The Last Rainy Day

So it was raining heavily that day, heavier than usual in Gwalior. An unusual for us, because the place is not known for rains.

It was the year 2006, I was in my third year of engineering. I along with a college friend, was returning after our mid-term exams for the semester in the afternoon, when suddenly we were struck with heavy rain. Anyways those were the days, when in a city like Gwalior one could see trees around. There were quite a few back then, in the Gandhi Road area. The trees were huge and lovely, and those were the places of refuge during rains and sun. Anyways we took cover under one of those big trees, the rain was so heavy that one could barely see. And me being a spectacled little person, could hardly see anything. We were chit chatting, when suddenly I saw a scooty come up and stand near ours. Two girls came and stood beside us. They were from the Medical college, I knew one of them. She was Reshika - my first school friend. Both the girls spoke to each other. Reshika looked at me once with a knowing glance, but she never said hello. I too being an egoistic, shy girl never said hello to her. All 4 of us girls stood there under the tree with two groups, talking with their respective friends. We all could have chatted and talked though, but it was not to be. That day I thought Reshika should have said hello to me, and then we could have initiated a conversation. My early post-teen years were so clouted by my childhood perception of things that I did not have a clear understanding of things. I still do not.

That day, I pacified my mind saying that the other party has a big ego and that I did the right thing - a decision that I regretted 12 years later and till this day.

It was 31-July-2017, I saw a notification on my facebook wall. It was Reshika wishing me Happy Birthday, it was surprising. I had lost touch with her for God knows how long. I felt happy, and obliged her by liking her FB posts and other updates, she got married the year earlier and seemed very happy in her new life. She was an accomplished gynecologist now, having completed her masters. This continued for about a year. I always wondered, she liked each and every post that I made. I too obliged. It might have been a casual like, but it was good to know that a person who I lost touch is still responding to my updates on her FB wall. A weird feeling with technology acting as a catalyst. I am not sure whether this line would make me sound like a person with emotional handicaps. But it is what it is.

It was July 2018, I waited for Reshika's update on my wall. I didn' t get one. Then come October 10, I was in office and surprisingly thinking about her the whole day. It was not something that I had on my mind often. But that day I was unable to resist this thought of Reshika, and many flashbacks of our school time or the rainy day that we last met. Suddenly I could flash back to 1991 when I first met her as my classmate in Class 1, a little girl with fish like eyes and handwriting like pearl drops, her coming to my home with her elder brother to play with me and my brother, my grandmother doting on her and me being jealous of all the attention given to her. Anyways I concentrated back on my work, and the day went by as usual.

On reaching home, the first thing that I did was to open FB and thought of wishing her. I reached her wall and saw a post made in September by her sister in law mentioning that the festivals are not the same without her. I scrolled further down, where people were mentioned missing her and that how beautiful a person she was. I couldn't understand anything. I scrolled further down, and found an update by her friend, the same girl who I saw with Reshika on that rainy day. The post devastated me! Reshika was no more, she died due to postnatal complications on 1-Sep-2019. She had given birth to a baby girl on 26-Aug-2019.

I could not fathom what has just happened, and the delay with which I got the news. The delay was justified, as I had lost touch with her just like many others. I could now relate why there was no FB activity from her side from July onwards, it turns out that she has a complicated pregnancy and was going through hell. She was 1 month 10 days shy of what would have been her 32nd birthday. A young life, so full of promise gone to soon.

To me it seemed like the rainy day, when I saw her but never said hello. There was no hello no good bye. I still regret the rainy day where I could have spoken to with her, asked her whereabouts - but it is late now, very late.