Last Heartbeat Borrowed

"Shine as much as you can, she has gone forever", Ravi assumed it's all over.

A story that begins 2 years back, Ashna got her admission in this prestigious college as a first year. Ravi would not have known her if Ashna would have chosen another random tall dark guy to propose as teasing in welcome fresher's party.

"Sir, would you be my saviour and I will be yours forever!", that innocent proposal changed the life of another random average guy in an average random Indian college campus.

He could say anything to embarrass her more in front of the audience that day, except he said, "Anything but a smile".

Love stories are so typical, guy met girl and fell in love and story ends either in marriages or heart breaks.

Some are made with no ends.

Two years passed, and everything could have happened are just happened as they were supposed to.

They were having such a life, present and future. Like rains and summers through winters, they were together for each other, beyond anything and everything.

People knew, people talked a lot. About two young people living together, away from families and friends. They decided and some people refused.

Society says, "sins and sinners must be washed away".

Strict was not an issue until families got involved. Struggling seems hard as they were facing, but.

Lucky they were, they were accepted and their reception was fixed 2 more years from today. Perhaps a wedding planned in the end of semesters.

So Everyone was happy.

Love won and it had its own showers.

But that evening, Ashna didn't come back, for the first time she didn't call back, she didn't pick up his call, she didn't text back.

Everyone had their own thought, own suspicion, own stories.

After 5 days of stressed hours passed, finally a call rang in Ravi's phone.

He just broke into tears and started crying and shouting.

"She left me".

A dead body was recovered from Ganges shore, sheared and teared by animals as it seemed, fed by fishes and maybe those. Police and postmortem had their own issues, as it was a gang rape victim, and it was Ravi's "to be" last heart beat borrowed.

Another story in headlines.

Another case filed.

Another investigation started.

And there is another poem with a harsh ending.