Feelings

2

India , a country with emerging young people , with Delhi it’s capital has the highest number of young people across the whole country . NehaSharma  , a fun loving , mature , smart ,  extrovert and beautiful girl of age 25  from Delhi pursuing her final year in post – graduation , she took an year drop to work on her projects so she could pitch her idea to a multi national company , sure indeed she is a girl with dreams and ambition . It was a pleasant day , Neha had just returned back to her home from her college , as soon as she enters the house her sister Divya hugged her and asks her ,

“ So how was your day ? ”

“ Couldn’t be much better , all of my professors loved my project and my research , they told me that they can guarantee her that this project would land her a lavish job soon  ”, Neha replied with excitement .

Neha loved her family , her parents were always supportive in every decision she took in her life , be it dropping an year to work on her own projects or be it her love life , she shared everything with her parents and her sister , it was indeed what we call ideally  “ a happy family ”. It was a usual day like every other one , but the only difference was today was Neha’s parent’s wedding anniversary and unlike other couples , it’s Neha’s mother who has forgotten about the anniversary , but as I said Neha’s family is a very loving family , her father had already made plans for both of them to go out at a restaurant and celebrate, Neha and Divya didn’t remind their mother about the anniversary and pretended to be as normal as they could be but if you remember I told you that Neha is an extrovert and a fun loving girl so throughout the day she kept on disturbing her mother with silly questions like , what could they make for dinner tonight ? should we go out somewhere ?

Her father being an employee in a small company returned back home pretty exhausted but one could easily see his smile while reaching home as he was going to surprise his beloved wife , he enters into the house quietly goes towards the kitchen towards his wife and closes her eyes from behind with his hands , kisses her on the cheek and whispers “ Happy wedding anniversary ! ”

It was at this moment when Neha’s mother realised that it was their wedding anniversary today , as soon as she hears her husband wishing her , she started crying while saying “ I am really sorry , I don’t know how I forgot about this special day , I am really very sorry ” , her husband wipes her tears and hugs her tightly , “ It’s okay ! you are the world’s best wife and world’s best mother and I love you .”

Neha and Divya were hiding behind the wall and they couldn’t control their laughter , both of them rushed towards their parents and hugged them and finally wished them both .

“ So dad what are you going to gift mom today ? ”, Neha asks her father .

“ Well I’ll be taking her out away from you two monkeys for the night ” , her father replied .

“ I never knew you were so romantic dad ! ”, Divya joins the conversation .

“ So , where are we going to ? ” , mom asks .

“ That’s a surprise  ” , dad replies .

Neha and Divya took their mom inside the room , and started picking up dresses for her , they took at least an hour to get their mom ready for the night , while their father was constantly shouting from the hall ,

“ Are we going to reach there before midnight ? ”

Finally Divya and Neha opened the door and got their mom out , their mom and dad had a love marriage and that’s probably the reason , they both love each other a lot till date . As soon as their mom got out of the room , their dad didn’t even see her properly and said “ You look stunning honey ! ”

“ You guys can now have your privacy  ” , Neha gestured her hands towards the door while saying this with a smile .

Mr. and Mrs. Sharma got inside their car , they drove towards a restaurant , Mr. Sharma had already told the owner of the restaurant about their wedding anniversary , so the owner had the head chef make a special cake for them , they went inside the restaurant , they enjoyed their food , it had been quite a long time since both of them had spent some time together alone . They finished their dinner , left the restaurant and went inside their car , when Mr. and Mrs. Sharma were in college they were indeed a famous couple , they used to go on long drives , walks and even on bike rides , but after they got married , and after the huge responsibility of having two baby girls they couldn’t have much time to spare on their own , so today they decided to go on a long drive just like the old times . You see driving on a highway in Delhi at night could be beautiful and if you are crazy about driving cars you are definitely going to love the experience and Mr. Sharma had an obsession with driving , as soon as he became eligible he got his driving license and went straight to the road .

“ Isn’t this beautiful ? ”, Mr. Sharma asks .

“ Yes , indeed ” , Mrs. Sharma replied .

“ Do you remember when Neha was born , that was one of the best moments in my life , I can never forget her first glance ” , Mr. Sharma said .

“ Yes , she was indeed a blessing to us . After she was born , I remember when she caught pneumonia when she was just a week old , and when the doctors said that they don’t think our daughter will be able to make it , and as soon as you heard that you smashed that doctor’s face , even though the doctor, Mr. Saxena , was one of your best friend  ” , Mrs. Sharma laughed while recalling the incident .

“ Yes how can I ever forget that incident , I was really scared after I hit my friend I was ashamed of myself , I apologised to him but he wasn’t angry at me , he knew what I was going through  ” , Mr. Sharma replied .

“ Yes honey , everyone knows that you have a heart of a child you would have neve done that on purpose .  ”

Mrs. Sharma pats on Mr. Sharma’s shoulder , and they both smiled , Mr. Sharma turns on the radio and luckily it was their favourite song playing , they both sang along and smiled , it was really a beautiful moment and they wanted time to stop right here just there .

The highway was pretty empty that night , the drive was peaceful and the highway was about to end , it was when a group of young students were riding at high speeds on their bikes , most of them were driving in a zig – zag manner , it was pretty disturbing to Mr. Sharma because it was really dangerous to drive in this manner at such high speeds , and within a moment . one of the bike slipped just in front of their car , Mr. Sharma tried to save the boys who just fell in front of their car , he turned his car towards the other side of the road and it was when a truck was passing by and as soon as Mr. Sharma turned his car towards the other side , the truck hit their car and their car rolled multiple times .

