Summer of 2002!!!

This is a TRUE story. Events of this story happened on a creepy night during the muggy summers of 2002.  Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. No similarity to any person either living or dead is intended or should be inferred.

“Wake up Mr. Sleeping Dracula. Abe uth be, chora ghara saara mahol baneiki nije soichu. Uthuchu na pani pakeibi (Get up. Whole family is celebrating thanks to you & you are sleeping? Get up soon or else I will flood you with water. ). This is the first thing that I heard that day, opened my eyes & the face made me go to sleep once again & this time into a sleep till eternity. Girl standing before me was someone who was supposedly in love with me (I would prefer calling it ANYTHING but love). 

“You have scored 96.67 % with topping the state in Maths, English & life science. Get up non sense”. She (Aakriti) said.

“What the f***”. I am sure, that was the first time I yelled the four-letter word at home. But who cares man. I am the third topper of the state. No doubt, I am the best. The otherwise so-so looking girl suddenly seemed as the elegant prettiest looking girl on earth.

It was 10.30 am on a bright Monday. I jumped off bed, went to the dining hall, hugged my mom & started dancing wildly. Then got a call from my father from his office landline congratulating me and there started the chain of phone calls from various local newspapers, TV channels, relatives, friends & even detractors. Well, to be honest I had time for none. Last one year, I have done nothing but studies. The only habits of mine that I have pursued are having heavy meals & sleeping for roughly 5 hours a day. Now, it’s time to live my life. I called up my friends, the best ones I had & could recall at that moment – Sarthak, Chinmaya, Niharika. Aakriti being present there only became an obvious (may be unwanted) guest.

I took the keys of the recently bought Maruti Suzuki Swift from the key holder, adjusted my hair a bit, put on a jeans, a red hot short shirt, my new Reebok shoes & went off to have a speedy drive to Puri (60 kms away approx.). Sarthak & Chinmaya had reached by then with packets of sweets with them. We celebrated for a bit (They both had scored more than 90 %.) & along with Aakriti, went ahead to pick Niharika up. Well let me tell you at the outset only that Niharika was one of those supremely stunning & unimaginably perfect girlfriend material. I had a huge crush on her from the first day I met her but like the typical bollywood story, she was committed to a stupid, brainless, horrible, absurd spoilt brat of some second line politician. We reached her home. She in her salwaar suit (Boy! Was not she looking just amazing in the red black attire) was already there at the gate waiting for us. Niharika joined Aakriti & Chinmaya on the back seat & there we were off on a speedy drive.

Carnival was on our minds & we started teasing each other. My car’s speedometer was around 120 on a straight national highway, when from the back seat I heard a voice.

“Hey Champ! How do you feel about Niharika? I mean I know she is committed & blah blah, but Dude, you guys make a good couple.” Chinmaya said.

Telling you honestly, my heart was pumping blood like anything then & had there been a speedometer attached, my heartbeat would have read more than the car’s speed.

“Hell! Chinmaya don’t drag Akash (her boyfriend) into this. He is a sweetheart.” Niharika said.

“Wait a second. I am not a sweetheart? Is that what you mean to say Niharika?” I said just to cover up my sudden explosion of emotions.

“I did not mean it that way. But he is he & you are you. You are a darling for sure but (with a pause). Stop it. What makes us talk about him on “our” day? Don’t you guys feel it should be us all the way?” Niharika explained.

“My gosh! You are avoiding your best friend (he meant me)”. Sarthak said looking back at them.

Before I could say something, I could here weeping sound from behind, looked back and damn, it was Aakriti. She had become really emotional after hearing about I & Niharika.

Little could I think then, looked back, tried to console & cheer her up by planting a kiss on her forehead when Sarthak screamed on the top of his voice “Careful.”

I, without a delay tried to press the breaks, but Alas! I got my foot on the accelerator. I corrected myself after my car bounced on the road twice & we came to a halt.

“Did we just run over someone?”Sarthak said after finally getting back to his senses.

“What, what are you saying? Did we?” it was Niharika’s turn to speak up then.

We got off the car & went a few steps backwards. To my utter shock, their lied a man completely drenched in blood. It was next to impossible to see his face even. I had a good look at his face though just to be sure. Niharika & Aakrti started crying & we were in no condition to calm them.

“Let’s run away. No one has seen us. Before it’s too late & someone turns up, let’s just run away from here, straight to home.” Chinmaya said.

“No way! This man will die. We can’t be murderers. We will take him to the hospital” Sarthak responded.

With two conflicting opinions & the two girls blubbering, I had to make a verdict. Both the alternatives were tough, I had to either be selfish, brutal & save myself or let a dying man reach a hospital & face the consequences. With no time to give it a serious thought I chose the first one. I asked Chinmaya to help Aakriti & Niharika get in the car. Before Sarthak could say anything I said “The man is dead. He needs no medication now. He had this much of life to live. Please don’t spoil ours. Let’s just go. Come on.” (Though deep down I thought he was still alive).

We got back in the car & driving even faster we got back to Bhubaneswar. They were shivering. I thought it was a bad idea to take them to my house, so dropped them at their places & got back to mine. I parked the car & went to sleep without much ado.

The man’s face kept on haunting me in my sleep that day. When I finally got up, unable to take any more sufferings & after hearing loud noises outside my room, I looked at the digital clock on my study table. It was Monday, 10.30 am. I was stunned. Aakriti was standing there right before me to congratulate. Before I could realize anything, I gave her a hug. Even she could not respond to my immediate unexpected hug. Both of us went to the hall where my father was with some vigorous, eager looking men with cameras & microphones with them.

“Here he is. This is my son, your third topper. I am so proud of him.” My father said looking at those people.

“Beta, these people are from Odisha TV, They are here to congratulate & take an interview of yours. Come here & sit by me.”

When I sat on the sofa alongside my father & looked at the person interviewing me, went into another state of shock”

Is not this the same man, I just ran over? This man is supposed to be dead. My holy god. What is happening over here? I looked at Aakriti. She seemed quite thrilled & gave me thumbs up.

Was it a dream? How can it be? If it was a dream, how have Niharika, Sarthak & Chinmaya got the same percentages of marks that I had dreamt of? How did I get up at the exact same time? Questions were many which I had no answers to. I thought of letting it go & started showing my oral skills to the interviewers.

I left all but one question unanswered that day.

“How could the interviewing person look the same as the man I ran over that day (whether in my dream or whatever)?”