Resurrected

  I looked at him and replied, “Yes, it is indeed pleasant weather.”

  He looked at me and cracked a joke, “Merlin, now please don’t tell me that I should take you to roam in this area, just because you feel the weather is pleasant.” We both started laughing.

  He took me home and told his sister to help me with initial steps of drawing a portrait. He taught for an hour and then his sister, Zarine taught me again.

  In the break time, he, Zarine and I sat at a table. The servant came with hot tea and biscuits. I drank tea and took biscuits. Zuhang Sir looked at me and said, “What will you have? Chicken makhani, chicken pulav or something else?”

  I said, “I want nothing. This tea and the biscuits have made my stomach full. I just came to study and not to eat.”

  “No, you have come to our house for the first time. So we will feel bad if you won’t eat anything,” Zarine looked at me and smiled.

  I still kept telling that biscuits are enough for me but Zuhang Sir said, “We will eat the same lunch which you will order. So do you want us to eat biscuits for lunch?” We all started laughing at this joke.

  Zarine said, “Zuhang, order some chicken dish with rice for her.”

  Zuhang Sir said, “Yes but I think she will feel sleepy after having a heavy meal. Merlin do you want a chicken dish then I wouldn’t mind. But please promise you won’t doze off while practicing.”

  I started laughing and said, “Sir, order anything you like.”

  After practicing till evening, he and Zarine dropped me home safely. The next day my performance in the contest was much better than what I had imagined without practice. I went home and called up Zarine, I said, “I just finished the competition. I really did perform much better, thanks to Zuhang Sir and to you.”

  Zarine said, “Very good, I am so glad that you are happy with how the competition went. All the best! Do phone Zuhang also and thank him. Because of you he had cancelled all his classes yesterday.”

  “Yes, I will,” I said.

  On reaching home, I kept on thinking all the kind and selfless deeds of Zuhang Sir, ultimately forgetting the past hurts of his partiality. I started praising him, to each and every family member, friends and everybody whom I knew. Praises of their kindness for me was the only reason of my every talk with people. Though I didn’t win good grades in exams, Zuhang Sir’s kindness won my heart and made me forget all the times his behavior had hurt me. After hearing my praises for his classes my other friends too had an immense desire to join his classes in future.

  For the second and last year of my drawing exams, I once again joined his classes along with my friend Kajal, this time I had join the afternoon batch instead of the morning batch in order to avoid his favourite boys group.

  On the first day, I had to go alone to the classes because Kajal was busy with her exams. I was surprised to see that the afternoon batch was full of girls and not even a single boy had joined this batch. I was happy to realize that this time there would be no partiality in absence of the boys. Unfortunately, I soon realized that Zuhang Sir didn’t give up on his partial behavior. Every girl in this newly started batch had come for the first time. I was his only old student in the afternoon batch. He requested every student to introduce themselves and to know one another. I was never asked to introduce myself. I felt hurt but I still remained very composed.

  Later he wrote on the board “Use your talents to build your profession. It will not only give you richness and goodwill but also inner happiness which will give meaning to your life.”

  He then asked each student about their talents. They named different talents which they possessed. When everyone’s chance got over, they looked at me. I happily told, “I love doing embroidery on clothes…” but my words didn’t pass through his ears. Every other girl carefully listened to me. They also noticed my sunken face when Sir didn’t pay any heed to my views.

  When he finally started with his higher level sketches, I could clearly notice him ignoring my paintings. He would hardly pay any attention to my sketches or drawings but instead carefully examined other girls’ paintings and guided them well. I started feeling low. Though I never expected any special attention from him but at least expected him to treat me like his other students.

  It is said that we must give balanced importance and respect to people. If given more it will not be valued and if given less it won’t be counted. The first phase of this saying had begun to take place in my life.

  Day by day, his partial behavior killed me from inside though my face was always covered with an artificial smile. I felt that Sir did not treat me equally because I was less talented than his new students. His behavior of partiality continued and since I was never given any importance, my mind started crying. Finally one day tired of partialities, my face revealed my sadness. That day I didn’t pay any heed to him or to any of his students’ views. He noticed that and started laughing at me.

  The worst pain is when someone makes fun of your sadness and pains.

  After lecture got over, without wasting a second, I left the class before everybody else. On the road my piled up pains burst into tears. I cried so much that my glasses too were covered with tears and I couldn’t see anything ahead. When I was about to reach my house I wiped off my tears, sprinkled water on my face, took out a chocolate bar and ate it. I felt better.

  I took out my mobile and saw two missed calls of Zuhang Sir. Though I had formed deep hatred for him, I still felt like speaking to him. I called him back.

  “Hello, did you call me?” I tried my best to speak in a normal voice.

  “Merlin, why were you so sad in the class?” he asked pretending to show his concern.

  I wanted to shout at him and say that how can you devalue a person who has given you so much importance but I instead replied, “No, nothing as such.”

  My voice started shivering as my heart cried out.

  He replied, “I don’t think you are alright. Something surely is disturbing you. What happened, Merlin?”

