Mihir and He....

Neha had taken a long holiday when she was tired of her regular office work. Piles of files, hours in front of computers, 12 hrs. A day and 6 days a week had made her sick. One Sunday off in a week was not enough for her to get the mind fresh and to hunt good things around. She decided to go to her aunt’s town which was hundred kilometers away from her home. Her aunt use to live in society near to the IT Park of the town. The society included 6 multi storied buildings facing each other and a beautiful society garden at the center space between the buildings. Each building had 12 floors and 8 identical apartments facing at each floor. A garden, a swimming pool and a tennis court on the top of celebration hall besides the garden were making the society a best place to live. Neha’s aunt Kavya was a professor and use to live in this society from last 6 years. Kavya aunt had always been a special and close person to Neha. Aunt’s nature and activities had always won Neha’s heart. That’s the reason Neha decided to spend her holidays here.

A cab dropped Neha outside the society and she started walking inside through the main gate. She heard a girl talking to the security guard who much seemed like complaining about something towards him. Ignoring the discussion between the girl and the guard Neha headed straight to the flat number C406. She almost forgot her fatigues when aunt opened the door and hugged her like her own daughter. Next day morning she woke up early and opened the door to collect the newspaper delivered by a kid outside the door. She saw a girl on the floor near flat no 408. This was the same girl which Neha saw at the main gate. Because of her talkative nature and habit of making friends, Neha had good relations with some of the neighbors here. But she found her new here. So she asked aunt about the girl on which aunt replied, “she is Mihir, our new neighbor. She shifted here 6 months before. Her brother used to live here earlier. Now she alone stays here.” Neha nodded aunt and went to pick up the call on her mobile ringing in the hall.

Three days had passed and Neha was now completely out of her fatigue. Neha was happy and was feeling comfortable and relax here. That day while Neha was going out for market, she heard Mihir talking to someone in her apartment in high tone. She was arguing with someone. Meanwhile in three days Neha saw Mihir Few more times behaving in uncommon manner and talking to someone on phone in a worried tone. Neha asked aunt “Mihir stays here alone right? But I heard her fighting with someone in her apartment. Does she have a boyfriend” Aunt ignored Neha and changed the topic. Neha too forgot her question and continued with other discussion.

Next day evening while Neha was returning form jogging and was about to ring doorbell of aunt’s apartment, she saw Mihir siting on the chair and talking to someone. Mihir had left her door open. Two coffee cups were kept on the table opposite to Mihir. The other person in front of her was not visible as the person was behind the wall. Neha observed Mihir for couple of minutes. Mihir was so deeply involved into the conversation that she didn’t notice Neha watching at her. Neha rushed to aunt and asked her about Mihir. Aunt told Neha just to go back and stand near their apartment’s door and watch at Mihir for few more minutes. Neha came out of the home and stood near the door from where Mihir was visible to her. Mihir’s voice was audible to Neha. Mihir was talking to her boyfriend. She was telling him how much she loves him and how much he loves her. She was telling old incidents of their relationship. She was initially picking up her coffee mug and sipping the coffee while talking. Once the coffee was finished, she finally put the mug down. The other mug was like already finished by her boyfriend. Mihir’s voice was now loud and clearly audible to Neha. Her tone had changed. Suddenly Mihir started crying and convincing him about not to leave her. She was telling loudly, “Please don’t go. Please don’t leave me, I love you a lot. ”. A tensed voice of Mihir had increased Neha’s heartbeats. She was scared by thinking why her boyfriend is so silent and not answering when Mihir is being so serious.

Neha went back into aunt’s house. Aunt’s family was at dinner table. Aunt and her husband were into some important discussion so Neha couldn’t ask about Mihir. Even after the dinner she did not get a chance to ask about Mihir. Neha went in to her room. She was thinking about Mihir. It was 1 in the night now and Neha was not able to sleep. She had heard almost every word that Mihir was saying. Tik-tik voice of second’s hand of wall clock was breaking the silence of the room. Although, a high noise of thoughts in Neha’s head was breaking her internal silence. “Don’t leave me. I love you. I beg you. Be with me”, screams of Mihir were ringing in her head loudly.

