Sorry, You're Not My Type (18 page)

Vikrant kept shouting her name at the resort as loud as he could but all he could hear was his own echo. The other guests at the hotel came to him and asked him what was wrong. He showed them a picture of Anamika and told them how she had gone missing. The guests promised to alert him if they saw her in the hotel premises. Just when Vikrant was about to call the police, he saw Yuvi approaching.

‘Did you see her anywhere or did she pick up your call?’ Vikrant asked Yuvi with a worried face.

Yuvi remained silent and didn’t utter a word. He was looking down and avoiding direct eye contact with Vikrant which Vikrant found odd. Maybe he was doped out completely and had no clue where he was.

‘Speak up. What’s wrong with you? Did you see Anamika at the beach?’ Vikrant screamed trying to shake Yuvi from trance.

‘Vikrant, leave him alone. I don’t think he is in a state to talk. He looks completely doped out. Let him go to his room and sleep. In this state, he will not be of much help in the search anyway. Before he falls down here and creates a scene, take him to his room and put him to sleep,’ Sanaya suggested.

Vikrant took Yuvi to his room. He kept wondering where Anamika was. How could she go away without even informing anyone? Vikrant double-checked her room but everything was in place. She had not even taken anything with her. Not even her camera. He shuddered to think Anurag was involved in her disappearance.

Sanaya came to the room and said, ‘I think we should inform the police before it gets worse. We have looked for her wherever we could. There is no point in waiting till morning. If whatever Yuvi said is true, we should inform the police.’

Vikrant took all the blame on him. He should never have planned this trip nor should he have taken a step to bring everyone together. He sat on the couch weeping in Sanaya’s arms. He couldn’t find a way out and the night terrified him more.

Sometimes silence cuts deeper than a knife. Sanaya and Vikrant’s silence was getting to them. They had no clue whether to wait for Yuvi to regain normalcy state or walk to the nearby police station to file a missing complaint. Vikrant thought he shouldn’t have convinced Anamika to come along. What hurts worst? Saying something and wishing you hadn’t? Or not saying something and wishing you had?

‘I am uniquely different and I love to win.’ ‘Vikrant darling, don’t worry as I am always with you. If you don’t get your metro girl then we will be together.’ ‘Bhaiya or Bhabi ko badhai ho badhai.
‘Anamika’s words kept ringing in his ears. He looked at Sanaya who was fighting the tears in her eyes. They hoped and prayed everything would be fine by morning. Why is it that when things are going perfect for you, all of a sudden a million things go wrong and flood away the good? Life isn’t fair sometimes!

Mia Bella

15th September, 2013, Around 7 am

One of the hardest decisions you’ll ever make in life is choosing whether to walk away or stay back and keep trying harder. We sometimes take decisions and make promises and they go on to haunt us later on in life. One should not take any decisions when one is angry and should not make any promises when one is happy. Vikrant had done both. He had taken the decision of going on a trip when nothing seemed to work his way and had promised himself that he would bring back VAYU, but the night changed everything. I never knew life could be so unpredictable. So much so that within seconds you are lifted from heaven and put in hell to burn. I kept on thinking about Anurag and how the feeling of anger and revenge can actually devastate a person’s life. I was able to feel what Vikrant, Yuvi, and Sanaya might have gone through in those few hours of panic where they could see no way ahead of them. I could feel their pain. A happy-go-lucky girl who was adored by her friends vanishes in thin air with not a trace left behind. Even the mere thought gave me goosebumps. What might have happened to her? Did Anurag kill her? How brutal could a person get?

I couldn’t control myself and asked Vikrant, ‘Where did she go? Did you find her later?’

Vikrant took a deep breath and said, ‘Yes, we did.’

‘Where?’ Sakshi asked.

‘I was so upset and was just crying in Sanaya’s arms. My brain was blocked and I couldn’t think of anything that moment. Yuvi was drunk and not at all in a state to give any suggestions. I was alone and this terrified me more. I couldn’t send Sanaya anywhere fearing if Anurag found her, he might take her away too. Sanaya suggested I file a police complaint but I was afraid as I did not want us to land in trouble unnecessarily, especially because we had lied at home to come to Daman,’ Vikrant explained.

