A/N 

Right before I had sat down to edit this chapter, I didnt remember its ending was what it has, and it feels as if its the most beautiful ones that i have written up until now. i really hope you all will like this. 

February 2009

The foggy environment around us was so disturbing; time and again it made me worried the hands of the clock were ticking by so quickly, as if it was reminding me, mocking us how long we had lost with our own negligence.

But more than that it made me realize now what Mitali would have felt. It seemed so easy to just tell her to calm down, to not let the things take a toll on her, that more than anything I was important – somewhere yes I did wished she would give me more importance than the people who weren't there at present.

And now with the wheels of the car running off into right opposite direction for me, do I realize it's not easy. It's not easy to have a friend go lost, to have no news about them, to not know what could have gone wrong for him to go off missing all of a sudden.

the thoughts didn't ended up there, rather the way the fog even in the midst of February clouded the classes of our car making it almost difficult to predict the exteriors, my thoughts and mind would take me to the days when Daksh would tell us about his parents, how they had met in an accident how things were while he was a kid, how not always was it that things were this clean and beautiful.

"Jai, Naveen had called me right now, he said that the police are trying to get a clue on him, do you think we could go somewhere, any place that you might know would help us to locate him?" Mitali enquired. Her questions and information made me feel even weaker. It was as if someone had just brought up a huge mess upon me.

"I don't know, it's just this house of his that we know about. Daksh is a very private person. He won't let us into many things. "I informed. My voice sounded strange even to my own eyes.

Was it the weather that was so weary or I was at the best of my emotional state?

"Mitali, let's go home for now, the police is doing their job, I sure within a few days we will get to know something or the other."

"Jai are you okay? If you want we can go somewhere-"

I shook my head in negative and gave her a small smile, I knew what she wanted to say but at this moment I wanted to sleep on this. I took hold of her hand and kissed her knuckles, "its okay, our mothers will be waiting for us, you have to go to the gallery as well tomorrow."

"No its okay I can take a leave!" Mitali suggested without even thinking for a second. Was she always like this? The sudden thought made me smile, as her eyes searched my face for what only she knew.

"no that's no needed, Mitali, Daksh is a grown up man, we don't really have to worry about him the way we are, let's wait for a few days and the police is there right, please lets go home you have to meet Naveen as well."

At the mention of Naveen's name her eyes enlarged in the most comical way, as she began cursing.

"Ohh, shit, if you are here almost at the brink of being Dev das I am sure he would have surpassed all the limits, now get this car into ignition before he downs up every drop of those wines."

And it was just like that I forgot, for a while atlest, but I did. I did forgot that Daksh being lost was a worrisome thing, as I laughed at the way Mitali bounced a bit in her seat asking me to make it quick, she had a mission now, to save her brother from dying off liver cancer.

Somewhere through her words it made me wonder who made her think that a bit of wine could cause liver damage, but that was Mitali, when she loved, she would go beyond everything and when she would be worried, she was just like any other mother, and I was happy to have her as mine.

****

A week later

Walking back into the colorful doors of the Hopi Polla at Infinity mall, the strong smell of whiskey and beer welcomed me. I wondered why Tejal had to select this place out of all the places.

It was nice the comfortable environment with not that bright light, the lavish bar by the left side with a huge screen projecting some cricket match which a few would glace at time and again.

It seemed the time here was running at its own peace, and as I took this fact into consideration and the bottle of Beer in Tejal's hand as she stared blankly at something, I realized sometimes disturbing minds can surely accept and appreciate such an environment.

I walked up to her, crossing the group of college students who sat in the middle most table big enough to carry the 8-10 of them as they played UNO and sat right opposite to her.

She noticed me, looked at me, took a long drag of her beer and went back at staring right into nothing.

At moments as such when I was no good comforter, things become uncomfortable for me, I shifted in my place and noticed how comfortable they were, and maybe I could as well fall asleep here.

"I like the ambiance here, the seats are so comfortable... did you ordered something?"

Tejal's eyes moved onto me, as she took yet another drag and took a deep breath and was about to go on with her staring game when I stopped her and said,

"I surely did liked this place, but I have a huge number of things that are yet to be done, so you better starting moving that mouth of yours and out with what is wrong with you?"

"I lost a patient today." She said, and though it was the first time in the day I was listening to her voice, never had heard her sounding this low.

"Ohh, I am sorry, how come? Natural death?" I asked. It never occurred to me that psychiatrist could as well lose their patients to something unforeseen. The death being a natural death or a accident was all I could ever think of, but what she said ahead gave me Goosebumps.

"No, it was a suicide, the patient was suffering from long term depression, none could predict that the mental illness had grown to such an extent that he would want to kill himself. I thought I was being of some help to him but..."

What was I to say on this? That it was okay, when I knew it wasn't. Depression is a common thing, but it's scary that it's a common thing. How many people out there who might have just passed by us, would have seemed and looked to be healthy, normal, only to know, after seeing them lying there cold, cause being suicide due to extreme depression, it would then seem to be understood , known to be specific that though the person seemed so good, healthy , happy... but then so does a over ripped fruit.

The brightest and the loveliest colors of the fruit could as well deceive. So does the persons exteriors while he would have been fighting yet hundred and thousands of fights each day and night, every moment that he would have taken a breath, might have been so overwhelming and difficult that death might have seem the easiest way out.

"But you know what hurts the most, in one of his sessions with me he had said that it hurts him to know that he feels so weak, he isn't that coward to just give up... nor is he brave enough to commit one of the gravest crime, and that he would never bring himself to do that. "

"Think of it Mitali, a person who wanted to live, how can he be pushed till such an extent that the things which he was scared of doing the most might have seemed comforting... is living that much of an horrific thing?'

