THE LEDGER
Chapter — A Message After All These Years
It was the last day of the week.
It was past 10 p.m.
Aravind was sitting in his room.
On the table were all the notes and reports from the investigations he had conducted throughout the week.
After going through every detail of the cases he had investigated during the past week, Aravind prepared his Weekly Investigation Report.
He carefully checked every piece of information.
He went through the doubtful points once again.
Then he completed the report.
He placed it inside a file.
He decided to send it by Registered Post from the post office the following day and kept the file safely on the table.
He looked at the time again.
It was already late.
Aravind switched off the light.
He went to bed.
Exhausted from the week's investigations, he slowly fell asleep.
---
The Next Morning
As usual, Aravind woke up early.
He completed his morning Surya Namaskar.
After that, he went through his Kalaripayattu training.
His entire body was covered in sweat, but after the training, his mind felt unusually calm.
He returned home.
Took a bath.
Changed his clothes.
Then he picked up the Weekly Investigation Report he had prepared the previous night.
He placed the report safely inside an envelope.
Aravind left for the post office to send it by Registered Post.
He reached the post office.
He sent the report by Registered Post.
He collected the receipt and kept it in his pocket.
After leaving the post office, he thought,
"I'll buy a few things before going home."
So he went to the market.
He bought some vegetables.
He also bought some fish.
With the shopping bag in his hand, he was walking back home.
That was when...
His mobile phone vibrated.
Aravind took out his phone.
There was a WhatsApp message.
From an unknown number.
He opened the message.
It said:
“Hi... it's me.”
Aravind stopped right there.
"It's me...?"
Who was this?
He looked at the message again.
Another message arrived.
“You're Aravind, right?”
He stared at the number without understanding.
No name.
No profile picture.
The number was unfamiliar.
Another message appeared.
“If I tell you who I am... don't you remember me?”
Aravind's finger hovered over the reply box.
What should he reply?
Should he ask:
“Who are you?”
Or should he say:
“I don't know this number.”
He couldn't decide.
Something inside him became uneasy the moment he saw those messages.
He didn't even understand why.
But...
That message had opened a door inside him that had remained closed for years.
Aravind's mind suddenly travelled back into the past.
---
Years Ago...
Aravind was studying in higher secondary school.
The Aravind of those days was very different from the man he had become.
He was just an ordinary young man.
He didn't have much money.
He didn't have strong financial support.
His future wasn't clear either.
But during those days, there was one girl in his heart.
Her name was...
Nitha.
Aravind first noticed Nitha when she was studying in higher secondary school.
She wasn't a nurse then.
She was just an ordinary girl studying like him.
Aravind would watch her.
He noticed when she arrived.
He noticed when she left.
He listened whenever she spoke.
He watched whenever she smiled.
Slowly...
Aravind's feelings for Nitha grew.
From his side, it was genuine love.
But from Nitha's side...
There was nothing like that.
She didn't like Aravind in the same way.
To her, Aravind was someone she knew.
Later, perhaps a friend.
Nothing more.
But it took Aravind some time to understand that.
---
During those days, Aravind used to message Nitha almost every day.
“Hi...”
“What are you doing?”
“Did you go to class?”
“Do you remember me?”
“Good morning...”
“Good night...”
Messages of all kinds.
Some were sent for no reason at all.
Some were affectionate.
Sometimes he would message her simply because he wanted to talk to her.
Nitha didn't have those kinds of feelings for Aravind.
Even then...
She never blocked him.
For Aravind, that became a huge source of hope.
"She hasn't blocked me..."
He would often tell himself that.
But the reality was different.
Nitha never took Aravind's love that seriously.
To her, in a way, it was almost like a joke.
A young man was following her.
Sending her messages.
Telling her that he liked her.
She never considered it something very serious.
That was why she didn't block him.
Her replies were also very limited.
Aravind might send ten messages...
She might reply to only one.
Sometimes just two words.
Sometimes:
“Hmm.”
Sometimes:
“Okay.”
Sometimes nothing at all.
But Aravind didn't pay attention to that.
The fact that she replied was enough for him.
Even when she simply said “Okay”...
It meant something much bigger inside his heart.
---
Time moved on.
Nitha completed her studies.
Later, she became a nurse.
Aravind was still trying to build his life.
He completed an ordinary degree.
But at that time, he didn't have a permanent job.
Financially, he wasn't in a strong position either.
Nitha's life, meanwhile, was moving in another direction.
She got a job.
Later, she received an opportunity to work in a Gulf country.
She began preparing to leave for the Gulf.
When Aravind saw all of this, he felt a difference between their lives.
On one side...
A young man who still didn't know where his life was going.
On the other...
Nitha, who had found a job and was preparing to leave for another country.
Aravind felt that difference deeply.
She was moving forward.
He was still behind.
Even then, he didn't stop loving Nitha.
He tried again and again.
He sent messages.
He tried to talk to her.
He tried to get her attention.
But Nitha didn't love Aravind.
That was the truth.
And slowly...
Aravind began to understand it.
---
Even then...
Nitha didn't block him.
Sometimes she would call him.
Sometimes there would be a little teasing.
Sometimes she would say:
“Aravind chetta...”
Whenever he heard that, Aravind would become shy again.
He was an introvert by nature.
Whenever Nitha called, he often didn't even know what to talk about.
If she asked something, he would give a short answer.
If she laughed, he would laugh too.
But after the call ended...
He would sit alone and remember that small conversation again and again.
"She spoke to me like this..."
"She called me Aravind chetta..."
Those small things had a huge meaning in his heart.
But from Nitha's side...
It was simply a normal conversation with a friend.
She didn't love Aravind.
It wasn't a romantic relationship.
No matter how much Aravind tried...
