Three Years Ago -- How did I get distracted?

It's 3:00 in the morning, at the brim of waking up, I heard mom saying " oh! I just had a dream about him, ok you leave now we'll depart in the evening". My sleep vanished . " what's the matter? Why are you so loud on phone and who's that on the call?". I asked out of frustration for waking up too early. "It was your dad and your grandfather breathed his last at 2:30" I could hear her agony. My heart broke into pieces. Tears rolled down my eyes. I couldn't stop them. Meanwhile, my sister who slept next to me woke up. To hide my tears I ran into the washroom. That evening I returned home faster than usual. Three of us departed to C city. Dad went to J city in a car and then he boarded a flight to C city. It was all so smoothly done. My grandfather was a pure and happy soul. We reached C city and my uncle came to pick us up and drop us at grandmother's house. On our way, my uncle cracked jokes about me studying in a women's college to lighten up my mood. But I couldn't get out of this. Granddad used to call me four days a year to wish me a birthday. When I reached home my dad was there in tears. It was my first time and hope the last time I saw him in tears. I broke down in front of the corpse. The house carried his memories. The way he teases me, Luna, and bob. Luna is my dad's elder brother's younger daughter. And bob is my dad's younger brother's only son. Luna was crying all day. We talked a bit to ease ourselves up. I was expecting Jake and Raid to come. They are my dad's younger sister's sons. Raid is elder and mike is younger. I was so disappointed to know they haven't come. Three of us spoke a lot about how we were these days. We rarely meet. And when we meet we talk about a lot of things. The next day we left C city and returned to Vizag. 10 days later we again went to C city for a death ritual. My sister and Luna again got to talk a lot. This time everyone was with smiles. That night we slept at ours neighbor's house. There were a lot of relatives at our house. Three of us were woken up the next morning by Bob. Bob came into our room shouting "Raid has come" "he is at our house come let's go" he said out of excitement. It's been seven years since my and sister met Raid. Luna met him almost every year because she stayed at her native place. We woke up washed our faces and went to our house. All the mothers and fathers were well dressed.

When we entered the gate we saw a moderately tall, dark man with a well-built body. No matter how tall he is, he is not as much tall as I am. That is a huge turn-off. He looked a lot more handsome when we were younger. Now, after regularly exercising, his image has changed. But the charisma he holds now is off the charts. His extra tooth over his canines gives off a charming look when he smiles.

"Hi aunty," he said as soon as he saw Luna. We all broke into laughter. "Do you remember them?" Luna's mom asked pointing me and sis. "Yes I do she has not changed," he said pointing to my sister "and Jenny has changed a lot," he said looking at me. He noticed my height first. Three of us got freshen up and again started talking. We were thinking of starting a conversation with Raid. But Raid was busy helping our dads with the ritual. Unlike my other cousins, He was getting along well with the family members. Finally, we spoke and we spoke about his girlfriend. That evening me mom sis and dad left C city after the ritual. I wanted to stay and spend some more time with Luna and Raid. But my sister had some important exam so we had to leave. On my way home my thoughts were filled with Raid. I didn't know why. I even hated myself for thinking about him. He is a bit shorter than me. And he also has a girlfriend.

I consoled myself by telling myself that he is just an attraction. Three months passed by but Raid's hangover didn't leave me. I am so messed up and couldn't concentrate on my studies. Meanwhile, to get myself distracted I started a project. It's projected Athira. It aims to protect girls with the help of a mobile application, that notifies nearby application users whenever a girl is in danger. We are a team of four and I am the team leader. By next Saturday we have to give a presentation on our idea about the project.

Application development was not my cup of tea, but going along with the team is. Although this field in computer science has a lot of craze in today's zeitgeist, a lot of other technologies fascinated me. One such is website development. However, I decided not to keep this as my main track. I wanted to be a data scientist, solving incomprehensible problems of companies at different levels of success.