Four Feet

By Dr. Ravi Shekhar Krishna

Every college has a specific set of students. There is always a guy who licks his HODs ass for every small little thing. There is always a girl who sleeps around with everyone and talks about it as an achievement. There is always a nerd who never thinks that love was a part of students life. There is always an innocent girl who falls in love and is willing to die for it. There is always a playboy who manages everything perfectly well till he falls in love. There is always a heartbroken girl that has stopped believing in love and thinks that every guy is a jerk. There is always a professor who is pathetic at his language but doesnt stop talking. There is always a professor who is extremely hot and sexy but has two children already. There is always a stupid guy who keeps bugging his ex-girlfriend for the smallest of reasons.

This isnt about the professors or the asslicker. This isnt even about the slut or the stupid ex-boyfriend. This story is about the nerd, the innocent girl, the playboy, and the heartbroken girl and their lives, which revolve around one another. This story is about their emotions, which makes them do things they had never foreseen. This story is about love!

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Jan 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781477251072

Dr. Ravi Shekhar Krishna

Presently pursuing his postgraduate in general surgery, Dr. Ravi Shekhar is currently residing near Hyderabad, India. This being the second novel, he decided to reach out to the readers who are going through or have gone through a set of similar experiences in their day-to-day lives.

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© 2013 by Dr. Ravi Shekhar Krishna. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 12/13/2012

ISBN: 978-1-4772-5106-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-5102-7 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4772-5107-2 (e)

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Contents

Chapter –1   Himanshu

Chapter -2   Abhinav

Chapter -3   Himanshu

Chapter -4   Abhinav

Chapter -5   Himanshu

Chapter -6   Mansi

Chapter -7   Himanshu

Chapter -8   Mansi

Chapter -9   Abhinav

Chapter -10  Himanshu

Chapter -11  Mansi

Chapter -12  Riya-

Chapter -13  Himanshu

Chapter -14  Abhinav

Chapter -15  Riya

Chapter -16  Abhinav

Chapter -17  Himanshu

Chapter -18  Mansi

Chapter -19  Riya

Chapter -20  Himanshu-

About the Author

Chapter – 1

HIMANSHU

It was 6 am.

Several months had passed by and I still found myself crumbled under a blanket struggling to close my eyes and get some sleep for a change. Aditi, for reasons untold to me, had completely quit on me. It had been ages since I had heard from her or even received a text. The whole world was caving on to me and I had just one source of hope that I was counting on and for some reason she had brutally turned her back on me. I was confused, like a lost child in a park looking out for his parents in the crowd. There were million faces around me, some very pretty, but I was waiting for that one face to appear in front of me that would give back my heart, the beat. I would question myself the same thing over and over again, every single night.

Did she ever love me?

Insomnia had made my eyes grow red and my lids saggy. Every day I would drag myself around like a tigress would drag her murdered prey. Bunch of old idiotic buffoons, my professors, yelling at me every day had become such a habit that it made no difference to me what so ever. I would break down in the duty room, or in the hall way or anywhere I could find loneliness. My life and my love had betrayed me and I was sinking into myself. I had nowhere to go, no one to call upon for help, no one that I could call my own, no one. I was all alone.

It was 6 am and while I was struggling to close my eyes and push these disturbing thoughts of my fucked up life and my lost princess, my doorbell rang. It had almost been a year since I last heard from Aditi. Just after my exams Aditi had started drifting away. At many a times it felt as if she had found someone else. Her calls were on waiting a lot and I would rarely get replies to my texts. Time on the phone having conversations went from many hours to few minutes over a span of just a few weeks. The excuses of I’m busy with my studies, that was my cousin, I’m too sleepy to talk right now were given to me and were never explained later on. It was getting too annoying when after a few months I bluntly put the question forward. To that I never got a response. In return I was completely shut down from the world of my love. My calls would be rejected and replies to my texts never came. I was deleted from Facebook and my emails were blocked. I had no means to contact her any more. Humiliation and shame filled my heart and mind and the feeling got worse every day. I had only asked her if she had someone else and that if she did, she could just tell me about it. I only needed her to justify the avoidance I was being served with. But I never got an answer. Instead I got rejection from the one I considered my soul mate, company only from my shadows and never ending loneliness. In short, I got dumped!!

I spent the entire year of my internship restless and lonely. A year of my life that could have been the best turned into the worst. I gave up on my friends and family to hug myself in my loneliness. My pillow became my best buddy and my eyes expressed all my thoughts with tears. I went paranoid and even started talking to myself in front of the mirror questioning and cursing myself for whatever had happened. Situation got worsened day by day and the thought of ending my life was popping up into my head. But the reminder that I had many others in my life that really cared about me stopped me from slitting my wrist and letting my life flow out in red. I was in such a pathetic situation that I could not even have opened up to my family about it. Mom and dad were really proud that I had now become a doctor and could not stop telling the whole world about it. And I did not want to spoil the way they felt and thought about their son. That feeling of theirs was too precious for me to break their hearts. So I kept shut and let the tears pool into an ocean inside my heart. Every now and then my eyes would over flow, mostly in loneliness but sometimes in public as well. I had thought that burying this feeling within me was the best idea to tackle it but I was proved wrong. Things were getting worse and suicidal thoughts were knocking at the door of my mind again. My internship was over just 2 days ago and I was to leave Kochi for good soon. But I wasn’t ready yet. I wanted to meet Aditi one more time. I had to meet her and ask her why. I needed to know the reason. This thought had been killing me inside ever since we had stopped talking and I knew that if I left with that question unanswered I would never find peace of mind, ever. I just had to talk to her, but how?

