Cupcakes and Heartbreaks

Chapter 3

PRAKRUTI

All the girls waited in the lobby of the hospital. Avantika was being attended by a group of nurses and doctors. Prakruti had tried to gain access inside the emergency room saying that she was a medical student. The staff refused to let her in and asked her to wait in the lobby as they would soon let them know about Avantika's condition. Prakruti went back to the lobby and shook her head when Kannika raised her eyebrows at her. They had not found any suicide letter so foul play could be suspected. Prakruti's phone rang. It was her mother.

"Hello Maa" Prakruti said.

"Prakruti, come home soon today. Your father has asked a prospective groom’s family to come and see you" her mother said.

"Maa! I had told you that I will be going to Avantika’s birthday party today. Why did you make some other plans?” replied Prakruti trying to keep the anger from seeping into her voice.

“Prakruti don’t argue. This family is very good and your father has gone to great lengths to make this arrangement. I expect you to reach home by 4PM at least so that you can get ready and look presentable by the time they arrive. I don’t want to hear anything else” her mother cut the call.

Prakruti felt furious. Here she was in the hospital with her friend battling life and death but her parents expected her to look presentable! There was one thing Prakruti had been deprived of from the time she could remember : freedom. She had been raised in an orthodox upper middle class family. Her parents had always made the decisions for her, almost all decisions, she had managed to grab a few moments of heavenly freedom whenever she could. She was twenty two years old and did not consider herself ready for marriage. She had used the excuse of studies to avoid the hula boo that was involved in finding the right match. When her twenty one year old cousin had got hitched right after her engineering graduation her parents had started to grow apprehensive. It was like a light bulb which was switched off till now had been suddenly turned on. Her father was worried that time was running out. Running out! She was only twenty two for God’s sake.

She looked at her watch it read 1:30PM. She decided to stay till 3PM and head home. Prakruti went to the lobby and sat next to Lakeisha. She whispered to Lakeisha that an alliance was coming home that evening. Lakeisha looked at her and nodded understandingly. At this moment it felt like Lakeisha would be the only one who could understand what she was going through. Lakeisha had been through the process and finally found a suitable match. Prakruti could not bring herself to ask if Lakeisha was happy in her marriage but only hoped that she was.

The doctors came out of the emergency room and told the girls that they had cleaned Avantika’s stomach. They had shifted her to the ICU for observation and after twenty four hours she would be shifted to a general ward if her condition was stable. She was still unconscious. The doctor said that the girls could see her as soon as she gained consciousness. The girls thanked the doctor and decided to have lunch in the visitors cafeteria.

Prakruti was shocked by Avantika’s suicide attempt. She had never pegged Avantika to be someone who could end her own life. Avantika had been a person who was full of life until she had met Jishnu. Prakruti had never really taken a liking towards him. Avantika had changed a lot after meeting Jishnu. They had jumped into a relationship quite soon and it was taking a heavy toll on her happiness and confidence. She wondered what had he done now that Avantika had decided to end her life on the very day that she was born. She was quite sure that he was the reason for this mess.

They ordered sandwiches and fruit juices from the cafeteria.

“I can’t believe she did this” said Kannika out loud.

“I hope she had kept in touch with us more often. I wonder why girls make men the center of attention once they get into a relationship. That, I tell you, is the doorway to doom” snapped Shresta visibly angry.

“Avantika and Jishnu had started living together a month ago” said Dheya.

“WHAT!” Lakeisha spat out a little bit of the juice. She picked up a tissue and wiped her mouth.

“Avantika felt that Jishnu and she would be closer if they started staying together, so she pestered and begged him to move in with her. He was not willing to move in initially but finally he gave in and moved to her flat” said Dheya.

Prakruti also did not like that such an important life decision of her friend was kept from her.

“You knew about this! Why didn't you tell us anything?” Kannika demanded.

“It is not my decision to tell. She requested me not tell any of you about it. Her relationship was going through a rough patch and she wanted to ensure that she was leaving no stone unturned to make it successful” Dheya said.

“Throwing yourself at a man is not a relationship sustaining strategy. If he loved her enough he would have committed to her. Why didn’t you talk her out of it Dheya?” Shresta asked.

“Well, she wasn’t exactly asking for advice. She had already made up her mind to move in with him. Being her friends we should not judge her. I told her that even though I wasn’t sure about her decision, she should go ahead with it, if that made her happy. Sometimes, even though you care a lot about someone, you can only stand by and watch them break to pieces and hope that you can put the pieces together. I assured her that if she had any problem she should call me whenever required and not hesitate. Though I wish it had not come down to this” tears streamed down Dheya’s amber eyes. She wiped it away with a tissue.