Sahana E02

Episode - 2

There was no problem with two pairs in our gang. Sudha and I; Shiva and Lavanya had no problems in their love life with respect to our parent’s acceptance. On the other hand, Raghav and Sindhu; Moulee and Deepika had certain problems.

It was 25^th October 2009, that’s when the disaster occurred. Sindhu’s parents had been searching for a groom right from the age she turned 21. They had finally decided on the groom and called them to see the girl. Sindhu was madly in love with Raghav and she couldn’t tell it straight to her parents or neither could Raghav tell it to his parents. He wanted to finish his studies and then confess to his parents.

There was nothing Raghav or anyone of us could do except to pray. The guy’s family came over and they liked Sindhu a lot. The horoscopes also matched. We couldn’t do anything but to console both of them. That night I spoke to Sindhu. I got all the details of the groom and his family. Me and Shiva were thinking what to do. Then Shiva gave me an idea.

The next day morning at 10:00am Shiva and I went to the groom’s place. We decided to go to the groom’s place. Just when we were about to enter their house, we heard some arguments.

“I can’t marry this girl just for you, dad. I told u I love nidhi. How can I marry this girl when I am in love with someone else?” The guy was shouting.

As soon as we heard this, Shiva and myself looked at each other with a glee in our faces.

“I can’t do anything now, I have already informed the girl’s parents.” The dad said.

“That’s okay. I will go and inform them now itself.” The guy said.

“I won’t allow you for that.” Dad said.

I stormed in and said, “There’ll be no need for you to inform. We are coming on behalf of the girl’s place.”

“Who are you?” The dad asked.

“Sorry to interrupt. I am a friend of Sindhu’s. More like her brother. I just want to talk something personal to you.” I said.

“Yes please. Sit down.” They said.

“This is my friend shiva.” I said.

They acknowledged him also. I told them regarding Raghav and Sindhu, their sincere love for each other.

“The only way we can stop this is by confessing everything sir. Please don’t separate them. True love should never fail.” I said in a pleading tone.

“Yes sir please. They mean a lot to us.” Shiva said.

“Yes dad. Please it’s my life as well as her’s at stake. Please.” The guy pleaded.

“Okay fine. I will call them now and tell.” He said.

In ten minutes he called them and confesses about his son’s love affair. Though Sindhu’s father was perplexed, he had no other choice but to cancel it. Then shiva and myself met Raghav and told him everything. He got his life back. We asked him to call Sindhu’s father and arrange a meeting.

He called her father and arranged a meeting outside a temple. Sindhu’s dad knew that Raghav and his daughter were friends. Her dad came after he worshipped the temple. He acknowledged Raghav and they walked towards the back of the temple. Raghav then confessed everything to her dad. He remained calm and listened patiently. He was okay with the love marriage but he said that first Raghav had to confess to his parents and get an approval. Raghav asked for a time of six months. That became a temporary solution to their problem.

Things were again back in full swing, classes which we bunked, marina beach meetings, night stays, going out as a gang, etc. We successfully completed another year in our law career. Raghav had confessed his love at his place. To his surprise, they accepted without any hesitations. There were absolutely no problems at all.

We were now in final year of our law career. In the final year all we had to do is, compile a case study. That is, take a case, study it and display the pros and cons of the case. This was the most important aspect of the law course. We had to practice under a lawyer. While shiva and Moulee wanted to practice under a lawyer who fights for women rights, Raghav and I were interested to practice under a criminal lawyer.

We were in dire search of a lawyer. Shiva and Moulee found Mr. Anantha Narayanan a famous women’s rights advocate and we found out Mr. Bharadwaj Sunder a famous criminal lawyer. The day we went to meet them, we got selected for the case study. Both the advocates asked us to research for a case study in a month and get back to them.

So we had a month’s time before we could search for a case. We went to the public library in Chennai. It had archives of many newspapers which had lot of information regarding murders, suicides, etc. We also visited our college library which contained archives of the case studies done by our seniors. We borrowed some of them for reference. We also went to Connimera Library which is one of the ancient libraries in Chennai. Though we couldn’t find anything for the case, I borrowed couple of books like “Life after death” by Deepak Chopra and another book titled “Spirit Rescue” by Wilma Davidson. I had a special interest and belief in these kinds of paranormal books. I believed in one of the most controversial statements that ‘Ghosts and spirits existed.’

We were working round the clock to find a case. But we had no luck.

One day, we went to Anna University cultural symposium named ‘Kurukshethra’10’. We enjoyed the day over there. The canteen at Anna University is simply superb. One can come there at least for tasting the food. Raghav and I were in a hurry to meet Sindhu and Sudha respectively. So we informed Shiva and Moulee that we are starting. They wanted to drink juice and they said they will follow us.

Just as we started towards the exit, a car came very swiftly. The door of the car opened and a girl was pushed outside the university. We were shocked to see it. The girl fell down. Raghav and I immediately parked our bikes on the spot and ran towards her.

Just as she fell down, I lifted her and asked, “Are you all right?”

She stood up and took her hand from mine forcibly and said “Fine thanks.”

“What happened? Who pushed you outside the car?” I asked.

“No one pushed me. I fell down accidentally.” She said.

She was lying and I could find that from her eyes. But I had no choice but to believe her. There was some pain in her eyes.

“Okay fine.” I said and she started moving towards the entrance. She took her cell phone and made a call.

