Purpose of Life

A short story about a girl who is a software professional. An incident which makes her realize the purpose of life.

"ufff" says trisha and pulls the chair, as she comes out of a meeting with her superior. People nearby her cubicles look at her, she just couldn't control her tears, but she decides to ignore others and just gaze at her laptop which is locked. Nobody dares to talk to her as people assume that she is out of a meeting which was too furious for her..
Trisha is at the end of her wits and ignore others. She looks at the calendar next to her and realizes that it's hardly few days left for her to finish an year in this organization. She recollects the day she joined office, face glowed up, an attitude to accomplish the toughest challenges, a spirit to win in all situations.
As she was going through all this thoughts, she is suddenly taken back, and Disturbed by her friend as well as colleague and roommate, Avni. With low and pity in voice, she says " Trisha are you OK" . What happened.
Trisha just looks at her with blank expressions. Her eyes are red. She just lifts the award which she got last month for best performance in Freshers category. She gazes it for a long time. Trisha doesn't answer Avni and suddenly gets off from her cubicle and knocks the door of her manager. Trisha says" May I come in sir" her voice was shaky, mind full of thoughts, but she still tries to keep her voice stern. Manager calls her in, by looking at his desktop, he says " Trisha mehta, what happened, your voice looks dull. What's wrong. Trisha breaks her silence saying " sir I want to go for a long leave, I don't know the reason, but im over stressed, I'm under performing, I'm feeling lost" she just keeps on blabbering. Trishaaaa calm down says the manager, "how many days leave you want, if you want I can provide maximum of two weeks. But we need you at this point. Is everything fine back home".
Trisha doesn't say much. Except " two weeks would be enough sir. Thank you."
She leaves the cabin with small footsteps and facing down. She realises its late.
Trisha, a small town girl hailing from beautiful Dehradun, very smart and energetic, outspoken and very clear. An ambitious girl. Software engineer by profession and working for a top MNC in Mumbai. Very much focused on her career.
Trisha reaches home, she doesn't say word. Avni knows Trisha well and constantly worried about her different behaviour. Avni recollects that last week trisha was perfectly fine and what's that is bothering her too much. Avni says Trisha " what happened to you, any tough meeting, any one scolded you, what happened, yesterday few days back we laughed our hearts out, gossiped, what happened in just few days" Avni says it loud and clear.. Trisha runs towards Avni and hugs her tightly. Things changed Avni says Trisha with low voice.
Trisha goes to washroom and looks at her face, it looked gloomy, it looked confused, it looked depressed.
Trisha looks at Avni, She feels sad that even Avni is disturbed, looks at her mobile , missed calls of mom and dad.
After speaking to her parents normally, trisha goes near to Avni, smiles at her, rests her head slowly on her shoulder and narrates about what happened to her few days back.
" Avni, three days back, I was on the way to office on my sccoty, it was red signal. It was a normal day and was very excited as usual . A little girl dressed poorly, her dress was torn, she was hardly 7 years old I guess, begged for money. It's a usual sight for me and any travellers, I did not even pay attention, I gave her 10 rs as she was continuously staring at me which definitely made me uncomfortable. But this time even though I gave her money, she didn't take it, she was continuously staring at me,.. Avni I was really astonished and was not able to understand, what does she want. I looked at her eyes, it was definitely trying to tell me many things, I felt as if she wants to convey something, I became restless and also I felt uncomfortable. All this happened within 1 minute.. Her blank stare was filled with thousands of words, this was suddenly Disturbed by loud honks of traffic, signal was green. I just left. As I left, I saw that girl in mirror she was still looking at new as I passed.
Avni tried to calm her down, she said, " Trisha it's okay. It happens, there are many unfortunate people, u cannot do good to everyone. Its the harsh fact. Now chill, relax and rest, don't overthink, it will definitely not fetch you anything".
Trisha listens to Avni patiently, and with very harsh and rude tone she says " R u done, because this is not the end, I have more things to share" looking at this this reaction from Trisha, Avni feels that this is definitely something very serious, she keeps mum and listens to Trisha.
Trisha continues " I met that same girl continuously for three straight days, it started to become a routine, I don't know why she comes to me exactly, i was shocked, she doesn't even ask money. But today............... There was a long pause, Trisha grabs the bottle and drinks water, a room which is air conditioned, sweat drips out of Trisha...
Today I met her for again, its 4th time continuously, i decided that I will scold her badly and tell her to stop coming to me, again I was dumbstruck because of her stare, it was really pulling me. Again signal was green, this time I went but ahead, that girl was still staring, then after a particular distance, i could see that she was walking away, I parked my scooty somewhere, I don't know why I did this, I really was not under my control, I wanted to clear myself with this irritating suspense. I followed her carefully, she took a turn to a narrow, lane, it was a kinda slum, it was very narrow and definitely it was disgusting, not at all where Human beings can stay. I saw her getting into a house. I can see people stopping there work and staring at me, as definitely they would have not seen me coming near. But I behaved normally and I just stopped in front of the house, the door was opened, and I saw lots and lots of kids sitting inside, they all looked like beggars, few were disabled, I was really confused and definitely it was difficult for me to take this sight. I saw that little one. She stood up looking at me, i don't know, i felt something fishy, I heard some footsteps, I hid behind the door, but I could peep through a small hole, window was still open, but curtains were covering it. I heard kids getting beaten, getting abused. I was really shocked, they were tortured there and they were getting scolded for collecting less amount of money. I understood the situation and I definitely thought of taking the video, I kept my mobile camera, peeking through a slight window, with lots of difficulty, I managed to get some photos and a 1 min video. When I looked at it clearly I was shattered and broken into pieces. Few people observed me, but they didn't react, it was as if they also supported me,and they wanted me to do this. I was really not understanding, why I was doing this, what happened. Suddenly door opened, and a lady came out, she understood that i have definitely taken a look at the situation. I just walked normally, she could not say much, she was abusing me, she just looked at me, I realised that I was wrong, she did not understand that I have made the video.
