A NEW LIGHT

(Rishi is depressed. he feels lonely and is having problems coping up with his own life. Then he meets Kajol…)

Rishi lives in one of those compact flats of a shaggy building. He lives there alone. He works all week in a private farm. Which offered him money in and return it restrained his life. As the evening of the Sunday approaches, Rishi feels dejected. When the daily hustle of the week suddenly stops on this day, Rishi finds it real hard to gather some zeal to find something interesting to do. It seems to him, that there’s nothing positive left in his life.

He could feel the weight of unreasonable depression on his chest. He lamented all the time. He wanted to hang out with friends, talk to people, but everyone lacked time. It occurred to him that everyone was content in their own lives. All he could think of was, he is lonely and depressed. He even took pills, did counseling but no fruit was born.

It was one of those dismal Sundays, as usual Rishi was sitting drenched in despondency. He was reading a novel, even though he found it pretty interesting, it lost its charm down the lane. He was thinking how it is likely to be a hero in a story, and that to be a hero, you ought to have a heroine as well. Beautiful and charming one… as he thought all of this, he recalled Kajol.

Kajol, he met Kajol in a bus while he was heading for office, they sat side by side. Rishi didn’t notice her at first, but was alarmed when she suddenly asked, “What book are you reading?”, pointing at the book Rishi was holding. Then he saw her. She was charming. There was a certain comeliness in her eyes. She wore black framed glasses. It was a journey of an hour or so, which was enough for them to become friends, they both loved poetry had same taste of cuisines, same wanderlust and same Choice of retro music. They exchanged numbers as well.

Without giving any second thought, he rang Kajol. After ringing it occurred to him that it might be a little awkward and indecent to call a person so shortly known and narrate his problems, his depression, but he didn’t hung up. On the count of eleven seconds, he heard a mellow voice coming his way over the phone.

He heard her saying, “I know you are Rishi. Tell me Rishi, how are you? How have you been doing?”

Rishi lost it. It was after an eternity someone asked Rishi how he was. Nobody was that kind to him ever. He became emotional. He said frantically, “I am not fine Kajol. Not at all”. He breathed heavily, “I have nobody. Nobody to talk to. To go to. I want someone who will encourage me at my good and won’t judge me at my bad. I am hugely depressed. You know Kajol, going to sleep everyday knowing that there’s nobody for you, is a punishment. I am blank. I feel empty. Everything seems bizarre.” After having said all these Rishi realized that he unleashed a bit more than he should have.

Kajol was quiet. Now she spoke. “You have me now, Rishi. Even I have nobody to talk to. Rather nobody will talk to me. call me whenever you want”, she went on,”Rishi, everybody is sad. Everybody is submerged in melancholy. Some float, some drown. Some just stay deep down there. You can never be cured of melancholy because melancholy is the cure. I was depressed too. I fought. I won. I fell down, I crawled, I walked, then ran. I didn’t stop. We are in a road. If we stop, we’ll get hit by a car. We have to go on. Be fervent.”
Rishi was feeling better. He did feel profound. “What were you depressed about?”, he asked. She kept quiet for a moment then she said, “I was raped”. She hung up the call saying this.

Rishi was flabbergasted. He felt guilty for being depressed about such trivial issues. Suddenly all his problems seemed like a raindrop in a sea. He was healed. He needed this shock, this realization. All he lacked was inspiration and now that he has one, he thought of all the things he loved and decided on executing them one by one. Then he will call Kajol again to tell her that he was doing fine. That she made her do fine.