THE CLOUD'S CHARM

CHAPTER 16 - part 1 - A TALE OF TWO FRIENDS

A TALE OF TWO FRIENDS

Prerna saw several missed calls from Megha on her mobile as she returned home after a romantic outing with Prateek. Prateek always insisted to keep the mobile in silent mode during the time they spent together. Considering the fact that they rarely got such quality time, thanks to Prateek's hectic job, Prerna always did as he said. She called back Megha as soon as she freshened up, but now, Megha seemed to be busy.

Leaving her a message to call back, Prerna relaxed into her father's easy chair. The familiar texture of unvarnished ancient wood beneath her fingers and the comforting vastness of the chair made her feel like a child again.

Prerna had no memory of her mother's face. Later, as she became old enough to understand death, she was told that her mother had died giving birth to her. In spite of that, she grew up in the loving care of her father, brother and the whole extended family and became a lively girl by nature, an absolute social butterfly.

Right from her school days, she used to participate in all the competitions - arts, science or literature, unmindful of the prize. She was above average in academics also. Her sporty attitude soon made her the star in school. She was everyone's friend and people only had praises for her. As Prerna's tales reached home, her father - a high-ranking bank officer - who was disappointed by the mediocre performance of his elder son, Sanjay, was overjoyed and he too began doting her. Soon, Prerna became her school's trump card in youth festivals and she slowly began basking in all the glory.

It was during her college life that Megha came to her life as her roommate. It would be a lie if Prerna told that she became best friends with Megha during their first encounter itself. The petite girl was so homesick and nervous during the first week that Prerna, used to being everyone's friend, offered her friendship. The grateful girl accepted it wholeheartedly and both of them began settling down to the usual routine of college life.

The talent pool was much larger in the college but still, people didn't hesitate to appreciate Prerna whenever she won a badminton championship, a dance competition or a debate and she was happy. It all changed during a casual game of anthakshari in their hostel which revealed Megha's talent for singing - the only thing Prerna was not so good at. The other girls motivated Megha to participate in competitions and she came back victorious from all of them. Soon, Megha became the lead singer in all the college functions and to Prerna's utter frustration, all the boys were requesting her to introduce them to the doe eyed, long haired, singing beauty.

Prerna was growing more and more jealous of Megha and didn't know what to do. However, she was not basically a bad person and hence, couldn't even think of hurting innocent Megha - it was not her fault that people began adoring her all of a sudden. Prerna finally decided to distance herself from Megha as she could no longer be a true friend to the girl whose popularity among the students and teachers was rising so rapidly.

To escape these conflicting emotions, Prerna requested her father to come and pick her up when the holidays approached finally. He started from home, but didn't reach Prerna. A random accident in the highway took him to his wife, to a place from where no one returns…

The girl who returned to college from the holidays, after finishing all the ceremonies of her father's untimely death, was not the old Prerna. She rarely smiled and stopped taking part in competitions. In class and in hostel, she sat staring at the words inside the textbooks blankly. Everyone came to her with their condolences.