It was 6 am and my mind was wandering through all these thoughts when the doorbell rang again. I pushed the blanket away and got on my feet. In the dark room which had the morning sunshine peeking in from a broken window glass, I searched for my t shirt and pulled it on. I slipped my feet into my slippers and walked to the door. The bell had rung a few more times by now. I hurried up and unlocked the door. Since I passed my final year I had shifted out into an apartment I had taken on rent for the internship. Ever since then I had been living a very lonely life and rarely did any one ring my bell. Sometimes it would be the land lord and sometimes the maintenance guy. But the doorbell never rang this early in the morning. I was confused to who it could have been. And to surprise me completely, when I unlocked the door and swung it open, standing there all alone, was my brother.

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HIMANSHU’S BROTHER

It was 6 am.

And I was standing in front of my brother’s house and was about to ring the bell when something inside my mind stopped me. About a year ago I eloped with my girlfriend and got married. And not to my surprise both of our families rejected us. My parents were going to get me married to someone I didn’t even know. Just the thought of an arranged marriage used to repulse me and to get involved in one would have been a life time torture. So I decided to run away with Archana. We moved on and settled on our own. Ever since the wedding day none of them spoke to me except my brother. It was about 4 months ago that I had spoken to my brother last. I wasn’t sure if he would remember me. I was also scared if he had not forgiven me. Running away with the love of my life and leaving my family behind to face all the humiliation alone was an act of a coward, but I had no choice. My parents hadn’t forgiven me for sure but I kept in touch with my friends who updated me about them. Recently I learned that Himanshu’s internship was over and he was going to drive back alone all the way from Kochi to Raipur. This could have been the best and the only time to catch up with him, but only if he allowed me to. This is what stopped me from ringing the bell. What if he hadn’t forgiven me yet? What if he hated me and didn’t even want to see my face? These thoughts stopped me from ringing the door bell and I turned around to walk away. While my feet moved away from the door I realized this was my only brother. He was the only person younger than me in the family and the only person who supported me through the roughest patch of my life. The whole time when I was struggling all alone with Archana, Himanshu was the only one who used to call and ask if we were ok. I clearly remember his words

You love someone else and want to spend your life with her, that’s cool, but you should have told us before. Anyways the damage is done but we can’t do anything much can we? You are human and they make mistakes don’t they? Anyways when am I going to get the chance to meet her?

This was his response when I told my family about my marriage. Mom and dad freaked out but Himanshu kept his cool. He was 6 years younger to me but somehow it felt as if he was my older brother. How could I give up on him? He had been a constant support for me through out. He used to call me every now and then and he was the only other person I had in my life other than Archana. But suddenly 4 months ago something went wrong. He stopped calling or texting. He stopped picking up my calls. He stopped responding. Had I lost my brother too?

It was 6 am and I dragged my feet back to the door to find my brother back. I gathered all my courage and threw my arm up to ring the bell. I waited for a while but there was no response. Maybe he was asleep. Or maybe he had a girl with him. Either ways I could not have left without meeting him so I rung the bell a few more times and waited him out. Few minutes later I heard the latch fall down and the edges of the door loosened. The door swung open and to my complete surprise, standing in front of me, was my brother like I had never seen before.

Standing in front of me was a complete disaster. His face was hidden behind his beard that was at least a month old. His eyes were red and looked like he hadn’t slept since the last time we met. He had lost at least 20 kilograms over the last one year and he looked so weak as if he had been starving for months together. His toe nails would have been at least a centimetre long and some of them were even broken at the edges. His hands were rough and wrinkled, his hair was long and shredded, eyes sunken and rounded by a black halo, lips were dark and dry and his facial expression was similar to that of a zombie. I was so surprised or rather shocked to see what had become of my brother.

What are you doing here? He asked me.

You are leaving to Raipur today right? So I thought I’ll meet you before you get back to mom and dad. I replied.

A period of silence followed till I decided to break it.

Do you mind if I come in? Or if you are planning to kick me out just tell me now, I’ll understand.

Oh no no. Come in please. Why would I kick you out? I’m not dad remember? He replied with a smile.

That smile on his face made me smile too considering it was an assurance that he hadn’t forgotten how to smile. He held the door open for me and I walked in. And when I did, the smile on my face vanished. To see what Himanshu had turned into shocked me. The second I stepped inside the door the air of the room made me nauseate. There were a few neat boxes stacked over each other on one corner and that was probably the cleanest part of the house. The other corner was filled with buds of partially burned cigarettes and empty bottles of beer and vodka. The ceiling fan was covered with dust and many webs of spiders hung themselves on it in the shape of a modern art. All around the house there was this aroma of smoke that would make any one cough their lungs out. The windows had no curtains but the dust on the glass was enough to stop the sunlight to get inside the room. The hall was dimly lit with a small tube-light at a corner of the room which had at least a hundred bugs buzzing around as if it was a bee hive. The couches in the centre of the hall were dusty enough to realize that they never had the pleasure to feel some one’s bum.

Through the dark and dusty caves of my brothers hall covering my face with a handkerchief and trying to push the smoke away with my hands I followed my brother to his bedroom hoping to experience a comparatively better scenario. Yet again I was shocked and this time it was beyond the limits. The room was small and his bed covered most of the floor. There was not much light except for the sunlight coming through a broken window. The door of his closet was open and the inside of it was all empty suggesting that he had been packing stuff for the move. The washroom door was closed and for some reason I was glad that it was. The bed sheet was probably white in colour but was stained at so many places that the original colour could not be guessed correctly. Also the sheet had enough and more burned holes that revealed the underlying brown mattress. He walked ahead of me and turned on the light. The room was as foggy as the hall but the details became brighter and more disturbing. On a small table next to the bed I witnessed a small packet of grass, some white paper and a lighter. Next to this setting of weed, on the floor I noticed some stains. I took a few quick steps and bent down to