 
THE FLASHBACKS

Journey of Six Friends....

Shubham Mohapatra

Many people believe "failure" to be the end of a person's life. They pressurize him to accept his failure and give up on trying. But if only they could understand the fact that had Sir Thomas Alva Edison had believed in giving up, we all would have been wandering in the darkness. If Sir Alexander Graham Bell had accepted his failure, we wouldn't able to connect globally through those pocket sized boxes that rule our lives today.

Now-a-days, people put more emphasis on the marks and degrees achieved, rather than the knowledge or skills acquired by the person. Many parents pressurize their children to focus on achieving a high degree and a secure job in a well-established field. But they fail to notice the difference made by the "chaiwala" to the nation and the degradation brought by the well-educated "IITian".

At last, those who have stepped on the pinnacle of success must have witnessed the bad weather of failure as well. They must have realised the worth of failure to be the stepping stone of their success and they know that without the night even the stars can't shine.

-Author

About the author

SHUBHAM MOHAPATRA was born on 21st May, 1997 in Bhadrak, a small district of north Odisha. He had his schooling in SSVM, Bhadrak and after that he went to Bhadrak Junior College for +2 Science. After +2 he went to iBooks, BBSR for medical coaching and later he went to a government engineering college in Burla. Now he is sophomore in Computer Science in that college. 'MY HEART SKIPS a BEAT' is his debut story which is based on the true life incidents of his engineering friend Paresh Kumar Mohanty. 'THE FLASHBACKS' is his second story book in which he wants to share the life events of six intimate friends and their life's important in which they had faced so many huddles due to their recklessness and paid a huge amount for this, but lastly after remarking all their faults and overtaking all the problems they got success. Shubham recently joins a student start up called 'BIBARTANA NETWORKS' in Bhubaneswar, Odisha as the Chief Marketing Officer. Shubham loves to play cricket in his spare time. He is crazy about Tollywood movies and songs. The best way to contact Shubham is through Facebook at shubham.mohapatra.509@facebook.com . You can also write to him mail at booksbyshubham@gmail.com .

Dedicated to

My parents who always support me to do what I want in my life. They are my backbone. Still are and always will be. They're the only group that will support me if I score zero or I score 40.

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than the true friendship. So I also dedicate this story to all my friends who are always with me in the different stages of my life.

### Special thanks to

All the readers of my debut story book 'My Heart Skips a Beat' and support me to go on the track of a story writer by remarking all the faults of my first one.

Copyright © Shubham Mohapatra 2018

All rights reserved

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual person, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

"Main tumse pyaar behad karta hoon,

Lekin kahne se darta hoon.

Har din tumhe chupke se dekhta hoon,

Har pal sirf tumpe hi marta hoon.

Chalo aaj himmat karke bata hi deta hoon,

Iss silsile ko aaj yahni pe hi khatam karta hoon.

Agar tum Han kahogi toh mera pyaar muqammal ho jayega,

Agar tum Naa kahogi toh mera shayari muqammal ho jayega."

-Author

Present Day

A grand party is arranged in Hotel Hot Paradise in Kalpana Square, Bhubaneswar of Odisha. It is a five star rated hotel and one of the leading hotels of Odisha. Its lighting and decoration is attracting everyone's attention. The Chief Minister's presence is even overwhelming the surroundings. Many leading businessmen, politicians, head of NGOs, rank one government officers and other dignified personalities of Odisha are also present in the party. It is 7 in the evening and the grand party begins.

The Head Co-ordinator Mr. R.K Swain addresses the audience and the distinguished guests present in the party.

The celebration goes on in a smooth manner. There's a feeling of ecstasy mixed in the air. I have never attended any such prestigious event in my life yet. I can't believe myself to be the part of this grand function. It is like a dream come true.

Suddenly Mr. Swain's loud and captivating voice brings me out of my series of thoughts and with all my senses I realise this to be the reality I'm living. Everything is real and perfect. The long awaited perfect time to embrace my future is now.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together to welcome the founders of 'Friends Construction Company' on the stage."

I am surprised at the first place witnessing those esteemed people applauding and appreciating. I hear the voices of my five friends standing on red carpet and waving at me to join them to the stage. These ephemeral moments of happiness are the most special moments of my life. I can never forget these moments till my last breath. The paparazzi are busy capturing this proud moment. The media is trying hard to grab our attention for their answers. Some people trying hard to reach us for a handshake. Girls out there cheering for us and clicking selfies with us. Our bodyguards cleared the bustle to make space for us. Right this moment I feel proud of myself and my team as I remember every person who once denied us in our past.

As the clapping continued we made our way to the dais. Mr. Swain congratulated us and requested to convey our thoughts to the eagerly awaited people on the floor. After my friends were done with the speech I stood up to take control. Standing boldly in front of the audience, I started,

"Good evening to everyone. I am very thankful to all of you for spending your valuable time to join us in our celebration. As per Mr. Swain's request I want to say something for the young and dynamic audience present over here. Don't worry it won't take that long. I will try my best to keep it short and simple.

Many people believe "failure" to be the end of a person's life. They pressurize him to accept his failure and give up on trying. But if only they could understand the fact that had Sir Thomas Alva Edison had believed in giving up, we all would have been wandering in the darkness. If Sir Alexander Graham Bell had accepted his failure, we wouldn't able to connect globally through those pocket sized boxes that rule our lives today.

Now-a-days, people put more emphasis on the marks and degrees achieved, rather than the knowledge or skills acquired by the person. Many parents pressurize their children to focus on achieving a high degree and a secure job in a well-established field. But they fail to notice the difference made by the "chaiwala" to the nation and the degradation brought by the well-educated "IITian.

At last, those who have stepped on the pinnacle of success must have witnessed the bad weather of failure as well. They must have realised the worth of failure to be the stepping stone of their success and they know that without the night even the stars can't shine.

Thank you all!!"

I return to my seat with my friends and enjoy the party. Some other start-up founders approach us for interactions. It is almost 10PM. The party is nearing its end. After the party got settled I along with my friends make our way toward the exit. All six of us are really tired. Smiling at each other we drifted towards our respective cars. As I sit in my car, I roar its engine to life and speed up on my way to my apartment.

It is quite late at night. I am standing on my terrace with a glass of red wine. I feel lonely. I ponder about the old bitter days of my life. I feel contented for overcoming all the obstacles of my life successfully. With these thoughts I retire to my bed. But there's not even a glint of sleep in my eyes. My mind is preoccupied with lot many things. Some thoughts bring me solace and some thoughts suffocate me. The memories of today's success party, the appreciation I received from people, the happy faces of my family and the proud in my parents' eyes for me, fills me with nostalgia. But those unwanted thoughts, my mind succumb to them so easily. My past torments me so badly that I feel like trapped in a nightmare which I can't escape. It hits me like a strong cannonball and I aimlessly drift back to those flashbacks.

Past Days

I belong to a middle class family. I completed my matriculation from M.M. Saraswati Shishu vidya Mandir, Nayabazar, Bhadrak in 2003 securing 89% in my class 10 board exams. For higher studies I was joined in Bhadrak junior College, one of the leading government colleges of Odisha. My dad had always dreamt to see me as a doctor, holding the stethoscope and treating patients. But in contrast were my dreams. From my early childhood I was aspired to create my future as a software engineer. The paths to become a doctor and engineer diverge in opposite directions. I beseeched my mom to somehow convince my dad to allow me to follow my dreams. But every effort and every attempt went in vain. As usual my family also followed the traditional strategy to decide my future where other opinions weighed more than their child's ambition. They consulted to every possible person on the earth for the betterment of "my future" except me, who will ultimately live in that future. After days of prolonged controversy, he finally declared his

decision shattering all my hopes for engineering. His typical mind-set and the conservative principles of society didn't allow him to understand my situation, not even for once. And like many other victimised students, I too had to give up on the situation and accept my father's decision.

June 20, 2003. After four days of continuous showers, the rays of sun finally shone against the gloomy clouds. The rain-drenched nature felt the warmth on its surface. The flora and fauna were re-energized. It was a beautiful morning. It wasn't any usual morning. The bright sun just didn't brighten the day but also my forlorn fate. It was first day of my college. I was pretty excited. I freshen up quickly and walked towards my Hercules Turbo-drive bicycle. It's been four years the bicycle is my constant partner in rides. Everything on my way looked so fresh. I reached my college and parked my bicycle. I made my way towards the counter to get my identity card. 312AB118 was my allotted roll number. I checked out the notice board for my classroom. I was immensely happy to find my name enrolled in section A. Being in section A of a reputed government college was a tough job. My mind was filled with confidence at that moment. As I entered the classroom I met with disappointment. I was determined to save the first seat for myself, but the classrooms' front rows were already occupied by the English medium student. Only the last row seats were vacant. With a dazed heart I sat quietly on one of the available seats. Everyone in the room was busy with their stuff unlike me. Soon after this my school friends Abhishek and Ashutosh accompanied me. They help my mood to lighten up with their funny talks.

Actually Abhishek and Ashutosh are my childhood friends. We knew each other from grade three. They were very affectionate and friendly. Even our families are well known to each other. Abhishek's father was a government officer and Ashutosh's father was a businessman. They both were also well qualified students. They secured 91% and 89% respectively in boards. Abhishek's mother being a very emotional lady didn't want her son to pursue studies away from home. So he was bound to join the same college as me. Ashutosh's elder sister was a well-qualified graduate from the same college. So Ashutosh's family thought it wise to pursue their son's career in the same college as her sister. That's the story behind how we three ended up studying together.

At 9 am the lecture began. The first class was chemistry. Being from an odia-medium school we were neither acquainted with the English language nor the critical terminology of Chemistry subject. We all were nervous unlike other students who were excited for the lectures. As it was the first day, the lecturer had some pity on us and stick to the fundamentals only. Each class was of 45 minutes. And gathering a lot of patience we attended all the four lectures of 45 minutes each in a row. By the end we were exhausted. We were bit relaxed as the hectic schedule came to end. But it didn't last long.

The same boring routine was followed for the next one week. The four classes in a row, and we remained passive sitting on the last benches. Every day the English-medium students grabbed the front rows followed by hostellers on the middle rows. We were really agitated from this monotonous routine.

In the middle of the week we three we accompanied by our remaining three friends: Pritish, Debarchana and Chinmaya. Pritish was the most talented one among six of us. He was the high scorer with 95% in his boards. His father being a police officer was well known in the town. As mentioned earlier our college is among the reputed colleges of Odisha, Pritish's father also willingly sent him to join our college. Debarchana scored 87% in his boards. His father being employed in a private company somehow managed to get his admission in the same college. Chinmaya was our new friend. He was close to Ashutosh for living in the same colony and in that way he also became a part of our camaraderie, accompanying us in the same college.

None of us could escape the mundane, humdrum schedule. Sitting at the last benches we could hardly absorb any knowledge. The lecturers just like tiny robots would enter the class and blabber the lessons in English and exit. As the second week started and the studies paced up, our anxiety levels reached their climax. It was getting impossible to study in that un-cooperative environment. The zeal and enthusiasm to study gradually started to fade away. Seated at last benches we deliberately changed to "actual back benchers". We attended classes regularly, not for studies but fun-making.

Being from a middle class family my parents believed that at smart phones would ruin students' career. So I was not fortunate enough to have any sort of mobile phone. Just like me Ashutosh even didn't had any such facility. Few days later, Abhishek brought a simple-model mobile with him. But it was no fun. The real fun started when Chinmaya brought a smart phone that was equipped with various multimedia facilities. Being back benchers we had lost all our interest in studies. When the teachers delivered lectures we were busy downloading the video files.

Chinmaya once downloaded some porn videos in his phone. It was the first time for me and my friends to watch porn videos. We had not known about porn sites before, but after that day we started all got addicted to them. We watched the naked images and blue films of the models and even masturbated imagining them at our homes. In short, we were spoiled. The ruined ourselves after stepping out of the school. I knew someday we all would pay for that but the consequences would be so harsh no one had imagined.

One fine morning, after attending the first class we were notified that all the classes were suspended for some official purpose. We were not in a mood to return home so early like others. The weather was cool and fresh. So we decided to explore our campus. We heard noises from the basketball ground and went there. It was the first time we entered the ground. Due to hectic schedule we never had time to have a tour of our campus. We saw the senior students playing the sport so energetically. The feeling of team-spirit mingled in the air. We sat there watching them play for an hour. A pang of guilty hit our hearts with every passing second.

