Chapter 9

Tej Babu opened his eyes. He was in a hospital bed, and had a terrible head-ache. He couldn't get himself to get up. Also his body ached in parts, and in turns. He turned at the digital clock which was hung up in the hospital. He realized now that it had been two months. He hadn't got any idea of where or what he was for two months.

Two months of coma, and following that his health conditions were terribly bad, and so Tej Babu could not continue with his education. He went home with his parents, where he lived on bed rest and occasional tuitions for the kids in the neighbourhood. He was a very popular guy in the area earlier, and now that he was back home, the kids used to spend a lot of time with him. His parents shed a lot of tears over the fact that they couldn't let him get on with life and get going great at his education and the umpteen extra curricular activities in which he was once a star, thanks to the screwed up health conditions he now possessed, but there was nothing in his life, nothing except the regular sleep-eat-sleep run of the mill routine!

Tej Babu didn't know where Pragati was. She had left him for good. She had quit IIT Madras even before he did, and none of her friends also had any idea of where she was going or what she was going to do. Tej Babu lived on with the guilt of almost having spoilt her life and with the great grief of having lost the love of his life to circumstances.

I didn't meet Tej Babu after that. The life of Tej Babu might have gone haywire, but I feel I had a great deal of responsibility in all this. If I had not kindled in the fire in that twelve year old, that innocent twelve year old, he wouldn't have transformed into someone who wanted to always get cooler than he presently was, and in some sense, it wouldn't have destroyed the innocence that lived within him. I feel responsible for his life, and all I can do today is look at him, and feel sad for him, for he was once a noob, and I made him lose it all!