Blue eyes , Brown hair , sharp nose , beautiful features and little dusky complexioned girl , Saanchi , was no less than a supermodel. But , the most stunning part of her personality was her innocence and simplicity. She was mature , honest and ambitious girl.

She was from a middle class family and was the apple of her parent’s eyes. She was a free bird and had never seen the face of bondage. Her parents gave her every freedom and privacy they could give. And, she never misused her privacy and freedom instead she used her freedom as an asset to develop herself and become more and more knowledgeable.

Saanchi was very much interested in going abroad and study. Her aim was to take admission in “London school of arts” . Her parents were in agreement with her choice and were ready to take and pay all the expenses by any means. Saanchi tried , and , at the age of 18 her application was accepted and she was given 80℅ scholarship. Her happiness had no bounds. She was crying in happiness. Her parents too were very excited as well as nervous and tensed. The apple of their eyes have to go away from them for 3 years. Visa and passport and everything was already made before she got a call.

Finally, the day arrived when saanchi and her father were on the airport waiting for their flight but her mom did not come to the airport as she was unable to see the “Apple of her eyes” go away from her. She bid goodbye to them from their home itself. Now Saanchi and her father were in the flight, 15 hours of travel and then her dream place was in front of her. The lingering essence of busy roads and busy people filled her with excitement and the other thing which made her so very excited was “London school of arts” , A beautiful monument standing proudly and welcoming them head on. In one day everything was settled and now her father had to return to India.

Saanchi was now all alone. At first she was okay with the idea that they would be doing videochats and phone calls everyday and so, she won’t miss her parents too much. But after a few hours when she had to unpack her bags (eventhough some of the unpacking was already done by her father) and settle everything in the hostel , she realised how tough it is to live without mom and dad . Saanchi stood in front of the mirror , and motivated herself by saying “I am strong enough to face every situation alone , My parents have made me self dependent and I have to make them proud in the next 3 years”. The next two days were holidays and Saanchi was very excited as she was going to meet her room mate that day. She wanted an Indian , studious , helping and sweet roommate who could in future become her best friend too.

Saanchi wanted to go out and see london but she waited to welcome her roommate. She again and again went to the warden asking when her roommate would be coming and everytime she shooed her saying “Its none of your business , go in your room and don’t disturb me . ” Saanchi waited till the evening and fell asleep waiting. Suddenly she was woken up by creeks and knocks and she knew in her heart that her roommate was here. She woke up and ran outside. Her wish came true , she heard her talking in “hindi” with her mother. She opened the door. She saw a heighted , a little chubby girl with big black round specs and beautiful pearly white teeth. Saanchi gave her a big beautiful smile and she smiled back. Then saanchi saw her mother and was deeply hit by nostalgia. Her mom and saanchi’s mom looked very similar. Saanchi gave her a smile and said namaste. They both wished her back and entered the room. Saanchi was eagerly waiting to talk with her new roommate but she controlled herself thinking she should not look clingy and needy. Her roommate was not as interactive as she looked.

Later , she and her mother settled everything and then started eating something “Indian” and asked saanchi to join them. Saanchi joined them and now the three of them were conversing at the speed of light. From that conversation saanchi got to know that her roommate’s name is Ritu and they belong to Rajasthan. They are from a royal family and are very rich. Eventhough they are rich , still Ritu is not arrogant and mean and boastful ( which Saanchi usually thought about rich people due to her bad experiences in the past ) . Apart from the looks , Ritu’s mother was not like saanchi’s mother .Her mom was not that very educated and neither she was that very smart as Ritu’s mother. The next day Ritu’s mom left. Now they both were alone, Ritu was girlish , a bit stubborn and very sensitive. They both talked and talked and talked. From the morning to the evening they just did a lot of talking and gossiping. Saanchi wanted to get well versed with London. So , they both decided to got out and do some window shopping. They went out for a brisk walk and window shopping and came back in two hours or so. In those two hours , Saanchi felt as if she has won everything in her life cause a great friend like Ritu , a beautiful place like london , dream career and a supportive family , Saanchi had all of them.