The next day we went to college. We were eagerly waiting for our first lecture to wind up. As the bell rang, we rushed towards the basketball field. We saw the same seniors playing in the ground. With great anticipation we approached them. We urged some of them to teach us the sport. A dark complexion guy asked us for introduction. We were smart enough to know he must be a senior. Somehow we managed to please them with a satisfactory introduction. It didn't take much time for us to mingle with them. They were equally friendly and cooperative in their conduct. They taught us the basic rules of blocking, bounce pass, boxing out etc.

They even taught us about the new terms such as "dunk", "buzzer beater" etc.

We were enthralled by this new sport. It was like some new flavour in our life that made us feel alive. It became a part of our daily life. We were excited again for college, but this time more for basketball. We attended the first lecture and then rushed to the field to play hard. With every passing day the bond to basketball grew stronger. We became so addicted of it that we didn't care about our studies. We missed every possible lecture, bunked every damn class. It became a second home for us.

After a month the practical-class schedule begun. We were bound to attend those early morning classes. But the spirit of sports never let us down. It made us so care-free that we were on verge of becoming careless. We improved our skills in sports such as carom, table-tennis etc. by bunking our theory classes.

My parents, especially my dad made sure I got the best of my education. He arranged the best coaching classes for me. My coaching classes were usually in the afternoons. My other friends studied in a different coaching institution. My Physics professor was the same one for both college and tuitions. For two –three months I was sincerely attending my tuitions. But the dark clouds of boredom engulfed me again. I was missing my friends. So I bunked a few classes. But it only resulted in a disaster. I couldn't catch-up the studies anymore and found myself sleeping in the tuitions. Therefore, I decided to leave it. I knew my parents wouldn't agree on my decision, that's why I didn't inform them. I used to leave my home in time but instead of tuitions my paths were directed to our college basketball ground. I was alone there. My friends were busy attending their coaching classes unlike me. Solitude didn't gather realization in me rather it affected me so much that I lost the track of life. I was unintentionally deteriorating myself. I used to waste the money that my parents had given for my coaching fees.

My math teacher was no less than a typical Hitler. He was very strict regarding studies. And that's why parents admire him a lot for the discipline he maintains among his students. Because of my own carelessness I was always trapped in troubles. I was not attentive in his classes. I missed my gang who were studying under other teacher. I had requested my father to send me to the same classes as theirs but unfortunately his colleagues advised him to prefer the strict teacher. And I ended up being away from my friends, all alone again. I have always been a great foodie. So the money that my parents used to give me for fees I spent them on food. I ate till I was tummy-full every day. I knew this junk food would make my stomach a junkyard but their delicious aroma somehow trapped me in their taste. And because of the late timings of my tuitions and my stomach being full I ended up becoming a lethargic student in the classes. My home was quite far from my coaching classes. I had to ride almost 3 km every day. Those rides were really tiresome and I lost the patience to study till the time I reached home. So, ultimately I used to have my dinner and retire to bed as soon as possible. On the other hand, my friends perfectly utilised their time in studying and balancing their life.

Fortunately, we all six were together in our Biology tuitions under the same Madam. Those classes made me feel happy and energetic. I enjoyed their company while studying. But the fact that we were back-benchers was still valid. We used to sit at the last benches and made fun. My friend Pritish used to sleep whenever he got the chance. Once Madam caught Pritish sleeping in the class. She even called his name to wake him up. But, poor Pritish failed to respond. When Ashutosh nudged him hardly, he got startled and woke up. Everyone in class burst into laughter on seeing his shocked expression. Since then, he never even dared to blink his eyes in the class.

During the coaching exams, teacher usually asks us to interchange our answer-sheets. We knew this rule and we never ever followed it. When the teacher announces the correct answers we used to fill it up and score high in exams. We fooled her and became sincere students in her eyes. But actually we were fooling ourselves.

On the day before Teacher's day everyone was busy deciding what gift would be perfect for madam. My friend Debarchana mockingly suggested to gift madam a packet of bread and winked at us. We understood the code language of his bread packet to be nothing but the sanitary-pad packets. His mind was full of such kind of ill thoughts. He was never as such before joining college. But after schooling his mind was always diverted to those sick thoughts.

We friend even attended the same chemistry tuitions. Chemistry classes were always crowded. Generally, we lazy buddies were always late for classes. So consequently we stick up to the last benches. The classes being so packed it grew difficult for us to comprehend the lecturers. Sometimes even scribbling the notes was a tough task. We were frustrated and the interest to study had absolutely vanished from our minds. We used access Facebook, watched porn videos in silent mode and did all sorts of mischief in classes. At that time, I realised just that my friends were equally spoiled as me.

The teacher who taught us chemistry was on a contract basis with the real owner. The real owner being a stubborn man used to humiliate students who weren't regular in paying fees without giving an ear to listen their financial or personal problems. Therefore, we friend decided to teach him a lesson for life. We manipulated the details recorded in the register. Hence, we never had to pay a single penny for our chemistry tuitions. Because of lack of correct information he even was unable to trace us. By this time, we were spoiled to an optimum level. We started to waste our tuition fees in unethical ways.

The only subject we all enjoyed was English. The teacher was a simple man. As we were the only six students of the batch so we freely enjoyed the classes and simultaneously made fun. The building in which the English tuitions were held wasn't owned by the English teacher unlike others. The person whom the building belonged to hardly used to stay in town. So after the classes we even used to stay there for some time for fun. We used to do all sorts of mischief like watching television, using his deodorants & accessories, eating away the snacks stored in the kitchen. Sometimes Chinmaya used to bring new types of porn videos that we all used to watch together. One day while checking out his bedroom we found some packets of Manforce chocolate flavoured condoms and a Signature-branded bottle of whiskey. We understood the fact that the person being alone can have whiskey but how did he managed to use the condoms alone!!!

We all were atrophied. We ourselves had paved paths for our own destruction. We were degraded to the level of insanity. Our minds were occupied with all sort of nuisance. There was not even a single trace of knowledge within us. We were reckless. We started to behave like scoundrels. We began to tease girls, pass on comments on their figures, used offensive words frequently. Our thoughts weren't limited to students only. We made fun of teachers, cracked dirty jokes on Madams. We started to cheat people. We borrowed money from other students giving lame excuses and wasted it for our benefits. Our attitude, our thoughts were no more that of a good student. We just managed to keep up our images in front of our parents so they never suspect us. We recklessly wasted both our time and money on worthless stuffs.

But time and tide waits for none. We didn't realise when nine months passed away in our fun-making. Terminal exams knocked the door. In those nine months we didn't even for a second studied seriously. Situation was getting on the nerves. We hardly had any idea about syllabus or exam patterns. But when we heard about the no-fail system in first year, we all calmed down. We were no more bothered about the exams. English was the first exam, so we were relaxed. On the day of examination, my mother woke me early and ordered me to freshen up. I was still feeling dizzy like some sleep-driven beast. Somehow I managed to get ready. My mother told me to pray before I leave for my college. She seemed more serious than me for my exams. I obeyed her instructions and then left for my college.

At 8.45 am when I reached my college I saw all my friends, except Abhishek, to be present there. It was already time for exam so we decided to call Abhishek to check if he is stuck up in something and that's why isn't on time. Abhishek received the call after five rings. He responded with a 'Hello' in a groggy voice. Then Chinmaya replied him (in our local language, Odia):

"Hello. Tu aji exam dabaku asibunu ki be?"

"Na be," replied Abhishek.

"kahinki?"

"Kichi ta padhini. Bekar re jainki kahniki basi asiibi. Pass and fail ta kichi nahni. Exam dele bi pass or na dele bi pass. So bekar re srethi basi ba tharu ghare soiba bhala. And mu ta ama ghare aji exam achi boli kahi bi nahni. Tame sabu exam dia and mate khali tk question ta dei daba."

"Ok. Ghare soiki G mara. Bye."

Then Chinmaya ended the call and we all entered in the exam hall. As we all were in the same section and our roll numbers were even in a serial, so it proved to be our biggest advantage. English question paper somewhat resembled with that of our board question paper. So it wasn't that difficult for us score good range of marks. The next exam was Biology. We cunning guys managed to get the Biology question paper the day before exam from the peon. Therefore, we didn't face much difficulty in the exam. But my worst experience was in my Physics exam. We had a preparatory holiday before our Physics test. So my mom asked me to wash my uniform. I took out my purse, some scribbled paper-bits along with my identity card from my pocket. The next day I forget to take my identity card with me to exam. To add to my misery, even my cycle chain got damaged on my way making me late for exams. I reached 10 minutes late after the commencement of exam. The invigilator was throwing daggers from his eyes for my unpunctuality. Embarrassed, I went directly to sit and dig myself in my question paper. After some time, the invigilator came to my desk to sign on my answer-sheet. He asked me for my identity card. When I put my hand in my pocket I was shocked to not find my identity card. I couldn't remember where I left it. I made an excuse to search my bag but couldn't find it there. I searched every pocket of my pant, shirt, bag but nowhere to be found. I searched the geometry box but all attempts in vain. I apologised the invigilator to forgive me for my irresponsibility but he humiliated me harshly in the exam hall. I felt ashamed of myself. My mind was totally focused on the incident rather on the answer sheet. I couldn't perform well in the exam. I was depressed. My friends felt sorry for me. I blamed the invigilator for my bad performance. So all my friends and I decided to teach him a lesson. We planned to impair his newly brought bike.

The next exam was Mathematics. If only I had managed to keep my eyes open in maths tuitions, I would at least have some chances of writing something in my exam. But as we know something is better than nothing. So my over-smart friends had some ideas related to the subject. That made me confident that I won't be just staring at the ceiling during the exam. With all their helping nature I managed to note down some answers in my answer sheet rather than leaving it completely blank.

And finally came the day of our last exam, chemistry. We really thanked technology a lot for being so advanced. We had micro-Xerox of selected questions with us in examination hall. And seemed luck was in favour of us as we had a very chill-mind invigilator in the hall. Very carefully without being caught, wrote all the answers except the numerical questions. We had no idea about the numerical. But thanks to our fellow hostellers, who exchanged their numerical answers in return of theory answers. With all our cheap tricks and cheats, we overcame the danger-zone of exams.

After two months of our exams, our results were declared. We all were happy to see our names including Abhishek in the pass-students list. There was a big grin plastered on our faces for being saved from a big problem.

Days passed away. There were no changes, no transitions, no regrets, and no realization. We were still the same carefree boys. It was summer-time. No study pressure and no hectic schedule. We spent our time leisurely.

One evening, when we all six were gathered in our college canteen, a girl with her pink Ladybird bicycle, crossed our eyes. We noticed her going towards the Girls hostel. We didn't give her much thought, except Pritish. He was observing her keenly till she vanished away from his vision. There was something going on his mind, but we didn't bother to interfere.

The next day we planned to watch a movie in the evening released in our nearby theatre "Draupadi Movie Hall". But much to our astonishment Pritish didn't agree with our plans. He denied joining us. In lieu he offered a treat for us in the college canteen. After arguing a lot, we finally gave up before our stubborn friend. Though we had already suspected his intentions, we patiently waited for his explanations. In the evening, while we all were enjoying our treat the same girl appeared in the sight. We noticed Pritish who was silently observing the girl walking from the main to her hostel. After she passed away, Pritish let out a long sigh of relief. Pritish could feel our glaring eyes at him, so at instant he revealed all his feelings for the girl to us. We were surprised at his confession. I could hardly belief on the concept of "Love at first sight", whereas my friend is already a victim of the case!

The same custom was followed for days to help or love-struck friend. As usual we would sit in canteen and Pritish staring at his dulcinea. After few days we observed the girl reciprocating Pritish's attention. This levelled up Pritish's confidence. And finally after days of hide n seek, Pritish approached the girl for an interaction.

Pritish: "Hello,"

Girl: "Hi, but do I know you?"

Pritish: "No. Sorry for being an intruder. Actually, I wanted to tell you something."

Girl: "Alright. Go ahead."

Pritish: "Yeah. But before that may I know your name please?"

Girl: "You are here to talk with me yet you don't know my name. Anyways, my name is Lipsa".

Pritish: "Lipsa! That's a sweet name."

Lipsa(arrogantly): "Thanks. Now please hurry up with your talk. I don't have much time for you."

Pritish: "Sure. Let me introduce myself. My name's Pritish and I am a second year student of this college. I don't want to create a fuss with saying anything unnecessary. So getting straight to the point, I want to say that I have been noticing you from the very first day. I couldn't take my eyes off from you since then. It may sound weird but it's true. I am in love with you in the very first sight. I don't know anything else about you. No information of you background, or your family, or your boyfriend or any sort of thing. I don't stalk you so no need to be afraid of me. I just wanted to convey my true feelings to you that I really love you. That's it."

