Devastated

A Story by Madhavan

I stepped inside my once beautiful house. I was shattered on looking at the scattered valuables. One of my treasured gifts given by my love Sri was tattered and shapeless. I could not control my emotions when I touched the gift.
I was drifted to the past when she had surprised me with this gift. It was my 23rd birthday. I was the kind of guy who rarely used to remember my birthday. It was about to end like any other normal day, I little knew that it was going to be life-changing day.
I was sitting under my favourite neem tree enjoying the graceful breeze and reading Digital Signal Processing (DSP �" Degree Stopping Paper). I was sincerely taking notes in the attempt of maintaining my status to be “without any history of arrears”.
I suddenly felt as though someone was blowing hot air on my neck. When I turned my head, I saw my best friend Srividhya, a cute innocent girl with chubby cheeks, dimple chin and rosy lips, standing behind me. She looked at me in a way which I could not decipher. She asked me to close my eyes for ten minutes. I could sense that she was clearing the books from my lap. She then placed something on my lap. She closed my eyes with her hand, when I started opening my mouth to ask her what she was doing, she gave me a neat smooch.
I could not understand what was happening around me. She had not even sat near me till now, now she has smooched me. I did not know how to react. What did she mean by kissing me? She opened my eyes, took her lips from mine and ran inside my home with a shy smile which I have never seen before.
Before me, was a birthday greeting card with the text “Happy birthday to my love Sudhakar” which gave a clear indication that she did love me. Do I love her? I was not sure. She was always with me right from my 1st standard. I had always felt special when I was with her, but had never got a feeling that I love her. Below the greeting card, there was an album. I was shocked to see the contents. She had taken pics of me without my knowledge, it had photos with all my emotions. It also had photos where we had given several cool poses. Another shock for me �" there was another album with whatever things I had given to her, including a band aid which I had applied when she had got hurt!
What else will a guy do after seeing all this? Obviously I feel in love with her after seeing her being so crazy about me. I went inside my home in search of her, she was sitting in my room looking nervous waiting for my answer. I sat near her and turned her face towards me. She was still shy and did not look at my face. I snapped my fingers to invite her attention. She looked at me for a second and immediately turned her face.
“Sri, I want to give you my reply, please turn and look at my face”
“Sudha, I cannot bear if you are going to say that we can just be friends and that you are not interested in love”
“No dear, I love you, would you be by my side till I die?”
“Shut up, I will be by your side till I die”
I kissed on her cheeks and she laid down on my shoulders for few seconds.
*------------------------------------------*
Now on seeing the frayed album, I thought about my frantic efforts in reaching her mobile phone. Because of the network failure, I was not able to call anyone. Leave alone Sri, not even the emergency contact numbers for getting food. I still remember each and every dreaded second of the past three days.
I was having a lovable chat with Sri, she was on her way from her office. Suddenly, she cut the call as it had started raining heavily. That was the last call I could make on that day. I tried calling her again after an hour, when the network was not available. I kept the mobile in a place where the network strength would be maximum. Still there was no trace of mobile signal. So I tried calling from my landline, landline connection was dead.
Having no other option other than waiting for her to call, I started watching television. I was watching my favourite song “Munbe va en munbe va”, thinking how lovely it would be if she comes before me at that moment. Suddenly there was a power cut. I got vexed with all communication to the outside world cut. I could not even go out, as it was raining heavily. I was wondering she reached home safely, when there was an announcement “The nearby lake is going to overflow now. Please take your valuables and shift to a safer location”.
My family was shocked. Before we could react, water started coming inside our home. It came with such a force that we were unable to collect things and had to immediately shift to the first floor. The only valuable that I had picked was my mobile as I wanted to check Sri’s status.
In the first floor, we did not have any facilities for cooking. We spent the entire night without food. We were unable to sleep without power. Suddenly water level started rising and water started coming inside the first floor also. We had to immediately shift to the second floor. The next two days our life was a hell, we were terrified that the water level might increase till the second floor. Without food, my parents started feeling giddy. I felt terrible as I was not able to help them in this crucial moment. The network connectivity was still not available. I started shouting from balcony for help, when my neighbour helped me out with a biscuit packet and water bottle. We thanked them from the bottom of our heart.
*-------------------------------------------------*
After the water level got restored, I was the first one to enter our home. I felt devastated on looking at the condition of my home. But on seeing the shattered gift of Sri, I totally lost track of things around me and had concern on nothing other than Sri.
My network connectivity was not yet restored. I checked the landline, it was in a terrible condition. So I decided to surprise her by visiting her home. On the way, I was dreaming about the shock on her face, on seeing me after a month.
When I reached her home, a huge crowd was standing outside. I wondered what function was happening inside! When I went inside and saw her body on the floor, I could not believe my eyes. I did not want to believe what was in front of my eyes. I wish all this was a dream.
I tried pinching me to come back to the real world. But unfortunately, I was standing in her house to witness the most tragic moment of my life. She was electrocuted on her way to her home. I went and hugged her and cried ignoring the crowd that was gathered around her. My future had crashed before my eyes. The loss that happened in my home was nothing when compared to what I was facing here.