PART-4 A MOURNFUL REUNION
It's been almost a month since Danish's death, the autopsy reports of the body were out. In the report, there were traces of illegal intoxicants found in his bloodstream and there were some severe wounds and bruises all over his body that seemed like he had been in a fight or something like that, but they concluded that the reason for the death is excessive bleeding from the cuts. And by taking that blood stained note as the main evidence, police had registered it as suicide case, they are investigating for the reason of suicide. Since there was nothing mentioned in the note, the case is almost closed. And the body was handed over to his parents.
I still remember his father's pale face, he was staring at the body without uttering a single word. The news of his son's death was like a bolt from the blue to him, making him mentally numb.
His mother's wailing is still there in my ears, her throat became sore calling his name as she believed that he would listen to her voice and wake up once again. Even I was hoping if he really can listen to her, he will get up. But how can that be possible…??! There's no way of denying the death. Once a person is gone, he's gone forever.
But who would've told this to a mother whose son is lying dead in front of her eyes?? You can't even imagine what pain she's going through…
I just wish I could do anything for them, all I could do was to watch all this in silence and feel sorry for their loss.
At the prayer meet,
Friends, family, relatives and other people from the neighborhood have come together at Danish's parents house for giving them condolences for their loss. One by one people come in front and share their grievance for the untimely demise of Danish.
"Each and every person present here had known Danish in their own version. For some he was a really cool cousin, for some he was a great nephew, for some he was a great friend but in all versions he was a really great human being with a wonderful soul", I took a pause and looked up. " You'll always be remembered my friend, we all miss you here. May you finally find the peace" , tears rolled down my cheeks.
I excused myself and went back to my seat, when I saw Akash enter the room.
That child from Maihar looks like a grown up now, and is working with WIPRO LIMITED as a senior software engineer.
He met uncle and aunty, shared a few minutes with them and went to the Danish's photo, did a little prayer for his soul and wiped his tears. On his way to the seat, our eyes met, we shared smiles and I gestured to him to come over.
"Hey" he said
"Hey, how are you doing?" I asked and hugged each other.
"I'm doing good… what about you?!" He said, patting my shoulder.
"I'm good too..." I replied
"So, how's life..?!" He asked
"Pretty much fucked up…" I said looking around.
"Hmm, actually I've never thought that our reunion would be like this…" he said looking at Danish's photo.
"Yeah, I haven't even imagined it" I said nodding.
"It would have been really difficult for them," he said, referring to Danish's parents.
"Yeah, it really is, losing a young son is not easy-going for any parents in the world." I said.
We both fell silent for a while.
"Umm… you want a cigarette.?!" I asked, breaking the ice.
"In here…?!"
"It's not professor Chaudhary's chemistry class… we can move outside." I said.
He smiled sensing the sarcasm.
"Let's go," I said, patting his back.
We went to a tapri nearby, bought two cigarettes and a match box. I light mine and took a long drag.
"So… who is it?" I asked lighting his cigarette.
"Who is who..?!?" He asked in confusion.
"The girl you're dating… who else..?!" I said as I exhaled.
"Umm… how do you know about that.?!" He asked with surprise.
"How do I know?!! Dude!!! Just look at you, this branded shirt, branded watch, contact lenses instead of those Harry Potter framed glasses, and this unshaven stubble. Full on macho mode.. huh.?!"
He blushed and took a puff from his cigarette.
"So…?!" I said
"So… what?" He said looking away.
"Who's that girl.?!" I asked.
"Her name is Shreya, we met on a matrimonial site. My family really liked her and her family liked me too. So we're hoping to get married soon…" he said blushing.
"Oh… so you guys have planned your wedding and you didn't even care to tell me!!!" I taunted.
"No, it's not like that…"
"So what it's like…?! Would you care to explain.?!" I said
"Bro, it's only been six months that I have known her, it all happened so fast…"
"That you completely forget that you have a friend named Rizwan Ansari, with whom you used to share everything. Right..?!" I said in a taunting tone.
"Sahi hai bete, Ladki mil gayi toh bhai ko bhul gaya na… Good… " I added
He smiled and said " Oh c'mon… stop it now…"
"Anyways it's good, at least she turned you into a grown up man from a cry-child…" I mocked.
"Oh please... I wasn't a cry-child, I was only a little bit emotional." He said, defending himself.
"Yeah… yeah… of course, a little bit emotional… huh" I said in a sarcastic tone.
"Remember, when you smoked for the first time, you coughed your heart out and started crying like a baby." I said and laughed remembering those moments.
"Oh c'mon… first of all, I hadn't smoked before and I wasn't crying please... huh!!" he said, defending his self esteem.
"Yeah… yeah… I Know" I said and laughed, he joined in too.
"I'm glad that you are here… it's good to see you again buddy" I said and smiled at him.
"Yeah… It's good to see you too." He said and took a drag from his cigarette.
"I've never thought that Danish could do anything like that, I have always admired his brave and bold personality since we met." he said and took another drag.
"Yeah… it's really hard to believe it." I took a drag and the memories of our first meeting get filled up in my mind.