ONE LAST WISH..

It is an old saying that everyone needs help sometime or the other and may be that is why it is human nature to make relations and to always strive to cling on to it. We come across people in our lives whom we never want to lose. Even the thought of losing that person seems to be a nightmare that we wish never came true. Has anyone ever lived a life without anyone?? If yes then has that life been a fruitful one?? Did he or she die in contentment after that sort of a life?? These are questions that if asked would squeeze out tons of views from people of different mind sets but in general that is something that we generally don’t think about because in life how anti social we may be we end up finding someone or the other who we keep close to ourselves.

There exists a rare breed of people who actually would disagree to all that is written in the above paragraph. Shocked?? I guess that is pretty obvious. Now you must be wondering whether what I just said could actually be a real life possibility or not, isn’t it?? I won’t blame you if you are doing so. But to be honest I have had the privilege or misfortune, whatever you want to call it of being closely associated with someone whose volition has always astonished me. I literally fell from the sky when she narrated what she claimed was her past life. Want to know what exactly shook the floor beneath my feet?? I won’t disappoint you & neither will I keep you waiting any longer.

Meera, well that’s her name was unfortunate enough to be abandoned by her parents just about to be a year old. She was left in one of the garbage bins of lonely lane in suburban Pune. Somehow luck had not completely turned its back on her & hence she was found within a day after being left in the bin to die. Padmanam Shastri, owner of a grocery store found her & took her along with him. Initially he took care of her but with the passage of time one could see his real intentions. He would make her do all the household work without any remuneration. She had to sweep the floors, wash the utensils etc. He even took her to the grocery store at times and would make her carry heavy sacks & other small works. She had requested Padmanam to get her admitted to a school as she wanted to get educated and wanted a normal life. After a lot of earnest requesting Padmanam got her admitted to a local govt school. Life wasn’t that bad for someone who was left in a garbage bin at the age of one.

As time passed by Padmanam’s business took off and he became a pretty prosperous man, earning ample amount of money to be able to run a family. As it is he was nearing 40s hence it was high time he got married if at all he had any intention of committing a major offence, LOL!! He did get married to a woman whom he had been seeing for quite some time now. Meera was twelve & in very high spirits with the advent of this event. But her euphoria turned to ashes in no time. Padmanam’s wife didn’t really go down well with Meera. Things were getting worse with every passing day. Meera as usual had to do all the household work including cooking after having done schooling for hours. Padmanam’s wife would beat her up at the tiniest of mistakes. She made her go to the shop as well. One day Padmanam’s wife even went on to threaten to murder Meera because there was excess salt in the food. Things had gone way out of hands for Meera. One night she decided that she would no longer be a victim to such torture. She wanted to make a mark for herself in life but here she was merely a domestic help or rather a slave for the people whom she thought would fulfil those vacant places in her life.

Obsequiousness is what Meera had to be and Padmanam never really made any efforts to prevent his wife’s wrong doings. Even though she was just fifteen she had the guts to flee from home that also with a really lump sum amount of money. She somehow managed to board a train & reached Mumbai, the city of dreams. By now she had realised one thing that if she wanted to make a name for herself she would have to do it herself & couldn’t really rely on others. She got herself a job at a departmental store as a sales girl & also rented a PG where she had to share her room with three other girls. As would be the scene in most of Mumbai’s PGs two of the girls in Meera’s room also turned out to be struggling models one of them rather pretty successful as well. As time passed by she became good friends with them.

One evening there was the launch party for one of the magazines that this friend of hers had given a few shots for. So Meera and her roommates accompanied her to the party. Principal cause of their happiness and the reason behind the gargantuan male attendance was the presence of the drop of dead gorgeous Deepika Padukone who was there to inaugurate the magazine’s August edition. As Meera depicted boy she must have sent all the male instincts tingling. What grabbed Meera’s attention was the stardom that adorned Deepika. She was awestruck at it. She could feel the aura around her. How boys literally drooled at the mere sight of her. From that day it was as if something had got into her. She had made up her mind to give modelling and acting a shot. So why exactly was she so bent on doing this?? That must be the question on your mind at this juncture in time & very rightly so. But the answer was buried somewhere deep within her heart.

