Due date

It has come back, all over again, after 3 years.  Did I think that a random ramble across the library of the Manipal Institute of Communication would lead to that book and it would come to haunt me after 3 years?  I did not.

3 years ago

October 2006

It was sometime towards the mid of first semester.  I was bored since submissions had time and classes weren’t that interesting.  That’s when I decided to go for reading.  As I went through the library, I didn’t come across any of the usuals. Sidney Sheldon, Ken Folett, Peter James, Jeffery Archer no one was in sight. Damn!  Then resignedly I took the nearest book in sight.  Oh, an Indian writer.  I am not a prejudiced person, but somehow I have found these ‘one time’ Indian writers quite boring.  Pinky Virani. The name did not strike a cord except the surname for the obvious reasons (Virani has been a domestic surname since a certain Ms E Kapoor made it so).

Anyway, as I read the summary on the cover, I realized it was a tragedy. Not the Shakespeare kinds, but rather raw and real.  The next few days were those of a tempest.  I was feeling and living the book.  Not because it was written well, but because it was about an ordeal that renders anyone’s heart and mind to tatters.  Towards the end of the book, I realized it was a real life story.  I was jostled, since reading the book was a shocking experience in itself.  I remember keeping the book, re-reading it and even trying to find out if I can keep the book forever.  I was surprised at myself, since I have never come across a book that made such an impact on me.  After I returned the book, I couldn’t get over the story.  But college and its atmosphere took over gradually.

3 years later.

December 2009

It has come back to me in a weird manner.  It surfaced again, when a mercy-killing plea was put up.  That was when the loop was at an exact half.  Pinky Virani and a lawyer had approached the Supreme Court with a plea of euthanasia for the main character of the story.  It was real and the sufferer has been surviving, rather suffering the ordeal since past 38 years.  Somewhere things began to get muddled up again.  Somethings remain at the back of your mind however hard you try to forget or ignore them.  A slight reminder and it all gushes in, in double strength.  And here it definitely was no slight reminder.

4 months later.

March 2, 2011.

2^nd week at internship and the story strikes again.  I know I want to associate myself to it probably, to overcome the tempest inside me.  I ask for the details of who’s covering it and join the crew.  It is the plea’s judgment today.

4 months later.

March 2, 2011

3 pm

I am waiting in the OB van for the judgment to come and to do my package of the story.  Suddenly my reporter comes running and says, “Pack up, the judgment has been reserved till Monday.”  And I immediately comment in my head, 'I am never going to overcome this.  Its too deep in my heart and mind for me to let go.' 

To be continued…

Till Monday...