Kcris & Jeena

Jeena makes Kcris walk away for good.

“Babe, did you know that she has a daughter?”
Jeena, though still in shock answers Alex, “No I didn’t know. Anyway, it doesn’t concern us. You go get the car. I’ll go inside and hand her, Ria’s patient record and medicines. I’ll meet you at the hospital entrance.”
“Shouldn’t we both go inside and apologize?”
“No. It’s ok. I’ll do it for both of us. You go.”
Alex leaves for the car parking and Jeena goes towards the children’s ward. Jeena is about to enter Ria’s room when she hears Kcris yelling at the nanny. Jeena decides to wait but it seems that Kcris is not going to stop anytime soon. Jeena can’t take it anymore so decides to intervene. The moment Jeena opens the door, she hears Ria scream at the top of her lungs, “Stop it. Stop it, now.”
Jeena thinks that Ria wanted her to stop so, she stays at the door. But actually, Ria is asking Kcris to stop scolding the nanny. Ria’s scream is loud enough to grab everyone’s attention in the room. Then Ria folds her hands, turns towards the wall, and starts to pout as if she is trying to convey that she is very angry. So Kcris goes to the wall side and stands right in front of Ria, but Ria turns her face to the other side, and when Kcris goes to that side, Ria would again turn to the wall side. This cute game, where Ria keeps turning her face away from Kcris, no matter where she stands continues for some time till Kcris gets down on her knees holding her ears. Kcris makes a sad puppy face which little Ria can no longer ignore. So Ria looks at Kcris and says, “I’ll forgive you if you say sorry.”
Kcris immediately apologizes, “I am really sorry.”
Ria raises her cute little hand in a gesture meaning Kcris to stop and then points her little finger towards the nanny saying, “You made her cry, so say sorry to her, not me.”
Jeena is still standing there, looking at what all is happening and so thinks to herself, “Even when she is so small, she knows the difference between right and wrong. Whosoever is raising her is doing a fantastic job at it.”
Kcris apologizes to the nanny and then looks up to Ria in a way to check if or not she is forgiven. Ria instantly tells Kcris, “Do sit-ups. You made her cry so it’s your punishment. Five sit-ups.”
Kcris, without even flinching a bit starts and stops only when five sit-ups are done.
Jeena is amazed at the fact that how can a little five-year-old boss around the bossy, rude and arrogant Kcris. Jeena thinks to herself, “Ria must be Kcris’s daughter. Because this can be the only possible explanation for why a person who would never even bother about anyone’s opinion, is doing exactly what this little girl tells her to do.”
After Kcris finishes, Ria smiles and says, “Ok, I’ll forgive you now.”
Ria sees Jeena standing at the door, so she tries to get down from the patient’s stool. Kcris sees this and helps her get down. The moment Ria’s feet touch the ground, she rushes toward Jeena.
Jeena is holding Ria’s medicines and patient record in one hand and a chocolate smoothie in the other, so she puts the record and medicines on the nearby chair and sits down on her knees. She gives the smoothie to Ria and picks her up. Ria takes a sip and says, “Yummy… I love it.”
Kcris is just standing and observing everything. After seeing this it isn’t so hard for Kcris to do the math. Now Kcris knows it was Jeena’s car that almost hit Ria. Kcris nears them but, both Ria and Jeena are busy within themselves. After a few seconds, Jeena notices someone standing in front of them so she looks up and says, “Kcris, I am really sorry. It was an accident. You know we would never intend to hurt a child, right?”
Kcris answers, “You don’t need to feel guilty about anything, Jeena. I know it was an accident. And after all, you both are ok, so nothing else matters. Let bygones be bygones.”
“Then why did you scold the nanny if you knew that it was an accident?”
“I didn’t mean to but I was angry at her for not being careful and letting Ria run on the road. I am sorry. I have also apologized to her.”
Jeena mumbles to herself, “I know, if it wasn’t for little Ria you would never apologize to her.”
“Huh?”
“Nothing, Kcris.”
Till now little Ria is busy sipping her smoothie but now she wants to take charge. Ria is still in Jeena’s arms when she looks at Kcris and says, “I made a new friend today. This is my new friend.” pointing her cute little finger toward Jeena. And then she turns to Jeena and tells her, “This is my mommy.”
The nanny who is silently standing there interrupts and slightly scolds Ria, “How many times I have told you not to call ma’am as your mommy in front of other people?” Kcris turns and looks at the nanny. And just by looking at Kcris’s eyes, she understands what Kcris means for her is to stop saying anything else.
Kcris takes Ria from Jeena and so, now Ria is in Kcris’s arms. Kcris turns her face toward Ria to whisper in her ear, “Did you ask your new friend, what her name is? Or did you even ask her whether or not she wants to be your friend?” Little Ria in a cute way, raises her little hand and hits her forehead saying, “Oh! No. I forgot.”
Ria smiles at Jeena and asks her, “New friend, do you want to be my friend?”. Listening to this Jeena almost laughs and says, “Who would not want to be a friend of our cute little Ria? Of course, I’ll be your friend from now. Ok, new friend?”
“Ok, new friend. My name is Ria. What is your name?”
Jeena answers with a smile, “My name is Jeena.”
During all this time Kcris is observing Jeena and she notices that after the nanny asked Ria not to call her mommy, Jeena has avoided eye contact with her. It seems that Jeena is ignoring Kcris. Kcris puts down Ria and asks the nanny to take her to the car. Kcris tells Ria, “I want to talk to your new friend about something so, you go with the nanny first and wait in the car for me. Then we’ll go home together. Is it ok, Ria?”
Ria says bye to her new friend and then leaves with her nanny.
“Do you want to say something, Jeena?”
“No. Nothing Kcris.”
