It is really difficult to comprehend human emotions. It is fairly impossible to conclude about a person just by his talks, his laughs, the company he keeps, his wealth or his achievements. None of these attributes can actually help you decipher the truth about someone's life. Destiny is like a teacher, which tests you again and again until you finally come out victorious. Then it gives you a moment of happiness and then again there is another examination waiting for you. This is a never ending cycle.

Some people keep fighting and some simply decide to give up when their confidence, their self-respect, their patience and every single element of their existence starts giving in one after the other.

This story is about a young heart, roughly 20 years of age, a lean and thin fellow, Sameer, who was in the third year of his B.Tech studies. People say that he bore a smile which was limned to be infectious by each and every individual who had ever been in contact with him. He was a perfectionist, every teacher's favourite student, a good sportsperson, an awesome musician and above all a kind-hearted human being. It is quite coherent that a fellow, having so many qualities stuffed inside his body's feeble architecture, is definitely deemed to be living a life envied by many.

But only a few, as he used to think, or may be no one, knew what his life was in reality.

He grew up devoid of a mother's love, even though he had one, legal but stepmother and stepmom’s can't possibly take the place of a real mother. Eighteen years back, his mother was raped and murdered brutally, right in front of his tender eyes, which captured the last painful and agnoising moments that his mother saw before breathing her last. Those painful shrieks, blood painted walls haunted him at nights for years.

His father, Mr. Aditya Pratap Choudhury, an ex-MP, and an influential leader of his constituency, was a workaholic and an honest person, but his work was such that it never allowed this father-son bond to grow any stronger. Sameer’s childhood was scarred with tears, sorrow, pain, anguish and agony, all put together.

Only a few, whom he considered his true family, knew about this, which included Sikshya and Manav, the two inseparable units of his life. They had grown up together in the campus of Sri Vivekananda Sikshyaashram, which nourished them with the first taste of education and knowledge. This is the place which taught him that being happy is not that difficult. He had a great time in school where he explored his own talents and became every individual's Hero. People there loved him and respected him, and this helped him in overcoming his anxieties and relieved him of the trauma he was in, since years.

As time flew, they had to part tracks. Sikshya went abroad for her medical studies and Manav went to Vellore to pursue his B.Com. They left for their respective destinations, promising each other to be together through every thick and thin, at every phase of their lives. Distance separated them, but the unique bond they shared, kept them connected. But deep inside, that shadow of loneliness was consuming him again. He had no friends to hang out or share his problems with.

Sameer got admission in one of the prestigious Engineeringg Institutes of India, NIT Rourkela, where he came in contact with a whole bunch of new people, hailing from different nook and corners of India. He was an innocent fellow with a simple heart, which was yet to experience the real crooked world around him. People manipulated him for their own selfish needs and when they were done, they used to simply turn their back on him.

He was an outstanding musician. He had a band of his own which had become his new family.
He was a good leader too and was a Senior Under Officer of NCC. He loved keeping himself busy, and was really happy with his life and had everything that a guy could wish for.
But the reality was something else, something that was hidden under the cloak of his fake smiles and forced giggles. Deep inside his heart, he was lonely and needed something or the other, every time, to keep his mind diverted.

He had grown up to be a strong and determined person during his schooldays and one of his specialities was his perseverance, which was his strength. The dirty politics within the institute and other things he was associated with, didn't allow him to do his works as smoothly as before.
His growing fame was his greatest enemy. He made a whole lot of foes around him, without his knowledge. People started envying him and tried a number of ways to pull him down.

He kept fighting and fighting and fighting, overcoming every hurdle that crossed his path. He was happy with his life despite being targeted by the negative forces around him. Something evil was trying to harm him, take control of his emotions and his mood and make him a completely different person with a lot of anger stuffed inside him. He could feel it at times. He was used to this life and had accepted it. He had that very rare quality of getting habituated to his surroundings pretty soon. Music and his music band gave him all the positivity he needed to keep going. He was in his 3^rd semester and his life was on track. He thought that may be his test of patience was finally over. This is where he made the mistake.

Destiny smirked at him and said with a grin,
“There is more to come boy.”

This time it was Sikshya. She had a boyfriend in US and she wasn’t sensible to have discussed the relation with Sameer. This news reached Sameer three months after their commitment through Manav. Now, he could decipher the reasons behind her reduced phone calls and mails and days long absence.  He did what he was best at, accepted it silently, and then called up and congratulated her. He had thought that no one could ever break this bond of friendship, which he deemed to be unbreakable, but probably he was wrong. There were some problems in Sikshya’s life which he was unaware of and after a few days he found himself removed from Sikshya’s facebook friends list. This gave him the shock of his life, a big blow by Destiny.