Now a little treat for the boys. This little ambition of Meera could have ended up being a distant day dream had it not been for her remarkable pulchritude that could compel any man to go gaga over her. That is what happened when her friend took her to meet the director of one of the local ad agencies. He readily agreed to cast Meera in his next ad. From that moment on there was no looking back for her. Things started to span out as if it were a fairy tale, pretty hard to believe but it’s the fashion industry things do happen without any clarified rationale. Now as it is clear that this girl was hell beautiful so she always had the attention of men belonging to all parts of the industry. She literally used most of them as a stepping stones to her success. Sounds evil?? Isn’t it?? Well yes with a background that she belonged to it’s possible that she could well have given into her curiosity to open the Pandora’s Box. Within a matter of two years she was on the cover page of quite a few leading magazines and had received an offer for Marathi film. So yes, this girl was making it all count. She was barely 18 & had reached a pretty comfortable position and her future has never looked better.

One thing that got completely anchored in her mind was the fact whatever she had achieved was because she took matters into her own hand & didn’t go around trusting people. She loved this joy ride that she was riding. She was efficient with her work and loved it too, so she really had nothing to worry about. Well I believe that’s human nature. Now you all must be wondering whether it’s time for the twist in the tale. Too much of fairy tale stuff isn’t it?? This time I’ll have to disappoint you because nothing in her life went into melioration for the next thirty six months. She had done the film she was offered and turned out to be a huge success. She was eyeing a big project with a very well known director. Somehow her thirst for success was growing exponentially. She was willing to do anything to bag that contract & hence she chose the path that one cannot term as appropriate under normal circumstances.

She managed to get an appointment with the director and then somehow managed to lure him into falling for her. She went on to seduce him to such an extent that he would actually jump of the roof if she asked him to. There was something brewing within her soul when she spent those long nights in bed with this man, something dented her spirit but yet she went on. That’s something that left me with a few questions....Why?? Why do something which didn’t seem right?? Could it be only ambition that provoked such actions?? Or there was something else?? It’s not easy to answer because we generally don’t think along these lines but I think you’ll be able to figure it out by the time this story reaches the finishing line. She got the film and was ready to make a huge fortune out of it. Things look amazingly fallible don’t they?? Kind of unreal isn’t it?? It seemed the same way to me as well.

Her dates were fixed and Meera along with her whole film crew were shooting in Manali. One fine morning they were shooting a scene on one of the cliffs somewhere in the mountains. As people say the more you smile now, the more you will have to cry later. This whole Cock and Bull story now was about to take a realistic & extremely disheartening turn. While shooting for the scene Meera accidentally slipped and fell down from the cliff to end up crashing into one of the huge boulders nearly fifteen feet below. Luck was just not on her side this time as she crashed landed in such a way that she hit her head to the rock with so much thrust that she her cheek bone on one side of her face got completely thrashed leaving her looking nothing better than those evil spirits of the Grudge series. That is the brutality of the incident but one could only sympathise with her as no one could possibly feel the pain & dolour that she was going through at that point in time.

The whole fairy tale that you have been reading so far has come to an agonising end but from here started a journey filled with obstacles that helped Meera find something that I guess every human being how awry he or she maybe longs to have. She was hospitalised immediately and she did have a decent source of finance that could pay her bills for all the treatment that she may need in order to get back to her winning ways. Treatments went on for months. She had lost the film for which she had literally sold her scruples. The mental agony of this state of hers was something that was beyond anyone’s imagination. The doctors were able to put the skin back on the face but unfortunately what they couldn’t amend was the broken cheekbones namely the infraborbital foreman, mandible and temporal process. She consulted all the big guns of the medical sciences industry but no one could really provide any possible respite or in other words there was no possible solution to this aberration. All in all things were back to normal within a year but what has been lost in the process was her charm, the exquisite good looks that she has been hogging on for all these years. One cannot negate the cruelty of the glamour world because “yaha jo dikhta hai wohi bikta hai!” that is what is seen is sold is the motto that flies around here and Meera really was nowhere close to what she used to look. So automatically people whose eyeballs would follow her every move now were not really interested in having a look. Meera already had to spend a lot of the bucks for her treatments plus she had no future assignments and would no longer be getting any. She was literally in a soup. As time passed by her bank account was demonstrating pretty bleak numbers that would obviously worry someone who has been living an adequately affluent life.