Her words made me really wonder. Was leaving that of a horrific thing that the most heinous and horrific crime such as suicide would seem a blessing in disguise?

And that 18 year old patient of Tejal gave us so many things that day. Tejal lost her first patient but gave her strength to make sure that there were no more of him; her each failure bought us back to the small bar and restaurant hoppi pola, and so did her successful cases to rejoice the victory of proving her first patients equation wrong.

While it still bothered me, what would be better for a human, to stay alive and overcome the urges of killing one self, and to bring this life to an end and visit the unknown? Who guaranteed that your after lie was a better place to live in?

*********

2 months later.

April 30 , 2009

Mitali Jain

"Okay here is the list of the final output, Ms. Chetra did you looked up the color scheming, is it proper?" I asked, my hands skimming through the list of works at the speed of lightning, my nerves were all a jumble, things seemed as if they were running off, it felt like yesterday when there were 2 more moths for this day to come and finally it was here.

"yes, ma'am, I did, the paintings are being set upped right now the artificial wall is also done, ma'am the articrats needs to be brought up- "

"No hold them up for now," I stood up from my place and began walking towards the exhibition room. "The articrafts will be set up only after the paintings are up, now hold this up and let's get to work."

The work load was a lot, but the joy of once again creating yet wonderful story through art was yet another thing. Through the process of these months I had learned so many things, Daksh was still missing, Shakti hadn't been in contact with me for about 5 months now, but I was glad Veer was there, he was there to look after her.

There was something jai would say again and again, Veer was there to look after her in his own way. And I believed in what Jai said.

I believed him.

It was right 3 in the afternoon as promised that the doors of the gallery were opened for the common public to enter in, and as the footsteps of various ages entered, their gasps, their widened eyes, their squeals filled in the gallery I realized I had done the right job.

My story was conveyed.

With each new person walking by the paintings that were put up, and the silent praises that they gave, I felt those Goosebumps rising throughout my body.

There were times when a few kids would walk up to me,, asking me the different meaning of the paintings, for some I would read the captions, the other who were by the age of 17-18 had their own point of view and would argue with me.

"So this is yet another success?' Jai's called out to me from behind along with all of our family, and soon the congratulations were filled in.

"Thanks a lot for coming." I smiled at each one of them, as dadi came and took hold of my hand and said, "I thought I will be getting a special treatment."

And as pre decided I companied her for a tour, her views were so different. The way she looked at many things made me realize that the saying went by right, ' the grey hair of the human, talks about the vise morals that he holds.'

Just the way dadi was, petite, quite out of the box, yet when the box was opened she would surprise all with what all she had to say.

Somewhere she might as well surpass the advisors whom Jai paid for doing wise business.

It was by the end of the day when I finally got to be with Jai, and As I walked through the corridors, with jai by my side, gazing each and every painting, I read through the small captions that I had written, framing a story of my own.

'It wasn't a day, when we came to know about us, the hands and fingers, filled with the mist of dirt, as painted the wall did the man realize he might as well have a hand." The paintings of the medieval times that were hung proudly seemed out of place yet so beautiful with the light background. As we moved ahead the next painting made me held Jai's hand, as if I wanted to believe it and relish the moment.

' and it wasn't really needed for him to know how beautiful he looked, hence he would try and smile, stretching out his boundaries, but that wasn't just the end, when I grew to we, and we to us, the feelings would have fallen into place." The painting of the wars and the gods that told yet another story of their own gave us chills, some had blood sheds, some had tears and some had beautiful lovers. But the next one was even more precious.

"surely you might have not, but did you ever realize, may be eyes could have as well been a whole new story teller, the story of fortune, sadness, happiness , loneliness, death, life and may be love, and it did not had to be the lovers to be the strugglers, may be someone just wanted to be a friend and held on to them and say, I was here for you!"

The collection of photographs that captured the people of different eras, some seated with heavy jewelry, some with funky clothes, a few held hands, a few kissed, and some smiled at us making us smile back just as naturally.

As we came to the end of the hall, I came across the paintings of Arundhati Chauhan and the whole collection of the live paintings made my heart beat in a different way, it was painful.

"Mitali?" Jai called out me as he smiled at me as the two of us kept on looking at the painting.

The words beside them made me almost go into the fit of tears.

"and through the aspects of living our own lives, the hunger of capturing each and every moment, that we ran after, there is always something called as life, life into the colors that seem so distant, yet the black that signifies darkness calls out to us more than the brightness of the setting sun that glows the most beautiful, who worries about that setting sun when the moon is at the brink of approach? And still this laughter makes it a mystery, two feet that are not visible, a beauty that is half hidden, a rain that seems colorful yet the person walking away into the thin air, and the bones wrapped in a thin shit of skin, awaiting for something, all saying that a life might have kept going on, still making the real story yet another mystery. '

They were all a mystery, the painter itself was a mystery, none had any speculations to be made on them for none had known about them earlier, and now that people knew what they would have to say about all of these.

But what worried me, the curator in me couldn't be just satisfied with this, was this all? Did Arundhati's work ended with these, or were there more?

Live paintings had another story, what might be of "the Tiny feet' or of ' the lady' or of the sarcastic form of 'the spring' where it almost never rained while the person carried an umbrella hiding from what only the two knew. 

Lets try and get as many readers to this story as possible?? 

If you really like it where this story is going, please share it with your friends!! 

And dont forget to give your comments and votes! 

happy reading 

Yadni Bagwe