Lipsa: "Well, I don't know what to answer you right now. All I can say is I am not interested in any sort of relationships. I don't do well with those boyfriend stuff or whatever. If you want, we can be friends for now. I believe there's a lot of time to think about relationship in future."

Pritish: "Okay."

Pritish gave a light smile to her and ended the conversation. He was satisfied. Soon after this conversation, Pritish and Lipsa gradually got comfortable in each other's company. They turned out to be good friends. After few days of their friendship, they exchanged their contact numbers. With time they grew close. Their conversation prolonged to late night talks. They were growing on each other. Still whenever Pritish proposed her, she excused herself stating they need to know more about each other. But Pritish never gave up. He tried his best to impress her.

Time flowed with its pace strengthening Pritish and Lipsa's bonding. Lipsa began to trust on Pritish. It was festive time. Pritish and his family were on a vacation to their village to celebrate Raja festival. During this holiday, one evening Lipsa dialled Pritish's number and confessed her love to him. But unfortunately, instead of Pritish someone else received the call. As Lipsa's confession reached its end the line went dead. Lipsa was perturbed. She anxiously redialled his number. But she only met with disappointment. After that call the phone was switched off.

Pritish was unaware of this incident. After holidays, his family returned back to their home. Then, suddenly one night Pritish's father unexpectedly confronted him about Lipsa. Pritish was caught off guard. He was completely thrown back by the mention of Lipsa from his father. Terror was getting on his nerves. His father interrogated about the phone call and her proposal which Pritish was unaware of. He was drowning in the ocean of fear. His father was completely annoyed with him. Pritish unable to think of any solution promised to his father to forget Lipsa. But his father, not satisfied with his promise asked him to call Lipsa and deny her proposal right before him. Pritish did as his father said. After that his father snatched his phone and destroyed it and warned his mother to never give Pritish any mobile phone. Pritish was really upset. His mother consoled him with her soothing words and warned her against the teenage love.

Since then, Pritish never even attempted to get back to Lipsa or revive her memories in his mind. We all were shocked to see such transformation in him and appreciated his determination.

After some days, the journey of our second year began. I took an oath to completely dedicate my time in studies. I asked the permission of my father to change my Physics teacher explaining my reasons of not understanding his teachings. Though, I had left it a year ago still I wanted dad's official permission to settle the things. As per my willingness I joined to the same institute where my friends studied previously. I was happy to be with friends and that helped me to focus even better. I was mentally satisfied and that reflected on my studies. I went to my tuitions regularly. I was attentive in my each and every lecture. I followed various study methods and solved many sample papers to make my concept clear. I was trying my level best to perform well in Physics board exam.

I changed my attitude towards my Math teacher. I wanted to take chance before changing my tuitions. I concentrated in his lectures, and to my amazement I found myself understanding mathematics. Though it was difficult at the start but by continuous efforts and vigorous practice, I finally matched my rhythm with my teacher. He was a really a simple and honest man. I felt guilty for disapproving him and judging his teachings. Maths seemed interesting and easy every time I followed his instructions and rules. Just like Physics I was even trying hard for scoring well in Math.

I had put all my efforts to do well from the beginning of the year. I was thrilled to know my performance graph to be better than those of my friends. It fuelled my zeal to work even harder.

My Biology and English tuitions were in the same level as that of Physics and Math. But the troubles we faced in Chemistry tuitions sustained. We tried hard to focus and understand the lecture, but all in vain. So we decided to go to some other teacher as a trial. All thanks to our bad luck, the situation was even worse than the previous tuitions. We returned back to the previous tuitions in despair. I was stressed out. I could not think of any solution to the problem. But in the meantime my childhood best friend Reetu saved me from the menace. She suggested me to join her Chemistry tuitions and check if it can help me. The tuitions Reetu suggested was taught by the same professor of my college. So I wasn't hesitant to attend.

Reetu! My saviour and my best friend. We met in standard five but we weren't friends by then. In class seven, she was shifted to our colony. As we lived in the same colony, my mother and her mother turned out to be great friends. They both arranged a tutor who could come to our colony to teach us. And I had to go to her house for tuitions. That's where we became friends and turned out to be best buddies with time.

She was highly talented and smart girl. She was among the academically bright students of the school. Not just that, she was really friendly and understanding. She is the only girl who's so close to me till date. As a shy-guy she is the only one who holds the position of best friend in my life. My folks use to tease me assuming I have a crush on her. But we both know what feelings we hold for each other. And I believe till my last day, she will be the only "girl-best-friend" in my life.

After attending Reetu's suggested classes, I began to improve my Chemistry knowledge. The techniques used by the teacher were worth praising. All his lectures were very easy to understand. I noted every important point and practised all essential questions. I was thankful to Reetu for her suggestion. She even helped me with my studies. My friends even tried their best to cope up and excel in their studies.

After doing a lot of hard work I was confident to secure high marks in my board exams. I was completely prepared for my exams. But there was something else stored for me. I didn't know that the shadow of my past deeds would darken my bright future.

Time was flowing smoothly. My fate was with me. I was drenched in the sweat of my hard work. After a long time, my soul felt the true bliss of freedom.

It was the month of August. Monsoons had arrived. The earthly smell after rain filled the air with freshness. It felt like rains to be the sign of happiness. It would wash away my stained soul and leave me a blank sheet to rephrase my life again. But I didn't know rains would prove to be a misfortune for me.

I used to have Chemistry tuitions early in the morning and so was my college. There was just an interval of 30 minutes between my tuition and college classes. It was nearly impossible for me to cover such a distance with my bicycle and balance my fatigue and concentration in the classes. Considering the fact, my dad allowed me to ride his bike to my college and tuitions. It was difficult, but the ignition inside me helped me overcome every obstacle, until the day of 19 August.

The memory of 19 August is so vivid that sometimes it scares the hell out of me. As usual I was heading to my home after tuitions. Since I stayed back to clear my few doubts, I got quite late to return home. In a hurry I sped up the accelerator to 80-100km/h. The roads of the town were ruined due to heavy rains. And the contractors were not able to fix it because of the continuous downpour. In a rush I didn't notice the muddy phase of the road. Due to less friction, my tire was slipped. My bike skidded to a halt and my head was hit with a stone. I was in pain lying there, unable to move an inch. My head was throbbing in pain. The view started to get hazy and slowly I was drifted into the darkness. The next when I opened my eyes I found my mother. Her cheeks were stained with tears, her eyes bloodshot red from continuous crying and she looked older than she actually was. Her sobs came to a stop when she noticed me conscious. I saw my dad on the other side of the bed. He looked pale. His eyes were screaming tiredness. The room was filled with my other family members. I could sense the tension in the room. I inquired about what happened when I was unconscious. My mother told me about how Reetu encountered me lying unconscious on the roadside with blood oozing out of my head. She quickly called my father and informed him about the accident. Before my father could reach on the spot, a very kind man helped Reetu to bring me to the hospital. I had lost a lot of blood. The doctors stitched and re-stitched to stop the blood loss. I had 18 stitches on my forehead. My body was badly hurt. My ribs hurt every time I tried to move. After a week of constant medical check-up, I was discharged to my home with an advice of complete bed rest for 15 days. My body even didn't approve any motion. So after 2 weeks of complete bed rest I was back to my classes. They were almost a month ahead of me. It was a hard time comprehending my missed classes and coping up with the present ones.

Once again, the history repeated itself. I was getting agitated with not being able to reach up to my previous standards. My friends even tried to help me, but all in despair. It was like fate threw me back to same blundered beginning. Just like a dream, every good thing vanished from my life leaving me behind to suffer in the dark night. I lost all my interest that had taken me an eternity to regain. I lost my confidence that was built inside me. The situation seemed as if someone lifted the magic spell of goodness above me. I started trace my steps towards the dark path again. I was impoverished again.

I spent my hours in basketball field instead of classes again. I couldn't focus on my studies again. Along with me, my friends also paved their ways back to destruction. We all were misguided.

One evening we all were playing in the basketball ground. All of us had bunked our math tuitions. Suddenly the clear sky was covered with black clouds and it began to rain. But we didn't care about it. We got back to the game. As time passed, it began to downpour heavily. And the game grew even more exciting. Because of heavy rains, our vision was faint. But we didn't stop, inviting another tragic in our life.

Abruptly, while defending Ashutosh, Abhishek's finger hurt his left eye. Ashutosh let out a loud cry informing us about his injury. We all rushed him to the nearby hospital. The doctor attended him immediately and did his treatment. After that we went along with him to drop him at his home. His parents panicked at the sight of their injured child. His father asked us for explanations. Unwillingly, I had to lie about the accident. I covered up saying Ashutosh slipped in the staircase and someone intending to save him ended up hurting his eye unintentionally. I knew I did wrong, but I dint regret it. For me everything was fair in friendship. I was aware of the consequences if Ashutosh's parents ever came up with the truth but I was ready to risk anything to keep our friendship intact.

After that incident we all got upset. We visited Ashutosh frequently before his recovery. The basketball court reminded us of Ashutosh and our hearts clenched at the thought. After few days, Ashutosh recovered from the injury and joined us back. We continued with our basketball practice. I was happy at the thought that the accident didn't have any major impact on our friendship. There was no hint of vengeance in the scenario. Maybe that was the main reason why I prioritized friendship over love.

No matter how good were in scoring a basket, our true happiness was to hit a six in the cricket field. Our love for cricket dragged our attention from the basketball and made us stand in front of the notice board. Our pity teacher, Mr. M Panda put a notice declaring about the upcoming inter college cricket tournament. He asked the students willing to participate to be present in the ground on Sunday by 10 am. The selection of 15 members for the team is scheduled on the same date. Well, we were not much bothered about the selection than the allotted date. Most probably we had our Biology tuition test on the same day. We were in a dilemma whether to attend the test or go for the selection. The whole Saturday night we tossed and turned on our beds unable to arrive at any decision. With a stressful mind and sleep driven eyes we reached to our Biology tuitions. None of us willing was to step inside the building. Finally, we thought it's better to go for selection rather than wasting time sitting for an unprepared test. All five, except Abhishek went to the cricket ground. Abhishek wasn't a strong player of cricket and therefore stayed back for the Bio test. We five reached the ground 10 minutes late. I knew that would form a bad impression for us. But despite that we all five vowed to make our place in the team at any cost. Mr. M Panda came into picture and asked us make the queue according to our skills. There were many aspirants for the team and we stood at last cause of arriving late. The first two hours passed away for the batsman selection. Pritish was at number 9. Before him already three boys were selected as batsman. Pritish was a very talented player. From his very childhood he had excelled the art of batting. Pritish requested Mr. M Panda to have him as a batsman. After much appealing Mr. M Panda finally gave him a chance to put his best foot forward. He asked his assistant to bowl Pritish for 2 overs.

The very determined Pritish hit 4 back to back for first three balls. Mr. Panda was surprised and asked his assistance to change his pace and do spin bowling. Pritish was very alert. He struck again 4 for three balls and shot the ball in the air out of boundary gaining a six. By this time, Sir was highly impressed with Pritish and selected him as the batsman of the team. We all were happy for him and at the same time nervous for ourselves.

After 4 students it was Debarchana's turn. He was good at defending. He defended for continuous four overs in any type of bowling. He even won the heart of the coach and was selected in the team. After a long wait, at the number 18, Chinmaya had his turn. He was a great left-handed batsman and could score singles impressively. In his trial, he even scored boundaries after consecutive singles. Fortunately, he was also selected in the team. Then Mr. M panda was in search of an all-rounder. Luckily, Ashutosh was the player to fill the position. He was a good batsman as well as a good bowler. He efficiently showed his skills and made his place in the team. At the end two students remained. I had to compete with the other guy named Satya. We both scored 32 runs with 4 sixes and 2 fours. But he was better in fielding than me. Therefore, Sir preferred him for the team.

I was disappointed. I felt bad as all my friends were in the team and I was the one who couldn't make up to it. But maybe my luck favoured me. Soon my disappointment was replaced by a ray of hope. Only 14 members were selected in the team. There was a vacancy for one more member. I was determined to grab this opportunity. Sir approached the disqualified students for the selection. With much confidence I stepped forward. I was best in wicket-keeping skill and informed him about it. I moved to stand behind the wickets. He asked his assistant to bowl in every technique. I proved myself without escaping a single ball and ended up placed in the team.

We all five were really happy. We told Abhishek about our victory in making up to the cricket team of the college. He was also happy for us and participated in our celebration.

From the very next day our practice session began. All the 15 members of the team gathered in the cricket ground after the college hours. As we five weren't very active in attending the classes, so we utilized our time in practicing in the basketball court in free hours. After a month of vigorous practice, the date for cricket match was finalized.

