A long-standing rivalry takes an unexpected turn when circumstances force two opponents to face life in a manner that they would not have thought to be possible. One had everything she wanted, including clothes, cars, money, and health, and excelled in both sports and studies. The other had nothing but dreams with no way to fulfill them. Priya could clearly remember the day when she first met Neha. Priya’s father had just dropped her at the school gate when a gleaming black Mercedes glided to a halt. Priya gazed in wonder at the car when the door opened and out stepped the smartest girl she had ever seen. An immediate pang of jealousy swept through Priya – who was this rich girl? Neha stepped out of the car and ran in without bothering to give Priya a look, which only served to anger Priya further. As luck would have it, both ended up in the same classroom.
As they grew up the animosity between Priya and Neha also grew. Though Neha tried to be friendly there was always an awkwardness between them as Priya could never come to terms with the fact that Neha was better than her in all activities except Math's and Accounting. Numbers were her friend and Priya managed to astonish her teachers with her understanding and skills. As Priya kept rebuking Neha and kept on her efforts to demean her despite Neha never making any attempt to mock Priya, the relationship between both got more and more negative. It came to a phase where even the teachers noticed this and tried to counsel both but to no effect. Anybody present who knew Priya and Neha would have found it impossible to imagine that there could be a time when both would be together. But life has its plans and mysteries and can make impossible things a reality.
Looking at the two women, around seventy years of age sitting in their courtyard and enjoying a nice cup of tea around five in the evening, one could hardly imagine that they were the strongest of foes way back from school days. One of them leans back with a deep sigh of contentment and closes her eyes with a smile on her face. Before she realizes she dozes off for a few minutes whilst her companion looks on at her wondering how the years had gone by. Neha had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for a couple of years. Though she was still capable of remembering many things from the past, she also managed to forget a lot of people and events. She confused herself and her mind played tricks on her. Her health had also given her a lot of trouble for the last two years and she constantly needed support to perform her day-to-day tasks.
Priya on the other hand was extremely fit and healthy for her age. She was seventy-three and when she looked at Neha she could see the years flashing by. It seemed only like yesterday when she had met Neha at the school.
Neha was everything that Priya wanted to be but could not. Life was not fortunate for Priya. She hailed from a middle-class family and her father Rakesh Mishra worked as an accountant. His wife Seema was a housewife and took care of the household chores. Neha was the daughter of Sunil Mehta, who owned a sugar factory. Neha’s mother Shweta was also a homemaker and took care of the household chores albeit with the help of a large servant list. Her role was to delegate chores to the menial service staff and spend her time choosing her clothes, shopping for herself and her family, and so on.
As years went by the girls became famous for their rivalry. What made matters worse for Priya was that her father was employed at Neha’s father's factory. Neha lost no opportunity to remind Priya that she owed her livelihood to her father. This only increased the animosity between both. Their differences were increasing when one day an incident occurred that changes their lives completely.
Everything seemed normal on a bright sunny day. The school had just got over. Neha came out to find her father waiting and she climbed into the car beside him. Just as they gathered speed Neha spotted Priya riding behind her father on their bike. Neha wanting to give Priya a scare suddenly without warning turned the steering towards the bike. Her father was stunned by the move and fought to keep the car in control. Priya’s father, seeing the speeding car coming towards them from behind in his mirror took a sharp turn to the right in a reactive move. He failed to notice the truck coming from the opposite side and collided head-on. Priya was thrown off and landed on the sidewalk unconscious. Priya’s father was declared brought dead at the hospital.
Priya woke up at the hospital and looked at Neha staring with a strange look on her face. Priya was unaware of how things had unfolded. She was surprised that her mother stood crying and Neha – the look on Neha’s face was something Priya could not explain. Something had changed and there seemed a compulsion in her look that wanted Priya to reach out. Over the years Priya could never get over the look on Neha’s face that caught her attention. The look seemingly haunted her, and she wanted to confront Neha but never did out of gratitude.
Sunil Mehta though aware of the reckless act of Neha, did not raise the issue with her nor talk about it. He knew that there was no way to connect him with the accident. But being a kindly person, he decided to take care of his accountants family.
In a couple of years, as the girls completed high school, Priya’s mother also passed away. She was never in the best of spirits after the untimely death of her husband. Neha insisted on Priya to move in with her and Priya also gave in. As they started facing life together there developed a strange bond between the two girls. For Priya, there was gratitude and a feeling of her misjudgment that made her look up to meeting all the needs of Neha. Neha just wanted to forget the past and hence did her best to take care of Priya in every way possible so that she did not remember her loss.
Despite many suitors, neither girl chose to marry and settle down. They supported Sunil in his factory with Priya doing the accounting and Neha looking after the rest. Sunil and his wife tried hard to get Neha to marry and even tried to coax Priya but to no avail. In time both died, and the girls grew into their middle age. Around 60 years Neha decided to sell off the factory and get a couple of boutique hotels. They both looked at the operations in their leisure keeping a capable young manager to take care of the hotels. Dinesh, the manager was an ambitious young man and gave the best of his services to the hotel and the two old ladies. He was planning to take over the hotel in the future and was working toward his dream.
Today, looking at Neha, Priya wondered how lucky her life was to have made her such a good friend and companion. Neha, who was falling in and out of her sleep was wondering if there was anything that she could do the atone for her actions. Even though they were good companions Neha had never dared to tell Priya of the incident. Priya in good faith also never talked about it. Neha remembered making her last will in which she had left everything to Priya. This brought a smile to her lips and whilst in the same thought her disease took over and she simply forgot to breathe.
Priya sat looking at Neha, who was sleeping with a smile and suddenly noticed that there was no movement. She jumped to check and realized that her companion of over fifty years had finally moved on. Priya was completely lost as she had never done anything without Neha. But people took over and suddenly there was a flurry of action. Dinesh, the manager came and took charge of the proceedings, and the funeral happened quietly. Many friends came to pay their last respects to Neha and offered their condolences.
Two three days passed quietly. On the fourth day when Priya woke up, she heard a noise coming from Neha’s room and went in to check. She found Dinesh standing there in front of the chest of drawers seemingly looking for something. He was startled by her appearance and turned to look at her. Priya caught his look and asked him about his presence. Dinesh muttered something about it not being important and left. Priya called for a cup of tea and sat at her breakfast wondering at things when she felt something strange. The look on Dinesh’s face had brought back something to her mind and it was disturbing her. As she was brooding it all flashed back to her in a second as to what his look reminded her of – it was the same look on Neha’s face when she came to see her at the hospital and the eyes said it all – GUILT.
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