LOVE NEVER FAILS – III

By Chiradeep Patra

Arun was thinking deeply lying on his bed after returning back from Bangalore. Finally he decided and asked permission from his director for 2 weeks of leave. He went to New Delhi and Rohan came to pick him up in the station. When he reached at Rohan’s home, to his surprise Binod and Gracy were present there too. Chaya told him that “when you called us and told us what you have decided we thought of calling all our friends. But Nita could not come today, she will arrive tomorrow morning. And we can hire a taxi and start for Dehradun in the afternoon tomorrow…ok…is it ok na …Arun..? “Okay…” said Arun slowly.

Next morning when Nita arrived, Arun hugged her and both of them started sobbing. In fact everybody wept. Rohan arranged for a car to go to Dehradun. Before reaching Dehradun they all did little survey on internet regarding few Rehabilitation centers and enquired about Reena over the phone. After searching her in two of the Rehabilitation centers they found her in the third one. The assistant took all of them to a secluded room and ask them to wait. After waiting for 10/15 minutes a pale girl appeared. She came and stood in front of them. She didn’t move an inch. Nita got up first and came close to her and smiled at her. She called her by name, “Reena…do you remember me…I am Nita…?” Nita went close and hugged her tight. After 5 minutes of silence see looked at each one of them and started sobbing like a kid. Arun was silent and was stunned to see her like that. Nita brought her near them and let her sit with her on the bench.

Everybody started talking with her, but Arun was unmoved. He was still quietly looking at her. Reena started to open up slowly and he looked around towards Arun. She opened her mouth and said softly, “hiii…Arun…How are you…?” and then Arun broke the silence and came near her, bent down on his knees. He held her feeble hands in his palms and replied, “I am fine Reena…how are you…?” Reena started sobbing again. Tears were pouring down like torrent from her eyes. She broke down and hid her face in Arun’s palms. Arun stood and held her tight in his arm and comforted her saying…., “hey Reena, why are you crying…see we all are together today…and I don’t think that we can break our ‘7 wings’ again…?” He looked at others and asked, “Isn’t it guys…?’’ and all of them nodded. Arun again said, “See all of them are so happy to see you…” They all smiled when Reena looked at them. But all of them were so amazed to see Arun and his patience. Reena looked at Arun and said weeping, “its all happened because me…I am the culprit and I have given you so much pain Arun….” She was interrupted by Arun saying, “Hey common Reena, nobody has any hold on their lives…so you don’t have anything to do with all what happened.”

That entire day they spent with Reena and they called her parents and after few formalities they released Reena and came back to the new house where her parents were staying. Reena started to recover from all her past hurts in the presence of her friends especially Arun whom she rejected before. All others went back to their work places after two days. But Arun stayed back for some more days with her in her new home in Dehradun. When the time came of Arun’s departure to Tuni, Reena asked softly with tears in her eyes, “Arun… I know I am not worthy of you…but I just want to know…do you still love me…?” This time Arun could not control himself. He started weeping. Even Reena and her parents got scared seeing her weeping like that. Reena was in an apologetic state and trying to blame herself for everything again. Arun looked at her…smiled at her…and said, “Reena these are tears of happiness not of sorrows…” “How desperately I wanted you I can’t explain.” And both of them hugged each other.

Arun left for Tuni and came back after one week with all other to celebrate his own wedding ceremony with his beloved Reena.

The Bible says “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

And they lived happily ever after.

HAPPY BEGINNING!!!

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LOVE NEVER FAILS – II

By Chiradeep Patra

Arun looked at everybody’s face and laughed saying, “Hey common guys! I am done with my life story…” “Nothing much to share as I am here with you all and you know the rest of me.” Everybody was filled with emotion and amazed to hear all this, but Arun was still smiling. Today after five years of his stay in this orphanage he poured out his love story to his colleagues. He felt relieved. The very next day his director told him to go to Bangalore for a conference on ‘Community Development.’