She was filled with unbelievable positivity and an unbeatable energy. That evening she also videocalled her parents while roaming on the streets of London and was so happy to talk to them that this excitement left her sleepless… Yes , That whole night saanchi just kept sitting beside the window and staring outside and smiling, she was not able to sleep due to her excitement. The hormones rushing in her body made her heart dance under the silent but peaceful moonlight. The next morning, Ritu and saanchi were ready half an hour before the college started. Saanchi prayed to god to make her new life more and more beautiful each and every passing day. Later they ate breakfast and left the hostel. They were soon in the lecture hall , Three out of 40 students were indians who were given admission that year. Both of them soon found some similar faces. Three guys and a girl who were surely from Eastern Asia. On interacting they found that “Rahul”, “Kristal” , “Arun” and “James” were from eastern India. Rahul was Indian. Kristal and Arun were NRIs and so they didn’t take admission through foreign quota. James was from Srilanka. They got really well together in just one day. The first day they had just one lecture and later after attending the lecture they went to a nearby coffee shop , ate something and drank some delicious coffee and gossiped a lot. Ritu was not that much involved in the conversations maybe because of her introvert nature. They all soon became really good friends. Saanchi was bubbly and intelligent , having a very charming personality. Her personality slowly played its charm over every guy of her college. Soon she was left with a lot of proposals but everytime she rejected those proposals without thinking about them even once. She was a career oriented girl and she never wanted to get into any nuisance which made her waste her precious time.

One day , she got a proposal through a beautiful card and she again did the same. She threw the card in the dustbin and left the classroom. People thought she has become arrogant but she knew in her heart that she was not arrogant but more career oriented. The guy who proposed her was “Mike” , he saw saanchi throwing his card in the dustbin. This hurt him , it did hurt him deeply and so he wanted to take revenge from her , for not valuing his feelings. 5-6 days later , saanchi got an email , Mike had some really unbelievable pictures of Saanchi . All of them were planned. For each and every picture Mike plotted the whole scene and waited for her to fall into his trap. Saanchi being innocent , didn’t realise what actually was happening with her. She saw those pictures and a message from Mike , saying that he wants her to be in a relationship with him orelse he would spread those pictures of hers among all of her classmates . Saanchi cried a lot. The whole night she was staring on the road out of the window . She had tears in her eyes . Ritu found her crying and asked her what actually has happened ? Saanchi thought may be she would help her out with her problem. Saanchi told everything to her and also that Mike wants her reply in 24 hours. Ritu said that Saanchi should be in a relationship with him and other things would slowly sort out on their own.

Saanchi had no choice she thought that Ritu’s idea would work and she replied a “yes” to Mike. Mike from the next day started showing off Saanchi as his girlfriend. She was embarassed when people looked at her with eyes of doubts cause Saanchi was never the kind of relationship material. Saanchi wanted to get rid of Mike and those pictures as soon as possible. She was now not able to concentrate on her studies . Everytime she opened her book , all that nuisances of Mike started coming in her mind. Saanchi went to Ritu and she always tried to make her comfortable and asked her to leave everything on time. A few days later , Mike had a new demand for her , his email read something which was kind of unbelievable. He wanted to get physical with her. Saanchi cried the whole night. That day she decided to tell everything to her parents as well as hostel warden. Ritu was not pleased with her idea but Saanchi was stubborn with her decision. So , she went to the hostel warden and the warden said that tomorrow she will meet the college principal and would tell him everything. Then Saanchi videocalled her parents , told them about what she was suffering from. Now Saanchi felt lighter and slept peacefully the whole night .

Next day, Saanchi was called by the principal , she told everything to her. Principal called Mike and scolded him . Police was called to take mike to the prison. Afterwards , on interrogation , Mike accepted his sin and also a shocking thing , that , Ritu was involved with him in taking all those pictures. Ritu was arrested as well but later when she accepted her mistake , Saanchi took her complaint back. For her , forgiving was always bigger than punishing and Ritu was her friend as well as her roommate . Saanchi’s parents were all the time present with her during these events. Some days later everything was okay. Saanchi was again into studying. Ritu was now her best friend. Saanchi helped Ritu in studies. About 4 months were over and everything was normal and Saanchi’s life was now more happening than ever. Saanchi’s exams were going to arrive in next 1.5 months. She was now busy like hell for her exams. Ritu have grown into a more needy , overpossessive and over protective friend in last 3-4 months. She always wanted Saanchi to be with her but Saanchi was still all cool with it. Ritu’s behaviour was disturbing both mentally and also in Saanchi’s studies but she never minded. Ritu would always forced her to eat veggies and drink milk and would try to become more of her mother than her friend but Saanchi tried to cope up with the sitution without complaining Ritu about it cause she loved her as a friend as well as a sister.

