STORY

Zayan is going to kill me after this, but today seeing him laughing and enjoying with his
friends reminds me of all how life can affect someone.

Life is often claimed to be a difficult task, if you have to live you have to deal with the harsh
situations and poor circumstances, you have to go through it and survive it. But that’s not the
full truth, life is not just about the survival of the fittest, it’s much more than that. Life can be
like fragrance of Jasmine over gentle spring breeze, just blissful, depending upon how you deal
with situations. It can also be worse, a total disaster, depending upon if you chose the wrong
person for you.

Zayan was 18 at that time, Zayan means “bright”, but opposite to his name Zayan was a quite
boy, not too open to everyone and of a shy nature, he was deeply unaffected by what people
say about him and just cared about himself. He was 18 but he did not have many friends in
school or at coaching, he believed that making friends and caring about someone else can be
done only when you take good care of yourself, being reserved and away from social activity
just enhances your discipline and gives you more time for studies.

Sitting in his class he often wondered about stuffs like life and friendship, he had friends but if
at any moment in life he has to leave his friends he would not hesitate a bit in doing so, and
neither would they. One Saturday afternoon when he was sitting in his class his friend Vivaan
came in and sat beside him, he had a really sad look on his face, Zayan asked him, ”What’s the
matter buddy, why are you looking like you are worried about national economy and
development of INDIA?” Vivaan said, “Me and my girlfriend just had a fight and I don’t know
what to do now.” “It’s the 8th time in this week man common, if you are not happy why don’t
you just leave and find someone else.” Zayan said, to which Vivaan just gave an expression of
disappointment and said “you won’t understand.” “You are good at literature no, please do me
a favour”, said Vivaan, “Favour of what kind exactly?” Zayan asked, “Please write a sorry note
on my behalf to her, I really need it”, Said Vivaan, “You are hopeless man.” said Zayan. He
wrote a fantastic sorry letter and handed it to Vivaan. “The hell is this? If I gave this letter to her
she will not only leave me, she will leave me after insulting me, such a bad handwriting, can’t
even read a sentence of it, why don’t you improve your handwriting” said Vivaan, “Nobody
appreciates my talent.” said Zayan. “I got a solution, start doing sketching, I have read people
who are good at sketching have beautiful handwriting” Vivaan said. “Under no critical
circumstances will I ever do drawing, I don’t like it, you go and woo your girlfriend, I am good”,
Zayan said.
Few days passed Zayan started attending a new coaching class for better preparation for his
boards’ exam. One day while heading towards for his class he saw a food store has organised an
opening ceremony in which the owner was providing free food to all and also some
handicapped children in front of the same store crying for food but no one was letting them
inside. “Such a harsh world it is” he said as he headed towards them for help. He didn’t went
too close as he saw a girl picking up each child and making them sit on a nearby bench, she has
a beautiful bright smile on her face as she was making the children sit on the bench, as Zayan
was far he could not hear what she was saying to the children but he could see the children
smile as she speaks to them, continuously struggling with her hair she confronted each child.
Then she went inside the shop and Zayan could see some sign of violence inside, as she came
out of the shop she had packets of food with her, she gave that food to the children and sat
beside them. Zayan just stood there and saw all this, suddenly he remembered he was getting
late for his classes, he rushed towards the coaching and somehow made it on time, as he sat in
the front seat of the room making notes he saw a girl rushing towards the room, as she came
on the door Zayan just almost went unconscious, “there she is” thought Zayan, she was the
same girl he saw back in the streets, still had that beautiful bright smile on her face like a 3 year
old had her toy fixed, eyes like ice shining in bright sunlight and her hair floating in the wind
ready for Zayan to trap him. She said, “Sorry sir am late”, “Can I know the reason for why are
you late in the first day of your class?” asked Hari sir, “Sorry sir I was struck in a really bad traffic
jam” She said. Sir scolded her for not coming on time and said “Ok come inside and sit”. During
the whole lecture Zayan did not pay a single piece of attention on what Hari sir was teaching,
he had his full attention on the girl next row; he wanted to talk to her to know her, but was
unable. At the end of the class when everyone was heading home Zayan gathered all the
strength he had and went to her and in a stammering voice he said, “H...H... Hey”, “Um Hi” she
said and 2 min of awkward silence, “today I saw you with the children’s in front of the food
store, but when sir asked you said you were struck in the traffic jam, why did you not told him
about that?” asked Zayan. “That’s not my style” she said with a little laugh and went. That was
the first conversation of Zayan and Divya.

