The Diary
[Story Time! Partly based on a true story.]
It is 10 in the morning. Naaz is frantically searching for something under her bed. Her room looks like it has suffered a storm.
She struggles as she tries hard to pull something out. It seems stuck, but Naaz is not ready to give up easily. She struggles but keeps up the fight.
Her phone lays on top of her disheveled bed, constantly illuminating as different numbers keep calling and messaging her. Naaz seems not to notice at all.
After about 10 or 15 minutes, Naaz finally succeeds in pulling the diary out. She is completely breathless. Her face looks tired. It seems like she is both dreading and excited about what is in that diary.
The contents of the diary is nothing out of the ordinary. It looks like one of those farewell diaries school children use to write goodbye notes to each other at the end of an academic year.
It reads; "Will miss you, stay the same." "Stay cool now that school
is over."
Naaz is frantically turning the pages. She looks like she is on a mission to find a particular message.
Her hands stop at a particular page. Her eyes seem transfixed. Her face is slowly turning pale.
Big drops of tears now slowly start rolling down her face. She doesn't even try to wipe them off. She hugs the diary and keeps weeping.
There is a picture of two young girls. One looks like a much younger Naaz, and the other is her friend. They look like they are half hugging and half laughing. There is a message on the other side, "You are and will be the closest to my heart, for now, and forever - Koni."
Naaz softly touches the picture and buries her head in her bent knees, still tightly clutching the diary.
It looks like it is the middle of recess. Young girls of 14 years are running around the big play yard. Some are seating enjoying their lunch, some chatting.
At one end of the ground, we see a younger Naaz lying down on the ground. Her head is on her friend's lap.
Nazz is looking up at her and smiling as the other girl is animatedly talking about something. Naaz seems mesmerised by her.
"Are you getting bored?" asked the girl.
"I can never be bored by you, Koni."
"You are so silly Naaz, of course, I can be boring."
Naaz hurriedly gets up and sits down to face Koni. She holds Koni's hands and looks directly into her eyes, "Koni, you can never be boring to me. You can always tell me anything and everything, okay?"
Koni looks surprised but immediately starts laughing as if Naaz had said something very amusing. She hugs her tightly and then continues her story.
There is a sudden knock on the door. The 23-year-old, Naaz is rudely awakened from her reverie. Her eyes are bloodshot.
In a feeble voice she asks, "What do you want?"
"Naaz, beta open the door, your friends are here. They are waiting for you. The funeral is..." the voice stops.
"Beta, please open the door."
"Naaz, we are here to take you, open the door, man." says another voice.
"Trust me, I know what you must be feeling, but we have to go. You know you know, that, Koni would have wanted you to be there..." her voice trails off.
"Koni, why, Koni, why?" Naaz says quietly to herself in a muffled voice.
"Naaz, beta, please."
"Fine, give me a few minutes, I will just come down."
Naaz slowly starts getting up. Her entire body feels weak and heavy. Her heart feels heavier.
"Koni, why couldn't you just talk to me once? Just once, Koni. Like we used to as kids. Why...?"
She absent-mindedly picks up her phone.
'38 missed calls, 47 unread messages.'
Most of them had similar messages, "Where are you? Pick up the call." "This is urgent."
She keeps scrolling through the messages as she walks towards the door.
She quietly opens the door.
Her mother and her two friends are standing on the other side. Her mother looks worried, and the friends look like they have also been crying.
Naaz is still scrolling through her messages when she abruptly stops.
The phone falls from her hand, and she drops to the floor; this time howling.
"Koni you promised, 'for now and forever', Koni, you promised."
Everyone runs to grab her.
There is an opened message on the phone.
"Pick up the call Naaz. Koni is no more. She killed herself. We do not know why. We need to go to her house. I am coming to pick you up. Piu is also coming with me. Naaz, please pick up the phone."
THE END!
TODAY'S CHECKLIST:
- Exercise: 7797 Steps
- Food:
- Breakfast: Oats pancake
- Lunch: Rice, Dal, Veggies, Fish
- Snack: Batter-fried chicken
- Dinner: Salas
- Study: Half a Module (Stanford)
- Read: Three chapters from Clash of Kings
- Feeling: All good except my nose has been getting very dry due to the cold weather and it has been bleeding while sneezing sometimes. Nothing serious.