Anandi!

  “In the collections, Moments in our life are the real treasure that one should collect. But, few memories need supportive memories to make it much more memorable. Because when memories sparkle, it brings enormous emotions like Laugh, Smile,  frustration, etc. Over time,  I think it is important for us to face the negative emotions and make them positive! But it is not easy as said, esp. when the love is hurt, it needs a healing soul. Diversion is only a shortcut!”

 My daily Gyan in the Instagram post is added and my favorite hashtags: #Memory #Emotion # Positive # Negative #Be Happy. Now, it is time to tag my colleagues. Autosuggestion suggests few more names and I stop at this name. Anandi! I could not take my eyes off the name. The name, that created a little mess in my life.

 I am Pavithra, a doctor, specialized in oncology. I heal people from deadly cancer and give them a reason to live back. I belong to the Tamil-Brahmin community. After joining college, I got stuck between traditional and modern values, like Jeans is not allowed for relatives’ house whereas I still use them during my college hours and hostel.  Thanks to my gene! I do not have to do any fitness activity to keep myself physically fit. My friend circle is very countable. When I was 25, lost my mother. My world becomes my father and me.  Most of the time, my father is stuck with TV serials, and me, at work. To be precise, I had only one life i.e. official. But, this lockdown made the circle of life to a dot. While I was finding a way to expand it, landed with the new addiction, adding a post to Instagram and that is my temporary solution to connect with others.

Anandi!

Back in 2000,  there was no Facebook or WhatsApp. We had Orkut. After graduation, Ramya, my friend introduced me to Orkut. Through Orkut, I  met Anandi, my school friend. I was excited to find her. We had our little chat now n then over Orkut. In the photo, she looked wheatish, thin, with a short haircut. Completed engineering, employed in TCS, staying 20 mins away from my house. After few days of chit-chats, we decided to meet in person for shopping. She was in her blue salwar, hair was not tied, bindi was missing. We did not feel strange or weird even though, it was the first meeting in person. While we shopped, she did most of the talk, and I enjoyed listening to her. From there, we met alternative week for shopping or coffee or ice cream. We had enough reasons to meet.  

 

We had our adventures part of shopping like Bargain for low price, shoplifting, having non-veg, taking a break at AC shop for relaxation and still more. These are the top most I still remember, and particularly that one incident was hilarious. It was one of the Sundays, in May.  We reached Shivajinagar, by 3 PM and it is one of the best shopping places in Bangalore. The idea is to buy few kurtas. The place was crowded as always. Sun was attacking mercilessly. The suffocation in the crowd and exhaustion made us weak and felt a cool drink is the next mandate thing to have. Unfortunately, the street was full of cloth shops. We could not find any restaurant or bakery nearby our sight. While we were walking in the middle of the crowd. Suddenly, I  realized Anandi was missing. One moment, I thought, I almost lost her in the crowd. I took a step aside from the crowd and tried to locate them. To my left, she was there, getting into a shop. Quickly I rushed towards her to stop. But, by the time she was there inside the place. My breath was fast and was almost ready to shout at her. “Sorry yaar, as soon as I saw the shop, I could not stop myself. I thought of calling you, once settle down”, she said convincingly.  I could not say anything other than staring at her madness. After a while, we realized, the place was stinking and the place was filled with only men. “where are we?” I asked. “No idea!!” she said. On guessing, we thought we were at a local bar. After realization, we rushed out and saw the name board. It was written “Family Bar”! Even though, felt embarrassing but laughed at that loudly. I still laugh at that incident for the attempt in getting into a local bar!

 Days flew fast and vacation got over. Since both of our offices were in Chennai, we decided to stay together in a rented house.  The days were fine until that day.

 She phoned and asked me whether I would like to join a yoga class. First I did not realize what she was talking about. Later, she explained,  It is from “Sri Sri Guru” and her company organized this yoga event for one day. She got impressed with that and decided to enroll in the course.  I said  Big No. She was not happy with my answer, but she left that to my choice. She took yoga seriously and started practicing it with different poses and the sound of animals! First, I felt funny, but slowly those sounds turned into irritation.  I could not stop her from doing it because it is just yoga. But, she did not stop with yoga. 

 

Once she believed yoga guru as god and the drastic steps that she adopted to become his devotee, the worst nightmare began. Resigned her job. Eating habits changed, it is not even called vegan, somehow weirder than that, only boiled vegetables or water or dry fruits!. Till here, I was worried about her health, but slowly the daily expenditures become a burden. At that time, I was a trainee. I did not have the double-digit salary to support her yoga life. Initially, I could help but not for a longer time, the rent and bills started becoming a burden. Adding to the existing list of craziness, she clean-shaved her head and got a new name for herself. The everyday discussions become arguments. Arguments lead to fighting! I am a person, I am against considering human beings as gods.  Hence,  her belief in a person created a huge gap between us. We were still under one roof but did not look at each other for a longer time.

 

The yoga guru's madness made her do few more things. i.e Predictions and blackmailing. She started predicting that I will not get a job. Even If I get it, I will not be successful. The solution to all is that, I need to follow her god.  I could not live with the negativity any longer. Hence, we separated. she moved to the ashram and I, moved back to Bangalore.

 Life moves on as each day passes by  But, the memories stay with us!