Now, he had one person whom he could rely on – Manav. But Manav had new things to deal with and things were no longer the same between them too. Hardly could he spare a few minutes out of his busy schedule for Sameer.

Sameer was completely heartbroken, though he understood and accepted everything, still he found it difficult to submit to the fact that the very people who were once his life source were no longer there with him. The promises, that were made, had lost their valor and could no longer hold them together. The friendship which was envied by each and every inhabitant of the town, they hailed from, was nothing more than a withered tree waiting to be cut down.

When old leaves wither away, new ones take their place and make the tree look more beautiful and glorious. He was alone, separated from his life sources, living a cursed life, and this was when negative thoughts started harbouring his mind. Many a times, the thought of giving up hovered around his head which snatched away his mental peace.

This is when he got involved in music more and more and found out a way to stay away from unnecessary problems. He stopped interacting much with the people around him, and remained silent most of the time and kept his problems to himself. He found out more ways to keep himself diverted. He became addicted to social networking sites and started making new friends during his off hours.

May be the Gods were finally pleased with him this time. And they sent an angel for him, his new online friend, Nishita, who had made a very special place in his life in a few days’ time. She had become a part and parcel of his life. She was the thief, who stole his heart and gave him a new life, the heart hacker; who had hacked into his heart and programmed herself into his life. He had never experienced the beauty of love. His decade’s long pain and absence of a mother’s love had created a void in his heart, he had bloomed into a 20 year old lad, but deep inside, he was still that kid who had seen his mother getting butchered in front of his very eyes.

Nishita was from the same town, Cuttack, where he hailed from, and was three years younger than Sameer. They were miles away from each other, and they could hardly meet yet there was something divine that kept them connected. Sameer had finally started feeling special and valued. He had learnt how to smile and all his pains had ceased to exist without his realization. Everything around him seemed beautiful to him now. They were happy and blessed. Nishita had got her prince-charming and Sameer had got the love he longed for since decades.

Nishita was an innocent girl, inexperienced about the Real World around her and the people dwelling in it. Sameer never wanted her to go through the pain he was once part of. So, he was conscious about each and everything around her and kept warning her about her friends, her foes and handled her in a very loving and caring way. He was rude and stubborn where he needed to be and scolded her like her father and loved her like a mother when she cried. He did all that he could do to keep things good between them both.

A year passed by and there were a lot of small and big troubles which Sameer had to handle, compromising in a few cases, counseling her in a few, fighting for her with others and sacrificing in a few others. All that he wanted was her love, care and affection. He was a selfish about this and a little possessive too. He wanted her to be only his and not include anyone else in it. He hated being shared with others and being compared with other people in her life.

But things took a different turn in Nishita’s life. One cursed day, she fell down from the stairs and hurt her spine. It was a terrible accident and the damage was permanent. Restrictions were put on her, she was bedridden for weeks, she had to miss her classes, and she lost her flow with her studies and was disturbed and heart-broken. Sameer was partially successful in calming her down. But there was this new element of fear that had entered his life, and the uncertainty about the future kept haunting his mind again and again. He was losing his mental stability. He was getting irritated frequently. The doctors said that the next stage of the injury was paralysis. But Sameer handled her well and gave her back her lost confidence.

Everything was fine, until one day, another boy entered Nishita’s life, not as someone whom she loved but just a good friend. His name was Sandy. Nishita was feeling lonely, because Sameer was busy with his studies and they were not interacting much. Sameer got to know about this new friend after some days. He couldn’t digest their growing relationship and warned her about the new so called friend. However she choose to turn a deaf ear to him, and defended her new friend, every time they had a heated discussion related to him. Soon, things became worse.
Sameer trusted his girl a lot and was sure that she could never break up with him, no matter what. But he was in for a rude shock when Nishita, out of anger, accused him of sending goons to beat Sandy up.

She texted him,
“I’m just done with you. I’ve had enough and I seriously didn’t expect this from you. I don’t think we should take this relation any further.”

This message from her, made his heart stop. He was in a state of deep shock. He couldn’t accept the message and kept on reading it again and again. The building of trust and love, that had taken a year to build, had crumbled down. He fainted, for the very first time in his life. His roommate helped him regain consciousness and took him to the dispensary immediately. He stayed there the whole night and was discharged the next morning. By that time, things were clear that Sandy had cooked up this story of getting beaten up by goons to create differences between Sameer and Nishita. She asked for his forgiveness and he forgave her readily. But he couldn’t digest the fact that she had actually broken up with him believing someone else. She was not aware of the series of events that happened with him that night, and neither did he have any intention of letting her know about the hospital thing and make her more worried. And to top it there were several unusual incidents happening around him. They were abnormal. 