A meeting was held a day before the tournament to choose the 11 members of the team. Mr. M panda in the meeting announced our senior brother Arnav as the captain. They both decided about the selection of 11 teammates. There was confusion between selection of Nabin and me. Both of us were wicket keepers. But Mr. M panda was in favour of Nabin, as he needed a good wicket-keeper, and our captain in favour of me, as he needed a good wicket-keeper-batsman. There was a discussion of around 10 minutes. Those 10 minutes felt like the longest ten minutes of my life. After the discussion was over, our captain declared me as the 11 member of the team.

12 October. It was the day of our cricket tournament. All the 11 members were energetic and confident. It was the day our hard work would be paid off. We reached the stadium by 9:30. am. Abhishek was also there to cheer up for us. The opponent team also reached the stadium. Both the teams were warming up. At exact 10 am the umpire called the team captains for the toss. The opponent team won the toss choosing to bat first. The opponent team was a hard competition. 10 overs passed away but none of our bowlers could take a wicket. Ashutosh even made the situation worse with his 3 overs. He let the opponent score 40 runs in the 3 overs. By the end of 10 over, the opponent had scored 122 runs. We all were depressed. Our confidence fell to the zero level. Our captain was even tensed, but he showed his faith on Ashutosh and allowed him to bowl. On the 11th over, Ashutosh got the first wicket on the second ball. It brought back our confidence in the game. He knocked out the opener at 78 runs. At the fourth ball of the 13th over I did a quick stumping defeating one of their batsmen. Slowly our bowlers got back to their tracks ending up the match at 196 runs.

After 20 minutes the second innings started. Our target was to score 197 runs in 20 overs. It was not at all an easy task. Our captain and Pritish were the opener batsmen. We had a good start of the game. Unfortunately, at the 8th over Pritish lost due to the wrong decision of the umpire. He came back with scoring 33 runs. Then Chinmaya went ahead for batting. The opponent's bowlers faced difficulty with him. Chinmaya was good at both speed and spin bowling. He kept rotating the strikes and our captain hitting fours and boundaries. Making 69 runs our captain got out. After that we lost two wickets back to back in the 14th over. Then it was my turn for batting. I felt a great deal of responsibility on my shoulders. The score was 124/4. We needed 72 runs in the next 5 overs to win. Chinmaya had made 22 runs by then. I asked Chinmaya to pass me the singles as I was good in hit. He did the same and I scored 44 runs in 23 balls. We needed 6 more runs in 7 balls to win the match. I scored another single then hitting a six on the next ball winning the tournament. Our team rejoiced in happiness. I was happy that I did well with my responsibility. I had not paid attention to my score until Chinmaya told me about the half century I scored. I was thankful to him for his support and cooperation and engulfed him a bear hug. My team was happy with me. I was declared as the man of the match. Arnav Bhai received the inter college cricket tournament trophy on behalf of the team. Even I was praised with the main of the match trophy. I was highly excited to show my achievement to my parents and to see their satisfied reaction.

Then I reached at home in the evening. When I knocked at the door my younger brother opened the it. When I entered in to my home, I saw my father was sitting just before me and my mother was standing beside him. Before I could express something about my victory in the cricket match, my father interrogated me for reaching home late. Actually I forgot about the time due to over excitement.

"We were having a group study at Abhishek's house", I answered.

"Oho," he said. "How's your biology exam?"

The above question of my father helped me to realize that I did not attend the exam. I couldn't think of any answer. Then I tried to manage the situation by saying that the exam was quite good and I would fetch quite good marks also. But I noticed that my father was not satisfied with my answer.

"You really attended the exam!" he questioned me again.

After hearing the same question from my father it did take more time to understand that something went wrong.

"Sure," I answered in a doubtful voice. "Haven't your faith on me?"

After hearing my words, he suddenly stood up from his chair, coming towards me and slapped me with extra power. That one slap washed all my joy and excitement. Then he left the place. Then my mother came to me and she also reviled me in so many ways. After that I came to know that my biology Mam informed my father about my absence in the exam, which urged my father to slap me.

After a couple of hours, I approached my father with my trophy. He had sit alone on the chair inside his room. I bent down and sitting with my knee in front of him and begged him sorry for my fault. I gave him the trophy and described everything how I got that. Seeing my emotions, he also got emotional and gave me excuse for my fault. My mother was also happy after seeing that trophy. That day the only thing which helped me to get the excuse from my parents and made them proud was that small trophy which was very important to me for all times to come.

It was the time of IPL season which dropped me in another trouble. After coming from my math tuition I usually had my dinner and went to continue my study. After 10 PM all my family members went for sleep by assuming that I was continuing my study. But they aren't aware that after retire to bed instead of studying I keep watching the IPL matches by keeping the TV into silent mode. I also switched off the fan for tracking the footsteps of any one towards me. Not only in the night, but also I was watching serials and movies in the TV in the same way in the day time when my mother was cooking food and I was in the home. These acts were becoming a part of my daily life.

But one night I was watching TV after my parents went to bed. It was about 11.15 PM. A very interesting match between CSK vs Kings XI Punjab was going on. Suddenly I heard someone's foot steps towards me. I heard someone's voice "Wah Wah! Carry on Carry on!" from my back side. When I turned around I saw my father who was standing around me with lots of anger. The remote dropped on the ground from my hand. I was totally speechless. He called my mother and showed her about my work. I felt ashamed and listening all their words by bending my head down. From that day I gave up that bad idea of watching TV.

My grandfather was a renowned person in our village. After his death my father also turned into a renowned person in our village. Every year in the festival of Durga Puja my father visits our village for a special kind of Puja in Lord Ramchandi Temple. It was a trend that only a person of our family could do this Puja. So that year my father went there. But this time I was also with him. We stayed there for three to four days. I noticed that many people were coming to my father and discussing about village's important issues. On the day of that special ceremony all the villagers gathered near the temple. The village priests were chanting the mantras with loud voice. The whole environment seemed so holy due to these spiritual activities. Then it was the time for Puspanjali. Some boys of the village including me distributed flowers among the villagers. In the time of distributing I saw a girl a pair of black eyes, long black hair with fair in colour. I was astonished after seeing such a divine beauty in a village! Her dressings were quite simple and her voice was also sweet.

After that meeting I could not sleep in the night. Those eyes were popping up in my mind every time. The very next day at 8 AM my mother called me to go to the temple with her. After taking a bath I accompanied her for the temple. The priest instructed me to move around the whole temple for three times. During my 3rd turn I saw a girl with yellow colour dress who was also moving around the temple and this was the same girl whom I saw yesterday. The yellow dress and drenched hair added feathers to her beauty.

After returning from the temple I called some village boys and asked them about that girl by describing her. Then I came to know that she was Shriya studying in our village's college in +2 second year arts. I fell in love with her from the first meet. Then I wished to propose her about my love towards her from before leaving the village. I told about my first love to my five friends and collected some tips from them about proposing a girl.

The very next day I went to the temple alone as I knew that she always came to temple during Navaratri. She also came to temple and worshiped the goddess. She started moving around the whole temple for three times. After her 3rd round I went direct to her and called her from her back. She turned round and came toward me. I was feeling so nervous as that was my first attempt of proposing a girl. Firstly, I gave her my introduction and described about our two meetings with her. Then with a very humble voice I proposed her with world's three most beautiful words 'I LOVE U'. She told that she did not know me properly so how could she accept my proposal. So she wanted some days to think over this. I gave her five days to know me properly and I told her that she had to reply me before I leave the village. Then she left the place. I stayed in the village for next five days and I went to the temple to meet her from a distance every day.

On the final day before leaving the village I went to the temple to meet her with an expectation of finding her answers, but that day she did not come. I waited her for one hour but she did not come. Then I left the temple with a pale face. When I reached at our village home I did not find anyone in the home. Then someone said me that all the family members including my parents went to the nearest village medical. Then I also went to there. My whole family including many other villagers were gathered there. A person of my father's age was crying so loudly. After asking someone I came to know that his daughter was going to temple with a hurry in the morning. On her way to the temple a tractor hit her from her back due to break fail. So she fell on the road and her brain hit with a metal. The tractor driver ran away after the accident. Some helpful villagers took her to the nearby village medical but due to bleeding she lost her life on the way to medical. After hearing those descriptions tears came from my eyes. When I came near the dead body I was shocked. I broke down from my inside. I ran away directly to my village home and went directly to my room. I started crying so loudly for half an hour because the girl who lost her life was no one other but my first love Shriya. After two to three hour my parents came to our village home and called me to leave the village. But I did not want to leave the village. But I could not do anything. Even if I did not share my feeling in front of others. I kept my pain in my heart and returned to my home town. I did not discuss anything about Shriya with any one even if with my five friends and tried my best to forget her as I knew that it was impossible.

Suddenly I am sitting up my bed. My heart beats are running more than their normal speed. I am feeling that Shriya's sweet voice perhaps wants me to tell something which is not possible today. I am going to the dining to have some water and watching the clock and the time is 2.30 AM. Then I am coming to my bed and trying to sleep again and returning to my flashbacks again.

Months after months kept on rolling. It was the month of January. I tried my best to forget that scary incident about Shriya like a scary dream as it was quite difficult for me, but I managed anyhow. After the schedule for 12th board exam came out. This news made us to realize that there might be seven seasons instead of six and the seventh was exam season which had arrived and started its Tandav. We were frightened by hearing that news as we were not mentally prepared for the exam. It was also our bad luck that we had not even completed half of the syllabus as we had spent lots of time in enjoyment throughout the year. Many students from our friend zone were well prepared to face the exam. Our relatives were continuously calling us and giving suggestions to do better in the exam. Our parents had got more strained about our exam than us which seemed that they were going to face the exam instead of us! Being affected by the poisonous environment of the exam season we also started studying.

In a split of a second the exam date had arrived. It was the month of February. During that one month gap we tried our best to cover up the whole syllabus and we partly got success. We were assured that we would definitely pass in the exam. But the main cause of our fear was to get a good percentage as our educational system had been allowing only those students who were able to secure good percentage of marks or if they had any reservation quota and unfortunately we were not so bright students to secure high percentages of mark and in addition to it also from general cast.

It was Feb 4, 2004. I left the bed early in the morning. I had my bath and went to the chapel and started worshiping God for one hour. After that I came out and kowtow my parents. Then I went to my room and got properly dressed up. I kept all my necessary accessories with me along with admit card. Then I had my breakfast and announced myself ready for the exam. At 9 AM my father dropped me at my college as that was my exam centre. Then he wished me the best of luck for my exam and left the place. All my other friends were also there. We started some discussions for the exam and at 9.30 AM we went to our respective exam halls to attend the exam. After all the formalities were done the exam started at 10 AM. It was my English paper. I was quite good in English from my schooling days and so the questions were quite easy to me. I completed all the answers in time and submitted my paper to the invigilator and left the exam hall. I was quite happy as my paper was so good and also my friends did well in that paper. At 1 PM I returned to my home with my father. The same things repeated in my next Sanskrit exam and I was so happy for that exam also. But after that exam there was a gap of 5 days which changed my life and my track completely.

During those 5 days of gap I was continuously visiting my math tuition teacher to solve my doubts. I spent most of the time with him and he tried his best to clear my doubts without any hesitation. That day I could realize that why everyone told that he was so helpful and benevolent. Luckily I could clear 70 to 80 percent of my doubts and was able to secure at least 60 to 70 mark in the Math paper. The more interesting thing was the student who had not completed a single exercise book during the entire year for practicing Mathematics could finish three exercise books during those 5 days and that student was me. On the exam day of mathematics, I was feeling so excited and fresh by thinking that the student who was unable to secure 30 marks in the math paper was able to secure more than 60.

