Chapter 5

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It has been more than a week after Shehnaaz's emotional outburst and Sidharth made sure to keep everything normal for her. She didn't feel awkward with him after that incident. Sidharth was busy preparing for a webinar of clinical psychologists at national level, "Healthy Mind, Healthy Nation" and Shehnaaz has been helping him with it.

"Shehnaaz yaar ab tum kar do. Mujhe sahi mai samajh nahi aa raha hai." Sidharth said sipping orange juice.

"I'll do it. You relax." She replied working on the PPT for the conference.

"Thanks and please finish this juice. Kaam toh theek hai, mera sab kaam sabhaalne wali bhi toh fit and fine honi chahiye na." He said passing a glass of juice to her as well. She thanked him for the juice. They both worked till late as tomorrow is the conference.

The next day Sidharth was all ready for the conference. He was never afraid of challenges from his school time but what he did not like doing was making PPTs. And today he has Shehnaaz who helped him in this task.

He called Shehnaaz to his cabin and asked, "Humne kal shaam ko jo PPT finalise kari thi we are going with that only na? Ya you made some changes after that?"

"No, it is the same." She replied with a gloomy face. He wanted to ask her but was interrupted by a call. It was his mother's call and he could never avoid it. Hence, he excused himself saying, "Shehnaaz it's a very important call. Avoid nahi kar sakta. Maa ko bura lagega. Please give me a few minutes."

He asked her so innocently that she replied smiling a bit, "Of course Sidharth. Please attend. You don't need to ask me. Agar aap par kisi ka sabse zyaada haq hai toh aapki maa ka hai. And All the Best for today."

"Thanks for your wishes and for being so understanding." He said and picked up his mother's call.

Seeing him busy with his mother, Shehnaaz left the cabin keeping a pendrive which has a copy of his presentation. After talking to his mother, he recalled how her eyes didn't have her signature spark. Also, her eyes looked swollen and red as if she has cried. "I need to talk to her." He thought.

He was about to go to her cabin but at the same time she came out and informed him that it is time for the webinar to begin and he should go to the conference room.

The whole day went in the conference with only a few small breaks in between. Sidharth enjoyed the most when he interacted with few teenagers and youth. They discussed about peer pressure, bullying, competition, depression, drug addiction, etc. Sidharth and all the other doctors answered their questions very patiently. He was impressed with the confidence and energy in the upcoming generation. No doubt, Sidharth was a charmer even in the conference. A college student publicly told that he is her crush. Even some boys stated that he is their man-crush. He blushed on their compliments and nodded.

At the end of the webinar, he was expected to say something like other panelists. What he said was loved by everyone, even his seniors.
"Namaste. So I'll begin with introducing myself. My name is Sidharth Shukla and I have done my schooling from Delhi. One of the panelists today happens to be my senior secondary Psychology teacher, Mrs. Tanuja Agarwal. And she very well knows how naughty I was. I hope I made you proud ma'am. So the panelists of today's webinar and everyone who isn't a part of this conference, young or old; I would only say Smile and Enjoy. Keep a beautiful smile on your face always because it is free. You don't need to pay for it. Enjoy your life to the fullest but it does not mean waste it or ruin it. We all have problems; our problems vary in degree, nature and types; and even their solutions are different. But what matters is your approach towards the problem, how you handle it and how you handle yourself with it. We often focus on how to tackle the problem but fail to handle ourselves. We forget ourselves. And this is what leads to long term repercussions. Afterall we are humans; we may cry, break and fall. But to rise again we need to take care of ourselves as well. No matter what the problem is never forget yourself. You can only tend yourself and even others only when you are healthy. And by healthy, I mean all the aspects of health - physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual.

I will add one very common thing here. We often say : Mere yeh dikkat hai, mere vo dikkat hai, uske koi dikkat nahi hai, vo bohat khush hai. Please never say this. You don't know what the other person is going through. Maybe he/she is not showing what is there within them. I will end by thanking everyone here for teaching me something or the other."

The conference ended and it was quite late compared to other days. The staff has already left as he has told them. But he saw the light in Shehnaaz's cabin. He went to switch it off only to find Shehnaaz gasping for air and sweating badly. He moved towards her and saw that she has been crying badly. He called her name twice or thrice so that she doesn't panick on his sudden arrival. But she wasn't in a state to listen anything. She was murmuring something which he couldn't decipher so he touched her shoulder and she was startled with his presence.

He asked, "Shehnaaz, what happened?"

"No, please stay away. I will manage. Go, I said go." She screamed.

"Shehnaaz, listen..." He was interrupted by her yelling, "No, I said go. Just get lost. Don't come near me. Get lost. Nahi aana mere paas."

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NOTE : - Namaste everyone. Again I am early with an update.😁🙈 This time I left the chapter at a crucial point.😅 Tell me how do you find it.
            Thanks for your support on previous chapters and few guesses on the questions asked at the end of the chapters. And I am up for healthy criticism so help me improve my mistakes in writing.

What do you think happened to Shehnaaz suddenly?

{Published on : Sunday, 8 May 2022}

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Keep Sidharth and his family in your prayers.

Your writer,
Sudhanya

Dil Ko Karaar Aaya (SidNaaz❤)Where stories live. Discover now