Days went by and Zayan and Divya’s friendship became stronger. Divya was a strong girl, she
had her words, always cared for everyone and never hesitated to speak what’s right. She never
had trouble making friends and always possessed a smile on her face. On the other hand Zayan
was on the other side of globe for her. He was deeply influenced by her persona and decided to
do something of his introvert nature. He worked on his personality and developed a way to
build his confidence; he decided to talk to one stranger everyday which would boost his
confidence and his social interaction skills. It worked and with time he also got good at making
friends. He did all this just for the sake of making a better combination with Divya. One day she
showed Zayan her drawing notebook, she had made beautiful sketches and portraits of people,
she asked Zayan,”Zayan do you like drawing?” “I just love it, these are beautiful” said Zayan,
“no no I am asking do you draw, do you like to draw?” asked Divya, “I love that too, I mean who
doesn’t like to draw, it’s so good, it increases your creativity, it enhances you handwriting
and....” Zayan said with fake excitement, “correct, drawing is so good, I like people who draw”
said Divya. Bells started ringing in Zayan ears that fake excitement turned into real one.

That day onwards Zayan started sketching too, sketching was one of the things Zayan had fight
with his teacher, teacher asked him to draw but he rejected, but for Divya, he would do it.

Caring for someone, respecting someone is the most beautiful and important things one can do
in his life, it’s the phase of life where one discovers oneself. One can know the real beauty of
life when someone is in this stage of life, and in case of Zayan and Divya they both not only
respected each other for what they were but Zayan was also willing to change himself to better
know and be a better companion for Divya, Divya also foresaw Zayan’s efforts and appreciated
that.

One day I was sitting with Zayan and in every talk he somehow introduced Divya, Divya like this
Divya like that, that day while talking to him I also noticed that he was very easily accepting
things, he agreed to what I said, previously he made arguments to every single accept of topic
and talking with him was a total mess, but now I saw a plain calm and relaxed Zayan who was
talking with ease without losing his temper and going all out. “So, did you propose her?” I
asked, “What?” he acted strange for purpose, “Don’t act lame, you know what I am talking
about” I said, he said,” Divya is like a rose flower in the garden, full of fragrance and beauty, but
you do not want to pluck it and keep it you just want to water it daily, and also I am afraid to
hold the rose as it could hurt my hands, rose has thrones, Divya does not have thrones but I am
still afraid, I do not want to be in a awkward situation.” “But someday you would have to.” I
said, “Yes, someday.” He smiled and sat there.

One day Divya called Zayan and asked him to meet, he sounded very happy so Zayan made up
his mind that today he will tell her, but only after she had told him her reason to meet, so that
she remain happy and then he will say.

You should never delay saying something to anyone, be it sorry or thank you or anything, if you
have to say anything to anyone do it now. Or one day you would just be standing with wet eyes
and a fake smile, you would be wanting to burst into tears but somehow you would be standing
there realising it’s too late to even regret now.

Divya and Zayan met and Divya told him about Suyansh of how she met him in a wedding and
how she had starting liking him and wants to know him more........

That day when Zayan came back I was already at his home waiting for him to come and tell me
how he proposed her, when he told me what happened at the meeting he started laughing, I
knew that after this laugh there is going to be a long, sad and loud crying, but to my surprise he
didn’t cry, he drank all his tears like a slow poison and left just a soothing smile on his face.

Suyansh happened to be in the same coaching where they both went, but in a different batch,
and Zayan who once was never interested in making friends met Suyansh and made him friend,
not only friend, Suyansh till date mentions Zayan as his best friend. Suyansh was so much into
Zayan that he not only told him about how much he also liked Divya but also gave Zayan his
facebook id and password when Zayan asked for it.