Neha couldn’t sleep that night. She Woke up and headed the main door to collect the newspaper. What she saw outside the door was shocking for her. Mihir was perfectly alright and was doing exercise in front of her door. Sun was showering Mihir fresh morning light from opening of the wall of the building facing towards east. Mihir had put the earphones ON and she was taping her foot probably on the music in her ears. She was looking fresh. Couple of hours latter Neha saw Mihir going outside. It was clear from her formal dress that she must be going to office. Mihir was exceptionally beautiful girl. Her sweet voice, clean and neatness in appearance, her nice apartment, perfect dressing sense, her exercising habits and body fitness and her job were all on one side but her daily abnormal behavior, talking on phone with worried voice, convincing her boyfriend not to leave her, her boyfriend not responding when she was crying, this all on the other hand had created confusion in Neha’s mind.

Neha had now decided to go into deep about Mihir. She decided to talk with her. So, that day in the evening she was waiting for Mihir. She stood in the balcony and kept her eyes towards main gate of society. This time Neha saw something unusual which gave a slight hint about what might have gone wrong with Mihir. Mihir was coming back from her office and taking a walk from the main gate. In the complete 2 minutes of walk, she had lowered down her right hand slightly away from her body. The position of her hand was like as if she is holding someone’s hand. And she was murmuring something with herself. But there was no one besides her. She continued murmuring till she reached her home. She opened the door and locked from inside. Neha Knocked Mihir’s door from outside after some time and asked something from kitchen. Mihir asked her to come and sit her inside on sofa till she gets fresh.

Neha was inside Mihir’s house. Her house was perfectly decorated with many handcrafts and other house decor stuff. Every smallest thing in her house was kept very carefully at its place. Bunch of greeting cards were kept in the shelf in the hall, a big teddy bear was laying on the sofa chair, lots of other gifts were arranged in the same shelf and a book rack in the bedroom was filled with almost 200 books. It was not hard to guess for anyone that Mihir must be in a relationship from long time. By the time Neha was trying to collect every small details from Mihir’s house, Mihir came from inside and handed over Neha what she wanted. Neha found Mihir very gentle, caring and helpful. Neha returned to aunty.

This time aunt did not refuse Neha to tell anything about Mihir. Rather she told everything about her since start. And she quotes

“One year before Mihir’s brother and his wife use to stay here. That time Mihir was doing job in other city. She switched her job and came to stay with her brother. Her brother had to go to out of India for couple of years. Mihir had lost her parents when she was child and her brother was her only family. She was in relationship with a guy called Sameer. Mihir and Sameer had 6 years of relationship. They had planned their life well in advance. Everyone knew about their relation. They had plans to get marry once Sameer gets settled in his life. Meanwhile Sameer had started loving other girl which Mihir was unknown about. He started behaving in wrong way with Mihir and finally left her and married the other girl. Mihir took her breakup very seriously. She stopped talking with anyone. She left her job and started staying at home alone for long time. She avoided crowed and public places. She hardly use to speak one line in a week. Sooner her loneliness started killing her inside which led her to a disease called schizophrenia. The disease started because of her loneliness. She use to imagine Sameer with her. She use to talk alone considering he is still with her and he is leaving her. But that was not all. She not only considered him with her but also started assuming her to be her partner. Whenever she prepares tea, she puts it in two cups, she considers Sameer with her and talks. She walks as if she is holding his hand and they are walking together. She has got a new job here. She does her job and routine all ok. She behaves fine when people and her friends are around but when she finds herself alone, she gets into this lonely phase and starts imagining him with her. The attack of this disease comes only when she is alone. Otherwise Mihir is that girl with whom anybody will fall in love in first sight. Her brother is going to come back to India in couple of months. Now a psychiatrist and few of her colleagues are her friends who come here and try to get her out of this phase. ” Aunt stopped telling further when she found tears rolling down from Neha’s eyes. It was hard to believe for Neha that how can someone ditch a girl like Mihir.

Mihir was a post-graduate who once was a star of her college. Her activities, charm and talent had always attracted people towards her. But what made her give up on everything and become a patient for lifetime was a fake partner and incomplete relationship. She had loved Sameer on the price of her own life. She never cared about herself and kept herself dependent on him. And when he left, her support was broken and she found no one else to depend on. She was not able to erase her memories and accept the reality. She had lost her hold on her thoughts. She never stopped her mind from imagining Sameer with her.

Mihir in this story can be any boy or girl among us. It definitely must not be the dream of any girl/boy like Mihir to end up with losing her/his own identity and to live in a virtual world of memories.

Although love is unconditional and happens without no reason, it is up to oneself to set its limits. The more someone gets into the imagination and virtual world, the more he/she gets away from the reality. Loosing own identity to understand someone else’s is not the right way of love.

It is up to the reader now what message to pick from this story…For me, this story gives me another topic which explains the best way of love. The article is coming soon…..