'Pappa! You called for me?', Shrishti came into her father's study few days after her summer vacation began. Her days were filled with lazing in the bed and watching all kinds of movies on TV the whole day. Basically, she was having fun.
'Yes. Get me my phone number diary. You know the one where I note down everyone's phone numbers from work? Get me that. You know where I generally keep it in my bedroom. I left it there and I need it for Arpit.', her Pappa explained. In front of him sat Arpit who smiled and waved at her.
She waved back before looking at her Pappa, 'Just a minute, Pappa.'
After few minutes, Shrishti was back with the diary in her hands, 'Pappa. You need to become digital. It is about time.', she handed over the diary to her father and turned to walk away.
'Shrishti.', he called her back, 'Find Mr. Raut's number in this. I am getting headache looking at this small words.'
Shrishti rolled her eyes before looking at Arpit, 'He is the one who wrote in this diary since my childhood.'
Arpit chuckled. Shrishti opened the diary and looked through the numbers in the R section.
'You need to get specs, Uncle.', Arpit suggested to her Pappa.
Shrishti scoffed before her Pappa replied, 'I have told him hundred times but he never listens. Tell him. Better yet, get Raghav and Megha to tell him. Maybe between us four, there will be someone he listens to!'
Arpit laughed at that while her Pappa grimaced. Shrishti glared at her father before finding the number and handing it over.
'Good, good. Raut is the HR head in our company. I will talk to him and arrange internship for you.', Pappa told Arpit as Shrishti walked out of the room. Shrishti smiled at the words she just heard. Arpit would work in her Pappa's company! Good. This would look really good in Arpit's resume in future.
Arpit left few minutes later after talking to her Pappa and then Shrishti was called in by Pappa again.
'Sit.', he nodded towards the chairs in front of him. Shrishti sat down and looked at him curiously.
'Pari beta. What are your plans for your vacation?', Pappa leaned back and looked at her keenly.
Shrishti shrugged, 'Whatever you decide. London, Switzerland, Paris, whatever you want, Pappa.'
Pappa shook his head, 'No. I mean the whole of summer vacation? What is your plan for the whole three months?'
Shrishti shrugged again, 'Nothing. What I do every year. Laze around, watch shows and when you are free, we go on a vacation somewhere.'
Pappa took in a deep breath. Shrishti frowned. He looked stressed. Why?
'I spoke to Arpit just now. About his career. And it got me thinking. What about you?'
Shrishti tilted her head, 'What about me?'
'Have you thought about your future? Your career? Your dreams?', Pappa prodded.
Shrishti blinked. She had no idea how to respond to that. The truth was she had never thought about it. Her past life was so focused on Sharad that her future never mattered to her. And now that Pappa was asking, Shrishti was stumped.
Pappa took in a deep breath, 'Pari beta. I am not expecting you to have a whole file filled with a fully charted career plan like Raghav did. Neither do I expect you to be like Arpit, fully sure about what he wants from life. But there must be some direction you want to go in. There must be something you are interested in. Your likes? Dislikes? Hobbies? Interest?'
Shrishti looked at her father lost, 'I don't know, Pappa. I never thought about it.'
Pappa sighed, 'Oh my child. You need to think about it, dear. In two years you would graduate. You need to have some kind of plan for after that.'
Shrishti looked down, confused and sad. She never thought about these things in both her lives! How much did she ruin her life?
'Alright. Ok. It is ok if you have no plans as of now. It is ok.', Pappa said calmly as he got up and came to her. He patted her head gently, 'How about you think about it now? Use this summer vacation and think about your future, ok?'
Shrishti bit her lip and nodded before looking at Pappa with worry. Pappa smiled, 'Don't worry. We have time. You are only eighteen. You have time to think about your future. Ok. Don't worry. Use this vacation and think about it, ok?'
She got up and hugged him, feeling upset. The hug helped her and she walked away.
For the next day, Shrishti felt untethered. What did she want to do with her life? She had no idea. Hobbies? She had no idea about it. She never had hobbies or interests. What did she like doing? Nothing much. She binge watched TV Shows and movies during her vacations? Does that count? Shrishti started to mop around the house as she tried to think what she wanted to do with her life.
