Cheers to Life...! By UMANG MEHTA

Aryan was standing somewhere in the scenic vicinity of the garden. He was watching the moonlight that was burgeoning on the grass flourishing the romantic traits of the nature. The landscape became mysterious, proverbial and familiar. It glided past the western windows with its villages, its thatched roof like caps, which were pulled over the white-washed half timbered houses, its corn fields which gleamed like mother-of-pearl in the slanting light, its orchards, its barns and the old lime trees. Kiara was crouching on the bench sipping a glass of wine. A few sips and the wine started taking its toll over her. She rose up from the bench and walked towards Aryan. She clutched Aryan’s leather jacket that made Aryan turn around. As Aryan looked at her she hugged him. With that clasp, she rested in his arms. Aryan’s heart started vacillating whereas Kiara started experiencing forty winks. Aryan made her lie down on the grass whereas he himself sat beside her. Moving on, he opened his diary and noted the romantic scene of theirs in his own words.

Kiara, a 26 year old girl, from Mumbai, was ambitious, full of life and fiercely independent. She belonged to one of the royal families of the city. She was like the coin having two sides, viz. Sassy and confident when it came to personality whereas emotional and a bit immature when it came to her personal life. She loved her life and even more she loved herself. She was a miraculous creation of God. She was crazy about horror movies and hills. She was someone who knew how to speak her mind, someone who knew how to captivate others with words. She had no one in her family except her step mom whom she loved very much.

Aryan, an aspiring writer from Mumbai, loved hearing stories. He wanted to be the writer and painter of his own life. He was a guy with normal body physiques. He was completely engrossed in the bookish world that started from the oxford dictionary and ended on the Macbeth. He loved solving puzzles and playing mystery games. He thought that the world was full of stories and hence travelling added to his passion. He had written various stories where few of the real incidents or real life things were mentioned.

Aryan and Kiara’s relationship was like, “He was her Hansel and she was his Gretel. Both followed each other’s footprints. He was the cinnamon, clove and fire whereas she was the rested cedarwood of desire. Both boomed a wild, ravaging and feral love story. They were like the North Pole and South Pole of two different magnets which always remained attached to each other. They both held new fangled world for each other.

It was a shivery Sunday evening when Aryan was sipping Irish coffee and thinking about the next twirl for his upcoming tale, but wasn’t getting it. As the cafe owner, Randeep had great concern for him; he came towards him and asked his difficulties. As the difficulties of Aryan were not that easy to solve, Randeep introduced Krisha with Aryan.

Krisha, a complete modern girl with the traditional ethics imbibed in herself; was basically from Bangalore but had shifted to Mumbai for her personal interests. She lived her life with her own rules. She loved writing micro-tales and poems. She was disciplined and hardworking. She loved visiting cafes as they were full of stories. She had many friends but very few actually knew her.

Aryan and Krisha had similar interests and that led to the formation of a strong bond of friendship between them. They started sharing their personal life. Krisha had a kind of fondness for Aryan but never told him what she actually felt. Knowing that he had a girlfriend, she confined her thoughts to herself, thinking that she would never be his girlfriend. On the other hand, Aryan wanted Krisha to be his close friend. Hence, they started blending together. The change in behaviour of Aryan and talks about Krisha all-day-long added to Kiara’s troubles. This eventually led to Aryan’s ignorance towards Kiara. To get away from this mess and find peace, she went off road, i.e. Trek to Chanderkhani. She informed her step mom about the trek but didn’t notify Aryan. The trek was the place where she befriended with Virat.

Life is often meant for strange adventures, deep kisses, rambling conversations and new friends. With this motto, the trek started in the green trails of the forest. The sweet smell of the pine trees, the gargling white waters crushing down the lane, the apple orchards, the herds of cattle, the tranquillity and silence of nature made the day all together an auspicious one. While all the group members were taking stroll to reach the next destination, Kiara was far behind gazing at the beautiful flora of the surrounding. Also, there was a guy named, “Virat” who was ambling around her and clicking some picturesque snaps. As Virat was about to get a perfect snap of the landscape, his camera’s battery was over. Looking around for someone’s camera, he saw Kiara with the camera hanging around her neck. So, he asked her to lend her camera for an instant to capture a snap. She readily gave it and Virat captured the perfect photograph. He showed the same to Kiara and then their talks started. Being a 6 km trail, they got perfectly known about each other. Be it their personal life or professional life, they started sharing everything.

