Today was Sat­ur­day. We did not have col­lege. I woke up early and then rang Diya.

“Diya, I want to meet you today.”

“Okay.”

“I will come and pick you up at 4’o’ clock.”

“Okay.”

I was wait­ing for the clock to strike 4. As soon as it did I rushed over to Diya’s place she was wait­ing for me. I took her and went to the scoops near the sec­ond Howrah bridge.

“Diya how are you?”

“I am fine.”

“Look I am sorry for what hap­pened yes­ter­day. I really am, and I am really sorry for what has hap­pened over the past 1 month. I have sim­ply not been myself. I am sorry.”

“Its okay.” She then held my arm and rested her head on my shoulder.

“I will never do this again.”

“Raj, I also did not mean to hurt you. But just wanted you to speak out.”

“Well I realise it now.” We sat there for some time. Then we decided to head back home.

There we went to the ter­race. Rohit and Nisha were also there.

“Nice to see you guys.” I said. “ I am sorry Nisha for my behaviour.”

“Hey no prob­lems after all you are my best friend.” Nisha. I hugged her.

“Well alls well that ends well.” Rohit. We all sat at our usual place.

“Raj, what was her name?” Diya

“Isha.”

“How was she like?” Nisha.

“Well she was sim­ply beau­ti­ful. She was fair, quiet tall than most girls, lovely hair. Every­thing about her was just great-​​her smile, her eyes her way of talk­ing, her walk, every­thing. Every­thing. She loved to make friends. She also loved to talk once she started their was no end to it. I also loved to lis­ten to her. She was in com­plete con­trol of me. ‘Raj don’t do this don’t do that.’”

“How old was she?” Diya.”

“Well we met when I was 16. She was 15 then.”

“How did the two of you meet.” Nisha.

“Well I met her at my maths tuition when I was giv­ing my 10^th boards. I had joined tuitions as I was a lit­tle weak in maths. We got intro­duced to each other over there. We did not used to talk much in class. I did like her. And as I came to know through friends she liked me too. The first time we met out­side was when we went to a com­mon friend, Rahul’s party. Since we did not know any­body other than each other over there we stayed together. It was our first meeting.”

“Who pro­posed?”

“Well she did. We began to meet more often. We used to go to par­ties, movies and even to school once she changed over to my school in 11^th. One day our school bus did not come. So I decided to drop her home. She said she was hun­gry so we went to a fast food joint. There while we were wait­ing for the order she gave me a card on that was writ­ten ‘I love you’ that was it. I felt on top of the world. “

“What hap­pened then?” Diya.

“Well I also said it. We then used to stay together the whole day. Go places. She came over here just once. Then one day she did not come to school I felt strange. Before this when she used to not come she used to tell me. I went over to her place. I was not allowed to meet her, on much request I was allowed to meet her, their I saw her lying on the bed at that time she had tubes all over her, doc­tor and nurse stand­ing next to her. She was being given blood and bot­tle changed every 2 hours. Her eyes had sunk, she had become pale. I went and sat next to her. Then they told me she had blood can­cer. I couldn’t believe what I was hear­ing. I said to myself this is a joke, right. God this must be a joke. But it was not. She had very few time left on her hand. She did not want me to stay there but I per­sisted. I used to sit next to her every­day. Her con­di­tion was deto­ri­at­ing, doc­tors also could not do much. She was now on just life sup­ports. Then it hap­pened she was taken away by the angels.”

“Then.” Rohit. Every­body had tears in their eyes.

“Then what. I could not put my mind to stud­ies I did mis­er­ably in 11^th, I began to loose inter­est in life, and it was then that I started to write. I just remem­bered what she had said once ‘ no mat­ter we remain or we don’t our love will always remain with each other till we live.’ I did not want our love to end. I wanted to live for her that was inspi­ra­tion enough, slowly , slowly I began to adapt myself. Then I met you.” I looked towards Diya.” I again began to feel some­thing and in the process I fell in love with you. But Isha will always be a part of me I will never be able to for­get her.”

I had tears in my eyes. So did every­body else. I moved to a cor­ner. Diya came from behind and rested against my back.

“Well I am sorry.”

“No don’t be. You did not know.”

“Well I just wanted you to come out of your past and live life to the fullest. You tried to show every­body that you were happy but actu­ally you were not.”

“Well yes. That is why I did not want to say any­thing that day. I did not want to hurt you peo­ple. I am sorry.”

“No we are sorry we could not under­stand you.” Nisha.

“Well guys lets go over to my place my mom had called you all for din­ner.” Rohit.

“Yahoo lets go.” I said.

We went to Rohit’s place. We had din­ner then I left Diya at her place. She was happy and so was I . Then after return­ing I sat in front of the com­puter and opened my diary. It had Isha’s photo. “I miss you a lot.” I said to myself.

You may no longer be with me.
But your mem­o­ries will always be.
You may have left this world,
And gone to another world.
But I can still feel you, still hear you.
Because you stay over here,
Right here in my heart.

Isha I will always remem­ber you. God please take good care of her.