IT’S ME ARJUN!

It’s a dark room and is clumsy too with a bed, kitchen and also an attached bathroom in it. The kitchen is unused and no groceries or utensils in it. There is a ray of sunlight coming into the room piercing the dusty ventilator which is right above the table. A man with curly hair and grown beard with an average body is sleeping in a chair while resting his head on the table, where the light from the lamp directly hitting on to his face. 

“KNOCK! KNOCK!”

There was a knock on the door. The man gets up and walks towards the door with the sleepy face. There is almost no place to walk freely. He opens the door and out there was a fifteen year old boy with a lunch bag in his hands. The boy was looking tensed as if he is frightened to face the man. He hands over the lunch bag to the man and says, 

  “Bill is already paid in advance for 1 year by you and there are still two months left.” And runs away in a hurry.

The man couldn’t understand what is going on, with a baffled mind he shuts the door, goes inside, places the bag on the table and sits in the chair with distress. 

There is a poster on the table under the diary, only a part of it is visible which is saying “MISSING”. The man sees the poster and out of curiosity, pulls out the poster. As soon as he sees the poster he goes into shock. It is the poster with the photo of the man himself which is reading “ARJUN MISSING.” There is also a contact number on the poster. 

The man starts sweating. He searches for a phone, but couldn’t find any. He gets totally drained in sweat and is totally perplexed about what is going on? He couldn’t remember anything about himself. There are many questions running in his mind like, What happened to him? What is going on? What is he doing? 

He starts searching for clues, in the process the diary on the table falls down and opens to its first page. There is something written on it with big bold letters.

   “ IT’S ME ARJUN!”

With a huge amount of inquisitiveness the man picks up the diary, sits in his chair and starts reading it.

 The line starts with…

“ Yeah! It’s me Arjun! If you are reading this diary probably I am you which is you are Arjun. You might have just woke up from the sleep. I know, right now you are going through many questions in your mind. And you could not remember anything about yourself!

The only answer to all these questions is ‘Amnesia’, yeah! You are loosing your memory, you are forgetting things. It’s been 6 months from now you have been diagnosed with amnesia. You will be forgetting your ability to read and write within one year. By the time I’m writing this diary I forgot many things that happened to us, but you have to know why you are here in this room. 

You would have found a missing poster of ours, don’t try to contact that number. Those are not your friends and you have no one outside this door that care for you. There are enemies searching for you and even police are on a raid to catch you. That is the reason why there is no phone in the room, it is important that your whereabouts must be hidden.

To know what happened to you, you need to know who you are and what you were. You were a celebrated author. But, you were self centric, arrogant and nobody liked you. You never cared for anyone, not even for your parents. They passed away in an accident, I couldn’t even remember their faces. I am the biggest regret of my life and you should also regret for that.”

Arjun closes the book and throws it away as he was frightened and in pain. He starts crying, shouts out of pain. Slaps himself feeling guilty, with tears rolling out of his eyes and shivering, picks up the book and continues reading…

“It all started at your 1st book launch, when you met ‘Rachel’. Yeah! You might not remember her, she is the love of your life, she was the first person in your life that you have cared for, she was the one who was by your side in your every step towards success and stood as a pillar and supported and helped you during your hardships. If you couldn’t remember her, I’ve pasted a photo of her at the end of the diary, I don’t want you to forget her too!”

Arjun with a great curiosity turns to the last page of the diary. There is a black and white photo of Rachel which was cut and pasted from a newspaper. 

Arjun again starts reading. 

“I know you could not remember her, but by knowing the fact that I couldn’t not remember her in future I am crying right now!”

Arjun continues reading and enters the actual story of his past.

      FLASHBACK IN THE DIARY 

That was Arjun’s first book publishing, there were very few people who attended the ceremony. Arjun was disappointed. By the time ceremony started almost everyone left the place. Anything was not going as planned, Arjun was disgruntled.

At that time a voice came from downside of the stage which was very smooth and soothing.

“Hey! Hey! Hey Arjun!”

That caught Arjun’s attention, he looked towards the voice with some hesitation, but after looking at the girl all his anger got cooled down, he was stuck, couldn’t even talk. That was ‘Rachel’, she was a journalist. She was talking to Arjun but, he just kept staring at her, couldn’t talk, frozen in the moment and lost in his senses.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! Arjunn!” She called again. Arjun then came back to his senses and said “Yes! Yes!” Eagerly. “Arjun! Can I take a interview of yours?” Asked Rachel. Arjun who was on the edge of the seat said “Yes!” Instantly.

The interview went viral on social media, Arjun got into a contract with a publishing company to write Three books. The professional relation of Arjun and Rachel gradually turned into love. After three years of their relationship they started living together. 

Arjun became a celebrated author, he didn’t care for his staff and never let anyone to come across his path. Arjun started to get suffering from severe headaches, his health started to deteriorate. Rachel quitted her job and started taking care of Arjun.

One day Rachel took Arjun for a medical checkup, it was all going good. But later that day Rachel was ferocious on Arjun, they both had an argument and at its peak Rachel slapped Arjun and said, “You are self centric, arrogant and a man who cares about no one , not even me!” And went upstairs crying. After that Arjun picked up the phone, called someone and chastised the person on the other side saying “Have you fucking lost your mind, who do you think I am? If I think of you for even a second I could blow you up or kill you. Don’t act smart with me.” hung up the call and went to bed.

Next day morning Arjun woke up and started thinking about the argument with Rachel, he was feeling guilty for something. At that time there was a phone call coming from Arjun’s doctor, he picked up the call. “Arjun! You have amnesia, at my assumption you’ve got 1 year before you forget everything, right now you need the best medical assistance.” Says the doctor.

Arjun couldn’t understand anything that was going on, his head started aching, he got up and went into the hall for tablets, but there was a dead body of a man lying in the hall, with blood filled all over the floor. 

  PRESENT

Arjun closes the book, starts gasping. He is terrified. Slowly gains courage and starts to read the last page of the story. 

“I have no idea whose that dead body was, I couldn’t even remember why Rachel and me had an argument. But after seeing the dead body, I started searching for Rachel, she was not there, she was missing. I was petrified, escaped from there and started searching for Rachel. Police were looking for me, I was charged with a murder. I disguised myself and tried to reach my family but, there came a news that my parents died in an accident. I was far from them throughout my life and now I didn’t even get to see their faces for the last time. I cried, I cried and kept on crying from that day to until this second regretting for all the mistakes I’ve done. The following day there was a news in paper with Rachel’s photo in it, she was dead. My heart wreaked into million pieces.

Now there is no one in the world that cared for me or believed me.

I escaped from there and came here to Kashmir. There is no person out there that you can trust now. Only person you can rely for any kind of help is the man who sends you food, but he only works for money. I have given directions to reach him in next page.

Make sure you don’t contact anyone, you are going to die alone, irony is before you going to die you will already be a dead body. You deserve this. You never let anyone near you and there is no one with you. After a point of time you couldn’t even read this diary. You were always selfish, arrogant and alone, now you are going to die alone.”

Arjun closes the book with water in his eyes, leans back into the chair and rests there as a dead body with eyes open. 

KNOCK! KNOCK! 

There was someone at the door, before Arjun could reach the door the knocking starts increasing. Arjun gets frightened, with his shivering hands he opens the door a little and peeks through the gap. There is someone standing outside with their whole body and face covered with a torn blanket.

Arjun from behind the door with a shaky voice asks “Who are you? Reveal yourself!” The person outside removes the blanket. Arjun gets shocked, opens the door and exclaims, 

       “RACHEL!!”