‘So did you file a police complaint?’ I asked.

I was curious to know what had happened to her. I kept my fingers crossed hoping she returned safely to the resort.

‘Yes, we did. I had no choice but to follow Sanaya’s suggestion as we had no clue where she had gone. With a heavy heart, I went to the nearest police station and told them everything. After a routine inquiry, they took her photograph and jotted down a few details which would help in her identification. They asked us so many questions and almost hinted at the fact that we were responsible for her disappearance. We were not even allowed to leave Daman as the cops doubted us too. We were helpless because we were in an alien land. They told us that they will inform us as soon as they have something concrete to tell. They told us to inform our parents till morning ourselves or they would do it for us.’

Vikrant put up a brave front but I knew the amount of pain he must have carried inside his heart. If just listening to their story was making me so anxious, I could imagine what they might have gone through. Sometimes it’s difficult to decide what’s wrong or right. A lie that brings a smile on your face or a truth that brings tears in your eyes. Vikrant and Sanaya had lied to themselves that Anamika would return safely but the truth was that she had gone missing for whole night and the possibility of finding her seemed very bleak.

‘Then what happened? Did the cops find her?’ Sakshi questioned again biting her nails.

Vikrant nodded and said, ‘The Daman police found a girl in the morning in an unconscious state. They did not give any details on the phone but told us to come to the police station within an hour to identify if it was her. We ran to the police station from where the cops took us to hospital. There she was! Our Anamika lying in a bruised state on the hospital bed! We didn’t know how to react when we saw her—whether to be happy that we had found her or sad that we had found her in this condition. We could see that she had grave physical injuries on her body.’

‘Who was behind her condition? How did it happen and how did police find her?’ I asked.

The girl who always seemed to smile, cried; who was always held together, had fallen apart; who lifted everyone else up, needed someone to hold her up. People come into your life for a reason; they shape you, they form you, they may even break you. Was Anamika’s meeting with Anurag a mistake? When Vikrant told us who was behind it, we were shocked!

Sometimes what you expect from a friend, you get from a stranger, and sometimes what you expect from a stranger, you get from a friend!

Is Friendship a Product?

4th October, 2012

S
omeone once said that death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we’re alive. No matter how hard Vikrant tried, he could sense he was moving towards a slow and painful death. Death of their friendship, their love, and their bonding! How strange it was that the day he managed to bring VAYU together, he lost Anamika! The day he managed to propose to Sanaya, he lost happiness! It was their first night together and they couldn’t even smile. Anamika was not his childhood friend but the bonding that they had developed in the past few months was something special. She treated him like a brother and her absence was killing Vikrant every minute. Yuvi did not seem very bothered about Anamika’s disappearance as he was never close to her anyway. He wanted to win her over and show his dominance over her but that night he was hardly in his senses to even bother. After coming back from the police station, they just sat quietly in their room waiting to hear a knock on the door by Anamika. But no one knocked till morning. Life without friends is like the world without colour and Vikrant could feel it that night.

‘Hi guys. Good morning,’ Yuvi said as he entered Vikrant’s room the next morning. Sanaya was asleep as she had been up all night cradling Vikrant in her arms.

‘Yuvi, thank God you’re up. What had happened to you yesterday, yaar? I have never seen you getting so tipsy ever. Please tell me if you saw her at Jampore beach. You didn’t answer yesterday and went straight to your room before we could talk any further,’ Vikrant said in a nervous tone.

‘Nothing,’ Yuvi replied in one word.

He seemed upset. Something was killing him from inside. He didn’t answer any of Vikrant questions which made Vikrant furious. He could sense there was something worse coming their way. He promised that he wasn’t going to let Anurag live happily if he had done anything to Anamika. Vikrant tried every possible way to provoke Yuvi to speak up but Yuvi kept mum. Do you ever feel the need for someone’s arms around you in your most trying times? Yuvi was feeling the same! When Vikrant and Sanaya told him they had filed a missing complaint report at the nearby police station, Yuvi’s face turned blue. He was shivering badly. Vikrant could tell something was going on in his mind. He wanted to confess something but wasn’t finding the courage to do so.