At 10 AM the exam started. I got my question paper with the answer sheets. When I saw the 1st page of the question paper I was over excited and started writing. After 2 hour I was able to notice that I answered 70% of the supplementary question paper as the 1st half of the question paper was allotted to the supplementary exam and the 2nd half was for regular student. But due to over excitement I could not notice the guidelines and did the answers of supplementary paper instead of regular paper. When I looked at my watch only I hour left. I could not think what to do. Suddenly darkness covered my eyes. Then I started to do some questions of regular paper, but due to tension the easiest questions seemed too difficult for me. Even if I did not able to do the questions of determinant and matrices which were so easy to me. Any how I was able to do some questions of the regular paper. I returned to home with pale face. I could not have my lunch properly. Also I did not tell anything about that incident to my parents. "How's your math exam?" father asked. "Pass jitna layak to ahi jayega," I answered. Then went inside my room. In the evening I came to know that my other friends had not done well in the math exam due to the lack of practice. That news partly made me happy due to human nature. But that incident completely demoralized me. I was ensured that I would definitely fail in the Math exam. So I did not prepare myself properly due to lack of confidence. Any how all my exams were over. Now it's the time to enjoy the vacation by forgetting the hell past. We hardly enjoyed 1 week after the exam and then my father made me join Parhi's tutorial in Cuttack for doing summer courses to crack the upcoming entrances like JEE MAIN, NEET, OJEE, ICAR, OUAT etc. I was so frustrated, but I did not tell anything to my father out of fear. It was the first time for me to live in the hostel. I made some new friends and started the journey to cover each nook & corner of Cuttack within one month. I did not read a single subject during that one month of coaching. After the summer classes were over, I returned to my home town Bhadrak again without making any benefit out of the classes. Then I sat in all the entrance exams one by one with my blank mind. Then one day suddenly I noticed about the publishing date of my 12th board exam in the newspaper which literally scared me.

The day of results had arrived. My parents were anxious about it. At 10 AM the result was published officially and uploaded in the website. I tried my best to see my result from the website, but I could not due to heavy traffic and slow internet. My mother seating along with me and prompted top while watching the result. I was so frightened by seeing her curiosity. Meanwhile someone knocked at our door. My mother went to open the door and the person was my father. He was so disappointed and looked so unhappy. His pale face made me sure that something went wrong very surely. He entered the room and opened a piece of paper from his pocket and threw it to my face and stood in front of me silently. His silence described all about the upcoming storm. I looked at the paper and came to know about my result that I got only 57% of mark which fell under the second division. Then my father told everything to my mother about my result and blasted out anger on me. He started to revile me in so many ways. My mother started crying and she also started to insult me as could as possible. I could not know how to answer them and sit silently by bending my head down. That day my mother did not cook anything for us. Every now and then she would come to me and start abusing me. I heard everything and sit silently. For more than one week they did not speak to me properly. My mother did not serve me food properly. My relatives were feeding negative inputs to the eardrums of my parents. The situation had become such that anyone came to me and started abusing me any time they wished. My mother forced me to do all the home works like sweeping, dishes washing, dresses washing and many other works. I got hurt by both physically and mentally, did not said anything to anyone. They bereaved my mobile so that I could not contact to any of my friend for more than one week. I was feeling so alone in the house that I had not felt before. I cried night after night by holding my father's old t-shirt. I lived like an unknown person in my own house. It seemed that I was the only one who got 2nd division in the exam and I did a big mistake like I had murdered someone. I was so frustrated by such things and wanted to go away from all those things. So I prayed God every time for showing me the right path to move on.

One evening I sit alone in my room. My father called me. I went to him surprisingly. My mother was also there. He said me to take the sit near him and asked about my next plan for the future. I did not say anything and only sat silently. "Would you want to take one year of coaching in Bhubaneswar for facing all the entrance exam?" father asked. By hearing such question, I was so amazed. I did not answer anything for a while. Then he again asked, "What were the plans of your stupid friends for future?" "I did not contact to them more than 1 week and I was also unknown to their result," I replied. Then he told my mother to return my mobile so that I could contact to my friends and allowed me to consult with them and take the decision about my future. I got my phone back and made a conference call with my five friends and came to know that only Pritish and Ashutosh had got just 1st division in the exam by getting just 60% of mark and other had secured 2nd divisions like me. That time I felt partly relaxed as I was not only one person who got 2nd division but also there were three stupid guys from my friend zone also got the same. Then after a 30 minutes of conversation I came to know that Ashutosh and Debarchana had decided to take admission in the +3 science. Chinmaya had decided to take admission in Engineering. Pritish and Abhishek had decided to take one year of coaching in Bhubaneswar. Then I came to my father and described everything. Abhishek's father was a colleague of my father. In 1992 when my father came to Bhadrak for the first time he met Abhishek's father. From then they were well known to each other. So he suddenly made him a call and discussed about the coaching centres and planned to go to Bhubaneswar in searching of a good one.

Two to three days passed. After so many discussions me and Abhishek along with our parents started travelling to Bhubaneswar together. We looked out for many coaching centres. But at last we went to iBooks. Actually we did not know properly about iBooks, but few years back one of my cousin brother was taking coaching in this institute and he cleared both NEET and AIIMS. So he suggested us to go there. We also got impressed by their teaching pattern and hostel facilities and chose to join there. We returned home in the evening. We had one week to prepare ourselves before leaving the house and join in the hostel. I had no problems because I had one month of experience in Parhi's tutorial. But it was very first time for Abhishek to stay in the hostel. As the childhood friend we live together in one room. Our coaching centre was at Forest Park area of the city Bhubaneswar and the hostel was at Kharabela Nagar area of the city. We both created a good friend circle in the hostel. Our hostel friends were quite friendly. We all stayed together like brothers from different mothers. In the hostel we did all those things accept studying. We were playing a lot, we were watching each and every movie, and there was no place in Bhubaneswar that we had not visited at least once. A girl's hostel was there beside our hostel. There were so many young and beautiful girls were staying in that hostel. The window of my room is in front of the window of their way to bathroom. In the night we made our room dark and all our friends were sitting to gather and watching the girls who were going to bathroom. We had cracked the password of the Wi-Fi of our institute and downloading Telugu movies very often and many other Bollywood movies. Our branch head Bichitra Sir and his asst. Tapas sir tried their best to catch the culprit among us but they could not do anything as we were so loyal to each other. We were also downloading so many porn videos through the Wi-Fi and enjoyed them in the hostel. I remembered that day very well when we crossed all the lines of disgusting acts. That was one night before JEE MAIN exam. All our friends were sitting in my room. Someone switched off the light. Someone sited on my bed and play a porn video in his tablet. He moved the face of the tablet towards the window of the girl's hostel and sit silently. We all were sitting there and waiting for the girls. Some girls came near to the window and started watching the videos and gossiping among them. After sometimes they closed the window and never opened it till we had stayed in that hostel. All the above described that we were started walking in the dirty path and turned into anti-socials. But during this period the season of love had already started raining in Abhishek's life.

One day Abhishek may be it was 9 or 9.30 AM. He had occupied seat with some friends in the small library hall as there was a gap of 30 minutes after the daily exam. Suddenly he saw a girl with a red colour bag entered to the library and had a seat just two line before Abhishek. He looked at her for some moments and then continued gossiping with his friends. Few more days passed away. One day we all were in our Botany class, suddenly a girl with black eyes, long hair and fair in colour entered to our class with Bichitra Sir. All our class mates started staring at her. Bichitra Sir introduced her to our Botany teacher and he allowed her to continue class with our batch. Then we continued our class again. After that day I was continuously noticing Abhishek being in a quite excited state. I wanted to know what had really happened. So I went to Abhishek and asked about his excitement. Firstly, he denied explaining me anything. So I did not put any pressure on him. But in the very next day he came to me. He looked so excited. Before I asked anything he explained from his own side that the girl who was a new comer to our class was the same girl whom he saw that day in the lab. He also added that he was attracted towards her after watching her for the very first time. After his explanation I was amazed. Few days later, when we all were in the nearest Ram Mandir for spending one evening, Abhishek told our intimate buddies about that girl and requested them to get him some information about that girl. He was also in a search for the contact details of that girl. He was continuously searching her in Facebook from past few days and fortunately he found her tagged in a photo in a girl's profile from our coaching batch in her friend list. Every day he would open that ID and stare at that girl's photos for a long time. After repeating the process for some days finally he sent the friend request. After few days that girl also accepted the request. One evening, Abhishek accompanied me in downloading some movies through newly installed wifi in the Bhubaneswar railway station. When he connected with the wifi and started his session & accessed the Facebook, suddenly he told me that the girl whom he sent the friend request was online then. I suggested him to send a message. Firstly, he denied due to his shyness, but being forced by me at last he sent a message. 'Hello'. Then after 2 to 3 minutes a notification popped up on Abhishek's mobile screen & it was a message! 'Hi' Then Abhishek asked, "Where r u form?" Then she replied that she was from Koraput. Then Abhishek asked some more details about her. She replied, "I am Sweety. Sorry! As I am feeling sleepy, I have to sleep." Abhishek replied, "Ok. Bye and good night." Then Sweety replied, "Thanks. Good night. Sweet dream." These were the first chats between Abhishek & Sweety. It was nearly 9 PM. Abhishek went offline. By the time my downloading was also over. Then we returned to hostel and doing discussions about his first ever chatting with Sweety and I noticed that Abhishek seemed so happy and excited. From that day he did many plans for only to talk to Sweety in both class and through Facebook. He was accessing Facebook most of the times. He saved the photos of Sweety in his gallery and spent all his free times by looking them. He also changed his phone's wallpaper and set it by one of the image of Sweety. It was quite easy for us to understand that the one sided love towards Sweety had taken place in his heart.

Some months passed away smoothly. There was another boy in our hostel called Bharat who was also from Koraput district. He was also well known to her. He suggested Abhiskek to explain his love to Sweety by directly face to face, but Abhishek denied. He told that as it was his first ever attempt in love, so he would propose her through Facebook. In that night, after finishing his dinner with us Abhishek went to his room. He looked so excited and tensed. He turned his mobile data on and started accessing his Facebook. He found Sweety also online on Facebook. So without wasting more time he sent her message. "Hi. Will you please help me?" Abhishek sent. "Say," Sweety replied after some time. "I am going to propose a girl tonight. Can U give me some tips?" he said. "It is so simple. Just tell what your heart is saying," she replied. "Ok. Thanx," he said. At 12 AM Abhishek came online and fortunately she was also online. Then he again messaged her that he was going to propose that girl right now. She said good luck to him. "I am an average looking guy. Will you be my girl-friend?" Abhishek asked suddenly. Firstly, she was surprised. And after that they both talked on this matter for one hour. As I was so sleepy at that time so I went to sleep. The very next morning when I woke up I saw Abhishek was sitting so unhappily. When I asked about the last night I came to know that he was rejected and also blocked in Facebook by her. After that incident Abhishek tried his best to realize her about his true love. But she did not give any positive reply to him. Even if they did not talk to each other, Abhishek sat stressfully most of the time, he wanted to spend most of the time with his old memories. After happening so many disturbances, finally Sweety left iBooks and joined to another coaching centre and Abhishek successfully forgot her like a bad dream with the passing of time.

One the other hand Pritish took admission in Mayadhar coaching centre, Satya Nagar only 2km away from our hostel. So we met each other in every evening. He was also irregular at his classes & doing almost same things like us.

A year had passed away just in the blink of a moment. We could not clear any of the entrance exam as we did not study in the whole year properly. Also the same occurred for Pritish. Later he joined in +3 science. Abhishek joined in engineering. Now it was a big question for me to what to do. I did so many analysis and tried my best to know the difference between B. Tech and B. Sc and every time I failed. My father told me to do B. Sc and my mother said me to do B.Tech. I was totally confused to opt the best option. Then someone from my conscience told me to go for engineering as there were so many scopes after that. So my thought went like that, "Challo isse bhi try karlete hain, hala ki I had a weakness for engineering from my childhood." So I took admission in a Govt. engineering college which is present at Burla town of Sambalpur district.

Once during the first week in the hostel I was gossiping with some new friends. I was telling them about my past and failures. Then suddenly someone came towards us with a half-pant and full sleeve shirt. "Failure is the key of success", he said with a low voice. I stopped for a while and started thinking that how energetic the voice was! We were all standing there for some time and tried to know each other. He addressed himself as Pramod. After sometimes we shook hands and went to our rooms.

People always talk about the love at first sight, but we both knew that we would create the story of brotherhood at the very first eye contact. I did not understand that how we could know what's going on in our mind by looking at each other's eyes. Our friendship was growing higher like a lotus in the muddy pond like that college. I got a brother away from my home in the college who was doing and thinking all the things like me. Starting from the t-shirt to the dream we shared everything with each other. Every defeat turned into win due to this friendship. We did almost all the works together. We played together, we went to college together, we fought with others together, we eat together, we bunked the classes together.

