A Silent Promise

SRISHTI PUBLISHERS & DISTRIBUTORS

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editorial@srishtipublishers.com

First published by

Srishti Publishers & Distributors in 2015

Copyright © Namrata Gupta, 2015

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This is a work of fiction. The characters, places, organisations and events described in this book are either a work of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publishers.

To my family, whose thumbs up

every time I wrote a chapter,

made me write even more.

CONTENTS

Red and White

Struggle

Endearment

Betrayal or Misunderstanding?

Soul-Searching

Freshers’ Party

The Universe and Me

Keith Sir

Birthday

Avowal

When Life Took a Turn

Exams

Exposure

Genesis

Declaration of Love

Union

Blossom

Fun and Frolic

Destiny

The Fall of Humanity

Life Afterwards

Red and White

I was climbing up the stairs with someone. I don’t know who that person was. I looked to my left, but all I could see was tall red walls with magnificent architecture. I looked straight ahead. I could see a chamber with white walls, a white ceiling and a white floor. Red and white were the only colours I could see around, like a newlywed bride who focuses incessantly on her bangles of the same colours, carrying with them dreams for the future. While the two of us walked up the stairs, heading towards the chamber, something was stopping me from seeing his face. All I could figure out was his black coat, black tie, white shirt and black pants. His face was blurred, just like the surroundings. Everything was hazy. Like the vision of a person who wasn’t wearing his high powered spectacles. Suddenly he took my hands in his and looked at me. A feeling of warmth, love and compassion ran through my heart like blood through veins. I still couldn’t see him, but I got the feeling that I didn’t need to. That touch, that feeling was what I knew, what I trusted. We walked inside the chamber and I ran towards the balcony. The doors leading towards the balcony were open. I took a deep breath and felt the lovely soft breeze. I examined the architectural design of the walls very closely. I wanted to imprint them on my mind. I could envision how someone standing outside would see me… as a woman standing in the balcony of the Red Fort. Suddenly I could see the big picture. It was the Red Fort.

I heard a voice. I looked back, but it was dark. I could see a shadow trying to break us apart and take him away from me. I kept trying to hold on to his hand, but was overpowered. I could see him receding into the abyss of darkness and tears rolled down my cheeks with each step he took away from me. I tried to run into the darkness but it was repelling me, making me feel helpless. I saw the darkness coming towards me as if to swallow me. I was shouting and screaming when suddenly I heard…

Wake up! Wake up!

Someone was shaking and tickling me.

You are late. Wake up!

It was my mother.

Mom! I dreamt about it again! I said.

You are just imagining things. Come on now! Get up! You are already late. Don’t think about that. It was just a dream. The more you’ll ignore it, the better you’ll feel, she replied

It was my third day of college. As a fresher, the first two days hadn’t gone too well as I was in no mood to have fun. I would go to college unwillingly. I had recently broken up with the love of my life. I could think of nothing but him. I had made a few friends in college, but not many. Being an introvert and not being a huge fan of talking incessantly, I never had many friends anyway.

Our driver dropped me to college every day, and that day was no different. After entering the college, I headed for the notice board. One of the recent notices stated that the first year students had to go to the library to collect their provisional library cards. I did as instructed. After standing in the queue for an hour, which seemed more like an eternity, the librarian asked, Course?

English Honours, I replied

Admission Number? he asked.

It’s 5032, I replied

Avantika Sareen? He asked

Yes.

He handed over to me the four library cards with ‘Hindu College, University of Delhi’ written on them.

I was late for my class, thanks to the queue; the teacher allowed me to get in, thanks to it being just the third day of college.

Struggle

Some hope held together by a string of imagination,

Some wishes keeping me alive with an aroma of expectation.

We facing the world together is the only thing I once believed,

Without you it has been ages since I’ve existed and not lived,

Every hour, every minute, every second when I breathe,

A bunch of memories of pain and anguish I wreathe,

Wouldn’t God scorn at the idea of separating two souls and use his power,

Or will I have to lie in my grave without receiving from you, some flowers?

Is this the way by which happiness of my life would end,

Or will I receive with this pain, laughter to blend?

The great lovers of this universe have never been together,

But didn’t you say that our love was forever?

You never meant a word you had said and always lied,

I’ve paid the price of trusting you and every night I've cried.

I know our souls are very far away, yet it feels so near,

I’ve already lost you, then why this fear?

When I got you, I felt like a princess without having been crowned,

With the solemn pledges of love, weren’t we bound?

I loved you so much, yet you put me aside,

And this is how the scars of your love leave me,

Smiling from outside but dying from inside.

Every night I used to read this poem I had written not long ago; it reminded me of what I had lost.

