Shreya

The story - "Shreya"

Shreya got admitted to a new school at the age of eleven, under the stress of her tyrannical father and the rest of the strain was provided to her by her beloved grandfather. However, her prolonged touch with the old institute was much approved by her loving ‘Mom’ and her sweet ‘Granny’, though, every time they tried heart and soul to pursue her interest, the horrid thought of having no personal income and the scary notion of being two persecuted housewives served as the catalysts to darken the nightmares of these three ill-fated female members of the patriarchal family even more. Still, the eleven-year-old girl did never give up finding out some silver linings in her future life. In spite of that, she had to surrender to her destiny with some robust efforts to try her luck in the obscure land of unknown visages of new fellow-mates along with the new teachers. 

Most miraculously, Shreya stood first in the annual examination of her class in the new school with lots of hardships and acclimatization, when one day, the second-girl of the class uttered plain, “How dare you snatch my position, you vile upstart?  My fingers want just to strangle you right now”. Still, honesty found its true value, because she became the first-girl in the subsequent tests and classes as well.

Unfortunately, happiness did not last long for Shreya, when in class IX, she lost her maternal sister just before the annual sports in her school. With a few teardrops rolling down her face, with a lump in her throat, she gifted her spirit a powerful solace, “Yeah, it’s true that I’ve lost my sister, but simultaneously, I must keep it in mind that her soul will rest in divine bliss and peace only if I be determined to brighten her face by being triumphant in the race”. She won it at last by dint of sheer energy and fair play, which was evident to all and sundry as and when she stood on the top of the victory-stand with so much applause and appreciation from all the spectators.  Thus, the tenacious teenager got competent enough to reverse and transcend her destiny at least for the time being.

Thereafter, the dreary years commenced entering her life in a stealthy pace to shatter all her ambitious dreams.  She came to know from her parents that her maternal sister died not in an accident, but she was murdered on that very day, which created great anxiety in her father when the news had got revealed, resulting in, he, a patient of hypertension, felt outrageous, imminently expressing it to his daughter, by beating her with a broken wooden log.  Shreya, a sentimental and an overtly emotional girl, became disappointed, consequently, failing to appear in the pretest examination, never knowing the fact that she would have to face so many criticisms from her teachers and classmates. In the School Final Examination, she could not give her best efforts, as a result of which, she could not obtain good marks in any paper. That event before the pretest examination had created a great impact in her mind. The subsequent major examinations and their results were also not at all acceptable to this hapless patient having a kind of personality disorder, even though, amidst all turmoil, she became an Honors-Graduate.

Every time she tried to cope with the hostile situations, her efforts got in vain due to some fatal inscrutability. She turned upset. One day, she came across the contact number of a career counseling institution from one of her cousins, who emphatically recommended his sister to visit the place to redeem her from that prolonged personality distress. At first, she felt indifferent towards everything in her life, but as and when she came to know that this institution could and would advise her in fulfilling all her dreams, her soul leapt up in utmost mirth and hope, because she said, “Now, I believe, there’s an end of this dark jungle, and I’ll behold the new sun in my life soon, too soon”. 

On the initial day, she told everything of her desires to the advisers, who behaved cordially and warmly enough with Shreya, a deprived soul. They came to comprehend her concealed aspirations of being a writer and an entertainer in her future. Indeed, it was as though the dominated spark in her character found its own way to ablaze every frustration, which had been preponderant so long, but no more now, to give its place away to a pair of glittering eyes.

“Dream bigger, don’t worry.  All of them will come true.  Just pursue your own talent and interest”, motivated Rimi ma’am.

“I do want to, but I fear if I be deprived again, if I be a vanity repeatedly, what shall I do then?  I can’t foresee my future life.  I wish, I could”, replied the receptive girl.

Abruptly, another counselor patted on her head with an earnest expression, “If you give up your dreams without fructifying them into real, what will your juniors learn from you? Shall they know that every hopeful dreamer has to sacrifice every now and then?”

“You mean I need to be an exception to make my dreams come true?”

“Yeah, exactly that I mean.  Now you’ve got my point, I think”.

This course regarding her career-counseling indeed functioned as a positive turning point in her life, letting her think that she too could do something like all other flesh and blood human beings.