But we never noticed that was necessary to complete a work without any error. We thought that if anything went wrong then we were able to rectify that together. So every time our work was starting with a mistake. In the college the big deal for a student is to gain 75% of attendance. So we approached every teacher with some other students to know about our attendance. And it was well known to everyone that a student had always lack of money and sufficient amount of confidence. Five subject were there in that semester. So when first four teachers said us that we had sufficient attendance in their subjects, then we thought it was un-necessary to go to the last teacher. Meanwhile someone suggested that as we came to the first four teachers so it was quite good for us to go to the last one. When we went to him and checked the attendance sheet we came to know that nearly every student had low attendance rate in that subject and two students who had lower attendance were me and Pramod. After knowing that we laughed loudly when other were feeling unhappy because we were sure that we both attend more classes in that subject than others in that semester. Then we looked at each other and opened our calculator and entered into the teacher's chamber. After 30 minutes of calculation and arguments we came outside by raising our own attendance and also the attendance of the whole class and we both proved that when the convincing power of an engineer was so good that's why he became the chief minister of the capital of India then the attendance was nothing in front of that!

In the blink of moment, the 1st year had passed away with lots of memories. After the end semester exam every student went to their home, but I stayed there as there went something wrong in my hometown. There was a gang war happened in my hometown in between the Hindu and the Muslim community. So my mother suggested me not to come home. After 2 days once Pramod called me and asked about my situation in the hostel and I answered that I was feeling alone. Then I had my dinner and went to sleep. The very next day someone knocked my door and when I opened the door I was so amazed. Pramod was standing in front of me. I couldn't think any sophisticated words to thank him. That day I realized that what is true friendship. He taught me the real values of the friendship. Then after four to five months he left the college due to some reason. After his departure, I not only lost a close friend but also lost a brother. That night I sit alone in the room and missing him badly and also to my childhood best friends.

It was October 5, 2007. It was the day of welcome ceremony of our college. That day I saw her performing in a song on the stage for the first time which was a task given to her by her seniors. I asked someone about her and came to know that she was from M.Sc. Electronics 1st year. After that I saw her many times in my college, but no feelings had popped up in my heart for her. But when I saw her in the college foundation day I stopped for a while. She had worn a green colour Saree in the tradition Indian style. She was looking stunning. Then I wanted to know everything about her. I luckily got her profile in the Instagram as well as in the Facebook. I sent her friend request without any hesitation. She accepted my request and we became friends. Then I sent her "Hii" from my side but she did not reply. 11th May is her birthday. I wished her at 1 to 2 pm through messenger and also tagged her into a slideshow contained by her beautiful images collected by me and waited for her reply, but she did not. "I may not be the first person to wish you, but may be the last one to cross your mind this birthday! Happy Belated Birthday. Stay blessed," I told her 5 minutes before the end of her birthday. After sometimes my phone popped up. When I saw it, it was the message from her, "You are Unique." "It's my pleasure!" I replied. Then after the summer vacation I tried to get her number in different styles from her but she simply denied every time. After 5 months my 5th semester and her 3rd semester were over. During that holidays she any how convinced to give her number. From that day we were chatting every day. After the vacation I asked her to meet. Earlier she denied three to four times, but that day she gave her positive signs. That launch was so special for me. It's not as she came for the lunch but before that I had not went to any restaurant with a lady except my mother. I was so sure that after that meeting something would happen between us, but all went in vain. She was like an oblivious. She just forgot to reply my message for one to two weeks. But I kept waiting for her reply. When I would feel alone I would just open the message box and keep reading the older messages. I checked out his pretty pics on Instagram. In a split of second the festive week of our college came nearer. I vowed myself to explain all my feelings towards her on the stage in the upcoming cultural fest. In the night of our cultural fest I had a chilled beer and at the last hour of the cultural night I went to the stage and unveiled the pieces of my broken heart in front of her and requested her to made the pieces of it into a pearl garland and returned again to me. "I saw a girl in the last year foundation day in a green colour saree and a black colour glass. I fall in love with her from that day but did not express my love in front of her. It is the last year for her in the college and this AVAHAN may be the last one for her. I may not be able to see her again in my future after she will leave this college. So if she is here and able to listen to my words then I am going to express my heart to her in the last moment of this AVAHAN and I'm requesting the God not to constrain me to write My Heart Skips a Beat Part-2," I said.

So

"Main tumse pyaar behad karta hoon,

Lekin kahne se darta hoon.

Har din tumhe chupke se dekhta hoon,

Har pal sirf tumpe hi marta hoon.

Chalo aaj himmat karke bata hi deta hoon,

Iss silsile ko aaj yahni pe hi khatam karta hoon.

Agar tum Han kahogi toh mera pyaar muqammal ho jayega,

Agar tum Naa kahogi toh mera shayari muqammal ho jayega," I expressed.

That incident changed everything in my life. Someone from her friends complained against me at our Director sir. So the very next day sir called me to his chamber and asked me to beg apology at her for the last night incident. And he explained how a girl feels when such things happen with her in front of every one. I agreed with sir and requested some time so that I could prepare myself to beg her for excuse. Then I came to my room and closed my door. My hostel friends knocked my door to know what had happened, but I didn't give any respond to any one. I sat on my bed for half an hour and started thinking all the bad outcomes of my last night act. So I decided to leave the college so that she did not feel any hesitation and could move freely in college premises. I did not tell anything about that matter to any one and went directly to our Director and applied for CLC. He tried his best to explain the demerits of my decision, but I chose to ignore him as I understood that the honour of a girl is more important than my career. Within 4 to 5 days I got my CLC and all my clearance and prepared myself to leave the college. Within that 4 to 5 days I also collected so many memories with my friends which were unforgettable for all the time to come. But before leaving the college I wanted to let her know how special she was for me. So I bought a little statue of Lord Krishna with a card and prepared a letter and wrote everything about my feelings and sent it to her with the help of one of my friends. Then I left the hostel and went to the Sambalpur railway station, but my train was late thanks to Indian railway. But I was happy as the station had free Wi-Fi, I took out my phone, downloaded tinder and uploaded the location as Sambalpur for one last time and the first picture that popped up was her. She was just beautiful; she is just beautiful. I looked at her, smile and swiped a right.

Till now I have no idea that she had got my gift or not but I have a faith on Lord Krishna that he will bless her for all times to come. My birthday comes in May and I had never believed that she would wish me, but wished me in this manner, "I may not be the first person to wish you, but may be the last one to cross your mind this birthday! Happy Belated Birthday. Stay blessed." And I gave her a smiley and turn off the messenger.

Then at evening 8 PM I reached at Bhadrak. My father had already waited for me at the station and we came home together. My mother was so happy to see me. I did not tell anything about my leaving of the college and acted so normal. After 2 to 3 days I called my friends and said about my home coming and we made plan of get together at the Bhadrak college basketball ground. Then we gathered at the ground and planned for a feast. We enjoyed the whole feast as we did in our college days. I realized that they were all so busy in their life, so I did not tell them anything about my college drop out. I stayed at home for one week and realized that my father was so tensed as he did a loan for my study. I realized that my parents were so concerned about my study as I was the elder son in my family. I was so stressed and could not think what to do. So I decided to leave the home and do some job in other locality. I took a white piece of paper and wrote everything about my college incident and kept on the table so that anyone could get the letter easily. Then in the midnight I left the house when all the members in my house were in deep sleep. Then I went to the railway station to travel Bhubaneswar.

Bhubaneswar was not unknown to me. I had spent nearly about one year during my coaching days. At morning 4 to 5 AM I reached at Bhubaneswar. I had no destination to go, no place to live and only hundred rupees to survive. At platform I sat for one hour and started thinking of what to do next. Meanwhile my father was calling me repeatedly, but I did not attend the phone. After 10 to 12 calls I cancelled the phone, wrote a message that one day I would return to home, but not now and don't try to find me, sent the message and blocked his number. Then I went to a nearby shop, bought a water bottle with some bread and had my breakfast. After that I started my journey in search of work. After some time, I saw many persons who were able to do some work were doing the job of beggar. I went to an old beggar and sit near him till the evening. I looked at him for whole day and tried my best to learn his skill of begging. At night I felt hungry, but I had not enough money to eat anything. That old beggar was also watching me for whole day and he came near to me and asked about my condition. But before I could tell him anything, he asked me to follow him. I started following him without any hesitation. We went to the backside of a temple a little distance away from the railway station.

"I can understand that you have no destination to go, no food to eat and no money to survive," he said.

"How preciously you know about me?" I asked.

"It's all about my experience," he replied.

Then he offered me some bread and water. I eat them and got relaxed.

"Why are you here?" he asked.

Then I described anything about my home leaving. He smiled for some time and offered me the job of a beggar. I could not think to what to say. The guy who passed 12th and who also learned B. Tech for three years would do the job of a beggar. But accepted his offer because I knew that my condition was the result of my past deeds.

The very next day he helped me to dress like a beggar and took me with him to start my first job. After collecting all the money, we returned to the same temple again. That day I felt how difficult task the begging is and how difficult the earning money is in this society. But one thing which was giving me an immense pleasure that for first time I earned money with my own power. From that day since about next two to three month I had begged in different styles in different places. Sometimes I dressed in torn clothes. I remained untidy and unbathed. Sometimes I had bandages on my limb. I carried a bag with me. I kept my alms in it. Sometimes I had a bowl in my hand and also kept a stick on my hand. I generally called the name of different Gods in different temples in order to attract the people. I tried to sing in such a pathetic voice that it evoked pity for me. People generally gave alms to me to ward off their distress. They did not give alms me out of pity, but to ward off their troubles. Generally, women had sympathetic attitude for me. I called them as 'Maa' and that time I remembered my mother so much. I never missed religious gatherings and festivals. I knew that begging is justified in case of crippled, in capacitated and handicapped beggars, but I had compulsion to do it.

During that period a magical bond had created between me and that old beggar. He treated me like his own son and I treated him like my godfather and that temple turned into a paradise for me. Due to his love and company I totally forgot my family and my friends. Like every day once we both went to separate places for begging. I returned to the temple, but I did not find him there. Then I went to different places to where he went usually, but I did not find him anywhere. From that day till now I am continuously searching him in every stops, in platforms and in different temples. Sometimes I go to that temple also where we lived together, but do not find him anywhere.

After his departure I continued the job of a beggar for one to two weeks, but I felt so alone and decided to do another job. So I registered my name as a Coolie. It was so difficult for me to act like a coolie as I belonged to a Brahmin community and I had not acted that type of physical work before. That day I remembered my parents especially my father and realized that how he struggled in his life to earn money and for giving us a better life. Then I worked as a coolie and carried load and luggage of other people from one place to another. I got a small amount in exchange of my work. The amount depended upon the weight of load, the distance and the conditions of time and place. I wore a particular dress of a red shirt and a yellow turban. I tied a brass plate on my arm. On that my licence number was placed. I had no holidays. I always presented at the railway station. With other coolies I waited for the arrival of the train. Then I ran to the compartment. If somebody wanted me, I stopped there. I could take his luggage to the place he wanted. That hard work went on from day to day. I could not take rest. I could not go anywhere for recreation. I had to work for all the twenty-four hours to earn more money. I did not care for bad weather. Sometimes I arranged a seat for some people. Sometimes I brought tea or food for them. I knew that honesty is the best policy. So I never demanded more money with due respect to my work. When I saw any old person I treated him like my father and helped him as could as I did and demanded a little amount of money. After giving so many troubles God might be vowed to give me more and more troubles so that I could realize my faults properly.

In that way about 1 year had passed. I was continuing my job as a coolie in Bhubaneswar railway station and staying also in that station. Like every day I was doing my duty and pulling a carrier trolley with some heavy loads. Suddenly I noticed that someone calling me as 'Shubham' from my back. I was astonished to hear that voice as that was the voice of a girl. She was the girl wearing a white saree with a black coat, holding a file, the same beauty and same figure. That time she was just beautiful, she is just beautiful, for whom I left the college and doing a job of a coolie in the Bhubaneswar railway station. I felt like that everything had stopped, a darkness surrounded in my eyes, I had lost my physical power. I never believed that I would see her again in such a condition in which I had to hide my face from her. I got my sense back when I again heard her voice, "Please! Wait a while so that I could finish my duty of collecting the ticket from your master. I stopped a while and before he told me anything I left the place as could as I did. Then for next four to five days I noticed her doing the job of a ticket collector in the platform. After seeing her I couldn't work freely, I tried my best to hide myself from her, so I decided to leave that platform. I started searching for other jobs. I collected the articles from the newspapers and tried to give the interviews for drivers, security guards, sales men, etc. But every time I got failure due to heavy competition. But I was able to remember about the dhaba in which we spent most of the time with friends when I was taking coaching in Bhubaneswar.

