Manav

Chapter 18 - Rishi

"He's gone." I said.

"Who?"

"Rishi."

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Memoirs

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"How can you say that!"

"Just because I feel that way."

"Get lost from here. I never want to meet you or talk to you again. Just go!" she said.

I gave her a look, and a teardrop slipped from my eye. And I ran, ran the hell out of me. Just kept on running till I reached my house. But on my way, there was a school, so outside that school, on the footpath, that lonely footpath beside the highway, I bumped into someone. And later I found out that, the 'someone' was Rishi.

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"I'm calling all my friends, and I want you to be there. You have to come."

"Um...I'm sorry Shlok I'll not be able to come."

"Why??" he said.  

"'Why?', a word which is used to question innumerable aspects of reality, facts, thoughts, ideas, etc." Rishi said.  

"Yes, and I want you to find a way, about how to tackle it." I said, crunching a chip.  ... "I'll try my best." I said to Shlok.

"Ah...okay. But is there any important work you got that day?" Shlok asked...

..."Actually, no! You'll not have any work to do, but by whole heartedly accepting what the person asking you expected, you simply avoid the true answer to the question 'why?'!" Rishi said.

"Perfect!" I said, while a chip was still in my hand, lonely and frightened. I stared at it, and then crunch!

I came back home and Rishi was there, glancing my plants kept outside the window. He maintained a strange silence. And as I saw him, I was puzzled. That was when I reminisced that I had to water the plants.

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'Rishi's mind worked so differently and cunningly that he could infer my day schedule just by looking at me. He was that smart kind of person. Well, so it was obvious, that for any help or advice, I'll try to discuss with him. But he walked in my life only when I quit social media. I had accounts, but not a single app. For texting anyone, which mostly be Dev, I'd use the default messaging system. Rishi was strange, and I never tried to interfere in his life. Well, I guess that's why he was like me.'

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"Yes, I'll go to the party." I said.

Rishi got interrupted while he was drinking water.

"What did you say?" he asked.

I looked hard at him. He understood that I was being serious. But then I didn't understand why did he behave like this? I mean, there are quite less moments like this when where he'll act like this. All of a sudden he'll behave like he knows nothing about philosophy and everything. Because, let me tell you, he was way too philosophical. But the only reason I never told him to stop being like the way he was, was that his thoughts were practical, and obviously, they helped me in my life.