“Suzanne”
The heavy voice of
an twenty five year and three sixty four day old boy, in a cold environment,
trembled as he tried to pace as much faster, so as to catch a pretty girl, in
black clothes and a sky blue muffler, whom he had wished to be his beloved and
for whom he had run, all the way, five kilometers during the time when the
beautiful moon is at the peak of its virginity. His voice had a touch of antagonism,
a glimpse of innocence, a stroke of intense remorse, a sigh of love and a
sensation of accomplishment, all composed alluringly in a single word which he
had spoken out from his red lips with an expectation that the name of her, if
she had heard might make her hear his heavy footsteps and she might become so
impressed that she might open her arms after turning back to welcome him and
his ‘foolishness’.
But to his fate,
the girl, who had been walking with slow steps, increased her push on the ground.
“Suzzzaannne…” the
lovely name of a ravishing girl was pronounced so well that it almost meant,
‘wouldn’t you stop my sweetheart.’
The girl stopped.
She kept her slim hands on her face.
“Rehman”, she
screamed, enabling her concealed displeasure to vacate.
“DO NOT COME NEAR
ME”
Rehman, the boy who
stood twenty meters, facing the girl longed for her to face him. He had
followed her instruction. He had strived to do that all his life. All he
demanded was that she must face him, she must talk to him about all the
contretemps which were generated in their lives, in a way she could tan his
hide, and in a way their liaison may have a new beginning, but all this could
ensue once she faced him, and that was what he desired.
But the girl,
instead of looking at him kneeled down on the dusty path on which she was
walking. She opened her leafy green satchel, took out a book, which she swung
in air.
Rehman jumped on
his feet to catch the black colored book. On the metallic cover page of the
book, deeply engraved was her name, and her book’s name. “VQYHA: A journey from
B to D”
“What is this,
dear?”
His tone was
unchanged, his expressions tainted.
“A return of love,
which you had been aspiring for”
Tears rolled down
his cheeks as he opened the pages of the book.
“Sometimes last
phases of one’s life are much more significant than their previous phases of
lives. They might not explain you the cause, but they may morally emphasize on
prevention and cure.”
“What does that
mean?” He yelled.
“Nothing, but
something which may be nothing but not anything.”
The boy closed the
book
“Open it, open it,
open the last pages”, said the girl.
As usual, he
followed the ‘order’.
What he saw, was
single lined page on which was written something with a pencil and a stencil,
which was almost illegible for him, but still he brought the so called book
close to his eyes. He tried to read.
“G…..F….no, not F,
E…..Q……..W…..Q…..V…U”
“What is this?”
“Isn’t it our
college name, G.E.Q.W.Q.V.U or George E Quereshi Wahida Quereshi University of
Venupur.
“Well yes…”
The girl got up.
“Are you all
right”, asked Rehman
“Yes I am, I want
to go to JEQUWAKVYU”
“You mean our
college……”
“My ‘JEQUWAKVYU’,
My ‘JEQUWAKVYU’”, her voice began to fade. The girl threw up.
“You aren’t all
right”
She raised her hand
“Please stay away
from me, as far as you can…”
“Look, you need a
doctor…”
“Happy Birthday Mr.
26”
She fell down on
the ground.
------0 (~) 0------
Loads and loads of
fire, in the middle of which lied myself, in a state of shock. As I was falling
in the profundity of fire, I began observing something contouring. I began
seeing a black impression of a number. Two and six, the number was twenty six.
The time it took for appearing, the same it retook for vanishing. At the
instance when the number faded, I opened my eyes.
“So it was a dream”
“Oh god”, I sighed. I
got up from my bed. I drank water. Two glasses, three and then four. I washed
my face. I started brushing my teeth. As I switched the television on, the
doorbell clinked.
“Good Morning Sir,”
said Mr. Jonathan Ray as I opened the door.
“Good Morning, Mr.
Ray. Come. Sit. Did you have coffee?”
“Yes Sir. I ordered
for you too”
“Oh! Thank You Mr. Ray!”
I, Manish Chhabra,
Executive Manager, Maryloc Inc., with my colleague, Mr. Jonathan Ray was
representing our company at the ‘BizFest Convo’ which was going to take place
at New Delhi, India. It was an extremely huge event in which nearly four
hundred companies, all over the world were participating. I was selected by our
CEO, Mrs. Aradhya Vyasa to represent our company among the top companies of the
world, and not to say, I did not want this opportunity to escape my destiny.
We were in Hotel
Oberoi, in Delhi, when my phone rang.
“Hello”
“Manish”
“Yes”
“This is Bhargavi”
“Hey… Bhargavi
Mishra, right?”
“Well, well, well,
finally I’ve reached you.”
“Oh buddy! How are
you?”
“Well I am fine, but
someone is not fine”
“Who”, I felt myself
in tension.
“Do you remember
‘Ayushi’?”
I felt my mouth open.
Ayushi, a name which had crossed my ears after three years. A name which had
become my companion in my bad times, a name which was with me even when I was
not in a condition to support myself. A name which had supported me. A name for
which I had lived for years. A name for which I left her.
“Hello”
“Yes, Yes, Yes, I
remember.
“How can you say
that? You know, you cannot forget her”, she said.
“What happened”, I
ignored her.
“Listen, when I was
talking to her, on phone yesterday, she was extremely tense. She was thrown out
of her company. When I asked her the reason she denied to tell me and at the
same time here phone cut. I tried many times, but I could not reach her.”
My heart started
throbbing fast.
‘Was she the same,
Suzanne’
“Where is she now”, I
asked
“I don’t know but
yesterday she was in Delhi.”
“Where are you now?”
“I am at IGI Airport,
waiting for my flight”.
“Can you give me her
number?”
“Well, Ok!”
I dialed her number.
No one picked up.
I redialed her
number. The ring was almost completed when someone picked up the call.
“Yes”, a hoarse voice
of a man welcomed me.
“Can I talk to Ayushi
Mehta?”
“Who are you?”
“This is Manish,
Manish Chhabra.”
“Ayushi is dead”
“No, Ayushi cannot
die”
“Ayushi, is dead
beta, I am his father speaking. Her dead body is lying in front of me”, the
man’s voice softened.
The phone dropped
from my hands.
------0 (~) 0------
Rehman picked up
the book, with intense labour. On it was engraved ‘VQYHA: A journey from B to
D’. He opened the book. Nothing was either printed or written on it. He turned
the page, nothing again. He started turning the page faster nothing was written
in it. All of a sudden he recalled something. He turned to the last page. The
seven letters were missing. He closed the book.
‘VQYHA: A journey
from B to D’. Some thing is there in ‘VQYHA’. He tried to analyze the word.
What is there in this word? Something hidden, something unexpected.
What…is…the…hidden…secret…?
“Lets say, V for
22, Q for 17, Y for 25, H for 8, A for 1. If we subtract each of them from …
from … from … 26 yes, total number of alphabets, we get 4, 9, 1, 18, 25, that
is, D, I, A, R, Y. Diary. So this is a diary! And if we apply this to
G.E.Q.W.Q.V.U…!”
