“Once upon a time, a game of tit for tat unfolded, weaving its consequences into the lives of two individuals, forever altering their paths.”
This story starts with Anaisha, a free-spirited, fun-loving, and innocent girl. The girl who just passed out fresh of college and has big dreams in her eyes. She joins a reading room to study and work hard to achieve her “bade bade sapne’.
For four months, everything went well. She was studying, and having a balanced personal and student life. She chatted with other people freely and had a good equation with almost everyone she knew. You can call her the epitome of self-love and an ambassador of happiness.
After a few months, one of her reading room’s friends introduced her to her guy friend, Vidyut who has his history. The guy already had gone through a bad breakup and assumed himself to be the rich, sophisticated high-class guy. He would present himself as a very sought-after and reserved sort of person. After the introduction that common friend stop coming to that place. And from there starts a series of interactions between Anaisha and Vidyut.
Anaisha has had trust issues with guys since the beginning. She has always maintained her distance from boys and always found comfort in girl best friends. Being brought up in a safe, secure, and close-knit family she assumed everyone to be good. That’s what her perception of the world is.
One day, Anaisha was having lunch with one of her friends when this guy came. Vidyut also came there to have her lunch. He tried to strike conversation while Anaisha and her friend were talking. The naïve girl being chirpy had a good hour-long conversation with the guy. They talked about their respective backgrounds, career aspirations, common friends, etc.
After 2 days, Anaisha and Vidyut met again very early morning. Anaisha that day went early reading room, she had to go somewhere. Suddenly Vidyut came and said something weird to her. He asked her if she could go with her to a nearby mall as he was getting bored. She was taken aback and looked surprised. She expressed her awkwardness and conveyed to him that her studies as her priority. Here, in this situation, Anaisha should be ignoring Viyut but the opposite happened. He ignored her for 2 days making the situation weird. A few days later, Vidyut confronted Anaisha explained the situation to her, and said her sorry. And then he told her about his past toxic relationship. She listened patiently thinking he needed a friend. Next week, Anaisha due to personal reasons had a bad breakdown.
2 days later, while she hadn’t recovered fully and in her zone started studying when Vidyut came and whispered something in her ears. She expressed her utter shock and was taken aback. This time he triggered her to an extent that she couldn’t tolerate and got puzzled. It took her a while to calm down and understand what happened. Feeling weird, uncomfortable, and confused, she asked her close people about this situation (Ps: he had triggered her trust issues).
And then began the round of ignorance between Anaisha and Vidyut from both sides. A few days later, Vidyut circulated a rumor and made it reach Anaisha that he was leaving the place. Anaisha (Ps: had an experience where she misunderstood a guy and later she found him to be a good guy) and, thought to clear the misunderstanding.
This confrontation turned out to be bad. There he started talking to her rudely and they cleared the misunderstanding though. He started showing his true colors and confronted about the discussion about that gesture. She told her about the discomfort she felt and he again diverted the topic towards his toxic relationship.
From this interaction, she realized that Vidyut might like her. But she still wasn’t sure about this.
Finally, one day when she was studying alone he came into that room and started having a conversation with her. This time she thought of taking it as an opportunity to know about his feelings. Within a few minutes of this conversation, he drops the major hint that he likes her. The girl after getting a hint about the same, told him politely that she already likes someone else and is in a good space. Instead of respecting her decision, his ego got hurt, and started flaunting his money and dominant nature.
A few days later, there was a seat gap between their spaces. This time girl felt uncomfortable because of his presence. Later in the day, when she was leaving the place after getting her studies done, he in desperation threw a pen’s cap at her and shouted I want to talk to you. This was the nail in the coffin-like situation. Anaisha couldn’t bear this thing as she felt insulted. This incident hurt her self-respect baldy. She was traumatized and left the place angrily. From that day, she never interacted with him.
But his presence made her comfortable now and then, to the extent that she would start shivering whenever she saw him. It had left a bad impact on her. Her friend Komal supported her throughout. She witnessed it all and complained to the place owner. Vidyut couldn’t take this rejection and took it on his ego as to how someone can reject a tall, fair, handsome, and rich guy.
The next day onwards started another battle of co-existence. By then, things had gone so bad that she wasn’t feeling safe, her insecurities increased and overthinking became part of her life. Vidyut made sure to make her life hell by roaming around with every other girl and making her feel low. He started backbiting about her with every third person. People got a topic of entertainment. She wasn’t aware of this. He started provoking her with his gestures, keeping an eye on her movements and everything she did to make her feel uncomfortable.
After a month she came to the knowledge that everyone in the reading hall knew about the incident. She was left traumatized to another level.
The only question she asked God was why it happened to me.
The above incident might feel like a movie scene but as they say, movies reflect real-life events. Anaisha started questioning her actions if her conversations had anything that might give wrong hints, etc. Why was this situation made hell for a girl? Just because she rejected someone’s proposal and the egoistic guy made her life hell to the extent she started questioning her actions. Her trust issues with guys got worse when she thought that all men were not the same. Triggering her to the extent that her insecurities engulfed her so tightly that overthinking, crying profusely, sleepless nights and unproductive study days became a new normal for her. Even though after trying hard to ignore and learn to coexist, she faces this provocation daily. Also, she was affected by the narrative set for her by Vidyut.
(FYI, Vidyut is having fun with his new girlfriend, both stooping to a level where they make her feel low).
My words to every Anaisha,
To the strongest girl, I know as a girl you have to fight new battles every day, But you can’t let this event deter your spirits. Your life is not going to stop. Never question the situation. Now that it has happened to you, acceptance is the first step towards healing. Take it as a life lesson. Remember every setback is a chance for a strong comeback. Let people stoop to the lowest level they can. I am proud of your journey and the maturity with which you dealt with the situation. Embrace the journey and move forward. Don’t bog yourself down by asking “Why me?’’. Take it in your stride and be proud of the new and stronger you. Slowly you will get back to yourself. Let you not judge every person from the same lens.
Ending this article here from 2 quotes from Dear Zindagi,
• Apni zindagi ka steering kisi or ke haath mein nhi dena chahiye, Take charge of your life and you don’t need to doubt your actions, intentions and choices. Be clear about yourself. Duniya ko kuch explain krne ki zarurat nhi.
• Don’t let your past blackmail your present and ruin your beautiful future.