You wake up and you realize that nothing is the same anymore. Your parents are not in the room and every ray of hope

seems miles away from you. You dont know where they went or what they did... what had happened to them.... all you

can hear are two people fighting! Suddenly you feel this..emptiness in you. You know for a fact that the way people

treat you now will be different....over and above that the way you will treat yourself will be different. You know that

that what ever was happening to your parents was because of you... you are sure that quarrels over trivial matters would

have never occured if it werent for you! you had seen akshya... your friend had blamed herself for the break up! she was

never the same after that... she became a loner and one day she was gone... so far away where even the tallest of

ladders couldnt let you reach her! She was lost amidst the realms of guilt, the pain, the despair.... down underneath

where not a soul could enter! I did not want that to happen.. not to them, not to me, not to anyone! What had you

done??!! You could not have lived without them! Both were equally important to you... if one left the other would be

incomplete and you were always taught to accept the perfect things of life... if they weren't perfect you had to make

them perfect for your self!






my mom had once told me "life is a perfect creation and if it wasnt then it is not life at

all!" what was she doing now... why was she making things worse??... how could i perfect this situation in which i stand

because of them...or maybe...because of my own follies that had created the storm between them!





The picture fell from my hands to the ground with a loud "thud." I startled and gave a slight

shudder! I bent down and picked up the brown-framed picture from the square tiled floor. It was a photo of akshya. She

had gone for her routine checkup to the psychiatrist along with her aunt. I saw her innocent face that had been through

so much pain, so many tumults, unseeming of her tender age. I felt my lips forming a broad smile on my face.... half

due to the fact that she was getting better now... accepting the fact that she wasnt at fault after all, and half,

because my parents were still having their peaceful afternoon nap in their room! I had woken up and i had realized that

everything was the same...as it always was... it was real and was no more... a terrible dream!