Jeena passes Ria’s medicines and the patient’s record to Kcris and is about to leave when Kcris stops her. Jeena knows that Kcris won’t let her leave until she answers her so after a huge sigh she goes like, “Kcris every time I think that you are a nice person, you somehow manage to give me a reason to change my opinion about you.”
“And? What more, Jeena?”
Jeena continues, “I know that you don’t care about people, their opinions, or for that matter about anything. Whenever you are dealing with people you are mostly being perfunctory. Kcris, Ria is just a small child. How can you be the same even with a child? How can you ask her not to address her mother as the mother in front of other people?”
Kcris is all perplexed listening to Jeena.
“Anyway, I am no one to interfere in your personal matter. I am already getting late as Alex is waiting for me. I’ll take your leave.”
Before Kcris could figure out what to answer Jeena, she has already left.
The next morning, coincidently Kcris and Jeena reach the dance studio at the same time. After parking their respective cars in different rows they start to walk toward the elevator. As Jeena has parked her car in the row close to the elevator, she gets inside the elevator first. Jeena sees Kcris walking towards the elevator but avoids eye contact with her. Jeena has a chance to hold the elevator for Kcris but she doesn’t and hits the button for her floor. Even during the practice, Jeena makes sure that she is away from Kcris. Later when Jeena’s bottle is empty and she goes to refill it, she sees Kcris is there talking to someone. So she decides to turn away and go back. Kcris notices this and says to herself, “Enough is enough.”
Kcris decides to confront Jeena about this and so she follows her to the car parking. At the car parking, when Jeena opens her car door and is about to get in, Kcris pulls her back and slams the car door shut.
“Are you crazy? What is wrong with you, Kcris?”
“What is wrong with me?... Rather I should be asking, what is wrong with you? It’s you who has been ignoring me since yesterday.”
Jeena continues to be ignorant and answers Kcris, “So what? Why do you think that everybody has to keep their focus and attention on you all the time? You can’t be the center of everyone’s life.”
Kcris tries to keep her cool and says, “Do you know whatsoever you are saying makes no sense? And I have never asked you to keep your focus intact on me. I am not some attention-seeking college kid.”
“Oh! Really? Then why did you come down all the way to the parking lot following me if not to complain that I am ignoring you?... Huh, Kcris answer me.”
Kcris thinks to herself, “If I don’t step back now, this may turn into an ugly argument with Jeena.” So Kcris politely asks Jeena, “I don’t know what made you so angry. But I really am sorry. You can tell me what exactly you want me to do now.”
“Just stay away from me, Kcris.”
“Ok I’ll do as you ask but I at least deserve a reason for this. Right, Jeena?”
Jeena answers, “Kadli seep bhujang mukh, swati ek gun teen.
Jaisi sangati baithiye, taesoi fal deen”
(For readers who prefer original language(Hindi) over the romanized version
“कदली सीप भुजंग मुख, स्वाति एक गुण तीन
जैसी संगति बैठिए , तैसोई फल दिन।”)
After a pause, Jeena with a smirk says to Kcris, “I have already given you my reason but it’s your bad that you won’t be able to know.” Before Jeena could leave Kcris stops her and smiles before answering, “I feel apologetic that we aren’t close enough friends else I may have already told you that someone close to me was well versed in the same language you just spoke.”
Kcris continues, “What you just said means depending upon the place where the water droplet falls, its properties are determined. It may turn into camphor if it falls on a riverside plant, or into a pearl if it falls in a shell, or maybe into venom if it falls into the mouth of a snake. So basically what you mean is that your company i.e. family, friends, etc. decide what sort of person you become.”
Jeena is slightly taken aback when she finds that Kcris knows the language so well.
“Jeena, if you know this then you must also know what I am about to say.”
“What?”
Kcris in slow subtle voice goes like, “Jo Rahim uttam prakarati, ka kari sakat kusang. Chandan vish vyaape nahi, lipte rahat bhujang.”
(For readers who prefer original language(Hindi) over the romanized version
“जो रहीम उत्तम प्रकृति, का करि सकत कुसंग
चंदन विष व्यापै नहीं, लिपटे रहत भुजंग।”)
Kcris grabs Jeena by her shoulders and places her face next to Jeena’s ear and whispers in her ear, “What I mean here is just that if a person is of good character and personality, even the worst company can’t affect him just the way how lots of poisonous snakes on a sandalwood tree can’t turn it into a poisonous tree.
Kris pulls herself back and looks at Jeena’s face for some time. Jeena is still in shock as she can’t figure out what exactly Kcris is trying to do. After a moment Kcris speaks up, “I was never expecting you to be scared of me. Anyway, if you say your reason for not wanting to see me is that I am a bad influence I’ll try to believe you. I guess you have thought this through.”
Jeena after listening to Kcris for such a long speaks up, “Yes. I don’t want to be in touch with you and for that matter, I don’t want anything related to you in my life.”
Kcris takes a step towards Jeena and promises her, “You will never ever see my face again. You have my word on this.” Then Kcris grabs Jeena’s face by both her hands and kisses her lips.
“Good Bye Jeena.”
Jeena stands there dumbstruck trying to gather her thoughts for what exactly has happened, while Kcris walks away from her.
Kcris gets in her car and starts the engine. She is still angry and says to herself, “I wish instead of ending things with me by yourself you should have at least given me a chance to make things clear. Jeena, I really wish that we don’t have to cross paths again because it hurts a lot to see disliking for myself in your eyes.”
Kcris drives away, but her eyes are still on the rearview mirror. She continues to look at Jeena standing at the same spot until she makes a turn and Jeena’s image can no longer be seen.
Kcris is gone and Jeena is still lost in her thought. She comes back to her senses when her cell starts to vibrate. Jeena picks up the call. From the other side, “Hello, I am speaking from Mary’s care hospital…”