Illusion

Anuradha lost her father when she was just twelve years old. It was a very sad phase of her life. A house devoid of a male member looked gloomy and sad. Her mother and the whole family was devastated in this tragedy. Life was emotionally and financially unstable. She somehow completed her graduation and wanted to do some job. Being only a graduate was not something that could fetch her a decent job. Those were the times of the 70s, when there was a great requirement of stenographers in upcoming offices. To be a stenographer, one has to be efficient in typing as well as shorthand.

Somebody suggested to her a few private institutions which trained the students by teaching them Stenography. She enrolled herself in one such institution. She found the subject very interesting. It was fun to take dictation and then read it back. Gradually she mastered the subject to the extent, that when her teacher could not come, he gave her the authority to teach a few lessons. She was gaining Confidence. The teacher found her to be charming and intelligent.

He asked her about her education, her family circumstances and they gradually became Good friends. There were fifteen years of age Gap between them but still, they gelled well. He started visiting her home in the evenings. Everybody at her home enjoyed his company as the home was devoid of any responsible male member since long.

He was a married man. She was just twenty years old. An age so vulnerable that sage-like wisdom could not be expected of her. Moreover, she had different thoughts about love. She believed in unconditional love. She believed that love has nothing to do with the institution of marriage. She respected him, loved him and was in awe of him. She even respected his married life and never thought of creating any sort of disturbance in it.

A decent marriage proposal came her way. The whole family was happy about it but he showed his resentment, which was never expected of him. Everyone was taken aback as they all knew that he was a happily married man. He just turned turtle and showed his dark side. He said that if she gets married he will create havoc by defaming her to an extent that nobody will accept her. She was shell shocked to see this side of him. The relationship seemed like an ILLUSION to her. To escape from all this harassment, she was sent to one of her distant relative's home. Life has its own cruel ways of teaching us some harsh lessons. Faces are deceptive. At times even Good mannerisms are deceptive. As it is rightly said that people don't change, often their masks fall off.

His psyche could not be understood. Why did he want to torture her? Why he didn't want her to get married? Did he want her to be a second woman in his life? Did he want to take advantage of that weak family.? Life doesn't give answers to all our questions. Much remains unexplained.

Two years later, she was married to a very nice and simple man. She wanted to tell her husband everything but he said, he doesn't want to know her past.

Happy times do come but the soul bears the scars throughout life. It gets difficult to rely on anyone. Good souls do not curse. She doesn't know whether he is alive or not but still she prays to God to forgive him and not to make him suffer from any ailments in his last days.