The problem was that Shrishti had never thought about her future because since she met Sharad, her dream had always been being Mrs. Sharad, that's all. But now that that dream was off the table, she had no idea what to do next. Heck! She joined commerce field just because Sharad did! She was that obsessed with him! And now away from that obsession, she did not know what to do with herself! Short time goal was get good marks, study, have fun in college. But she has no long term goal!
What about the time before Sharad though. What did that Shrishti dream of? Shrishti could not remember. That Shrishti might have been just five or six years younger than current Shrishti but Shrishti had lived extra seven years in past life. So her memories were extremely fuzzy from that time.
Shrishti remained confused and uncertain for another day before she remembered her diary. She was not a diary writer, actually. She did not have stacks of diaries inside her cupboard or something. But there was a time when she tried having diaries. It was the time when she wanted to try everything others were doing. One such phase was diary writing. And knowing her hoarding tendencies, she must have kept diaries of those days somewhere.
Shrishti looked around, eyeing every piece of furniture in her room, trying to think of a place where her twelve year old self must have hoarded her things. That is when her eyes shifted to her cupboard. It was the cupboard that held her clothes when she was a kid. Once she hit a certain age, her Pappa built a wardrobe for her and the cupboard was emptied of her clothes. If the diary was somewhere, it was in that cupboard.
Shrishti went to the cupboard and opened it only for her eyes to widen. It was filled to the brim. There were old books, childhood toys, gifts from her relatives given in her younger age and so many things that she could only stare wide eyed at the things in front of her.
An hour later, Shrishti collapsed on the floor. She spent the whole hour looking through the things in the cupboard and she had yet to find the diary. Instead, she found so many toys that were still working or were unbroken. Shrishti shook her head, 'Hoarding is one thing. But keeping the toys that I could donate and make some kid happy is just ridiculous.'
Shrishti walked out of the house and went directly next door and rang the bell. Megha opened it and Shrishti asked her to help her sort her cupboard. Megha agreed happily and both of them went to the cupboard.
Megha gaped at the open cupboard, 'Pari Di! You are the Queen of Hoarding!'
Shrishti burst out laughing at the comment, 'I should make that a quote and put it on my T-Shirt.'
Megha giggled before looking at Shrishti with her hands on her hips, 'So what do you want to do?'
Shrishti sighed before looking at the cupboard miserably, 'Some of the toys, no, actually most of the toys are not at all damaged or broken. They can easily be donated. So help me bring them out. We will sort them out into the ones that can be donated and the ones needed to be thrown away.'
Megha nodded before giving Shrishti a look of determination, 'Alright. Lets do it.'
Shrishti also adopted similar expression on her face and nodded, ready to attack her cupboard.
In half an hour, they managed to get all the toys out on the floor before they sat down and sorted through them. It took them more than two hours to sort through it as they had to check with each other if the toy was working or not. Some toys just needed batteries to work, so they had to hunt down some batteries too to check those toys. Moreover, some toys had sentimental value to Shrishti and she felt emotional and had to pause the sorting work and enjoy playing with the toy for few minutes before hardening her heart and putting it in the donation pile. Some toys had stories that Shrishti narrated to Megha while they sorted through the toys.
'This Pappa got me on my tenth birthday because I had just become a fan of this cartoon character.'
'These three dolls were launched at same time and I wanted all of them and Pappa got them for me right away.'
'This was gifted to me by Dadi because I wanted to be an astronaut one day. So, rocket for me!'
'This is from Ronnie. I wanted to play with lego and he got it for me. We spent the whole night working on it.'
'This......', Shrishti looked at the cooking set in front of her with surprise. The memory that came to her head related to the set was not something she had expected.
'Who gave it to you, Di?', Megha's question brought Shrishti back to the present.
'Your Raghav Bhaiyya gave it to me.', Shrishti said quietly as she looked at the cooking set box in her hands with complicated emotions, 'It was his. It was around the time you were born and Pappa took me to see you. I remember playing with Raghav and while coming back home, I was crying because I loved this cooking set. He gave it to me.'
'Will you donate this too?', Megha asked curiously.
Shrishti narrowed her eyes before looking at Megha playfully, 'What do you think? Will your Raghav Bhaiyya want his toy back?'
Megha giggled, 'I just imagined a grown up Bhaiyya playing with it.', she giggled again. Shrishti had to admit. That image was funny once she imagined it. She too started laughing.