The conference started and he was amazed to see somebody on the dais. He looked familiar to him. The announcer called out a name “Rohan Srivastava” the chief speaker of the conference on ‘Community Development.’ He was disturbed. And the eyes were met when Rohan started speaking looking at each one of the participants. During lunch time Rohan came and throw his arms around Arun. They both hugged each other and just discussed few things about themselves as there were much more to talk with Rohan. After the conference before leaving, they fixed a time in the hotel to talk to each other. Rohan scolded Arun for keeping silent for so many years.

He said everybody was hurt for Arun’s behavior. And also said sorry for what has happened to him. Arun was amazed and asked, “How do you know about this…?” He replied, “Nita shared with all of us when we could not find you anymore.” Arun asked, “Did Reena knows about it…that I had heard what she said that day…?” Rohan replied, “Yes…she felt sorry for you… but she was not in love with you at all.” “Where she is now…?” asked Arun. Rohan looked pale and tried to avoid. But Arun asked again. Rohan said, “I don’t know…where she is..?” “What do you mean you don’t know..?” Arun asked looking intensely at Rohan. “You may not tolerate Arun so just leave it…” said Rohan. Arun’s heart was pounding hard. He asked impatiently, “oh just shut up Rohan…now tell me what happened to her…?” Rohan looked down and looked up again and said, “We all departed from each other after you left. I went with Chaya to New Delhi and joined a Community Development NGO. And after two years we got married and still in New Delhi. Binod married Gracy after two months and they moved to Kolkata to work in a Call Centre job. Both are now executives and happily married. And you knew about Nita, she came back to India last year from the US and joined an MNC. She was engaged to a multi-millionaire two months back and will soon marry him. She has totally changed but still the sweetest of all as before.” “And Reena…?” Arun asked again with a sudden fear in his heart. Rohan took a deep breath and replied, “Reena…ah….”He paused again. “Reena fell in love with a rich and handsome guy, Rocky, son of an industrialist after you left. She was very happy. We all went to her engagement ceremony. We all missed you terribly and four of us were somehow blaming Reena for everything. But we were silent. She was looking stunning that day. After dinner, we said goodbye to her and came back. After two days Chaya called me and started weeping. On asking, she told me that Reena was gang raped by Rocky and his friends on the next day of their engagement. He invited her to their farm house for a candlelight dinner but he invited his friends also without her knowledge. And they raped her. I consoled Chaya and came over to her place. Later we informed Binod and Gracy about it in our old meeting place at College canteen.” Rohan paused there and looked at Arun. Arun’s eyes were moistened with tears. Rohan hugged him tightly and both of them started weeping. Arun tried to get back his composure and he looked at Rohan and asked again, “what happened next to Reena…where she is now…?” Rohan replied, “She stayed traumatized for two years and was in the hospital in shock. We went to see her many times in the hospital. She just looked at us blankly. No movements and no expression we could see on her face. Now she is in some rehabilitation center in Dehradun. I don’t think any of us know the address of that center. Her parents are there in Dehradun too. They sold everything including their house and went there. That’s all…”

Rohan looked at his watch, “it’s time boss…I need to go to the airport to catch the flight…” Arun said, “Yes… even I need to pack the things and buy few things for the children of my orphanage and catch my train at night.” They hugged each other and exchanged their addresses and cell numbers and parted.

To Be Continued…

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LOVE NEVER FAILS – I

by Chiradeep Patra

Arun, Chaya, Nita, Binod, Reena, Gracy and Rohan. They call themselves ‘7 wings’ in the college campus. Like peas in a pod, they never separate except when they go back to their respective homes for dinner and sleep. Collectively, they were never sad, because when one of them felt sad, the others would cheer him or her up. That was the extent of their friendship.

Rohan, the darling of the group, was the cutest and most soft-spoken of them. Gracy was all-knowing and matured off the lot. Reena was the “queen”, being the most beautiful girl in the group; Binod, the shield because of his well-built body. Nita was the tomboy and next in command to Binod. Chaya was the bubble brain of the group and Arun, the most respected, the encourager, and the morale builder of the team. Being a heart patient from birth, he was a little slow yet most wise.