“Why did I run after that eluding mirage all the time, when I have so much to ponder near my reach?  Why?  But since now on, I will waste no more time, though, the moments gone away can never be brought back”, realized she in the middle of that night when all her elders were snoring in sound sleep, when all the moments she lay awake on the cot planning how to flourish in her career, how to stun all of her impostors, all who had disgraced that innocent and introvert girl to the utmost in the past school and college days of great agony.

The morning sun came up the next day to shine even more brightly to emblematize a new era of hope to the challenging girl, with new blood of early youth, who was ready to undertake any struggle to ricochet the answers to all her derogators.  Previously, she used to be a late riser, but since that pensive day, she began to get up early, most conspicuously, earlier than all the other members of her family.  She went downstairs to boot her computer and searched on new pathways how she could turn all her dreams into reality. Hours went over; still she went on engaging herself in e-publishing, with her diaries, full of five hundred and forty poems, lying open on the desk.  Sometimes, she had the remembrances of her so-called chums’ betrayals; sometimes, all the past agonizing moments of her life got telescoped into the present by means of a flashback, but this time, she had to defeat all her tormentors’ memories by hook or by crook.  Therefore, she tried to concentrate on her career-oriented works even more.

After three hours more, the ticking clock along with the buzzing CPU vexed her, because this was the first time that she tried to rectify all her negations in order to feel and be positive from the innermost core of her heart.  So, she walked to wash her eyes repeatedly in order to relieve herself from the pressurizing brain and mind of her own.  After the completion of this task, she shut the door again so that she could re-concentrate on her searches.

Suddenly, she heard a knocking and then a thumping sound from outside the door.  If she had been the previous Shreya, she might have fancied of some divine harbinger to supply, dumbfound and benefit her with some celestially good news, but now she was no more like that.  She became a much realistic, a much tolerant woman, who was always ready and steady to appear in a battle against destiny, which now and then yearns to crush any assertive, sensitive and sentimental human being in its brutal jaws without hesitating for a single second.  Thinking of Michael Henchard for some time, she muttered, “Destiny has indeed lessoned me an invincible endurance, which can never be harried by any man. And why do you worry, soul? I have borne with such anguish so long and can do the same a little longer too”.

She heard loud yells from outside with stronger thumping, which functioned epiphanically to her getting lost in thoughts.  It was her ‘Granny’, who was so much worried about Shreya, because she was unfed till then since the morning.  She went forward, opened the door and spoke softly and patiently to her ‘Granny’. Being asked for the reason of her inordinate delay, she was about to lose her temper, but she could somehow succeed in case of controlling her indignation this time, which had humiliated her for several times before.

She commenced boosting herself up, and with lots of will and might, she came out of her self-made cocoon of frequent aggression and anxiety, by seeking self-motivation, by looking forward to finding an admission in an open university where she could join a course on Creative Writing in English besides looking for a job.  Some time later, she came upstairs to express her earnest desire to her mother and her grandmother. The latter became subdued even more since her husband’s decease and therefore, she wished to cling to the remaining members of the family.  Moreover, Shreya’s father had had a cardiac attack just after his father’s stroke, resulting in, he broke down mentally also.  Shreya’s mother immediately called her father over the cell-phone and spoke to him persuasively so that he could do something for his only daughter, whose wretchedness was converted to the acceptance of a challenge for a lifetime.  He made proper arrangements for her to proceed on, perhaps out of a sense of ennui and repentance, more so due to his fatherly affection.

After he had returned home from the office, the entire four member family began to discuss regarding the bright possibilities of her career, which would set a luminous instance in the world, merely because her parents too were counseled to assist her in thriving herself who would most probably become a maestro in her near future.

One month later, her psychiatrist changed his prescription with medicines having lowest dose for her, declaring that she was to come round as early as possible. She gradually got permanent rid of her personality disorder in course of time.  One day, she uttered to her alter-self, “That counseling course was the turning point in my life.  Truly, those sister-like-madams will stay unforgettable.  I’ll remain ever-grateful to all of you, my well-wishers.  I regard you all.  Thank you for everything, especially for bringing this remarkably inspirational transition, both in my life and soul, which, in my opinion, will urge me behold a new morning, when all my murky and bleak moments will faint in an unknown oblivion for ever, just for ever”.  She gave a broad smile with a couple of glowing eyes to walk on and on in her life to fill it up with richness and positivism.

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