2 Coping up, moving on.
Life is all about losing and gaining. You come into this world, you die after 6-7 decades. In this time period, you make a lot of memories, good or bad. You fall, you learn and take lessons, you rise up and live a happy life. The journey keeps on going till its last milestone. But how you are to the people around you defines how much you'll be loved after your physical existence is over.
Grandma's love for Reyansh was undefined. It couldn't be expressed in words. The moments that they have spent together, sitting for the whole day in her room, playing in front of her, going to morning walks and visiting the nearby temple in the morning, chanting mantras together, her Grandma dedicating a devotional song to her Grandson was the most beautiful memories he was missing. How he went with his Grandpa in the evening to the station nearby for evening walks and to meet us his Grandpa's friend, clutching his big fingers with Reyansh's tiny hands, he learned to walk. Sometimes he would fall and then would come back home with his knees bleeding and his Grandma scolding his Grandpa for not putting proper attention to him, then applying a bandage on the wound, cleaning them up and then serving him with his favorite dishes is what he was gonna miss now.
For about an hour, he was crying on one place, without moving anywhere, not having the slightest idea about where he is now, not thinking about his father cause he has lost his mother too. But then after an hour, he stopped crying, thought to himself, that she might not want this crying from him after she is gone. The tears stopped running from his small eyes. His aunts gave him water and got his clothes changed.
"This is a cruel world, and it is not like a wish-granting factory that whatever you will ask for will come true"- he thought to himself. He got calm, back to his normal state and observed as his mother asked him to go to his bedroom as there were some rituals to be performed for her Grandma's incremation. He went to his bedroom along with his brother and paternal cousins, Two of them were elder of him and rest two were younger. All of them were sitting and waiting for these rituals to get over but he was going through a lot in his mind. He was going through a change, a change of emotions, change of feelings and a lot of things that are not possible to be said. He started to think a bit more maturely than his age.
The ceremony got over and they went out of the bedroom. All of his cousins went to their moms and he was still there, sitting on the bed, lost in his thoughts and regrets. He couldn't give it up like that. After someone's death in a Hindu family, there are some things which one shouldn't do for 12 days as they are, according to him, considered as " Official days to show respect and pray for the dead's soul to rest in peace". So, television was banned to be turned on for 12 days. No one could go out shopping or sightseeing within these 12 days.
With all these things banned, the kids have nothing left to entertain themselves with. Thankfully, there were these new toys named Beyblades launched in town which were like tops, spun with a stick and were battled in a pan. They were cheap and were affordable so the Uncles would go to the shop and buy one for each junior. They were a great alternate deal to keep the kids away from getting bad vibes, especially, for Reyansh. Kids played with them for continuous 12 days and then all went home. Reyansh seemed happy with his cousins as they were someone he would always look up to for his happiness. And now when they were all gone, the void started to beat him up again.
But now, he started to go to school again, getting regular to his life again. Everything was normal in his life now, except his Grandma not being there and how badly he would miss her at nights when he couldn't sleep. Crying in his bed, lying beside his mother and younger brother. He was now more quiet about his feelings, moreover in general too. He would visit his relatives, his Meemaw and wouldn't utter a word. He had his cousins there too but he would rather stay in his thoughts, swimming in them and wouldn't say a word. Everyone was tired asking if something was wrong but there was nothing left to be said. He got badly introvert.
In his class fourth, he would think about things so much that he got unconscious in his lunch break. According to his teachers and his best friend with whom he was playing, he was running behind this one best friend of his named Aaradhya. It was their recess and they were playing when suddenly in the ground, Reyansh felt uneasy in his head and felt like the whole world was moving around him as everything got black in front of him and he fell down on the ground. Aaradhya noticed Reyansh wasn't following him so she ran back to check where she found him laying on the ground, not showing any moment. She quickly ran to the staff room and notified this to her teachers. The PT teacher got into action, went to the ground and picked him up in his arms and carried him in the staff room as they sprinkled water on his face, bringing him back to his senses. They then sent him back to his home where her mother was sitting in her bedroom. She was shocked to see it and was crying all the time, asking the ones who brought him to his home as to what happened to his home to which they all replied: " He got unconscious while playing".
Reyansh's dad was working in a Railways so he was mostly out of town. Her mother panicked and called her brother to come fast at the hospital and conveyed the full situation to them. They were on their move while she lifted him up in her arms and took him to hospital. He was admitted and her mother told everything to his father. He was on his way now to the hospital. Reyansh was lying still on his bed, the IV tube supplying glucose to his veins. His heart rate was normal now which was very low when he was just admitted to the hospital. After a few hours of no activity, he opened his fists which were clenched from the moment he fell on the ground. He was getting some strength back to open up his eyes and see his mother, uncle, and aunt sitting right beside his bed, waiting while her mother still had tears in her eyes. Mother's love is so pure, everything else fades away in front of it. She would keep herself awake the whole night when her child is ill. She would be all around her child to check if he/she needs something. She would eat after making sure if her child has taken a proper meal.
