It was 25th December 2020, the day of Christmas when me and my friends decided to go to this amazing place called Halali Dam, 41 kilometers on the outskirts of Bhopal, the capital city of Madhya Pradesh. Since our parents were a little strict, me and my best friend, Amaya made up a deceptive story to tell them which involved going on a morning walk at 7 am.
My neighbor, Rahul who also happens to be a very good friend of mine, agreed to drive us there in his mom’s car. His best friend, Sameer was also going to join us for this outing.
The night before the trip was pretty sleepless due to the anticipation of our little excursion. So, when the alarm went off at 6 am, I was already up and about. I brushed my teeth, pulled up my jeans and was ready to leave for the spot where Rahul and Sameer were going to pick me up from. I hopped into the car with them and we drove on to pick up Amaya. While we were waiting for Amaya, Sameer and Rahul lit up a cigarette to blow out some steam. The four of us then got into the car and drove towards our much awaited destination and the journey was as exhilarating as a concert because we jammed all throughout it.
We reached the location, parked the car near a temple and left for the dam which was a kilometer away from the parking spot. The dam was as picturesque as we thought, so we took off our shoes, folded up our jeans and jumped into the water. After playing in the water and clicking pictures, we walked towards a nearby rest house to get some brunch. We ordered aloo parathas and enjoyed them with curd. Then we took a stroll in the garden and headed back to where we parked our car. When we reached the parking spot, a chill went down my spine from the horrifying scene right in front of me. We were beyond flabbergasted to find the rear windows of the car completely shattered and glass shards scattered all over the ground and on the back seat. Rahul haphazardly ran towards the car and unlocked the door only to find all our belongings and money stolen. I tried to console Rahul who went numb from the sight of his vandalized car. Sameer lit up another cigarette while Amaya just stood there dumbfounded unable to gather strength to react in any way.
Never could we have imagined that leaving the car unattended to would have such dire repercussions. After cleaning up the mess, incapable of doing anything we steered back to our house in Bhopal city.
We parted our ways, I went back home and behaved as if nothing happened since the fear of getting caught was much worse than the trauma of the whole incident, little did I know that my lie was going to catch up with me sooner than I had ever expected.
Coming back from a brisk walk in the evening, when I looked at my mother who was calmly and austerely folding clothes at the moment, I knew I was doomed cause her eyes gave away the hurt and anger she felt towards me. She called me and said and I quote “We both know where you went today and now is the moment to come clean otherwise you know, the more the lies the more the trouble”. Anxious and feeling extremely guilty, I blurted out everything at once and profusely apologized to her. To my surprise, rather than getting more furious, my mother gave me a cold nod and asked me not to repeat anything like this ever again. That was the time when I realized that our parents can be much more understanding than we give them credit for and that if we feel the need to be dishonest with them about something, then probably that thing would never work in our favor. After introspecting upon this trail of thought that whole night, the first thing I did the next morning was to hug her tightly and let her know candidly how much I appreciate and love her.
