A man receives a phone call, seeing the caller he rolls in euphoria. It is his old college friend. He picked the call and said, “Oh hi Rajni, how are you, it’s been years since we last talked.” She hesitated to say anything and then said hi Raj, it is really been a long time. Raj senses something is bothering her and asks her about it. She tries to change the subject, but he keeps on asking her. Knowing his adamancy, she gives up and says “Do you know how can I show my suicide as an accident.” Raj goes in shock to hear that, he gathers his senses and asks “if you don’t mind me telling, could you please say why you wanted to commit suicide.” She explains how her life is all difficult and beyond repair.
Raj doesn’t seem to agree with her on being beyond repair, she gets irritated and replies “I have been through a nasty divorce, lost the custody of my child. I lost the job and can’t even afford treatment for my dying mother. The only hope is that my insurance money may buy the life of my mother.” Raj says “It seems like you have planned everything. But tell me just one thing, will the life for your mother be worth without you around her.” Rajni scolds him, “You won’t understand it, life is not always that easy.” Raj replies “if life was easy, where would be the fun in it. The ups and downs make life worth living.” Rajni scoffs at the thought and says “these fairy tales talks look wonderful in books and movies, but not in real life.”
Raj asks her “you have planned everything, and I know you are going to do like you wish, but why have you called me.” Rajni replies “There is an iota of hope that I could save myself, but only you can help me now.” Raj says “I wish I could, but post lockdown, I myself am in a bad situation.” Rajni says “Don’t sweat, I am not asking for money, I want your word of advice.” Raj laughs and says “I don’t know what you mean by that, but I am no writer, I am no poet, and least of all I can be a motivator.” Rajni says “you remember, you have failed in the first semester, and you were finding death as the easiest option. I can relate to that. And thinking how you topped the whole university after that setback, amazed me, how have you did it.”
“I have almost forgotten that. It’s been ages since then” Raj says, he adds “I remember I wanted to die, I have no one who could understand how I was feeling. But I talked to myself that life is not a video game, I will not get another chance. I have to correct what I have done wrong, and I worked more to overcome the difficulties and the result was in front of you. We may fail and fail again, but we are not a failure till the time we don’t quit. And I never wanted to be a failure.”
The words have the right impact on Rajni, and she postpones her plan for accidental suicide, and Raj gains insights into his own past. Before this conversation, he didn’t even know that he could help have faith in oneself. They go on talking for hours and hours, and both evolve mature and sensible out of that conversation.
Life Lessons 