Nilamadhaba dhaba, Unit-3, Kharabela Nagar, Bhubaneswa. I spent most of the time there with my friends. The owner of it was also well known to me. So I went there in search of a job and I was certain that he would definitely help me. He was quite astonished when he saw me in such a condition. I described him everything and requested him to give me any sort of job. At first he did not give consent due to the availability of sufficient workers, but after understanding my condition he appointed me as a waiter with a salary of Rs.2000/- per month with fooding inside the dhaba. He also allowed me to stay in the night after the dhaba closed as I had no other place to live. I started my job as a waiter. At first I thought that how I enjoyed in the same dhaba in my past days but the time brought me in such a condition that I had to serve food to others. But later I again remembered my situation and started my duty. I waited near the tables. When customers came to my table I took orders and delivered food to them. As a good waiter I would offer them a hand of help by recommending the best food of our Dhaba. When someone gave me any tip, to be honest I returned him or gave the tip to my owner. All other workers turned into good friends due to my simple behaviour.

One day I was in the cooking room, suddenly my owner called me and ordered me to take the orders from the table no. 7. I went to there with a jug of water and with five glasses. When I reached there I stopped for a while by seeing those five persons. They were my stupid childhood friends. After seeing me in such a condition they stood up from their seats and gave me a tight hug. After that we together had lunch and they paid for me. Then they requested me to let me go for some hours with them. My kind owner understood about our get together and allowed me. I saw them nearly after 2 years. In those 2 years their style of walking and talking had totally changed, but one thing that remained constant was their love and affection towards me. They wanted to know everything had happened to me in those 2 years and that time I also described them everything that how I left the college for the honour of a girl, how I left home to earn some money, how I started a job as a beggar, a job as a coolie, left the job of coolie again for the same girl and how I joined as a waiter in that dhaba. After that I asked them about my hometown and my parents and came to know that everything was fine in Bhadrak, my brother had passed class 10th in good mark and was reading 12th Science in Bhadrak college. After my leaving, my father and other family members tried to find me but they could not and my mother had waited for me till then due to my last message that one day I would return to home. Then I wanted to know about their conditions and also about their jobs. I came to know that they all five had completed their graduations and were preparing themselves for interviews. They had come to Bhubaneswar from three months. They all lived together in Bhubaneswar by making a mess. Then I requested them not to tell anything about me to my parents on the shake of our friendship. They also promised me that they would keep it a secret till the right time had come.

Then they requested me to join them and live with them in their mess. At first I denied, but due to their request I had to keep their request.

By getting my best friends again I got a chance to enjoy another part of my life. I also enjoyed their company, but this time I never forgot about my responsibility. I usually went to dhaba and worked as a waiter. During those years I had also saved a little amount of money. One evening Pritish gave me an idea to complete my graduation and to start B. Tech again from that semester, where I had left. With my friends I went to a private engineering college and described everything about the situations of my leaving of the college to the Director Sir and requested him to allow me to complete my B. Tech again. He was so benevolent for me and let me to take admission in his institute by knowing my miserable condition. I told everything to my dhaba owner and he felt so glad to know about that matter. He allowed me to work as a part timer in his dhaba with same salary facility. I went to college every day in the day time and went to dhaba in the evening. I would usually return home at 12 AM and keep on studying till 4 AM. As I had no touch with my study from last 2 to 3 years so it was quite difficult for me to catch the syllabus but my friends especially Chinmaya and Abhishek helped me to understand the topics fluently. For that time, I got serious regarding my studies. So instead of wasting time as I did before I tried my best to make the best use of the free time. Along with the books of my own syllabus I started studying the interview level books which my friends had. I also used the laptops of my friends and did the best use of internet to collect many extra knowledge. In between 1 to 2 years I not only completed my B. Tech with a good percentage but also able to face interviews like my five other friends.

Then we started giving interviews in different companies and for different govt. jobs. But due to low percentage in 12th mostly we were disqualified. Sometimes we were not allowed to sit in the interview. But we did not leave our expectations. We were running, falling, standing, trying our best to sustain ourselves and again started running. Days, weeks, months were passing away, but we were not able to get a good job. But that time God also could not tolerate our bitterness. So due to God's blessing we saw a great white hope in the eastern sky of our destiny. That's why we all together got different jobs with respect to our eligibility in same company with the salary of 3 Lakhs 60 thousand annual package. After getting a good job I firstly came to my dhaba owner and thanked him from the depth of my heart for his compassion toward me. He got enthralled after getting the news and arranged a small party in his dhaba by inviting me and my five friends. After a long time that was my first party to which I enjoyed in all true means.

For many people especially teenagers' having a job is a way to earn and have extra cash to fulfil the daily needs. Getting a job made us feel independent. Although it was not my first job, but it was the job which I occupied with the help of my knowledge. When I entered into the office and went to my chamber I felt the fragrance of a professional. This job made me more responsible and I learnt how to tackle my finances well. Apart from that I learnt many things like how to take a public transport, work and coordinate with different types of people, interact with other co-workers and how to be punctual. In just 6 months I learned a bunch of real-life skills. It is a lifetime experience for me which I can never forget. It was a stage where I got the scope to become more mature and grew into an adult in 6 months. After some days I landed an internship at a famous private company in Bangalore. I thought that I would be working in a cubicle where I would be entering data into the computer, doing paper work and hardly talking to my colleagues. But I was totally wrong. When I entered the office for the very first time I was extremely nervous. I took my seat and glanced around to see my co-workers. Some were sailing in the same boat as they were fresher's while some were very confident as they were old and experienced.

All the fresher's were warmly welcome by Vineet Sir who was our supervisor. He explained us what he is expecting us to do. He was very confident that we could be a big contribution to the company which made me quite confident from inside.

It was a modern, fast paced firm working with Google apps and technology such as cloud computing. That was a year of economic downturn for many firms, but that company prospered. It helped many other companies to overcome economic crisis and become successful. It was doing an outstanding job in all its areas.

My first week as the office was very informative. Vineet Sir taught us lots of new things. We learned, did assignments, did tutorials until we learned every bit of it. Finally, after 10 days we were ready to get started with our first assignment. I was assigned building with few clients' websites. I loved my first work.

I did my first job very well and was appreciated by many peoples in my company. Later I was assigned to conduct onsite training for various firms and help them to become familiar with google Apps.

I prepared myself well enough to speak in front of many people. I solved their queries. I was rectified by my supervisor Sradha Mam when I was committing mistakes. Sradha Mam was so beautiful, intelligent and dynamic. She helped me in so many ways and with time we became close to each other and turned out of good friends. Time flew by I learned many things and my last day for my internship arrived finally.

I was given a little party by my colleagues. My seniors gave me a lot of useful advice on future careers. Both of my supervisors, Vineet Sir and especially Sradha Mam, gave us some useful advice on furthering our future careers. That advice has proven to be beyond helpful and I'm sure will take me a long way. My internship taught me many useful things which will help me in my future.

After that party I came back to my room. It was about 9:30 PM. Suddenly my phone rang. It was the number of Sradha Mam. When I picked up the phone she called me to come to her house for some work. When I asked about the work she did not tell anything sand only said to come. Then I went to her house through a local taxi and rang her calling bell. She opened the door and requested me to enter her house. She worn a pink colour nighty in which she looked so beautiful and her damp hair made her more beautiful. Before I could ask anything she suddenly held my hand and took me to her bed room, started kissing and undressing me and...suddenly I felt shy and fear. Lying with me, being touched by her, I felt vulnerable and raw. At one point, when she asked me what I liked, I had to resist blurting out, "I don't know!" But Mam? She saw me.

In the middle of sex-literally- she pulled out and said, "Wow, you're really tense." Then she gently pushed me down on the bed and massaged my back until I relaxed. Throughout the four hours we enjoyed that night with different sex positions. I went to the bathroom for a few times when it was the time of discharge. I looked at myself in the mirror and whispered, "You're okay with this. You're really okay with this."

After sometime I came to the bed again. This time I did not stop myself to come closer to her. I was totally attracted by her beauty. I went to her, started kissing her lip, beating her lip and tasting her blood. She was in pain – tears streaming down her face and when I asked if we could stop, she told me to "just hold on" because she was close to coming. After few times she switched off the bed lamp and we slept together. That night with Sradha Mam was one of the most beautiful night in my life. Just like I have never been a fan of the idea that a woman's vagina is necessary for a man's sexual awakening. I have never believed that sex with one woman could be magically healing. But after that night, my view has shifted somewhat.

In the very next morning we left the bed earlier, took bath, had breakfast and went to the market for shopping. We spent the whole day together in different ways, returned to my room in the evening, packed my bags and went again to the airport. My flight was at 10 PM. So we spent some times together in the airport. Then at 9:45 PM my name was announced to go to the flight, she gave me a tight hug, we kissed each other and I left her for very last time and started my journey to Odisha.

In the morning, I landed at the Bhubaneswar Airport. My friends were waiting there for me. Then we returned to our room. I shared my experience with them on the way to our room. It was a Sunday. We took rest for some hours and then we planned to go for a movie at INOX. After the show, we returned to Nilamadhab dhaba which is the closest to us to have our meal. In the evening we had different types of street foods and later we returned to our room with a full tummy and retired to bed.

In the very next morning we left the bed early in the morning. After doing all our works as per the morning routine we went to join the office again. During the 4 months of my internship a new Branch Development Manager had joined in our branch. He was not so simple like the previous BDM. He had a rough attitude towards the supporting staffs. He was assigning hell lots of works to complete in a short span of time. Anyhow we managed ourselves to work with him and tried our best to finish all the tasks in time.

After few weeks we got one month of holiday. Our office staffs who were from other cities for their home town. My friends also planned to return to Bhadrak, my home town. But I had no plan of going anywhere. So I made up my mind to stay in Bhubaneswar. But my friends Ashutosh and Debarchana requested me to return to my home after a long period. Then the other friends started putting pressure on me in different styles and being influenced by them I changed my mind and agreed to move to Bhadrak. Next morning, we started our journey via bus.

We arrived at Bhadrak in the afternoon. I was going to tread on my mother land after a long gap of four to five years. When I touched its dust, I got nostalgic as all the past memories flashed away just before my eyes. All my friends had their destination to go. But I still stood on the bus stand and thought whether to go to home or not. After sometime I made up my mind, called a cab and instructed my address to the driver. Then he started his cab on the way to my home.

I was extremely surprized and delighted as well by watching the development of the city in those four to five years. After some 15 minutes I reached at my home, paid the fee, took my luggage out and allowed him to leave. Then I stood in front of our gate and feeling so tensed by thinking about the reaction of my parents and others to see me after a long time. Any how I prepared myself to enter the gate and pressed the calling bell. Then a young boy came out open the door and asked me about my identity. I could recognize that he was my younger brother. But he did not recognize me due to my hair style, my long beard. I did not tell him anything and stood silently. When he was small he used to call father or mother when someone stranger came to our house. So this time he also called our father and he came outside. He also did not recognize me and wanted to know about my identity. After seeing him I did not stop myself and blew down on his feet. I did not stop myself from crying and my tears came out from my eye and started bathing his feet. He suddenly stepped his feet back and asked about the cause of my crying. I did not able to say many thing and only I replied, "Bapa! Please, forgive me." That one line was enough for my father to recognize me that I was his elder son who left him from 4 to 5 years ago. Then he held my hand and took me out of the gate with anger and went into the home. I did not protest anyone and started waiting in front of the gate. The day passed on. Evening passed away and the clock showed that was 8 PM. I had not gone anywhere and still waiting. After sometimes my mother came out from the home with the eyes full of tears and slapped me with full power. After that I had also started crying not for the slap but for her tears. Then she kissed my forehead and took me to our home. I placed my luggage and went directly my father's room with my mother and brother. He was sitting on his old chair and his eyes were full of tears. I sat under his feet, hood them and started begging apology. After sometimes he cried out louder and hugging me tightly. That situation made my mother and brother crying simultaneously. After sometimes we all were able to manage ourselves to stop from crying and then my mother calling me to have my dinner and she helped me to eat with her hand. I felt so happy to eat the delicious food prepared by my mother after a long time and then I went to bed as I was so tired.

The very next morning I left the bed at 7 AM, brushed my teeth, had a bath and went to the tea table. My father was having red tea, my mother brought milk tea for me and for her also. In the tea table I described about the job and gave my salary to my mother. I could understand that how my parents felt so happy that day. Then me and my father went to the market to buy mutton. Then he cooked mutton himself and we all enjoyed the day together. Then my parents planned to arrange a small party due to my homecoming. Many of my family members, relatives and my friends joined to that party and enjoyed the party. Then me and my five friends went to the places where we had enjoyed our college days. In this way we enjoyed the vacation successfully. After the vacation we again returned to Bhubaneswar-our second home and joined the office.