Binod and Gracy were seeing each other, as were Rohan and Chaya. Nita was not ready for any relationship; Arun loved Reena very much but never confessed it to her or anyone because of his own insecurities.

Today the ‘7 wings’ look sad and tense. They are sitting in the college canteen discussing a very serious matter. ‘What will we do after college?’ ‘How can we be separated from each other?’ ‘Where are we going to stay after today?’ These questions were killing their emotions as today was the farewell day of the graduating batch. The love birds were bit comforted to know that they will be at least with their lovers but other three Nita, Arun, and Reena, especially Arun who has not yet confessed his love for Reena were worried about their tomorrows.

But as usual, Arun broke the silence and cheered up all of them and said, “Guys we are definitely parting from each other; that’s life and we have to face it but why to waste the time given to us together now…” and he cracked a joke. They all smiled knowing he was right, as usual.

In the evening, the juniors gave speeches about their favorite seniors, there were gifts showered upon the seniors. The ‘7 wings’ were together, as usual, sitting together and having fun to play pranks on other batch mates. They had planned earlier that they will gift all their juniors one pen each, with ‘7 wings’ inscribed in each of those pens. Everybody was excited.

During the time, Arun went out with Nita to make an ISD call to Nita’s uncle regarding her further studies. The rest of the friends were talking with other, batchmates and juniors. Gracy, Reena, and Chaya were sitting close to each other and discussing something. Gracy asked, “Reena! We both chose our life partners already but what about you?” “You didn’t find anybody yet…?” Chaya giggled and Reena just smiled at them and said, “No…not yet…” Chaya innocently asked again, ‘Hey, what do you think about Arun, he is so good and close to you too…don’t you think about him…” and even Gracy nodded with Chaya, “yes…Arun is good…” Reena replied immediately, “hey girls…common…you’re too much…he is a heart patient…he himself is not sure of his own life…how I can dream of a life with him…!” “He can just be a sweet and adorable friend…that’s all”. And they were interrupted in the middle of this discussion by Binod and Rohan. They called them to come to the other corner of the room. They immediately got up and went towards Binod and Rohan without noticing Nita and Arun who were standing behind the pillar where the group was sitting and have listened to the conversation.

Arun went out again without giving others a hint. Nita went behind him. There were tears in his eyes. He was devastated. Nita was trying to console him but in vain. Nita was also in tears. She said in anger to tell everybody and ask Reena to ask forgiveness. But Arun caught hold of her hand and told her not to share anything about this matter to anyone ever. After regaining his inner strength he said, “Nita lets join the party…” and dragged her in side the room. Nita was just dumb founded looking at Arun’s will power and inner strength. Immediately the rest of the group members asked why both of them are looking so pale. Arun said, “it’s nothing..we are sad because Nita’s trip to the US is confirmed..” Nita just looked at Arun and amazed of his perseverance.

The party was over. Everybody went their homes. Nobody could really sleep at night because of the pain of departure. But Arun….! He had to suffer many; the pain of departure, a pain of insecurity, a pain of rejection, pain of heartbreak. He stopped calling anybody. He had so many questions in his mind for God to answer. His friends called his cell number. But it was switched off. They visited his house but he was not there. He went to his uncle’s house and told his parents not to inform anybody. The ‘7 wings’ was broken. Only Nita knew the reason but she was unable to repair the loss.

Arun spoke to Nita once before he left for Tuni, a small town in Andhra Pradesh. He changed his cell number. He joined an orphanage as an Accountant and counselor. He engaged himself with the children and work, to forget everything. But when he was alone he wept quietly. He decided in his mind that he will never ever marry. The pain and anger of rejection was heavy on his soft heart. But it never could erase his love for Reena. He was still deeply in love with his Reena. He just could not forget her. Years passed by like this.

To Be Continued…

(Know a bit about the author clicking HERE)