Raghav took something which had fallen on the ground and gave it to me. I looked at it. It was an Anna University ID card. Student name was SAHANA S, Final year ECE.

She was walking swiftly when Raghav called out “Sahana...”

She turned back. We could see some tears in her eyes.

We both walked over and gave the ID card to her. She said “Thanks.”

She walked away. It took us sometime to remember her.

Raghav said “Hey you remember her?”

“No I don’t.” I said.

“This was the girl we met in Sri Vemkateswara College of Engineering. You remember the cultural programme that took part in that college right? Last year.” Raghav exclaimed.

FLASHBACK

The four of us went to Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering in Sriperumbudur. It’s one of the famous engineering college in Tamil Nadu situated in the National highway of Chennai – Bangalore. It was a cultural fest. In the cultural fest, they had a singing competition and as usual Moulee was on his toes. At that time one girl from Anna University sang. She sang the song ‘Cheeni Kum hai’ from the movie cheeni kum. The most impressive aspect of her singing was that, she sang one stanza in hindi and the other stanza in tamil and her voice strongly resembled Shreya Goshal’s voice.

Quite undoubtedly, she got the first prize. As soon as she got the first prize, we wanted to congratulate her as she was stupendous on stage. When we went outside, we saw her running into the arms of a guy. She hugged him tight.

“You were great on stage dear. Congrats.” He said with a smile

“Thanks da.” She said and held his hands tightly.

It was like witnessing two lovers with extreme love and affection at its pinnacles. We approached them.

“Yes?” The guy asked.

“Hi, I am Moulee and these are my friends. You were simply great on stage.” Moulee exclaimed.

“Thanks a lot.” She said.

We just smiled at her.

“She’s trying for a chance to sing in movies.” The guy said.

“Oh that’s great. We wish you all the very best.” I said.

“We have become great fan of yours. Your voice was simply superb.” Raghav said.

“Espcially the way u mixed Hindi and Tamil was too good.” Shiva said with a smile.

“Thanks guys. Thanks a lot.” She said.

“Can we get your autograph please?” I asked.

“Guys, I... This is too much...” She said.

“Honey, someday you would surely come across these situations.”

“Yes. That day we’ll tell that we were the first ones to get Autograph from you.” Raghav said with excitement.

“Okay fine.” She said.

We gave her a paper. She signed her name with the date and gave it to me.

“One more thing, can I get your Autograph too?” I asked the guy.

“Mine?” He asked with a shock.

“Yes, You form a great couple. Please my request.”

“Okay thanks.” He said and signed the paper.

“We’ll keep it for life.” Raghav said.

“That’s cool. Can I know your names as well?” The guy said.

“I am Srikkanth. This is Raghav and this is Shiva.” I said.

“Okay. Cool. I am Krishna and this is Sahana.” He said.

“Fine. Thanks for your autograph. We need to get going. All the best for your love and career.” I said.

We all said bye and departed from the college.

PRESENT

“Yes, She is that girl. Sahana. I think she is depressed. Shall we go and talk to her?” I asked.

“No machi. I don’t think it’s a good idea. We can surely meet her some other day.” Raghav said.

“Okay fine.” I said.

“Now let’s hurry up. We need to meet our girls.” Raghav said.

“Oops, yes.” I said and we started from Anna University and went to their college. From there we went to our favourite couple hangout spot ‘BLUE-BERRIES’. It’s an eat-out in T.Nagar. It has all ice-creams and of course junk food. It’s our favourite hangout spot.

We spent around couple of hours there. Then we dropped them at their places and we went to my place. Moulee and Shiva were waiting there. That night we played carom and saw few videos of ‘SAM ANDERSON’ in you tube and slept off.

The next day morning, I woke up first to put coffee for myself and my friends. My parents had gone out of station and my brother worked abroad. So I had to manage things by myself. I opened the main door, washed the floor and put ‘KOLAM’. It might sound silly for a guy to do such things but as far as I am concerned, it’s not necessary only for a woman to do such works. I took the paper and milk packets and went inside.

I switched on the stove and boiled the milk. I went to the hall and opened the newspaper. I just browsed through the pages. Something caught my eye. I was startled and petrified.

“Oh my god!” I exclaimed.

I ran and woke up the guys. Raghav was sleeping soundly. No one could wake up Moulee when he’s asleep and Shiva got up immediately.

“What happened da? Why waking us so early?” Shiva asked.

I showed him the newspaper and he read the headlines and his eyes widened up. He was shocked.

“Raghav, please get up da. You need to take a look at this.” Shiva said.

Moulee and Raghav woke up and saw the paper.

“What the hell?” Moulee said.

“Oh god. This can’t be true.” Raghav said.

“No da. That’s it. Yesterday itself the situation was abnormal. SAHANA IS DEAD.” I said.

“She was such a nice girl.” Raghav said.

“She had a great voice.” Moulee said.

Shiva was dumbstruck. He remained silent.

The newspaper read:

Young Girl Dies in an accident.

A girl aged 21 died in an accident when she was driving back from her college at Anna University in her scooty. Police later identified her as Sahana and the police informed her parents. A resident of Saidapet, 3^rd cross main road was returning home from college when a TATA Winger dashed her accidentally. It was a hit and run accident. None of the Witnesses noted the car number. Police are investigating the case.

I looked and Raghav and sank my head.

‘We can surely meet her some other day, Raghav said and the next day SHE’S DEAD.’ I thought.

What happens Next? Wait and Watch... The plot begins :-)