The other bikers and the truck driver got Mr. and Mrs . Sharma out of the car as fast as they could , by the time they got them out of the car both of them had lost their conciseness , their car was fully destroyed , it was a tragic incident . The bikers took the couple to the nearest hospital , one of them took out Mr. Sharma’s phone and dialled “ Home ” , number , Neha picked up the phone ,and the biker told her everything , Neha was shocked , she couldn’t hold the phone , she took some money with her and rushed to the hospital with Divya as fast as she could . By the time she reached the hospital , the doctors were in the I.C.U with their parents , Neha and Divya waited for the doctors and nurses  to come out . After a few minutes one of the doctors came out , and told Neha and Divya , that “ your mother is quite lucky , she wasn’t hurt much in the accident  , one of her arm is broken , and currently she is in trauma because  of the accident so we gave her a sleeping pill so that she could rest , meanwhile  your father has lost a lot of blood , but that’s not the part to worry about because we managed to get the bottle of blood , it’s that , your father’s spinal cord is broken badly and we think that he might not be able to leave his bed ever ”, the doctor left after telling them that .

As soon as the doctor told them about their parents ,Divya started crying out loudly , she was not able to accept this , meanwhile Neha was shocked she couldn’t even cry , she became numb , it felt like her whole world had come to an end , it was painful .

Mr. and Mrs. Sharma were not allowed to have any visitors for 2 days , Neha and Divya spent two days just outside the I.C.U , their neighbours were quite helpful , they supported Neha and Divya emotionally , they made sure that they don’t skip their meals , but this wasn’t the problem , both Neha and Divya were worried about the family’s future , because their father was the only earning member of their family and both the sisters were still in colleges .

After two days , Mr. and Mrs. Sharma were allowed to see their daughters , as soon as Neha came closer to Mr. Sharma , he started crying , and with his broken speech he was continuously saying , “ I’m sorry Neha , am sorry ” , because deep down he himself knew that his family’s bad time is starting soon , Neha  on hearing this started crying while holding his hand , “ I’m sorry dad , I was the one to give you the idea of taking mom out , I’m so sorry .”

After a week , Mr. Sharma was allowed to go home , after that the first two months were not that difficult , Mr. Sharma had savings and his company reimbursed his medical fees , so for the first two months the family didn’t have much problem , the problems started arising when their savings started to run out , and the college fees of both the girls were yet unpaid . Neha frequently visited as much doctors as she could and that too the bests in their respective fields but all the doctors had the same things to say , “ your father’s 70 % body is paralysed , he will be able to talk , but he won’t be able to sit or stand for the rest of his life , in India it’s very difficult for him to be cured by any doctor , we recommend you to take him to U.S.A for his treatment ” , the family was still struggling to pay the girls’ college tuition fees , how on Earth would they afford to take Mr. Sharma to U.S.A for his treatment. After several therapies , and much treatment , Mr. Sharma was finally able to sit on a wheel chair , his condition did improve but on the contrary , the family’s financial condition was getting worse day by day . Neha was indeed am emotional girl , and having to see your childhood hero , in this condition would have broken anyone’s heart but Neha didn’t gave up , she started hustling to get jobs , when her father was finally able to sit on a wheelchair , she celebrated it as a victory , Mr. Sharma was able to speak but he preferred silence over word , one could easily see tears in Mr. Sharma’s eyes all day long , when he finally sat on the wheelchair , Neha came towards him , and said , “ Dad , look things are getting better now , you can now , sit and you do remember right , how much I  have loved working , so I have decided that I’ll be working at a café just as a part time job so that I don’t get bored at home , and don’t you worry about anything , I have figured out everything already , you can relax and smile ”, she hugged her father as she completed her words , but both Neha and her father knew that things weren’t alright and Neha wasn’t going to work just for the sake that she doesn’t gets bored . Neha started working at the café to earn money , it was heart breaking for her friends to watch her working so hard for the sake  of her family , so at times her friends did tried to help her out but that wasn’t enough . Everyday Neha leaves her home with a smile at her face , to uplift her family members but as soon as she leaves her house and steps outside the house , she knows that the world is not going to be easy for her any soon .

You see Neha was a beautiful and gorgeous girl , she was quite famous in her college , not only because she had a pretty face but because she was the most bright student in her college , guys had a huge crush on Neha , but Neha was never interested in casual hook - ups or casual relationships , and most of the boys were never interested to have a serious relationship with her . Neha had a best friend , Neelima , she was friends with Neha since they were kids , Neha told everything she was going through to Neelima , she supported Neha , she was the one who motivated her to keep up that big smile on her face at home in front of her family members , she was the one who introduced Neha to one of her friends who had recently opened a new café nearby , and that was the same café Neha was going to work in , the café offered her a salary of 9,000 Rupees , per month , which was actually double the pay any new student would be getting at a new café . Neha was really happy about it , but although it was more than any new worker would get but still it wasn’t sufficient for the whole family . Still she agreed to take that job because it’s the best she could get right now , she had to spend 4 hours daily at the café after her college hours , and the other staff members were quite polite but the café being new and close to the café was busy at each and every hour , so it was really hectic for Neha to manage everything , but more than anything she had Neelima’s support , when Neha had to work at the café , Neelima used to complete Neha’s assignments and notes , Neelima  was as smart and bright as Neha was and she was indeed a true friend , you see you might find a lot of friends when your life is on the right path , but you will find true friends in the darkest time of your life only and those friends are worth holding . The thing that was Neha most worried about was , now the time she used to have for self study and her project was now spent in the café but she can’t afford to leave that , now Neha was starting to have self doubts on whether her project and research would even land her a decent job or not ?