Everything was going calmly for few days. Perhaps it seemed the calmness of the upcoming disaster to our life. Our misfortune started again playing with us. This time we faced a big trouble which would enforce us to take a crucial decision for future. When we returned after the vacation and again joined in the office our BDM gave us many assignments to finish in a short time. We felt being under pressure but we tried our best to finish those. Ashutosh was in search of a good programmer for his assignment and he knew Mita's programming skill, so his only faith was Mita. Mita was a very talented and clever girl who was also working in our company. She was a CSE engineer with a vast knowledge on programming. So He went to Shree apartments to meet Mita. She was so open minded. So met her on the gate itself signed a deal that she would stay with him at his apartment provided he would take charge of her food clothing etc. in return she would help him in his projects for free. On the other hand, Ashutosh was living with us, the apartment provided by our company. But only for Mita he shifted to another apartment, not so far from us within two days. As Ashutosh was a very shy in nature, that was so difficult for him to live with a girl, but he had no other options. She took her bag pack and went on with Ashutosh. Mita was a girl with free thoughts and didn't like anyone asking her to do like this and like that, whereas Ashutosh was systematic well-mannered wanted everything to be on its place which was the first cause of their first fight after living one month together.

Mita was an alcohol addicted. Most of the time she drank alcohol and come to the apartment with no sense mode. One evening, Mita enters the living room with dirty muddy shoes and sits on the sofa. And our systematic guy told her to remove her shoes but she didn't like anyone controlling her. Due to alcohol she used to get mood swings and started fighting with him. She abused him with bad languages and went to sleep. Ashutosh did not told her anything as she was over drunk and let her.

On the very next morning, when Mita came to know about her deeds of last night, she felt sorry to him and began to write programs for his project. This work of Mita made Ashutosh happy. He had a target of getting at least 6 point out of 10 on his project but Mita was confident and said "I challenge you we will get more than 7 by boss "and so happened he got 8 points and congratulated by our BDM. Both were very happy and turned into good friends.

One fine day, Ashutosh bought a gift for her, a costly mobile phone as she had an old one. Ashutosh went on to surprise her unfortunately he himself was surprised, as he saw Mita was drinking alcohol again. He had a fight Mita so badly for which she took away her bag pack and went on her way. Ashutosh was angry, scared his feeling where mingling with each other.  
He went to search Mita, found her dosed on footpath, he brought her back home, took good care of her.

Next day she apologised for her deed and explained that she was in such condition, if she did not drink alcohol in every two to three days she would definitely lost common-sense and did not understand what was wrong or right. But my friend tried his best to free her from alcohol. He spent most of the time with her, tried his best to feel her happy and stress free and also fall in love with her.

The day arrived when Ashutosh was going to confess to her that in the time of one month, he had fallen in her love and she also accepted her propose.

Their love proved that, when you are in love with a right person you automatically change for good. After some months Mita had to go to Delhi for her office work. Although they were physically away from each other, but their love connected them in every second by mentally. They talked with each other in every night, he did not spend sufficient time with us, they made video calls to each other even if in the office and did so many other things in a filmy way. Although they loved each other so much but it was not so far when the sun of their relationship was going to set in the sky of their true love.

After few days, It was the last night of the dead line of submitting all the assignments and projects, Debarchana's father suddenly called him and described him about her mother's heart stroke and said him to come home immediately. He also said him to arrange about 3 to 4 Lakhs rupees in order to carry out the operation.

He got so tensed after hearing that news and his mind was fully disturbed so that he couldn't finish his assignment. We were quite worried for him. So that we all decided to leave for Bhadrak again to take Debarchana's mother to a good hospital situated in Cuttack or Bhubaneswar for a better treatment. We tried to contact our BDM to describe him about our situation, but he did not pick our call. On the other hand, Debarchan's father was continuously calling him and updating him about her mother's condition and his every call made him go nervous. After several failure attempts to contact our BDM we decided to start our journey to Bhadrak and we sent a mail to him by narrating our situations. Then we booked a cab to reach Bhadrak in time and after a couple of hours of journey we arrived at Bhadrak. We consulted with the doctor and took his mother to an established private hospital in Cuttack. We arranged the money from our savings and deposited in the counter to start the operation. After few hours of the doctor declared the success of the operation and we thanked both doctor and God. But in the meantime my mobile popped up and that was the return mail from our BDM's office and that mail was indicating that we lost our job as we were unable to submit our assignment. I told that news to my friends except Debarchana and behaved like that everything was fine. Because in that situation the news of the doctor gave us more happiness than the loss of our jobs. Then we described everything to our parents and they also felt happy for both our deed and decision. We spent time with his mother for a week to take the proper care of her and after a weak she got discharged from the hospital and returned to home. When all the situations were well managed, we informed Debarchana and his parents regarding the news of being fired from our jobs. His parents especially her mother was so sorry for us but Debarchana was neutral as he was so satisfied for being able to give the top priority to his responsibilities for her parents. During this period of time Ashutosh continuously updated Mita about his life. When Mita came to know about the jobless situation of Ashutosh she did not receive his phone calls, did not reply the messages and also blocked him permanently. She forgot all the deeds of Ashutosh which helped her to survive in her bad time. Those activities of her made Ashutosh understand that she did not want to stay in relationship with such a jobless and worthless person like him. So he never tried to contact her anymore and happily cuddled the justice of our misfortune.

We spent time in home again for some months and the time made us again as jobless and worthless. We turned into a whole zero again. Our parents kept on putting pressure on us to join in better job again for our better establishment. But we were not interested to join any job again, which could provide us money but could not understand our emotions. We did not want to ride the master-servant cycle again. So we strictly made up our mind not to do any job again.

One fine summer night we sat on the roof of a newly constructed building with some bottles of chilled beer. We discussed about our all faults, failures and everything that we faced in our past. There were discussions also on our responsibilities to give a proper living to our parents in their old days. We discussed about the negative comments of our relatives and other peoples which made our parents more shameful. It seemed that the darkness and the moon were hearing our discussions and laughed on our bad luck.

But another person who was also hearing our discussions was a day labourer, sleeping on a corner of the roof. He came and sat near us. Then he started sharing his hurdles and obstacles which he had faced in his life and the cause why he worked as a day labourer in that construction site. He introduced himself as Sandeep Swain. He also described how he had started his work like a labourer in spite of holding the degree of a civil engineer. After that we understood that there was no more difference between him and us, but the only difference was that he was able to earn money, but we were not. After that he suggested us to join him as the day labourer which made me remember that how I got the offer of doing the work as a beggar from an old man in my past and how my fortune again turned me into a big zero on that day. But that time I wanted to challenge my fortune and made myself to face all the situations.

The very next day I called all my friends and that labour who said himself as Sandeep Swain and started discussing to regarding our future initiatives. Fortunately, Mr. Swain had a great knowledge about construction and he described about the way to start a construction company. Then we started investigating the potential probability of a construction business in Bhubaneswar by consulting industry publications for information about market trends specific to the construction industry in Bhubaneswar. Then we made our team and founded 'Friends Construction Company' based upon the core values of team works, integrity and commitment.

Then we put together a business plan that established our business goals and procedures which was an essential step to start our business. This plan would help us to understand everything that was involved with starting and running our business.

As starting a business is a complicated process and Mr. Swain's advices were not enough to run the business properly so we wanted to get advice of an experienced mentor. We checked out the SCORE Mentors Program to get matched with a mentor from our industry for free. We also got guidance from our local Small Business Development Centre and invited some female entrepreneurs to help us in our business.

Firstly, we started our business at home, but when it grew up, we wanted to consider finding an office location. We selected a property which provides an office for our administrators, large storage space and parking area for our construction vehicles.

Then we needed a huge amount of money to buy vehicles, equipment and tools. Additionally, we would have to pay bills, advertise and pay salaries. So we made a collection of money from our savings and also took a needed amount of loan from the bank. Then we went to some local politicians to approve us some government grants and they also helped us as their best. With the help of some helpful persons we were able to register our business at the state level. To comply with federal tax laws, we applied for an EIN from the IRS. Then we got licensed by our state government to operate our business legally.

By following all the industry instructions, we were all set to establish our company and let the sun to rise on the sky of our fortune. Then we bought all the needed equipment, tools and vehicles. Then we hired a team of skilled and reliable workers to did all the works properly. Then we tried joining community organizations to make connections with people who would be able to us grow our business and also established a marketing campaign. After that we got so many projects and assignments and tried our best to complete them properly. We made the good relationships bonding with our workers and worked together as a team. We all followed the buzzwords: "We want to do things differently," or "We have to be innovative," or "We need more teamwork and collaboration!" Our company uses sustainable systems and practices while implementing new and better approaches to deliver client projects. Using the principle of lean construction, our industry found ways to minimize waste and maximize use of time, labour and materials. Planning is integral, collaboration is key and the result is an uninterrupted workflow, which helped deliver a project to the full satisfaction of a client. In these ways we got success in our business and our business turned into a good financial strength for our state. We also got success in our personal life. We also changed our financial conditions and able to prove ourselves. We had gained enough to show them who once denied us in our past.

Present Day

It is the ringing sound of my phone's alarm. I suddenly wake up. It is 7 AM in the morning. As it is a Sunday I have to go my home town Bhadrak to enjoy the whole day with my parents who have faced so many hurdles in their life for me. Although today I have my own car to travel to Bhadrak but I have made up my mind to go through train. The only cause to go through the train to meet that girl who is working as a T.C. in Bhubaneswar railway station and for whom I actually got success in my life. That day if I had not left my college for her perhaps I might not have got success in my life. Many people have come to my life and filled my life with full of joy and prosperity and they have also got something for themselves from me. But that one girl has come to my life silently and also went from my life silently without taking anything, but changing me from a coal to diamond. That day When I left her for very last time, I wanted to ask her some questions, but I could not. But if fortunately, I will see her in the station then I will surely ask her those questions. I don't know that she will tell 'Yes' or 'No'. Everyone wants to hear 'Yes', but I pray my God to hear a 'No' from her so that again I will go away silently!

"Bas ek baar batado,

Kya kabhi tum mujhse mohabbat karti thi?

Kya kabhi tum mere bare main sochti thi?

Kya kabhi main tumhare dill ke karib apaya tha?

Bas ek baar batado,

Kya kabhi tum dill se mere kabitaon ko padhti thi?

Kya kabhi tum mujhe apni khwabon main dekhti thi?

Kya kabhi main tumhari unglion ke bich se guzar paya tha?

Bas ek baar batado,

Kya kabhi tum mujhe andhre main dhundti thi?

Kya kabhi tum akele main meri intezar karti thi?

Kya kabhi main thumhari aasuon ke tarah anknhon se ho kar hothon taq apaya tha?

Uss din bhi tum chup thi aur aaj bhi tum chup ho,

Uss din bhi tum sab janti thi aur aaj bhi tum sab janti ho.

Main har din tumhari khusboo ko mehsus karta hoonm,

Teri jhil jesi ankhon main roje dubta hoon.

Chali geyi tu mujhe chodke,

Mene laakh samjhaya par tu nehi mani,

Teri bina nehi meri koi kahani,

Kyon ki uss kahani ka aghar main tha Raja,

Toh tuhi thi meri Rani.

Sayad mera pyaar jhutha hai,

Sayad mene tumse jyada mere kabitaon ko chaha hai.

Mene khudko maar kar mere kabitaon ke ruhu ko jagaya hai,

Mene tumhare bina mere kabitaon ko apne dill se lagaya hai.

Mene har baar tumhe apni meshre par utarne se roka hai,

Par mene apni likhi kabitaon ko tumhari jogan banta hua dekha hai.

Aur kya aaaj bataopgi nehi,

Ki tumne mere bare main kya kya socha hai?"

Acknowledgements

My sincere thanks to following people, for taking me ahead in the journey of writing this book.

My seniors like Satya Bhai, Ajay Bhai and all the members of my favourite team Masters XI, for supporting ne to write this book.

My childhood friends, especially Pritish Swain, Ashutosh Nayak, Debarchana Dixit, Abhishek Nayak and Chinmaya Behera to find this story.

Subhashree Sahu, for helping me to proceed in the proper way in the initial stage of writing this book.

Sourav Kumar Sahoo, my guide for reviewing this book and helping me with his edit work.

Paresh Kumar Mohanty, my colleague, for helping me in designing the cover pages of the e-book.

Sonu Nayak and Mahabir Dash, my good friends for helping me to promote the book in social medias.

Snehasish Mohapatra, my brother from another mother, helping me to get new ideas in the writing process.

Debabrata Mohanty and Sujit Kumar Sethi, my colleagues, helping me to rectify my faults.

My whole batch-mates in SUIIT, for inspiring me to produce myself as a story writer.