Virat, a solid rock-combo personality belonged to the middle-class family of Nagpur. He was handsome, adventurous, crazy and sociable. He was awarded by the police department many times for helping them in catching the culprits. He was a singer, dancer and had a good hand over conversing in different voices. He had a fantastic tattoo inscribed on his hand, “Cheers to Life”. His life was a roller coaster ride. The most shocking incident was that after his girlfriend’s death, he thought that his future was in miasma. So, to find new motives for life, he came to this trek.

It was the evening scene when all the group members had organized a function where most of them had planned to perform something, viz, stand-up comedy, dance, singing, etc. Virat and Kiara had no plans to do anything. But, as everyone noticed their close friendship, they asked them to dance together. As they believed it was time for some adventure in their life, they agreed and tapped their feet on the floor. It was completely a seductive dance.

The next day was the last day of trekking. On that day, a bonfire night was arranged, whereas the rest of the day was given as a supplement stay to all the group members in the scenic beauty of nature. It was the quivery night when Kiara was dressed in a sweater dress. She was resting in Virat’s arms in front of a bonfire. Kiara was completely squeezing her body in Virat’s jacket. Virat was racing his hands into her curly hairs whereas Kiara slid her hands in Virat’s body. They were feeling the warmth clinch just like the warmth embrace of chocolate waffle. Both were sharing utmost intimacy, that’s when Aryan did a video call to Kiara. Kiara tried to avoid the call but Virat asked to check out the caller. As they were crazy sipping on each other, Kiara thought it wasn’t right to pick Aryan’s call. 

But, as everyone knows “Close friends do the mischievous things at wrong times”, Virat committed the same notorious mistake as he started pulling the phone from Kiara’s hand by tickling her. The push and pull of cell phone led to the acceptance of the video call of Aryan. But, she suddenly rejected the call in 5-7 seconds. But, it was too late as Aryan had already seen them together sharing intimacy whereas Kiara still thought that Aryan hadn’t noticed anything. Kiara and Virat slept in the blankets of love whereas Aryan slept in blankets of hassle. The next day, all the group members returned from the trek. Kiara came home but was still in a regular contact with Virat. She thought of meeting Aryan as it had been a long time since her last meet with him. Hence, she called and asked him to meet her.

Aryan and Kiara meet at the Retro Cafe in the evening. As they were meeting each other after a long time and hadn’t been talking regularly because of previous issues, they waited for each other to break the ice. As everyone knows a lot can happen over a coffee. It was the coffee that started everything. The coffee got spilled over Kiara’s dress by Aryan due to the sudden push he got from the nearby guy. Hence, he went towards Kiara to clean that mess. While he was cleaning her beautiful dress, he asked her about the feel she got when Virat was sharing intimacy with her. Kiara was in a shock to hear that and hence to prove herself on the positive note, she tried explaining about the consequences to Aryan but he was reluctant to hear her views.

Done with the cleaning, he got up and kissed her forehead and said, “I thought our relationship was the start of something new but it was actually a dream that wasn’t going to come true! I wish we could share ourselves with each other but all the acts of yours have turned me to say that I break up with you...”

She was surprised to hear those dreadful words but Aryan’s previous acts and Virat’s entry in her life had made her rock solid due to which those timid emotional feelings went in vain. Moving on, she stopped talking with Aryan and shared all her views, likings and updated about her routine life to Virat. But, after three days of her breakup with Aryan, even Virat went out of contact from her life without notifying her.

