Birthday Presents by August Nexus (grave mercy .txt) 📕

Have you ever been to a psychiatrist?  Probably no. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who deal with patients to diagnose, prevent, study and treat mental disorders. Whenever people come to know that somebody is seeing a psychiatrist, they at once declare that the person is mentally retarded and that’s why patients don’t go to psychiatrists for finding solutions. Why am I telling all this? I am bragging all about psychology because I have an appointment with a psychiatrist.

Anita Raj Sharma is one of the best psychiatrists in my city. I reached her office at 4:00 in the evening. It was a big hospital building looking as gloomy as any other hospital. I entered the building and checked in at the reception counter. The girl at the reception told me that I have to wait for half an hour. Well I knew so but still I thanked her and sat down on one of the steel chairs in front of the reception counter. I sat there brooding and looking around. On the wall in front of me there was a big diagram of human brain showing different parts labelled as medulla oblongata, cerebrum, cerebellum etc. Next to it was a plaque saying ‘silence please’. Under that plaque there was a big chart enlisting the symptoms of depression. So I tried to check for any symptoms of depression in me. As I read the first few lines, I was sure that I had depression and that too at a very dangerous state and there was no cure possible but then I realized I was not there for depression. I never had depression. So I tried to divert my mind by looking at the other patients sitting there. Most of the patients looked as normal as any other human beings on the earth. Some were of my age while some were younger.  To my far right was a wall which had a glass door with letters frosted on it.

Dr. Anita Raj Sharma

M.D. & D.O.

CONSULTING PSYCHIATRIST

I was just observing the surroundings when the receptionist announced my name. I entered the door. It was a medium sized room, beautifully decorated. Walls of this room were painted a light blue and had sofas of different sizes lying in a haphazard but still beautiful way. On the wall opposite the door there was a beautiful wooden door which said ‘Come In’. I entered the wooden door and found myself standing in a big drawing room type of chamber. The room had a glass table at its centre with sofas, couches and an arm chair around the table. A bookshelf packed with books of various genres including psychology stood against one of the walls. The room was clean and had a thick carpet on the floor. Air in this room was leaden with a sweet smell of roses and lavenders. I sat against the armchair and waited for the doc to arrive

After a long moment she came in through a small door which was at the back of the room. I stood up and we shook hands and then she motioned towards the couch and asked me to sit. So we were there, sitting opposite each other. Moments passed but nobody spoke. Then finally she spoke to me breaking the silence that hung between us.

“Hi, I am Anita Raj a consultant psychiatrist but we are here concerned with you so it’s high time now for you to speak.”

“Hi I am Sri. I am 23 years old and I think I am suffering from hyper sex disorder.”

“That’s my job to decide which disorder you are suffering from. So tell me why you think you are suffering from this particular disorder? And when did all this start?”

“Umm, it’s been a long time since I am facing this issue and I don’t know how to resolve it.”

“Sri, why are you here? I expect a real answer from you”

“I am here because I feel I’ve ruined my life my career and everything. It’s a haunting feeling and I can’t get over it”

“See if you will keep talking this way it won’t make any sense so I think you should start to tell me from the very beginning.”

“It was my eighteenth birthday. I was alone at home, so there was no party or anything. I was in my room reading..........”

“Why were you alone on your birthday? Where were your parents and friends?” she said cutting me short. I knew this was gonna come.

“My parents were at my grandma’s. She was ill and they went to see her. They saw her for the last time.” She nodded and asked me to continue. “So I was alone at home. It was a hot afternoon and I had no plans to leave my house in any case. I was thinking about Eva. She was late. She told me that she will come to my house at 2:00 but she was late and I was.....”

She again did this.  Do not interrupt. Anyways.  “Who is Eva?”

“Eva is my cousin. My only cousin.” She nodded like saying oh yeah I guessed that right. “I was thinking about Eva and her being late and how she was the only person I actually knew in this world and how she was both my best ever friend and sister. I was so engrossed that I maybe didn’t hear the doorbell when it first rang. There was somebody at the door and I thought think of the devil. I went downstairs and opened the door but the visitor was not Eva, surprisingly kritesh was at my door with a bouquet of flowers. I was both surprised and annoyed at the same time. He was not a person I was expecting and I was not expecting any guests. Anyways I asked him to come in and we sat opposite to each other and made small talk for a while and then I went to fetch something for him. When I came back, he asked me to open a present he brought from me. I opened that small box and as the contents showed up I remembered my gods. There was a ring inside that box. He was proposing. I asked him to leave. I told him that I can’t have a relationship and that I barely knew him. But he was not like other admirers; he was adamant and refused to leave. He grabbed my shoulders and tried to slide that ring through my fingers. I panicked and threw him away as he came back to me I slapped him.” I stopped to breathe. I was wondering if I want to tell her what’s coming. “He was very angry and he slapped me hard. I fell backwards, my head banged on the floor and everything blackened.” I stopped. I was short of breath and was confused about how to tell her. She must think I am a psycho or a lunatic. That day I got the worst birthday gifts a girl could ask for. The thing is he raped me that day.

KRITESH

“Network marketing is more or less a feedback mechanism; the only difference is that in this system you have to first use the product and then while you are recommending the product to somebody, you have to make sure that he becomes a member of your network. This task seems to be easy but to accomplish a target you have to persuade people to do as you say, it’s like manipulation.......” Our coordinator was speaking but I wasn’t listening anymore. It’s been a week since I came to Lucknow. When I came here I was pretty sure that my work here will not last for more than two days but it’s been seven days and the work is yet to finish. The company I work for had organised a meeting with some clients and I was assigned the task of meeting them. I attended the meeting and all went well and I was about to finish work and leave when my coordinator called me. A series of workshops was to be held here and I was to attend them, for god knows what reasons. Today is the last day of this workshop and tomorrow I have to go and meet my boss here only and then if all went well I’ll leave for home. I promised her that I will take her and kids to the amusement park on Sunday but I got stuck here. I explained to her and she understood but kids, I am sure Riya and Prashant are angry and won’t talk to me when I’ll reach home. I sometimes think about my life so far. The day I met her on that day and we talked awkwardly. Then slowly and gradually we fell in love and got married. Now when I look back its seems as if all this is a dream, impossible to happen in real life but the thing is it’s all real and she is mine for ever.

Text: Sudhansh Sharma
Publication Date: 07-19-2017

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