Sameer was in Cuttack, on summer vacation, for nearly three months and spent a good time with his old friends and his cousins. One day, towards the end of his vacation, a priest, out of nowhere, came to his house and told him that his life was in danger and asked him to be careful.
Sameer, irritated by his stupid lectures, kicked him out of the house and asked him not to show his face again. But a few unusual happenings around him compelled him to go to that priest’s house a week later.

He welcomed him with a smile and said,
“I knew you would come.”

Sameer asked for his forgiveness and wanted to know in details about the things he was saying the other day.

The priest said,
“Don’t worry. God is there with you. There is an evil spirit who has been following you since you were 15. Goddess came into my dreams and asked me to help you. That is why I went to your house that day. That evil spirit is of a woman who had killed herself many years back longing for your love in your previous birth”

This sounded like total crap to Sameer and he revoltingly said, “Don’t play your stupid games with me. I’m not going to pay you a penny.” The Baba replied in a soft tone, “I also knew this that you wouldn’t believe me.” Then the Baba went on to tell him such things about his life which only he knew. He was set aback and didn’t know how to respond. His hands were trembling and he was in a shock. This was like a paradox for him.
The kind Baba said, “The evil spirit wants to harm you mentally and emotionally so that you break down and give up. This would allow her to capture your spirit forever and ever. She can’t harm you physically though. But she would definitely harm the people close to you and use them to emotionally break you down”

He asked Sameer to be watchful and cautious. Sameer still had doubts in his mind. He had still not accepted everything that Baba said. But it didn’t take him long to accept it completely when Baba said after closing his eyes for some time, “The spirit is wearing white saree and is following you.” This gave Sameer goosebumps because there were several instances when he had unusual sightings and occurrences around him which he had ignored. He had seen shadows cross his paths, he had heard a female voice call his name from behind in a place where there was no one, and he had felt someone’s fingers brush against his hair and many more such instances from the past. He sat down to dig his past and related the abnormal occurrences that had been happening with him. A few days before he met Baba, his 6 year old cousin woke up at the middle of the night and shouted that there was someone under Sameer’s bed. No one believed him though and he was slapped by his mother and put back to sleep. First thing Sameer did, after returning home, was run to his cousin and asked him about that night’s incident. His cousin, in a feeble and shaky voice, replied, “Brother, there was a woman with unkempt hair, red eyes, wearing a white saree and was looking down and sobbing under your bed.” Sameer, was shocked after hearing these lines from his 6 year old cousin. This was exactly the same description that Baba had given him. He didn’t know what to do. He was scared and at the same time angry too. Nishita had said that when she fell down from the stairs, she felt as if someone pushed her from behind, and that time he was too angry with her to listen to any of her excuses. He was now pretty sure that it was none other than that evil spirit’s work. He also thought that she may have had a role in his mother’s death too. He felt guilty for each and every incident that had been happening around him. He had always been misinterpreted by people around him and he used to wonder that why did people misunderstand him so often. He had his answers now.
He was now sure that it was all that ghost’s work which was solely aimed at destroying him mentally and emotionally and compel him to kill himself. This would allow her to captivate his spirit and fulfill her unattained desires.

After a lot of contemplation, he finally had a way out, and it required a lot of courage and willpower. May be this was the only way out for him. He suddenly disappeared. No one knew where he went. It’s been seven months, seven long months, and still there’s no trace of him.

Some people say, they saw someone jump into the river six to seven months back. And some say they saw him wandering near the chowk late at night. But these may be mere rumors.

I’m Manav’s (Sameer’s best friend) younger brother writing this story based on the Last Letter which he left for Manav. Seven months back, Sameer came down to my place to return a few belongings of Manav which was with him. A week after his disappearance, I found a letter in that lot, placed carefully inside a novel. It was for Manav. It was a letter where he had mentioned about his life and the perils associated with it.

His last words in the letter were,

“I don’t know whether I’m doing the right thing or not, but definitely this is something which will just affect me and not others whom I love and care for.
I love you Manav.
You have been more than a brother to me.
Convey this message to Nishita and Sikshya.
And please take care of Nishita and ask her not to cry.
She is a princess and she will definitely get someone much better.
If I wouldn’t have left then I would have invited problems into your lives as well.
So this was the only way out.
Don’t cry.
Wipe your tears.
I love you all, especially Nishita.
Take Care.”
This Last Letter and his disappearance created a void in everyone’s hearts. We miss him, I still remember how good he was at hiding when we were kids and used to play Hide-n-Seek in my house. He would be hiding for hours before we would literally beg him to come out. I hope he is there somewhere, hiding in some place and would come back soon.