He was confused as to where he was, why are his relatives around him, why was there an IV tube attached to his hand and most importantly, why was his mother crying. Nothing made sense to him at that moment and he went back to sleep. The doctors would come and check his pulse and would say everything is fine he is just having rest. They discharged him later in that evening.
He came back home, slept properly in his bed and woke up. He didn't go to school as the doctors asked to give him some rest from school for some time. Till that time, his dad came back home. He asked about Reyansh's condition from his mother to which she told everything. His father, on the other day, took him back to the hospital to get him checked if there were some brain problem because of which he fainted. Everything was normal and the surgeon told that maybe it was because of low blood pressure. But kids don't have low blood pressure. It was a mystery but no one paid attention to it that much. Everything that mattered was Reyansh was fine and healthy now. Reyansh, after talking to his mom about what happened to him, got to know that the doctor said: "If you got late even by just a minute, he would have gone to coma". For him, Aaradhya was his life saver now. He would stay with her only in the recess, would have his lunch with her and would mostly sit with her only in the classroom. The bond of their friendship got strengthened with time. It was a coincidence that his mother and Aaradhya's mother were friends in their school time and his father and Aaradhya's father were friends too cause their jobs were related to each other. So that increased their bond of friendship as they would go to each other's house to play and study now. But after his class 4th, Aaradhya changed her school and went to an all-girls' school. He was again left alone but it didn't affect him much and he forgot about her after a month without any troubles.
He would now go to school, come back, watch his daily cartoons, go to tuition and then come back home and sleep after having dinner. This was his normal life until he got into class 7th. It is said, history repeats itself and that's what happened now. The bullying scene was gone from his life, as he thought of it but it came back. In class 7th he was one of the brightest minds in class, getting good grades, popular among girls of his class all because of his tuitions. He would now stay with girls more cause the guys in his class were more like rowdies and were making jokes on him for the most of the time that were not too serious, but were hurtful so he decided to choose the girls company more cause they were sensitive, caring and C' mon, which growing guy wouldn't like girls' company ?
Among those girls, was this one girl named Meher who used to travel to her home in the same school bus as his so they would talk all the time. Meher had an elder brother in just an upper class which was protective and jealous of us talking. Back then, India wasn't such an open-minded country. It is still not but the scenario of a girl and boy talking was meant to be considered a blunder to all the fickle-minded people. Like them, he was also poking his nose in between us to which her sister would beat him up or curse him and would ask to stop it. All of that worked for a while but then he thought of doing something serious cause the things weren't going his way.
So as it is said, History repeats itself, it did repeat in Reyansh's life. He was again tortured, mocked and was shaken up by two of his seniors. Meher's brother name was Saumitra and the other senior's name was Anil. They would not say a word in the morning but as soon as they would see Meher with Reyansh, they would pass by them, taunt them up with some bullshit and then would go on to do their work. In the evening, on the way back home, they would say bad words to Reyansh which led to his decreased self confidence. Now he was no longer seen with those girls but still, for the sake of fun, the guys would trouble him every day. They would go to his place during the lunchtime, eat all of his lunch and would go away.
This time, Reyansh thought no one would understand and nothing can be done about it as he will always go through this at every part of his life so he decided to stay mum and not utter a word to anyone. The final exams of class 7th were about to happen and one of those seniors stole Reyansh's science book. Scared now that the book is lost and his parents would scold him for not having it in his bag, he decided not to tell it to anyone. The day of Science exam came close and he was just preparing for it from his notes. Back then, his mother used to make sure he learned all the question and answers that were about to come in his exams. Just the day before the exam, his father was there at home and his mother was about to check if he has learned all the things. As they sat on the bed, her mother asked about the book to which he lied: "it is with his friend". She was shocked and could see lie in his eyes. She confirmed it to him three-four times to which he said the same thing. She then said:" okay if it's with your friend, your father will be here in an hour, go with him to your friend and get your book from him".
An hour passed and his father came home, asked about the book to which he lied again. This time his father told if he didn't find the book with his friend, he will leave him there only after which he spoke the truth. He got beaten up very badly by his father. Trying to save his son, Reyansh's mother tried to stop him but he flicked her hand and continued to beat him up for lying. His father hated lies. He only wanted to hear the truth. He beat him so hard that now blood clotting could be seen on his ears clearly and there were bruises on his plump white cheeks. He then stopped and went to his room. Reyansh studied hard from his notes only and luckily got 85 marks out of 100 in that exam. His parents were both happy when they got the result and Reyansh was now giving them a look to make them feel guilty for their actions.
