THE STAND

"Life is a race and we all are a part of it. Everyone reaches the destination but not everyone's destination is same. If you give up, you will be lost in the whole world. By the way its a beautiful house" 

With this we ended the conversation. Meha was about to leave while my husband offered to drop her home. As they left I was lost in thoughts.

What would I tell about Meha...... She was a childhood friend of my husband. In-fact my husband's first love. She was beautiful and lovable. she never wanted to hurt her parents so she rejected my husband who proposed her couple of years back.

She was in contact with my husband and was comfortable talking about relationships and goals.When her parents decided to get her married she informed my husband and asked for his opinion. He was fine and wished her all the best for her life. So she gave a nod to her parents 

Later she was engaged twice and broke up before the wedding as she dint wish to marry someone who she dint know. Then she fell in love with a guy at work and decided to settle down with him. There was a Great Indian Fat Wedding even though her parents were hurt with this decision of her's.

After the wedding, she moved to Delhi and deleted all her accounts on social networking sites and changed her mobile number. Everything was puzzled. And none had a clue about anything. 

Two years down the line, there was a news that Meha got divorced and none know where she is. And today accidentally my husband and I saw her in the mart and invited for a cup of tea.

" What are you thinking so deeply?" My husband asked me as he returned.

"She is your first love, am I right?"

"Yes, she was my first love"

"Do you still think of her??? Don't get mad at me...But I need to know this"

My husband sat next to me and held my hand and said..

"I understand your fear. But that was past. She is just a good friend. I wanted to marry her but she said she cant go against her parents but at the end she went against her parents and married the guy who didn't value her. I'm not angry that she married someone else..but i'm angry that she lost contact with everyone and we had no clue what was happening with her. But now I'm happy with a lovely wife and a beautiful life".

"Me too. Lucky to be a part of your life"

I rested my head on his shoulder and thought to myself 

"if at all Meha had taken stand that day and confessed her feeling instead of thinking not to hurt her parents ..her life would have been different. She thought to get settle down thrice but couldn't since she din't love them. She never said a direct 'NO' to my husband which means she liked him too. It was only her will power which would have changed her life."