A month had passed since I had heard from Aarav, my love, and two weeks since college had started. In these two weeks, I had done nothing besides weeping and writing poems. While the others were busy finding new boyfriends and girlfriends, I was waiting for Aarav to come back. I didn’t like to stay in college for long hours, though I always checked Aarav’s last seen on WhatsApp every hour. Being at home made me feel closer to him. Perhaps because he lived close to my house. I hoped every day that he would come back, but deep inside I knew that he wasn’t a one-woman man.

Since, these were the initial days of college, we didn’t have many classes to attend. Irrespective of what class I attended, I could concentrate only for the first fifteen minutes.

I found one of my professors very cute, but then, it was not love. There were many boys in my college whom I liked but then again, it wasn’t love. I didn’t hang out much during those two weeks, for I had no good friends till then. It was also due to the eagerness of reaching home early so that I could take off the cover of the smiling face hiding my sadness. I had visited the Kamla Nagar market once though, a must visit for the students of North Campus of Delhi University, but only to buy books.

It was Monday again. In order to hide my poems from my mother, I used to keep them in my college handbag. I put the recent one in my college register.

Hey Avantika! You left this, Anamika said.

Anamika, Ritvik and Manvika were the people with whom I bonded well. Anamika was holding out a sheet of paper. She handed it over to me. It was my recent poem.

From where did you get this? I asked and was embarrassed at the thought of her having read its contents.

It had fallen down when you were taking your register from me. I noticed it later. It is good by the way. I like the way you write. You never told me that you write poems too.

Oh yes, I do. Thank you, I said.

Wow! I write poems too. By the way, may I know whom is it addressed to? she asked.

Nobody. I was just getting bored so I wrote it. Nothing serious, I replied, folding the paper and trying to divert her attention towards her crush. She was single.

Look he’s coming. Right behind you, I said.

Don’t change the topic. Come on! You can tell me. Who’s he? she persisted.

Nobody, I replied.

Really? she asked.

Okay. I had a boyfriend. We broke up. I got emotional thinking about the past one day and wrote it.

You loved him? she asked.

Yes, I replied, clearing my throat.

Awww. Don’t worry. We’ll look for a new guy for you. Come, come. Forget that jerk.

I smiled and went with her. From that day, we got really close.

Endearment

Visiting Aarav’s Facebook profile was like my daily pilgrimage. That one night was no different. It read:

‘Aarav Sharma was tagged in a video’ – 2 likes.

‘Aarav Sharma added a new photo’ – 23 likes.

‘Aarav Sharma was tagged in a photo’ – 16 likes.

He had ten subscribers, five subscriptions and thirty-eight profile pictures. Suddenly, a chat box popped up on my screen interrupting my ‘investigation’.

Hey! We were in the same school at some point of time, right? It said.

I had recently added a guy named Rohit on Facebook. It was him.

Hey! Yes, we were. You shifted to some other school later, right?

Yes. I went to DPS Mathura Road.

Oh great! So which college? I typed.

Hindu. What about you?

Whoa! I’m in Hindu too. Which course?

Economics Hons. Never seen you in college. Which course are you in?

English Hons, I replied.

Where do you put up?

Defence Colony. What about you?

Hauz Khas.

Oh! Okay. Which stream were you in?

Science. And you? he asked.

Me too. So, you too weren’t interested in Science courses like me? :-P I typed with a smile on my face.

Nopes. Economics interested me more.

Cool!

We should meet up in college some day.

Something felt right about this chat, about him. He had a nice DP too!

Yeah..We will :-D I typed. My face was brimming with happiness by then.

How will I contact you? Can I have your digits?

We exchanged numbers.

I gotta go now. Feeling sleepy. Catch you later. Good night. I wrote.

Sure. Good night.

I don’t know why but I was kind of looking forward to meeting him. Somewhere deep inside, I felt that this was the universe telling me that I should move on. That probably explains why I couldn’t sleep that night.

•

The next day, I was dressed in my best. I wore my favourite blue and black top with blue jeans. I didn’t walk around much in college lest I displeased my very well combed hair. It was 10.30 a.m. when I received a text message from him. I had been waiting for it since 8.00 a.m. I was in a very boring class at that time and he had asked me to come to the canteen.

I’m in a class right now. Can’t we meet around 12:15? I’ve two consecutive classes of the same teacher actually. I replied in an instant.

I am going home in an hour. Came his reply.

Huh! Can’t he wait! It was his mistake! If he had texted earlier, I would’ve never gone for that boring and irritating class.

Hey! My teacher has just announced that he will give us a break in between. So, as soon as I get free, I’ll come. Wait there only.