  I wanted to reveal all my pains by telling him to treat me like his other students. Give me equal importance but such words couldn’t come on my lips. I only managed to say in a low voice, “Sir, today you had asked who did not understand the important guidelines while preparing a human portrait. Even I had raised my hands but you didn’t even notice it. I too didn’t understand the concept…” I started breathing fast.

  He casually replied, “Oh, even you didn’t understand? Sorry I didn’t notice it but tomorrow you come with all your doubts I will surely help you out.”

  “Okay,” I replied.

  I felt little better after speaking with him about his mistake. I went home happily. After reaching home, I saw that Zuhang Sir had called me again but my phone was on silent mode. So I called him back.

  “Merlin, I remember that you had told me earlier that you have bought the entire set of portrait books with advance artistic work.”

  “Yes, my relatives got it from abroad,” I replied proudly.

  “Oh good, so can you please give me those sets of books. I will teach you all from it.”

  “Okay fine, I will get them.”

  “I will come to your place and collect them by evening. Is it fine?”

  “No,” I shouted but then I spoke politely, “I will myself come and drop the books at the classes.”

  “But, why are you taking this trouble?” he asked me.

  “As it is, I am going out so I will drop the books at the classes after half an hour,” though it was a lie. I wasn’t going anywhere but I lied to him because I don’t like anybody coming to my house.

  I took out the set of heavy books from the shelf and took a cab. I reached the classes and placed the books before him. Then I left the place. For the next few days, Zuhang Sir treated me with equal importance. I felt that life was back on track now. No more dejection and n
o more partiality. I had my board exams and therefore took one month’s leave from my classes. After my exam, I went to the classes and felt very good to meet everybody. I slowly got friendly with other girls and they too behaved very nicely with me.

  Zuhang Sir’s partiality never stopped. He was still giving me less importance. May be because he felt I was not as smart as others or may be because he wanted to be friendlier with the new students. It didn’t matter much because you get immuned to pains and hurts after some time.

  One day, I asked him to return my set of books of Advanced Artistic works, so I could also practice from them. He returned my books but in very poor condition.

  I felt so sad to refer to such dirty books for my drawing. How could someone be so irresponsible! My hatred for Zuhang Sir grew to the peak. I politely told him that I didn’t like the way my books were managed by him. He laughed it away and said, “I will replace them with new books.” But I knew that such books were not easily available.

  After this incident, I felt like my presence had become as good as absence for him. I felt sad but tolerated it because I knew that after my exam, his role in my life will be over. So I kept quiet but my dislike towards him had crossed all limits.

  Though I was happy with his immense knowledge and his encouragement for us to be quite independent in life, his partial and biased behavior hurt me a lot.

  Merlin looked at me and asked, “Iveil, tell me if my hatred toward Sejal and Zuhang Sir was wrong?”

  I looked at her and shook my head in disagreement. I said, “We must never have any bad feelings in our heart for anybody because it will damage our mind more than them. Remember Merlin, people are different. Just focus on the good in people and forget the bad memories you had. Your heart will be free from loathing and instead be filled with happiness, love and peace within.”

  Merlin smiled and said, “Hmm, I agree with whatever you have said but it is not easy to forgive.”

  I asked Merlin, “Can a wood cutter break the tree by only one blow of his axe?”

  Merlin replied, “Of course not. Such a heavy wood cannot be broken in one shot.”

  I said, “This is exactly the truth with our lives. We cannot break the hatred in our heart by one shot. We need to keep on focusing only on good things and keep on breaking the negative thoughts. We must train our mind to not be disturbed by anyone or anything.”

  Merlin kept staring at me and said, “Any girl who will get married to you will be very lucky.” I smiled at this.

  I asked, “Why?”

  Merlin looked at the calm sea and said, “Your wife will have a life as calm as this sea. You will never allow any tides to break up her peace in life.”

  I felt very glad. I plucked a flower from a plant nearby and gave it to her. “This flower is to show my gratitude to you.” I said.

  Merlin took the flower and tried to smell it but unfortunately, the flower had no smell in it. She still smiled and said, “Thank you, I like the gift.”

  For some time, there was complete silence between us. Both of us were busy enjoying the cool breeze and sweet aroma of soil.

  Merlin looked at me and asked, “Which quality of human nature is the most harmful?”

  I looked at her and said, “I think that suspicious nature of a human is his worst quality.”

  Merlin looked confused she said, “Give me some of your experiences to prove your point.”

  I looked at the people walking on the beach. I didn’t reply.

  Merlin shook my shoulder and said, “Answer my question.”

  I smiled at her and softly said, “I am thinking. Give me five minutes.”

  At that time, a middle aged lady came to beg in front of us. Merlin looked at her and shouted, “Go away! Why don’t you earn a living instead of begging?”

  I caught Merlin’s shoulder and signalled her to be quiet. I took some money from my wallet and handed it over to the lady, saying, “May god bless you!”

  The middle aged lady smiled and said, “Thank you, son.” and left.