The sudden exit of her two close friends led to the downfall of her life and the entry of a psychiatrist. As she was learning about life she came to know that the only way to overcome depression was to enjoy it and hence she started consulting the psychiatrist. The name of the psychiatrist was Dr Sunil. The psychiatrist mostly treated his patients in a practical manner and gave fewer medications. His clinic had various rules framed for the visitors as well as for the patients viz, wearing masks in the wards and loggias, keeping and taking the report files before and after treatment from the receptionist’s table, etc. The psychiatrist had two big scars on his face but they were hidden behind his mask. He always wore full-sleeves shirts/ t-shirts/jackets.

Dr Sunil’s cabin was such that a large hall was partitioned with the textured glass wall. The first half of the hall had the receptionist counter whereas the door next to the counter was the way that led to the doctor’s cabin. The backdrop of the receptionist counter was a textured glass wall. The patients had to wait outside the cabin, i.e. in front of the receptionist counter.

Kiara used to go alone for her treatment to him. With the regular sessions of the psychiatrist, Kiara started mingling with him. Firstly, Dr Sunil treated Kiara in a practical manner without inducing any medications over her. After few days, seeing the recovery speed of Kiara, the psychiatrist started giving her some doses of medicines in the form of injections to increase her mental strength. Medicines were injected in her body every third day.

2-3 weeks later, Kiara’s step mom started noticing few changes in Kiara’s behaviour. She saw that, a girl who used to speak everyday about her boyfriend suddenly stopped talking about him, a girl who used to remember each and every single thing started forgetting things frequently. Hence, her curiousness leaded her to ask Kiara about these things. But, Kiara ignored her step mom’s questions. Hence, her mother first thought of checking her psychiatrist’s reports. She found that Kiara’s health had something related to Aryan’s existence in her life as the psychiatrist had specified Aryan’s name in the list of persons who played integral part in her life. So, she made a contact with Aryan.

She explained all the consequences of Kiara’s health and asked Aryan to help her. Even though, Aryan had left Kiara, he had feelings for her. So, to increase her mental strength, Aryan made a call to her and asked her to meet him. Kiara was rude at first but those romantic moments and love of theirs forced her to meet him. They met each other once again at the Retro cafe and this time none of them waited to break the ice as both had various things to share with one another. This led to the formation of a stronger bond of love between them. They once again proved that they were the North Pole and South Pole of the magnet who remained attached with each other. 

A few days later, it was time for her treatment and this time Aryan went along with her to the psychiatrist. As the treatment went, Aryan had to wait outside cabin. After few minutes, Kiara came out and met Aryan. While they were about to leave, Aryan asked Kiara for her file. Seeing that, she had forgotten to pick the file from the receptionist’s table, Aryan asked her to wait at the same spot. He left Kiara and moved towards the counter.

Aryan went to the receptionist counter and took the file. The doctor was idly sitting and passing his free time as he had no patients left by that time to deal with. While Aryan was about to leave, he heard the conversation of the psychiatrist along with the nurse as the doors of Dr Sunil’s cabin were open. He heard the nurse saying to Dr Sunil that it was time for him to take the medicines. Aryan also heard the name of the medicine and the nurse saying to the doctor to visit Lifeline Hospital and bring the medicines as prescribed by his own doctor for himself.

What was strange for Aryan was the name of the medicine. But he wasn’t getting the actual conclusion to it. Hence, he searched about the medicine on the internet. He got all the information about it. That’s when he realized that he had done a research about a disease and its antidote for his story. The antidote he searched for his story and the medicine that the nurse prescribed to Dr Sunil turned out to be the same. Hence, he kept a watch over Dr Sunil’s activities and his personal belongings such as his car, etc. Even more, he kept a watch over the nurse too.

This forced Aryan to check whether Kiara was getting properly treated. Hence, to do the verification, he took Kiara to another psychiatrist, named ‘Dr Varun’. Dr Varun was his childhood friend whom he knew very keenly. Dr Varun treated Kiara and then presented her actual health reports. There, Aryan came to know that, Kiara had Bipolar disorder and hence the psychiatrist who first treated her (i.e. Dr Sunil) had injected few medicines in very high quantity that led to Kiara’s present distress i.e. Semantic/Frequent Memory Loss.

