslim girlfriend and his mafia brother, you leave this house as soon as possible, we don't want to put the rest of my family members in trouble because of your careless behavior"
I told them about my past life, but nobody in my family believed it except my mother, they thought I was just making them fool and it was an excuse. My mother didn't speak anything, my family was completely patriarchal.
Ruhee called me in the evening to come back to Delhi the next day, one of her relatives was forcing her to get married to her son, I didn't have a single penny in my pocket, I didn't know what to do, I was completely puzzled, my family was not accepting Ruhee, Her family and relatives were forcing her to get married the next week, I didn't have any job, I had failed the exam, I was labeled as a useless fellow by my own family members.
All the problems had occurred at the same time🥲🥲.
I had to save Ruhee from her cruel, and control freak bridegroom at any cost in any condition, I knew she would prefer to die rather than marry somebody else. She was unable to complain to the police because her own mother was involved in arranging the forced marriage. She didn't want to involve any police or politicians in this matter, as we all know inter-religion marriage becomes national news.
Her mother had come to know about our relationship. Ruhee also told them about her past Life's memories, but none of them believed her words. I didn't have dinner that evening, I had lost my complete appetite. It was a full moon night, The weather was slightly hot. I went onto the roof to sleep, and there was
6/2 feet portable cot. We call it (Khatiya) in our mother tongue. I laid down on it and started gazing at the bright, elegant full moon and the bright stars in the sky feeling helpless and depressed. A few minutes later I got a call from Ruhee, and as soon as I picked up the call, I heard. "Adarsh, if you don't come back to Delhi tomorrow, I have no option left but committing suicide"
"Don't worry Ruhee, I am coming back tomorrow, I promise, I promise, I will be back, please don't think that way, do you think I will be able to live in this world without you?" Her mother came to her bedroom, she hung up the call. I got up and sat on the cot saying "Oh Shit" I closed my eyes and ended up shouting loudly to release my frustration "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"
I was completely broken from the inside, there was no scope for hope, I had promised Ruhee that I would come the next day, but I had said it to just comfort her. In reality, I had no idea whether I would go back to Delhi or not. I didn't have a single penny in my pockets. When I realised, No money, no support from family and friends. I laid down again on the cot (khatiya) and started gazing at the bright full moon and stars, tears were flowing uncontrollably down my cheeks. My mother came onto the roof to ask me if I had had my dinner. She noticed the tears in my eyes.
My mother: "Hey, my son Aadarsh, what happened?
Why are you crying😢? Get up and sit comfortably." I got up and sat comfortably as she asked. She first hugged me tightly, and said " Don't cry my son, everything will be fine. I can understand what you are going through right now, just let me know what is the actual matter" I opened up to her, and I shared everything that I was dealing with. My mother patiently heard every word I shared with her.
"I told you, everything will be fine, don't worry, you just wait a few minutes here, I will be back" I was feeling relieved, at least my mother came to ask.
She came with a black plastic bag and gave it to me. When I looked in, there was 12,000$ in that black plastic bag.
"Where did you find this money?"
" I have been saving this for a decade to use in an emergency, you need this now, just take it and go back to Delhi and save my daughter-in-law Ruhee from her brutal family, if this is not enough
take my jewellery with you." I again burst into happy tears 😭 I understood the real meaning of a mother and her role in a person's Life. She again embraced me in her arms, "I am going to get your dinner here, now eat something at least my son." I was not hungry, but I couldn't say no after seeing so much love in her heart and voice for me. She served the dinner on the roof itself and sat there beside me. We both fed each other Roti, Dal, Aloo Bhujia, and pure local Yogurt.
I accepted the money but not the jewellery.
I went back to Delhi the next day in the morning.
I had a dream to become an actor. Her dream was to become a fashion designer.
We both ran away to Mumbai and got married and settled there. We have been living in Mumbai since then happily, and peacefully, Now I am a successful TV actor. She is a successful fashion designer. We have one daughter, and one son, Kalpana and Ayaan.
Thank you for reading,
Written by: SANJAY KUMAR.