One day when Saanchi was fast asleep after hectic work and study , she heard some noises. She woke up and switched on the lights. Ritu was fast asleep in her bed. Saanchi again heard some noises as if someone is walking towards her. She saw around the room but was unable to find anyone. She was sure that it was not Ritu. Saanchi thought of it as her valetudinarianism and switched of the lights. She again heard the same noises but , this time again she found no one around her. Saanchi didn’t sleep that night. For next 5-7 nights every night she faced the same issue and was unable to sleep properly. Her studies started to get affected. She told her friends and all of them except Ritu were mocking at her situation , all of them thought that Saanchi was just overthinking.

One night , she heard footsteps and turned on the lights. She was afraid as hell when she found mike standing there giving a crooked smile. Saanchi wanted to shout as loud as possible but her voice choked. Suddenly the lights turned off and again in a few seconds they turned on automatically . As those lights turned on , Saanchi found that mike had vanished . He was nowhere around in her room. She went to Ritu and woke her up. Ritu consoled her and tried to make her sleep but she herself fell asleep and saanchi was still wide awake. The next day she enquired about mike in the police station and was shocked to know that he had committed suicide 5-7 days ago. Saanchi now started believing that she was being ruled by the demonic soul of Mike and that he has came back to take revenge on her. This appearance and vanishing thing again continued for several days. Saanchi had failed badly in the last two revision exams. And was very tensed about her approaching final exams. She wanted to tell her parents about her suffering but was not able to tell as for her safety , her parents would take her back to India and her dream career would be lost in stories. She isolated herself from everyone. Her parents started stressing out on her behaviour but they consoled themselves by saying that she is just busy in studies and nothing else.

Again one night , Mike once again appeared but this time he tried to hit Saanchi with a stick and then he got hold of her hair and pushed them demonically. Saanchi screamed. Lights turned off and on and Mike had vanished. Ritu came running by her and Saanchi told her about the incident. Ritu made her relax and tried to make her fall asleep but she cried the whole night. That night saanchi decided to take some action before its too late. She planned out everything and the next few days she faced Mike silently . She used to cry but she stopped calling Ritu. She just made Mike to come and hurt her everytime . Every single day she was busy preparing things for her traps and during nights she faced mike’s fury.

Finally the day came. She had planted micro sized cameras and night cameras and recorders everywhere in the room and the live telecast of all the happenings in the room was broadcasted to the police station’s recording room. As expected Mike came and and started beating her. She screamed for help as loud as possible. The lights turned off and he vanished. Ritu came by Saanchi. She sat beside her to console her.

Saanchi gave a tight slap on her face. Police rushed into her room. They had arrested Mike.

Saanchi got to know the reality and it was harsh and hard hitting to her. Mike and Ritu both were doing these nuisances to scare Saanchi away. Ritu was jealous of Saanchi’s beauty and her popularity in College among the teachers and students. She many times felt as if she was being compared to Saanchi and in that comparison Saanchi always turned out to be superior than her.

Saanchi said to Ritu, “I thought you were my best friend. You betryed me. You betrayed my trust and faith in friendship. Thanks to god that , that day when you were in the wash room , Mike had messaged you about the PLAN and I mistook your phone as mine and I read that text message. From that day itself I decided to get to the roots of reality. I searched your phone and got to read some old texts which have mentioned your hatred towards me and your so called LOVE towards Mike . Earlier also , It was you who plotted against me using Mike as a tool to take revenge on me so that I get scared enough to run home and leave my studies. I copied those text messages and informed the police station that Mike had faked his suicide and that you and him are trying to plot a horror scene against me to shoo me away. I have all the proofs that show that how you used to give me medications with milk that produced hallucinations in my mind and now I know that this is the reason why you grew so very over protective for me, Cameras have captured everything .I also got to know that Mike used to vanish through the secret passage below you bed. And how you both planned everything everyday against me. I forgave you that day and it was the biggest mistake of my life. Today I learnt a lesson that SOMETIMES PUNISHING IS BETTER THAN FORGIVING.”

Mike and Ritu were arrested and their admissions were cancelled. Saanchi told everything to her parents and friends. They all were proud of her. She went into depression due to the sufferings and those bad memories and ofcourse the betrayal by Ritu but soon with treatment and medication she was normal and ultimately after three years , bagged the first rank in her university exam.

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