When she was left with no other option & also had a stomach to feed she got herself a job as a waitress in a local night club as she had no academic qualifications so as to get a high profile job. Every night when she went out for work she would leave her cognitive faculties back at home. Whatever had happened to her was something that she couldn’t really fit into her system. Her life seemed to have lost its lustre and very rightly so. Amidst all the wrongs that has been happening around her she found a friend in one of the bartenders at the night club she has been working. His name was Rajneesh they met when Meera had to fetch an order for a drink. Meera saw something in him that day. What could be that thing?? Many of you would be making certain predictable guesses about what she must have seen. Though I won’t resist you from doing so yet would prefer you make careful note of the upcoming events. Meetings between the two became more and more frequent as days passed by. Meera was an independent girl living her life on her own terms was now facing jeopardy. Her mind was playing games with her & surprisingly she was taking a genuine liking towards it. Life, though practically miserable was taking a pleasant shape. Rajneesh was in Mumbai in pursuit of a career in Music. He was a good musician and would often sing some of the songs that he had written to Meera & somehow she would lose herself into the melody of his voice.

Meera, though was earning way less than what she used to had not really given up on the lifestyle that she had previously. She had shifted to cheap housing but her dressing, food habits etc were very close what they used to be. When all this was crippling her monetary situation something happened that broke the back of her what one would say a pleasant life as far as mental peace was concerned. One night while she was serving at the night club two of the customers there got far too drunk for them to be able to control themselves. When Meera went to serve their drinks one of them caught her by the arm asked how much would she charge for a night?? Meera was in dire need of money so she didn’t let go of the opportunity & hence stated a pretty high price thinking that may be a few nights could fetch her decent fortune for her to be able to get rid of her monetary burdens. She didn’t want to tell Rajneesh about this so she went away without letting him know. This decision of Meera proved to be the most disastrous decision she could have ever made. These men used her to quench their thirst for lust nearly all night & literally had sucked the life out of Meera. By the time the Sun rays hit the room Meera was grounded with fatigue after such a tiresome night but she was contented with the fact that she’ll get a nice pay out of it. That is where her expectations were completely turned to ashes as the two men refused to pay a single penny to her & moreover they tried to blackmail her by saying that they had made a video footage of whatever happened last night(showing the tape that had the recording in it). This incident left Meera shell-shocked. She couldn’t leave without the money hence she somehow snatched the tape from the person’s hand and tried to flee from the hotel that they were in. Both these men were respectable people in the society and feared their name being smeared. So they ran behind her like hungry wild dogs. The ill-fated soon got but even then she tried keeping the tape in her hand. In the mean while one them took out a gun & threatened her to give it back but because of the physical ruckus that these three were involved in the trigger got pulled and a shot got fired unintentionally. Meera was the one who got shot at. The two men were horror-struck at the sight of bleeding Meera & so they left her in that condition and fled from the hotel through the back door. Luckily for Meera one of the maids was passing by and saw her in the right nick of time. She immediately arranged for her to be taken to the doctor. She was bleeding profusely when she was taken to the hospital & a lot of blood was lost. Rajneesh tried calling on her cell phone many times but it was finally received by the nurse taking care of Meera & she told him about what had happened to her. He literally came running. After diagnosing the doctor stated a lump sum amount of money that would be needed if at all Meera was to live any longer. Rajneesh was taken aback by this declaration by the doctor because his condition was nothing better than a popper. He had nothing really in terms of savings. The situation was one that was going out of hand with every passing minute as Meera got closer to her end. Rajneesh went to meet Meera and told her about the situation. Meera’s face went pale as if it were all over because neither did Meera have the money required nor did she have anyone who would be generous enough to pay her bills. She looked up to Rajneesh with her eyes brimming with tears. She held his hand and said, “I just have one last wish right now. I just wish that there had been someone who could have been there for me in this time of crisis, whom I could freely ask for help & that person would pluck me out of this misery. I guess I will have to ask God to do it for me & take me away with him”. She wept as she these lines. Rajneesh then fondly swept his hands over her forehead & said in an affirming tone,” You don’t worry, I will make sure that nothing will happen to you.” He slightly smiled as he said this, then he bid goodbye to Meera and went away. Meera watched him go as a person for the first time in her life was as intent on saving her as she herself was. Meera now had someone who cared I belive. She was emotionally chocked at this juncture in time as she lay in bed in agonising pain thinking about the man who had promised to save her in conditions that were not really in their favour. Meera could only wait till the next day as to whether this man really cared or was just another freak.

As he had assured the doctor Rajneesh came back with the required sum within 24 hours. Meera’s treatment witnessed successful completion. She was now physically fit and set to take on life again but this time with someone whom she now believed was going to be there for her in any given situation. She had trusted someone for the first time in her life. Life seemed to be hitting the right chords. Though they were still short on finance yet their minds were brimming with peace & contentment. Meera was a different person now. Rajneesh’s trust was her most valuable possession, something that she would not give away for anything else in the world. Somehow for the first time Meera had actually found someone whom she felt cared for her. Meera now no longer did literally just anything to earn money or to achieve success as she had done before. She now knew what was to given more importance in life. She would now very boldly reject any offers that she would receive at the night club. Rajneesh’s music also found some recognition and their monetary conditions improved. Things looked good and their future looked as bright as the mid day sunshine. She had not really named this relation as of yet. She was more bent on relishing every moment of whatever the relation she had with Rajneesh maybe because this was the only real relation she has had till date.

