Her Diary - Speaks More Than Her

“Her Diary - Speaks More Than Her” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual International Short Story Contest 2018 written by Anwita Parashar, India.

Her Diary - Speaks More Than Her

After passing class 12th which is one of turning point in her life (as in these days she know her potential and also people recognised her real potential) of SHREYASHI SHRESTH...came to MUMBAI with full of fresh energy and at the same time quite frighten because it is the first time she is coming to a “metro city”. Actually I forgot to introduce what kind of girl Shreyashi is? Actually she is much more real, practical, logical and having natural pretty face as she don’t wore make-up except a kajal. She is not concern about her look at all she is kajal as her friend said that it looks nice and it’s very easy to carry. She wants to complete all her work before deadline or faster than the rest, at least the work in which she is interested, apart from this. She is totally a normal girl in way of living but very strong girl in her way of thinking. She is a “kind of girl who wants a life containing few moment of risk. Let me know you her history and her historical achievements and failures...from childhood only she is like a free bird ..’ no tension no fear’ just doing the thing what she think without thinking its results. So, her life is a full of tragedy. Let me know you some incident, once somebody in her granny family had scolded. So, she conclude that no one love her. So, she decide that it would be better to live with rest of the world as they are better people than them as everybody love her as she is very cute. She wore her favourite attire (actually from childhood she like to wore jeans and shirts what his cousin wore and so, she don’t like her frock and skirt and even now as in school also she wore shirt-paint instead of shirt skirt and look unique among all UKG student) and move towards market for first time around 4pm of hot sunny day. It’s totally a wonderful experience for her as she realised how beautiful world actually is? For the first time she saw that much colourful toys which shine due to sunlight and also seen variety of sweets, chocolates and everything which she loves eating. She had no money except a five rupee coin which she use this to buy a jalebi from a Thela shop which looks so yummy. After seeing entire preparation of “jalebi”, she bought one and then shopkeeper noticed no one around her. So, he asked her name, address and many information just to know “who is her relative”. Then he offered her various other sweet such asrosogulla, creamchop, gulab jamun, litti, samosha her stomach was full . Now, she was feeling sleepy. Uncle was very sweet to her. Actually in childhood she was quite fatty so, everyone adores her a lot due to her cuteness. She was wakeup after called by her mamaji (mother-in-law) as shopkeeper knew him.

And do you know what she did just the age of 5? She is loved by everybody in granny house. Her mamaji and cousin elder sister (Suhani di) loved her a lot. She was very naughty so, everybody remained tensed due to her misdeed. She feared one of her cousins named Indira (everybody called her Hitler) and she punished her but then also she does everything what she want to. But most of the time she was saved because of Suhani di and Mamaji.

She didn’t like her teacher because he was a hard-core taskmaster and gave huge tasks to complete which was of higher standard. She hardly understood it and so, she got hard punishments almost every time. So, she didn’t like to study but no one listen to her. She started weeping just to avoid classes but no one listen and again she had to go and one day mom came and she wanted to take her home. She was ready just to avoid her hard taskmaster but both Mamaji and specially Suhani di missed her a lot and she was very sad. She didn’t want her to go away from herself but she want to come just to visit her house. She enjoyed to travel to her house and finally reached her home after taking 2 buses between it. Mom and she alone reached home after taking a rickshaw from Bus station. Her home was quite bigger and it was well furnished. After a step down from Rickshaw she saw her mom covered her whole face with her saree. When they stepped out, a pet dog started barking but after a few seconds she recognised her mom and gave a feeling of belongingness. She saw her dad and two more unknown faces were sitting on the chair. Mom went inside and she was touching all peoples foot with a smile which she learnt from granny house. She was super cute and smile while doing so just to get her love in return but nothing happen as such. So, she went inside but now she remembered her Suhani di and Mamaji because here no one loves her. She is quite upset but no one was there just to notice her mom thought she might not saying anything because of new place and new people but fact is that here is no one to give such a love that she got there. Because her mom remained busy in her work she hardly got free time. She worked all the time. No one to talked to her. She was afraid of her father as he was mostly looked angry and only saw him in breakfast and dinner. She had four sisters and one elder brother. Her brother was the youngest among them and after that she and then three more.

She got every facility there but she needed love more than any facility. No one noticed her so she did what she felt and did anything. She did a lot of mischievous activities not intentionally.

Due to this her mom remained tensed. Her mom was very sensible and managed to handle them and her work. No one helped her to carry these works, sometime they got injury but neither her aunt nor her grandmother looked after them.