  Merlin didn’t like me helping that lady. I looked at her and said, “Merlin, do not get angry, she was a middle aged lady. When I looked at her, I could see my mother’s face in it. Do we tell our middle aged mothers to go and earn for themselves? We must understand people before judging them.” Hearing this Merlin’s anger vanished. She smiled back.

  I said, “I will tell you two small incidents which will show how small children to elderly people, all have suspicious nature.”

  There were two small girls named Nini and Runi. They were best friends but still they wanted to rise above each other.

  One day, Nini’s elder sister Razmin sent a SMS to Runi, “Hi Runi, do you have the ‘Pali Magazine’ of two months ago?”

  After reading this message, little Runi started suspecting that there was some contest of their age group, mentioned in the specific edition of Pali Magazine. She searched for the edition and read it carefully. There was nothing important for her in the magazine.

  So she sent a message to Razmin, “Hi Razmin, I have got the magazine but why do you want it?”

  Razmin sent a reply, “There is a job vacancy advertisement. I want to apply for it.”

  Runi realized her foolishness of suspecting that Razmin wanted the magazine to help her younger sister, Nini to win some contest. She wrote back, “Sorry Razmin, I misunderstood you.”

  Had Runi not clarified her doubt then it would have made her suspect that her best friend was trying to stop her from moving ahead in life. It would have broken up their pure love and friendship and given birth to hatred in Runi’s mind.

  The second tale is about two businessmen who were also very good friends. Lavin was a very punctual person whereas his friend Mero was never punctual. Lavin did not like Mero for being careless about time.

  One day Mero had promised to meet Lavin in the afternoon, and have lunch together. Lavin’s entire family had been waiting for Mero to have lunch together but Mero had not yet arrived. Finally Lavin called Mero.

  “Mero, where are you?” asked Lavin, irritated.

  “Hey Lavin, I have been stuck in the train. The train has been delayed.”

  “How much time will you take to reach here?”

  “I think minimum two hours more, you please start with your lunch.”

  “Okay Mero,” Lavin replied.

  When Lavin told this to his wife she started suspecting Mero. She told her husband, “Lavin, I am sure that Mero is just lying to us. His train’s departure time was four hours ago and he is saying that he will take two more hours to reach.”

  “But he said that the train has been delayed,” Lavin argued with his wife.

  “How do you expect a train to delay for four hours? The journey which takes three hours will not be delayed to six hours.” Lavin’s wife kept on suspecting Mero of telling them lies.

  “But why will he lie to us?” Lavin asked her.

  At this his wife gave a cruel smile and said, “If you remember, Mero is never on time. He might be trying to hide the truth that he had boarded a late train only.”

  Lavin got angry when he realized that his wife might be right. He told his family to eat, but he didn’t have lunch himself. “Today I will catch Mero red handed for telling me lies.”

  He called Mero, “I am planning to myself come to the platform and pick you up from the station. What is your train number?”

  Mero got happy and said, “Thanks a lot, Lavin. My train number is AX12.”

  Lavin at once called the railway station and asked, “Sir, please let me know the current status of train number AX12. I have my relative in that train.”

  The operator replied, “Sir, every train has been delayed today due to heavy rains. Train number AX12 is delayed by five hours. The train will take minimum three hours more to reach here.” Lavin felt ashamed to sus
pect his very close friend.”

  I took a pause. My throat was hurting due to talking continuously. I went silent for some time and Merlin kept staring at me. When I looked at her, she was still smiling and staring at me. I blushed on noticing it. I drank water and then said, “Merlin, do you agree with me that suspicious behavior is a person’s worst quality?”

  Merlin looked into his eyes and said “Anybody will agree with your views and thoughts. You have strong convincing power.”

  I felt shy and only managed to say, “Thank you.” We then left the beach.

  CHAPTER 26

  FATE SPARES NO ONE

  After a month, Alex returned from his business tour. He called up Merlin and said, “Darling, I have just arrived. Can we meet today in the evening?”

  Merlin replied, “Okay fine, we shall meet at the beach.”

  In the evening, Merlin met Alex. They both hugged each other. Alex said, “Merlin, I missed you a lot.” He took her into his arms but Merlin did not react. She freed herself and sat on the bench. Alex felt that Merlin was not in good mood. He took Merlin’s hand and said, “Merlin, I think we should get engaged. You were waiting for this since a long time. We shall get engaged in a few days.”

  Alex expected that Merlin’s face would brighten up on hearing this but instead she just gave him a smile.

  Merlin went home and informed her family about their engagement. Her family was very happy. She went to call and told me about her engagement. I was very happy and eagerly began waiting for that day. Everybody was busy with the engagement function that was after a month. Merlin’s family decided a diamond ring to be given to Alex for engagement. Merlin was dragged for shopping. Everybody was busy and excited except Merlin.

  One day, she called me and said, “I want to meet you alone. I need to have a personal talk with you.”

  I spoke softly, “Merlin, I will be grateful if you can come and meet me at my home. I am not keeping well since a week. I do not have any strength to go out of the house. In fact, even my mother and sister are eager to meet you after hearing about your engagement with Alex.”