Now, Aryan wasn’t getting the reason behind Dr Sunil’s acts. Hence, to seize him red handed, he devised a plan. He didn’t tell Kiara about his plan instead he asked her to continue with Dr Sunil’s treatment. Aryan commanded Kiara to avoid eating and drinking of any foodstuffs or medicines during Dr Sunil’s treatment if offered to her by him. Kiara went to the clinic of Dr Sunil with her step mom. 

During that course, Aryan went to the Lifeline Hospital which he heard during the conversation of Dr Sunil and his nurse. He went there and tried to get information about Dr Sunil in a righteous manner but he was unsuccessful. Hence, Aryan booked a peon of the hospital by giving him Rs 30,000 and told him to provide the details of Dr Sunil.

It was time for Kiara to enter Dr Sunil’s cabin. During her treatment Kiara was being asked to eat chocolates and drink few syrups but she avoided them. Hence, Dr Sunil asked her to wait for few minutes in his cabin and during that course he went outside and told the receptionist to inform Kiara’s step mom that Kiara’s treatment would take 3-4 hours.

The receptionist did the same. Kiara’s step mom notified Aryan with the updates. Hence, Aryan fuelled up to reach Dr Sunil’s clinic. As he was gearing up, he got a call from Krisha. A new obstruction came in his path as Krisha asked him to drop her at the Coffee Cafe. Krisha being his close friend, he dropped her at the cafe. Knowing the present distress of Kiara, she told Aryan to move quickly towards the clinic.

Dr Sunil went inside his cabin and took a sponge ball and asked Kiara to press it with her both hands. As Kiara pressed the sponge ball, the needle inside the ball pricked her palms and she became unconscious. This happened because the ball had a needle hidden in it. The tip of the needle had a drug deposited over it; it was the drug that was used to make a person unconscious. Moving on, Dr Sunil carried Kiara in his arms and took her outside his cabin through a secret door that opened in his car’s parking area (viz, his garage). With no one near his garage, he unlocked the car doors and placed Kiara in his car. As Aryan was about to enter the hospital through the main gate that leaded to the parking area, he saw Dr Sunil’s car going out from the exit door. Moreover, he saw Kiara sitting unconscious in the car with her head resting on one of the windowpanes.

This embarked the dog and cat race between the Dr Sunil and Aryan. A 3 km long race ended at the Lifeline Hospital where Aryan had booked a peon for disclosing Dr Sunil’s information. He saw that Dr Sunil took Kiara in the operation theatre. Very few people were present at that time in the hospital. He knew outsiders were not allowed to enter the operation theatre and hence he met the peon. He asked him about Dr Sunil’s information. The peon told Aryan that Dr Sunil was actually the patient who was suffering from “Vascular Dementia”. That’s the time when Aryan recalled each and every thing about that disease. 

It was a type of a disease that used to happen to persons who suffered from the dreadful shocks of losing someone whom they loved very much (i.e. the close person is already dead). It was a disease that could happen suddenly following a stroke, or over time through a series of small strokes in the brain, known as multi-infarct dementia. It was the disease where some mental abilities remained unchanged, but symptoms included depression, mood swings or finding that dead person in another look-a-like person who is alive.

As, it was a high-profile case of betrayal, his nerviness increased. Hence, he requested the peon to somehow let him get inside the operation theatre as he knew something alarming was going to happen to Kiara. The peon first tried to get away from that chaos but as Aryan promised to pay him more Rs. 10,000; he somehow let Aryan get near the operation theatre. As the surrounding of the operation theatre didn’t have anyone around, Aryan firstly peeped through the doors to see who was present inside the cabin and what was going. Meanwhile, the peon went somewhere and brought the actual file of Dr Sunil.