Zayan talked to Divya from Suyansh’s id, he said her all the things he wanted to say to her but
behind the curtains and that though in disguise. By Zayan’s efforts Divya and Suyansh became
partners while Zayan watched everything in silence crying form inside but smiling outside.

Divya and Suyansh were never good partners, they always had fights and both after fighting
with one another came to Zayan for consultation. Zayan always became happy whenever he
heard about their fight but when he would see Divya’s sad face he used to leave all his work
and resolved their fight.

Seeing Zayan like this I said one thing I would never have said before, “I liked the old Zayan
much more”, to which he never said anything just passed a smile. He was facing this crises
when he had to give entrance exams for colleges for which he had to study but was unable to
do so. In the same time his brother moved to Delhi, his father had a transfer in his office to
Allahabad, and his mother faced injury in the backbone and doctor told her for complete bed
rest. So the only person left good the home was himself. God was in a full mood of testing him.
So all the responsibility of his home and his carrier and taking care of his mother and love life
and personal life was on his shoulders, everything in his life was in a mess but the best part was
he faced all this with a smile.

Divya was also preparing for entrance exam, but now she joined another coaching, and here
Zayan also decided to stay away from all this mess of Divya. Life happened Divya and Suyansh
broke up, Divya made new friends in his new coaching, but never left Zayan. Zayan was always
a part of her life. Seeing this one day I went to Divya and told her all about Zayan and his
feelings to which she didn’t responded anything to me, but went to Zayan and said that she
never expected this form him and left him. I created trouble for him, he said me that it was
good she left but deep inside I knew he was now totally broken, nothing in the world could
make him happy now, except Divya. So once again I talked to her and convinced her to come
back, she came but never talked anything about all this to Zayan, seeing this Zayan also never
forced a conversation.
No one among them wanted to be apart from each other but it’s a harsh reality that when
someone meets new people old people become less important. Divya now had new friends and
as time passed Zayan became less important but never apart.

The day results were announced of the entrance exam everyone knew that they were meeting
for the last time as everyone got different colleges, that day something magical happened. As
Divya realised he was going to meet Zayan for the last time, she expressed her love for him, she
cried and hugged him and expressed all the love she had buried inside her for such a long time.
There stood Zayan, totally confused about what life wants from him, but Zayan being Zayan
also expressed his feelings.

That day they met for the last time, and finally went apart.

I thought.

They continued to stay in touch from long distance, happiness flowed in Zayans life, but only for
some time as the harsh reality of life says, when we meet new people old ones become less
important, again that happened, Divya met new people in college made new friends and zayan
became less important, but never apart.

One day Suyansh called him and told that he and Divya are back together. Zayan congratulated
him and then he started telling Zayan about how for nearly two weeks he and Divya were
talking to each other, and finally they are back together. Zayan realised Divya actually never
loved him. She had Suyansh only in her heart the whole time; he was never the part of the
story. Divya and Suyansh used to talk about Zayan about how important was he, They both
even tried to know about Zayan’s life in college, they investigated and started talking to Zayan’s
college friends, and Zayan was just confused about what she wants, why doesn’t she just leaves
and go.

Being an important part but never being a part of the story, that’s something which just can’t
be understood. Zayan thought life had stopped testing him, but that was not the case.

One day Zayan called me and started giving me teachings on life, how to know if it’s really love;
human nature; life; death; spirituality, etc. He said he realised that he actually never loved
Divya, it was just some attraction and attachment, not really love. He told that he has totally
stopped talking to Divya and thinking about her, once he stepped in spirituality and came to
know what really life is he became stable in life.

Hearing all this I came to meet him and saw a different Zayan once again. First he did not want
to make friends, then he became good at it, but now he just doesn’t care if he made friends or
not. He became quite as never before. First he did not care if anyone is with him, then he
started attracting people towards him, now he just satisfied with whom he had. His laugh
became as pure as a child’s laughing. He had dropped every expectation from life or anyone
else. Now he didn’t wanted anything or he stopped expecting that he can also be an important
person in someone’s life, now he just wants to become important to himself.

There was I standing there still having his sorry letter which he wrote on my behalf for my
girlfriend and there was he sitting with his friends laughing and enjoying but only I knew how
broken was he deep within, too deep and covered with smiles to even be visible again.