But no matter how good things get there is a very bad thing about good things that some day or the other they just have to end. Something pretty similar happened after a couple of years when Rajneesh got certain health issues. Their visits to the medical clinics became pretty frequent and of course it did no good to the elation that they have had for all these years. The doctor diagnosed the problem to be Sepsis, a certain infection that is generally found to infect the renal region of the victim especially the kidney. The tests found that there was some impediment to smooth passage of things in Rajneesh’s renal system but the worst was yet to come. Rajneesh had not let Meera bear any cognizance of the seriousness of the problem. Few weeks later one night Rajneesh had a severe renal failure. He had to be hospitalised immediately. He was kept there for a couple of days but things had been worse than ever. It was fatal and there were literally no real chances of his survival and lady luck did nothing less to cause Meera her worst ever disappointment. Rajneesh passed away in the hospital few days after he was admitted. Meera had been completely shattered from the inside. Her life seemed to have come to a standstill. After having a talk with the doctor Meera realised that there was a lot about this illness that Rajneesh had not aforementioned to her especially the fact that Rajneesh had only one kidney. May be he didn’t want to trouble her but somehow Meera felt that if she had known then he would be alive though that wasn’t actually the case. She felt that it was her responsibility to have had the knowledge about it all. She thought that she hasn’t been true enough to him.

Two days after Rajneesh’s demise one of Rajneesh’s very close friends Manmath came over to Meera’s place. He handed her a letter that Rajneesh had given to him couple of weeks back and had asked him to give it to Meera whenever he died. Meera was obfuscated on receiving the letter. The letter tattled to her Ranjeesh’s biggest secret or one could say his greatest sacrifice. The letter read as follows:

Dear Meera,

When you’ll get this letter I’ll no longer be in this world. There was one thing that I never wanted to tell you. Though I never lied to you about it but never revealed this truth to you. I want to answer your question which you had asked me several times regarding how did I afford the money I paid for your operation. The truth is that I had traded one of my kidneys for the money that got you back to life.

I didn’t want to spoil the smile on your face under any circumstance so I decided that this one secret will reside in my heart for as long as I breathe because I wanted every breath of mine to be in one way or the other a reason for your happiness. When the doctor diagnosed me I knew my end was drawing close. So I thought of putting it all down in this piece of paper. I don’t know whether I have done the right thing or not so if I have disappointed you then please forgive me if possible. I wrote a few lines for you, my last lines for you.....I hope they’ll remind you of me for the years to come.... here they are



“Teri nazro se jo meri nazre mili,

Meri zindagi ek nanhi kali si khili.

Tera asar hi kuch aisa tha,

Ki tera hone ko dil bechain sa tha.

Tumhare samne kabhi zikr toh na kiya,

Tumhare hotho se hasi ko kabhi juda hone na diya.

Apne hi dil ke sagar mein tumhare naam ki dubki lagata tha,

Shayad marke bhi tum mein zinda rehne ka irada tha.”



After reading this Meera fell to ground and couldn’t come to terms with what she had just read. Now she realised that when she asked about the money why Rajneesh always turned her down and changed the topic in one way or the other. All the pieces of the puzzle fell in place as to why he did what he did. Though it was nowhere mentioned in the letter yet Meera had now given their relation a name. She now knew who this man was. Years later Meera went on to start an orphanage by the name “Rajneesh”.

I have been closely associated with this orphanage for over ten years now. That’s where I met Meera and have known her since. She says that in life there comes a person who actually ends up changing our god damn perspective about life. For her Rajneesh was the man who transformed her into someone else altogether.

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage”

-Lao Tzu

Well I believe that is where Rajneesh could pile up all that courage to put his life on the line for someone else and may be that is what gave one question that this story left me with is that do we always recognise such a person when he or she comes into our lives?? I believe that’s a question hard to answer but one question that is bound to pop up in our minds when we are at times caught in such turmoil in life that we require someone to rescue us. I guess that is when we realise who actually would really stand by us when required. By saying this I in no way intend to provoke people to be such situations but we must always try to value people who care for us because it’s always a privilege to be loved and to be cared for.

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