Aryan saw that there were three persons in the operation theatre viz, a female doctor, Kiara and Dr Sunil. He saw that Kiara was lying on the stretcher whereas Dr Sunil was seated on another stretcher. The female doctor was arranging all the equipments in the order to perform an operation. He heard the conversation of the female doctor and Dr Sunil. The female doctor asked Dr Sunil to remove the masks he was wearing and also those fake scars that were glued to his face. Meanwhile, Aryan went through Dr Sunil’s file, there, he came across various deplorable details. The actual name of the Dr Sunil was Virat. The name created suspicion and he doubted for the guy, Kiara had met on the trek. As, he removed the mask and those glued scars, Aryan was completely knocked for six. The scars seemed to be real ones until Dr Sunil removed them. He waited for the female doctor to reveal herself but she didn’t remove her mask. Moreover, as Dr Sunil came in his real facade, Aryan was stunned but was equally in confidence as the guy present inside the operation theatre and the guy he saw during that 5-6 seconds video call happened to be same.

Without wasting much time on reading that file and for the antagonist’s next moves, he asked the peon to call the police officers urgently. The peon followed the same as he thought Aryan had some real reasons behind this secret investigation. Hence, without thinking about anything, he called the police and asked them to arrive at the Lifeline Hospital. 

Aryan entered the operation theatre secretly and grabbed two of the sharp knives. As the female doctor came nearby Aryan to take few instruments from the adjacent cupboard; Aryan rose up and caught her. The hustle bustle of the female doctor was difficult to hold on but Aryan didn’t release her. The hustle bustle led to the fall of the mask from the female doctor’s face. To Aryan’s amazement, it was Krisha.

Virat got up and tried coming near Krisha but Aryan’s constant warnings regarding assassination of Krisha left him stick at the same place. Despite of Aryan’s warnings, Virat threw a few instruments at Aryan. This set Aryan’s hidden fire ablaze and hence to settle the situation, he took the knife near Krisha’s hand screeched a small scar. The blood-curdling scream filled the silence of the operation theatre. He ordered Virat to obey his demands in order to save Krisha. He asked him to move away from Kiara and made him sit at a different place. The policemen arrived in no time as the police station was nearby the hospital. The policemen arrested Krisha and Virat and sent Kiara to another hospital for her immediate treatment. Meanwhile, Aryan went with the police officials.

As the interrogation with Krisha and Virat went on, Aryan came to know some flabbergasting facts. He came to know each and every single thing behind the duo’s acts as Krisha narrated the real story of hers and Virat. Besides Aryan, even the police officials encountered with the tagline that Virat and Krisha were best friends since their school days. Life was going in a great manner until one day Krisha suffered from a kidney infection that eventually led to her kidney failure. With no one from her family having their kidneys matched with Krisha’s kidney, it was Virat who stepped forward to test whether his kidney matched with Krisha’s kidney. To everyone’s surprise, the tests came positive. Without thinking for a moment, he asked the doctors to perform the necessary procedure. He donated one of his kidneys to his best friend Krisha. Krisha was saved from the jaws of death. Their feelings for one another were something really heart-touching. Krisha promised Virat that no matter what she would be with him and help him whenever he needed her.

3-4 years passed, it was another time when destiny thumped their lives. It was the sudden death of Virat’s girlfriend. That incident just gave Virat, a very deep shock. The shock was so powerful that he encountered with a disease called, “Vascular Dementia”. 

As Krisha started elaborating the disease, Aryan regularly interrupted and helped everyone understand the disease clearly. Krisha continued her narration and everyone came across a stage where Krisha said that she had gone to a person under the official help of the police department and hypnotized Virat. As she exclaimed that there were only two treatments possible in Virat’s case, of which one was clearing his memory about his girlfriend forever from his mind and the other one was presenting another identical girl i.e. a girl who looked-a-like his late girlfriend before him, she opted for the first option. She tried clearing Virat’s memory about her girlfriend from his mind. She was able to clear each and every memory about his girlfriend but she forgot clearing the tattoo that was present over his hand.

