The Unventured Passions

In Search of Happiness

There comes times in living that transform us, and all we can do is chose how we are changed. Do we rise up and accept the warrior spirit, or not? For the pain comes... ready or not, the grief is absolute, the old self is burned clear away and the new self steps onwards. And all we can do is to beware that this transformation hurts, that it comes at a cost no matter the path we chose.

In the half-light of the corridor, Batuk looked like the shadow he had become. He has stormed out of the room, drenched in blood, hurt and disgust, but the moment he came out, all these emotions converged into one... The feeling of first heartbreak. He sank down on the floor, right beside the closed door, hunching on the empty shoe-rack, his face covered in his palms, his soul crying! He cried less for the rejection, and more for his naivety, for he had placed his lover in the highest pedestal, and had thought the bond to be unbreakable. But, after some unmeasured minutes, when he saw Candice walking out of the door, dressed in perfection, her scarf and hat in place, he compared her with his broken state. She hadn't even looked at him, not even once, and as Batuk saw her leaving, vanishing behind the corridor walls, he felt the noise of his heart shattering into fragments more numerous than the stars. For a minute, he wanted to beg, plead, get down on his knees and tell her that their life here had meaning, that their love had meaning, but he knew that face... It was the one he wears when his ears were closed and his mind has put up barriers to all new information. And hence he knew that no matter what he said it will only push her further away... 
But she was already far, far from him, his first love, and he already felt himself in transition to become a person he never wanted to be! The bitterness was rising like bile into his mouth and when he heard a voice calling him, he just looked up blankly with that bitterness in him, for he felt no reason to swallow it anymore.

"Choto Zamindar Babu," Bhargavi was standing infront of him, her face had a fearful expression, she fidgeted her fingers and swallowed once before speaking again.
"Wo... Um... Food... Um..." She swallowed again. "We're hungry."

Batuk didn't respond, instead he kept on looking blankly at her face, his own face was painted with blood and tears, giving him a dreadful appearence in that shadowed darkness.

"So?" He asked plainly, his eyes fixated on the simple check saree she wore and the two neat braids appeared to be Medusa's locks to him, his mind wondering if this innocent looking girl would someday break someone's heart this cruelly or not, and Bhargavi looked away.

"Um... How to... I mean, whom to ask?"

"No one!" Batuk replied coldly, his mind brewing a sudden hatred towards her, picturing her gender to be an accomplice of the one who had just left him tattered.

Bhargavi was still standing, and Batuk suddenly couldn't stand her anymore. All his pain had somehow channelised into hatred and all those hatred shot out like sharp piercing poison arrows at the young innocent girl standing in front.

"What do you want now?" He suddenly got up and leaned forward, before grabbing her shoulders and shaking her violently. He screamed at her on top of his voice, now breaking in an over-rush of adrenaline, making her tremble with terror and shock.
"Why don't you eat my head if you're that starved?" His screams grew louder, reverberating through the empty corridor, and moments later he saw another feminine figure rushing out from the door nearby, sprinting towards them to rescue the young girl.

"Bhaggu...!"
Batuk saw Mira, an inexplicable expression on her face, as she almost cried out at the sight, and banking on this sudden distraction, Bhargavi pushed him away, freeing herself, and she ran towards Mira at once, hugged her tightly.

"Batuk Babu!!" Mira shouted at him, her eyes glaring a strange fire, unfathomable to Batuk, as for a moment he felt absolutely stupified at the suddenness of his own conduct.