Few minutes later, both were heading towards Megha's home. They rang the bell. Arpit came out and looked surprised to see them and the set held in Shrishti's hands. Megha pushed him aside, grabbed Shrishti's wrist and dragged her to the kitchen where Raghav was cleaning the stove.
'Bhaiyya! Look! Pari Di is here to give you something.'
'I borrowed this from you years back. It is time to give it back.', Shrishti commented while Arpit stood next to her looking curious.
Raghav turned to look at the gift and stared at the toy set in Shrishti's hands.
'Wait! That's Veere's?', Arpit gasped before pointing at the toy and staring at his brother, 'You played with this as a kid?'
Arpit broke out laughing at that.
Raghav cleared his throat while looking away. Shrishti's brows went up. Why did it look like Raghav was embarrassed?
'I don't need them.', Raghav murmured.
Shrishti could not help but ask playfully, 'Are you sure?'
He nodded and then stormed away. Arpit, whose laughter had just calmed down, burst out laughing again.
'Bhaiyya is embarrassed!', Megha shouted before giggling.
Shrishti could not help but laugh too.
Next day, Shrishti and Megha went to a nearby orphanage with all the toys collected, packed into the trunk. At the orphanage, they were invited in when they explained the reasoning behind their arrival. They had to wait for the main incharge to come and sign the receipt before the orphanage could accept the toys. Shrishti asked if they could wait outside and the staff helping them allowed them to.
'Oh. There is a small garden here.', Megha mused as they stepped out of the orphanage building and spotted a small garden on the property.
'The children that are interested in gardening plant their favourite flowers here.', the staff explained, 'If you walk to the right, you will find a playground where children are playing. Most children will be there now that school is over.'
Shrishti nodded and the staff left them. They headed to the playground and smiled when they saw so many kids playing. The older ones seemed to be the minders while the younger ones played.
'Can I join them?', Megha asked Shrishti and Shrishti nodded. Megha went running away towards children her age and joined them in hide and seek. Shrishti looked around and spotted young people around her age playing with younger children. Just then she felt a tug on her jeans and she looked down to see a four year old boy standing there with the sweetest smile on his face.
'You are pretty.', he told her, grinned widely before running away.
Shrishti looked at the boy running away with amusement.
She walked around the playground and reached the swing section where a kid sat looking around. He seemed to be around seven or eight years old. He saw her just then and waved her close, 'Push me na, Didi. I want to play but my legs don't reach below.'
Shrishti looked down and realised that the child somehow managed to get into the swing but his legs did not reach the ground and hence he could not move the swing. She grinned before going to the kid's back and gently pushing him. The child squealed as he swung in the air.
Shrishti did not know how much time passed as she played with the kid. After a while, the staff found her and asked her to come in. Shrishti waved Megha over and they followed the staff in. Once the receipt was collected, they handed over the toys and left for home but not before saying bye to their new friends.
'They are so happy, Di.', Megha spoke as the car headed towards their neighbourhood, 'They have so less and yet they are so happy.'
Shrishti nodded, 'I guess they know the secret to happy life. Be happy with what you have.'
Megha looked at her and then nodded, 'Now I know the secret too. I should tell both my Bhaiyya too. Then they will be forever happy too.'
'Smart.'
'You should tell your Dad and Dadi too.'
'Ok. I will.'
Next day, Shrishti went through the cupboard again and pulled out the childhood clothes. The casual ones were all torn to shreds and she had no idea why Pappa still kept them. She told him the day before about her donation idea and he had agreed to it. But he seemed a tad bit sad about it. She shrugged and focused on the clothes. The clothes that were for parties and formal occasions seemed well enough, so she once again took them to the orphanage, this time without Megha as the girl was busy with her brothers.
The day after, Shrishti went through her books and did the same with them as most were in intact condition. She had first assumed they were her school books but they ended up being children's books that her father bought for her from all over the world. So after keeping few books that were her favorites, she donated the rest of them.
Finally Shrishti's cupboard was almost empty with only one shelf filled with knickknacks left. She removed them and sorted them out only to find the diary she wanted. With a happy grin, she pulled it out and kept it on the desk before sorting through the remaining things and throwing the unwanted things out and keeping the wanted things inside.
After that, Shrishti sat down and leafed through her tween time diary.