‘Why did you do that? That was not needed, right? We should have…’ Yuvi couldn’t complete his sentence.

Before Vikrant could explain why he had taken that step, he got a call from the same police station that they had found an unconscious girl on the beach and had admitted her to the nearby hospital.

‘Which hospital, inspector? Okay… We will be there in few minutes,’ Vikrant stammered and continued, ‘Okay thank you. We will be there.’

Yuvi was looking at him anxiously and by now, even Sanaya had got up hearing the loud ringtone.

‘What happened?’ she asked.

‘They have called us to Anand hospital which is located near Jampore beach. We should leave right now,’ Vikrant said as he got up to get ready.

All the way to the hospital, no one spoke. They had sensed that they had landed in deep trouble with no way out. Was she alive? What was she doing at Jampore beach in the middle of the night? Did Anurag call her there? If then, did he hit her and left her to die on the beach? Why hadn’t Yuvi been able to find her when he had gone looking for her at the beach? And why hadn’t she attempted to call anyone of them? Only Anamika had the answer to their questions. As soon as they got down from the taxi, they rushed to the ICU ward.

‘You can’t meet her unless we have done our routine inquiry,’ a senior inspector ordered us as we tried to get in.

‘But what happened to her and why is she here?’ Vikrant and Sanaya spoke together.

‘Is she alright?’ Yuvi asked in a low tone as if he was guilty.

‘Not really. We just had a word with the doctors and according to them, she has physical injuries on her body and is not in a stable state. She was brought here in an unconscious state and hence we have to wait for her to wake up as only she can tell us what exactly had happened,’ the senior inspector answered.

‘What do you mean by physical injuries? What do the reports say?’ Sanaya stammered.

‘It means someone tried to get physical with her without her consent. Now whether the intention was to kill her or rape her, we don’t know yet. But yes, he definitely tried to get physical with her. We think she was alone on the beach when this incident occurred. We got a call from a few fishermen early in the morning saying they had found a girl lying unconscious on the beach. When we reached the shore, she was not only unconscious but was also bleeding badly.’

The inspector peeped in through the glass door to see if there was any improvement in Anamika’s condition. Vikrant was heartbroken listening to all this and couldn’t hold back his tears. Sanaya tried to console him but it was of no use. Yuvi stood there with an expressionless face. Vikrant wanted to tell the cops about Anurag and the message that he had sent but preferred to keep silent and wait for Anamika to regain consciousness. All three of them went into the waiting room as they were not allowed to meet before the police inquiry.

Vikrant was extremely upset with the incident. A girl who was someone’s child, a girl who was someone’s sister, a girl who was someone in her own eyes had now been injured beyond repair. Only Yuvi knew what had happened last night. He wanted to tell them everything but feared losing them. Somehow he gathered courage and with a stammering voice he told Vikrant and Sanaya that he wanted to confess everything. Vikrant and Sanaya looked at each other with a quizzical expression. Everybody says love hurts but that’s not true. Loneliness hurts. Rejection hurts. Loss hurts. Love is the one thing that makes everything better again and Yuvi hoped they still loved him even after what he was about to tell them.

‘Vikrant, I know you won’t believe what I am going to confess right now but it’s true. Please don’t misunderstand me. I know I have done a mistake and I am guilty as charged. I am even ready to suffer for my mistake as I know it’s unforgivable. Maybe I will lose you all and will have to spend my entire life alone but I can’t live with this guilt. I thought I will not tell this to anyone as no one will come to know about it, but seeing Anamika here like this has shattered me. It’s all because of me. Things could have been different last night but I screwed it all up and I still don’t know why. I kept asking myself that why did I take that step but I had no answer and I still don’t have an answer now. I know you won’t accept it easily but that’s the sad truth. If Anamika is lying here today in this condition, then it’s all because of me. Only I am responsible for it and no one else. I don’t know what happened to me but… It’s not that it happened all of a sudden. Remember I had told you…’