The tattoo had no significance until Kiara made an entry in her life. Till the time, Kiara was with Virat, everything was alright but tables turned round in a flick of moments when the 10-day trek which Virat thought as a daily routine got disturbed after she left for her home. Krisha made it clear to everyone that she was known to this fact on the very day when Virat and Kiara encountered each other and Virat faced strokes i.e. a series of those moments he shared with his late girlfriend. That’s when he realized that he had a girlfriend. He looked for his girlfriend in Kiara’s personality. And with Kiara giving her equal response in friendship bond, she became a drug of Virat’s life.

She specified that, “Virat never needed drugs, everything he loved destroyed him enough !”

Krisha described her next meet with Virat after he returned from the trek where she thought the case was completely lost. She ended up saying that she had lost hopes of his recovery as the treatment, i.e. hypnotizing Virat wasn’t possible as his memory was struck between what to deliver and what to erase.

Fate marked a tough phase for Krisha and Virat as she wasn’t able to hypnotize him once again because of the severity of the jerks and series of shocks, Virat was facing. Hence, the only way left was to make Kiara enter in his life. The situation was so rotten up that a small jerk could have ended his life. Hence, to save his life, Krisha admitted that she devised a plan. She explained all the consequences and asked forgiveness from Aryan. Firstly, everyone thought of it as a fake drama but these facts were eventually proved when the necessary documents were verified. Their friendship story created a scene of melodrama where emotions could be seen on each one’s facade. Virat being kept in another room had no idea about what consequences were faced by Krisha. With the false news that Kiara was coming to meet her in few days, Krisha somehow convinced Virat and asked him to surrender.

They surrendered themselves to the police officers. While leaving, Aryan gave a letter to Krisha where he stated an idea to save Virat’s life. He stated her to undergo plastic surgery. Moreover, as Virat and Kiara hadn’t done anything wrong against anyone except Kiara and whatever Krisha did was just to save Virat’s life, the court announced its verdict in Krisha’s favour. She was released in three days along with Virat. She underwent a plastic surgery got herself the same look that Virat’s late girlfriend had and worked on him to increase his mental strength. With the feeling that he had her girlfriend alongside, he recovered way faster than expected.

Often Lies haunt lives. Destiny has a Bipolar disorder. It gives us those cherishing moments to enjoy but during that enjoyment, it plans for something dreadful. Maybe, we think destiny works out for our worst. But, it often proves us wrong with the time. All that happens is for our own good.

A few days later, Aryan drove the car to the city’s most tranquil hilly area where Virat and Krisha were waiting for them. Aryan was accompanied by Kiara. As he drove the car, the weather became awe-inspiring. As they lost themselves in Arjit Singh’s romantic melodies, they realized that, “Being in a relationship didn’t mean holding hands while understanding each other. It all meant that having lots of lies and misunderstandings during the same course and still not leaving each other.”

At the same instance, the nature became beyond depiction. The environment was so charming with toppings of yellowish orange sunrays splintered by the sun in every direction in the pinkish purple sky just as the Quattro Formaggi Burst on a Veggie Paradise Pizza. To add more to this, there were the chirpings of birds echoing everywhere, the cold waft made it even more glinting. The drizzle came out of the blue from the colourful sky to add colour to the earth. It started drizzling as they watched out for the surrounding. For some moments, Aryan stood in the driving rain with Kiara in his arms. He glanced at the sky and saw the rain pouring itself over the dusty lands of the earth. The water droplets flaunted themselves as the silver gems that drenched their faces. As Aryan built castles in the air for his lady, tears swayed down their cheeks. It was the instance when the raindrops felt in synch with their tears. It was the most beautiful thing they had ever experienced; they thought it was, “LOVE.” This tale depicted how an abrupt yank distraught the wonderful verve of their perfect simmers. As Aryan and Kiara met Virat, a voice echoed in their ears. It was the reverberation that motivated everybody. It was Krisha in the disguise of Virat’s late girlfriend, who flicked her hairs off her shoulders and optimized everyone by saying,

“Cheers to Life !”