Avni I went to police station, I submitted FIR, they looked at the video. I left to office, police informed me that if they raid suddenly, I have to accompany them. I was in office, it was around 3 pm , I got a call from police that, they were about to raid, and I should accompany them because I was the witness and first informer. I accompanied police, I directed them, police was without uniform a very natural situation was created, they went to same house, they went inside, I could not see much. After few minutes, I saw around 20 kids coming out of the small house, I could not control my tears, I was really disturbed by the sight. It was a minor case of child trafficking, police came to me, I just tried to wipe tears, police informed me that, kids were used for collecting money in signals, few were made to supply drugs, few were used for body pleasures, I stopped him in between. Police thanked and appreciated me, I almost unheard it. I was just continuously looking at those beautiful small kids. I just remembered how I was brought up when I was at that age, my parents gave me everything. Then I spoke to police about criminals. Three were arrested, he said. They said it may be a big chain, and they will investigate further, they took video and informed me that I have to produce this in court. I was just shaking my head. They appreciated my courage and Valor, and thanked me for my bravery. They told me that kids will be sent to a NGO. There is a local NGO Which takes care of them.
I could not look at them more and I came back to office. Manager called me to his cabin and discussed about some random project. Avni all this was looking so unimportant, I was wondering, we all are sitting here in office comfortably and working, definitely we undergo pressure, we are paid enough for that, we do see stressful Times and pressures, but we complain, we cry over things which are definitely not that tough. We cry over hikes, increments, but we are so unaware about the people out there, who are struggling for basic needs. That little girl, her stare, it was killing me internally, those kids, that sight, everything was making me completely uncomfortable. I came out of his room, pulled my chair and sat, Avni stopped her.
" This is where I asked you what happened right" Trisha noded her head. Trisha was really uncomfortable. Avni got her up, she hugged her tightly, and said that she is proud of her. Trisha just blasted her tears out. She was crying loudly.
Avni was hugging her tight and Trisha was just flowing her emotions out. She took her to bedroom, she covered her with blanket and told her to sleep. Trisha was bit better as she released her emotions. Avni understood the depth of the situation and she was well aware about what Trisha has gone through.
It was two days now after this incident. Moreover it was Sunday. Trisha was just lying in bed. Avni knocked her room and entered with juice. Trisha was looking better, she smiled at her. Avni told Trisha, suit up Buddy, we need to go somewhere. Trisha denied, but Avni forced her and after asking for many times Avni dint agree neither she told her about destination. Avni took her scooty out, told Trisha to sit back and not carry her scoooty. Trisha was confused, Avni didn't talk anything through out a 15 min scoooty ride. She stopped near NGO. Avni looked at Trisha and smiled, and told her to come inside, Trisha again denied. She pulled her. Trisha looked around, there were many kids, playing, few eating, few studying, Trisha got positive vibes after a very long Time, suddenly her face glowed, she looked around. They met NGO workers, they welcomed them, Trisha asked them about the kids whom they took recently from police, she could not control her excitement. She looked at them, and they were looking so fabulous, looking more like little beautiful angels, tiny tots. A complete flashback ran through her mind, and now she was extremely happy to look at them. They all were still looking at her, but they had that same innocence, a fantastic feeling for Trisha. It just blossomed her mind and she again broke down in tears, but this time, it was tears of joy.
Trisha hugged Avni immediately and thanked her for taking her here. Trisha told Avni, " we all are human, we can definitely make this world beautiful, few are fortunate, few are unfortunate, we can make things better by sharing" Avni I have realized my actual purpose of life, it's as simple as that. Give back to the society, the needy. It can definitely make this world beautiful.
While she was telling all this, to Avni, somebody holds her fingers from back. Trisha turns back and notices that it's same old girl, she stares the same way, Trisha again gets confused, but then, there comes a beautiful smile on the face of that small girl. She smiles and looks at Trisha, trisha is awestruck, she feels blessed, she feels that it was the sign of God to help her and that little girl was the medium, everything makes sense to Trisha. Trisha realizes that it's the most beautiful feeling of the world.
She asks her name.. NGO person says that she is dumb. She can hear things though. Trisha looks at her smile and calls her " Muskaan", that's what your name would be from now and just bends herself towards her forehead and plants a cute kiss.
THANKS A LOT FOR READING.

Author's Note

Request you to ignore spelling mistakes and minor grammatical errors. Hope you understand the message. Thank you.

Reviews

[Coyote Poetry]

A very good story shared. I liked the situation and the characters.
" we all are human, we can definitely make this world beautiful, few are fortunate, few are unfortunate, we can make things better by sharing"
I liked the above lines a lot. Good flow of thoughts led to perfect ending. Thank you Anish for sharing the amazing story.
Coyote

[Anish Gowda]

Thanks a lot.. thank you so much johh.. u have perfectly understood the message I wanted to convey 😊

[Coyote Poetry]

I understood and you are welcome Anish.

[¿]

Yes! It's more like Crime petrol or Saavdhan india. But I found it great as I also get in deep thought seeing such kids in streets. A few angels like trisha can wipe of the ruthless from earth!
Thanks for sharing.