After a week she understood the pain of her mother. Days passed she understood the situation of her house. It was just a bunch of heartless people and selfish people who always seeking money and wealth. She was around of greedy people. After 6 month in holiday vacation her elder brother came to house. He was quite similar to her daddy and what you can expect in a male dominating environment. The home atmosphere was too conservative and male-dominating. The thoughts of all people in her house and even her village peoples were similar to them. Male member didn’t love and hold their child as it was work to be done by their mother and wife. After a while her school closed as her teacher got married and went other city. Hence, now she was taught by her mother and father. Both her mother and father were highly educated so, they knew importance of education.

But after a while she was admitted in a private Hindi medium convent school and she studied there till 4th std. After that, she had gone a primary school for a year just to get certificate of 6th std to take admission in DAV school in town and meanwhile her mom applied for teacher and appointed as a teacher in a village school which was quite distant from her house and start going school for teaching student now she remained busy.

So, two of her sisters went to a private English medium school. One sister came in granny’s house to attend DAV School situated in town. . And after a month, Dady, mom and my sister shifted in town for their studies as school bus stop coming to our village.

A new journey began in her life where she met me. I was applied in class 7th for admission but no seats were available. So, I was offered to take admission in class 6th. So, I joined. I met her for first time in inter-house singing competition where she was criticizing contestants for being frightened. She joined the class two months later, so, she didn’t know anything about subjects and chapters.

After a month, a test was taken in which she was failed in almost every subject except Hindi and Maths.

Science Mam gave more attention to her and in the next test she scored well. So, everybody clapped for her and me. Principal announced my name “Shreya Sinha” for getting highest marks in 6th std. among all section.

By the time l noticed that she worked hard to impress science mam by getting good marks in final exam but unfortunately, she was transferred.

Thereafter, she started taking interest in sports as she is good at it. After sports day, she started focusing on her studies and scored well as she took a home tuition.

Time passed, now she scored well in study and emerged as a topper in mathematics. Once a group was made for chemistry quiz which will lead to improvement of our final grades and she was in my group. Chemistry mam had asked name any three weak acids along with its chemical formula. We did not know the answer of this question, but she answered it. So, she got bonus marks. Actually that moment l recognised that we were just studying for scoring good marks and to be topper but she was interested in studying at least in practical subject and subject in which she was interested.

Now, we reached in class 10th and I was the monitor of my class. But the whole class talked a lot. So, teacher decided to change our seating arrangements and then Shreyashi and me became Bench mates but not been friends yet. She was busy in her work and never tried to talk to me as she heard me while talking to my friends that I didn’t want to sit with her. So, now she ignored and hated me for this.

Her self-respect was top priority for her and so, she started hating me and so, am I. As she is good student but not a topper who score around 80-85% and me and my friends were the toppers of our class. She was good in sports as sports day started so she remained busy in that and she looked so happy. She was the medal winner from her house”Asoka”. Her name was always finals for any sports from her house. Actually in std.10th every student needed to take part extra-curriculum activities to improve their grades.

So, she got full extra point in it. Then, an inter-house singing competition announced in which almost every girls of our section participated but she rocked. I didn’t know that she was good in singing also. Everybody enjoyed her singing and her teacher had appreciated her singing.

After the announcement of 10th results, I took admission in BR DAV best school of our town after qualifying test and interviews. And then class started and I saw her as she had taken commerce and I had chosen science. So, she became my friend who had also chosen commerce. She had her lunch and returned class. She was never interested in our discussion.

After a week, she stopped coming to us in break. But her bosom friend started coming school. After a while I heard from my friend that she was answering well in almost every subject. And then, in first formative of 30 marks taken in which she shined in almost every subject but in maths she got second highest marks in her class and counted herself as one of the topper of class. It was unexpected and then she never looked back. Now she had created her own separate identity but she respected all teacher a lot and in return all teachers started loving her. A great journey she had covered yet that I had also seen. Rest I knew from her diary in which she had written songs that she will sing in group. But she left her diary in my class only where they used to practice for her song as we had gone for practical class. One of my classmates submitted me this as I was the monitor of my class. I was just go through it there were many secrets hidden in it. Apart from her past it also contained many story that she had dreamt in morning but it’s very interesting and her future plan and goal. I was thinking of handover this to her but problem was that our school was closed after this and will be open on our farewell day but we had not gone on that as we have to attend our farewell in school dress only due to sudden announcement of our principal. So, no one turned out on that day. So, in this way her diary remains with me. So, you would have thinking “How I know about her news of going to MUMBAI and her feeling in that moment?”. Actually, she had mentioned her email id, password and about her writing blog and I was curious to know so, reached there with help of my boy friend who knows hacking.