In Lieu Of -A short story

In Lieu Of...

I woke up and checked the messages on my phone. 'Can we meet?', 'I need to talk to you'. I received around fifteen messages from the number which has been removed from my contact list.

This time I added the number to block list.

I put my blankets away and moved to the washroom to get ready for office.

Today, we had a visit to Sri Acharya Blind School, as part of our team building activity, from office. We reached there with bundles of food items, clothing, paints and books and pretended to entertain the school students with our mediocre performance! On the contrary, the students enlightened us with their tireless passion to present their talents in public. They knew less, that the darkness sealed on their eyes transmitted ray of light and hope to our spirits. They mingled with us quick, following the activities. I observed my colleague, Arjun, talking to a little 7 or 8-year-old girl, the whole time.

After a while, our manager raised his hands to me and tapped on his watch in a gesture to windup. I called out to the rest of the team. We said our 'goodbye and thanks' to the school people and left the place with a fulfilled heart.

On my return, from school, Arjun came running to the bus station I was waiting in. "Hi, Are u waiting for B12?" he asked me about the bus. "Yeah, my apartment is in Kormangala" I replied with a smile.

"Yeah, I know, my hostel is nearby"

"Oh is it? I didn't know it till now!" I said in surprise. Although we were colleagues we haven't talked much in the office, other than work, as he was quite junior to me and recently joined our team.

Our bus arrived, it was so crowded that we couldn't fit inside. We left it and waited for next. Soon an MNC minibus stopped nearby, providing lift for people on its return trip. People, in the stop, rushed towards it. Arjun got inside and held my hand to help as I stepped inside the bus. We flopped down to the seats and laughed, and sat there as if we have conquered an empire. On the way to home, we didn't have a shortage of topic for discussion, which ranged from movies to our lives.

I realized, how we could miss some people and moments that could have changed our course of life, just because we didn't pay enough attention to them. We live in our loop of past and egoistic thoughts that we seldom notice the good things around us. In the recent past years, I have been in love with a guy only to recognize that he valued me less over his emotions. Those years my life revolved around him that I blindfolded myself to the illuminated light, life had offered. For him, it took the cost of losing his love to understand its worthiness. Some past can never be recreated. As I knew, it can never be the same as before I blocked him from my life to heal my scars.

In the weekend, Arjun called me on the phone at 7 am. "Hey, are you free today? Can we go out?" he asked.

'Is he calling for a date?' I worried.

"Yeah, but where?" I asked.

"U know, there is this girl called Diya from the Blind School visited...I felt some connection with her...U know my younger sister's name is also Diya...I don't know why... I feel like meeting her again. Can we go there today?"

"Are u crazy? We need to go so far to meet a girl? C' mon... You are being homesick..you should call to your home. Now let me sleep Ok.." I replied confused and disappointed at the same time.

"Please..." he said.

I finally agreed to accompany him. As we reached there, we enquired in the front office to meet Diya. The lady there told us that we are not allowed to meet a child in particular. We came to know that Diya had lost her parents when she was four. She is a non-blind student, taken care by School Orphanage. We handed over the chocolates we got for Diya to the lady and left the place in despair.

"What now?" I asked him.

"Pizza time..." he gleed.

As we had pizza I looked at him. He had an innocent smile and eyes that glowed, hidden on his bristly haired face. We entered in a metro train on return. Arjun offered me the only seat left around and he stood next to me holding the hanger. His behaviours seemed mature and caring. Although he is a 22-year-old, four years younger than me, his tall slim figure, rough skin and high logical thinking made me feel smaller. But not always, sometimes he seemed impatient and sometimes he didn't know to make a good decision or speak well and that 'sometimes' made me realize the difference in our age and gender.

We reached our stop and bid 'good day' to each other.

A few days later, in the office, I noticed Arjun's laptop screen. It was the Sri Acharya blind school website. I wondered why he was so much interested in them and the girl. I intended to find out. Later, through a friend, it was disturbing for me to know that Arjun had lost his little sister in his childhood. As Arjun had told before, her name was 'Diya'.

'Hey, I found a sponsor for Diya' Arjun said, excitedly running towards me in Office Cafeteria.

'That's nice...Who is it? How did you get?' I enquired.

'My friend's Uncle...he is a rich guy in US....he is interested to help. I have talked to him and the orphanage people. They have asked me to meet them tomorrow." he replied panting heavily.

"Tomorrow? Noo...no..we have work!"

Once again he convinced me. We lied at our office and took a half-day leave. We took his friend's bike and reached school. The school authorities discussed the formalities with us. As we had offered sponsorship, they allowed us to meet her. A two-sided ponytail girl came to us in her school uniform. She smiled with her dimples when she saw Arjun. It was the cutest smile I have seen with one front tooth lost. I held her hand and took permission from School to take her outside.

We went to a nearby cool bar and got ice creams for her. The girl seemed not to understand what Arjun spoke. "Ask her.. what else she wants? She is from your place... Kerala...she doesn't understand Kannada" he said raising his eyebrows and a mischievous smile. Well, from then on I became their translator! Time blossomed a good bond between us. We three formed a relationship that had no name.

On reaching back to the school, 'Ivide Nilku, Ippo Varaam...' Diya told us(in Malayalam) in her sweet voice and ran inside the building. I raised my palm as a wait signal to the confused-looking lad, Arjun.

Diya came running and gave us a drawing. We both looked at it. It was a pic of a little girl in the centre holding the hand of a man and lady on her either side.

My eyes filled with tears and three of us stood there smiling at each other.

Sometimes we look for replacements for our past. To fill the void left behind. Arjun was that friend who helped me in forgetting my lost love. To him, Diya occupied the place of his long lost sister and she hope, us to fill the space of her parents.

In the end, we all are replacements of someone or something!