Nitha could never understand his love in the same way.
---
Finally...
One day, Nitha blocked Aravind.
Perhaps she had reached a point where she could no longer tolerate the messages and calls he kept sending.
For Aravind, it was a huge blow.
He checked his phone again and again.
He tried to send a message.
He tried to call her.
But everywhere he found the same answer.
He was blocked.
At first, he couldn't understand why.
"What did I do wrong?"
he asked himself.
Even though she had never accepted his love...
He had never imagined that she would completely shut him out.
After she blocked him, a huge emptiness appeared inside him.
But the pain was accompanied by something else.
Humiliation.
The person he had spent so many years hoping for...
had suddenly closed the door on him.
Aravind slowly tried to come out of that pain.
He stopped sending messages.
Stopped calling.
Stopped checking for her.
He tried to forget her.
---
A year passed.
Aravind thought about Nitha less and less.
The memories were still there.
But he pushed them into a corner of his mind.
Then...
One day, Nitha returned to his life.
She unblocked him.
Then she sent him a message.
“Hi Aravind... how are you?”
When Aravind saw that message, his mind immediately ran back to the past.
He didn't understand why she had returned.
But he replied.
She started talking to him again.
She asked about his life.
She asked about what he had been doing.
Slowly...
They became friends again.
Aravind tried to control his old feelings.
This time, he reminded himself that she had come back only as a friend.
But the heart doesn't always listen to the mind.
Whenever Nitha spoke to him again...
Every message created a small movement inside his heart.
He was happy that she had returned to his life.
But there was also fear.
The fear that she might leave again.
The fear that she might abandon him again.
Still...
He accepted the friendship.
---
About a month after she returned...
Nitha told Aravind something.
“I'm getting married.”
Aravind remained silent for a few seconds.
He had heard the words...
But his mind needed time to understand them.
“Married...?”
he asked quietly.
“Yes.”
Nitha answered normally.
There was no great emotion in her voice.
For her, it was simply the natural next step in her life.
But for Aravind...
That one word opened a room inside him that had been locked away for years.
The girl he had once loved...
was now going into someone else's life.
He hadn't exactly lost her.
She had never been his.
And yet...
It felt like he had lost something.
He forced himself to smile.
“Congratulations.”
he said.
But there was a slight tremor in his voice.
He didn't know whether Nitha noticed it.
She continued talking about the wedding preparations.
Her family.
The clothes.
The invitations.
The wedding ceremony.
She spoke happily.
Aravind listened.
Outwardly, he behaved like a friend.
But inside...
His heart was slowly breaking.
---
One week before the wedding...
Nitha called Aravind.
He answered.
“Hello...”
Her voice came from the other side.
“Aravind chetta...”
Hearing that familiar way of calling him again made his heart stop for a moment.
“What is it?”
he asked.
Nitha remained silent for a few seconds.
Then she said in a very normal voice:
“My wedding is on Sunday.”
Aravind said nothing.
She continued:
“You have to come.”
The moment he heard those words...
Something inside Aravind broke.
He held the phone against his ear and remained completely still.
For Nitha, it was simply an invitation.
She wanted an old friend to attend her wedding.
But for Aravind...
It was much more than an invitation.
The girl he had loved for years...
was inviting him to stand there and watch her enter another man's life.
And she herself was asking him to come.
A storm of emotions rose inside him.
Pain.
Humiliation.
Jealousy.
Emptiness.
Anger.
The sadness of losing her.
The truth that she had never belonged to him.
The hope that had returned when she came back into his life.
And now...
Her wedding invitation was standing directly in front of that hope.
He didn't know what to say.
Should he say he would come?
Should he say he couldn't?
Should he simply remain silent?
His throat went dry.
Finally, he said softly:
“I'll see...”
Nitha laughed.
“Not ‘I'll see.’ You have to come.”
she said.
There was no hesitation in her voice.
She had no idea what was happening inside Aravind.
To her, he was still just a friend.
An old friend who should attend her wedding.
But at that moment, what Aravind was experiencing...
was not the pain of receiving an ordinary invitation.
It was the weight of several years of emotions collapsing inside one young man's heart.
After the call ended, Aravind sat alone for a long time.
There was nobody in the room.
But inside him...
there were thousands of voices.
I should go.
I shouldn't.
She should be happy.
Then why does this hurt so much?
She never loved me.
Then why did I love her this much?
She blocked me and left.
She came back after a year.
She became my friend again.
And now, one week before her wedding, she is asking me to come.
Aravind closed his eyes.
Nitha's face appeared in his mind.
Then he imagined her in her wedding dress.
Standing beside another man.
Smiling.
He couldn't even bear that image inside his own mind.
He was just an ordinary young man.
A man who knew that his love would never become his...
but still couldn't completely let it go.
A man who had broken when she blocked him.
A man who had hoped again when she returned after a year.
And now...
A man who had to bury the last of that hope with his own hands after she invited him to her wedding.
Aravind didn't sleep that night.
He picked up his phone several times.
Opened Nitha's chat.
Read her old messages.
Then put the phone down.
Picked it up again.
Looked at her profile picture.
Then put it away.
His mind couldn't make a decision.
Was going to the wedding for her?
Or was he going there only to hurt himself more?
Was staying away a way of punishing her?
Or was it a way of protecting himself?
He didn't know.
Finally...
Aravind did not attend Nitha's wedding.
He didn't give her a long explanation.
He sent only one message.
“I can't come. I hope you live happily.”
Nitha replied:
“Okay. Thank you.”
That was all.
For her, the conversation ended there.
But inside Aravind...
it took years to end.
Slowly, he came out of that pain.
The messages became fewer.
The calls became fewer.
And eventually...
they stopped completely.
Life moved forward.
Nitha went on with her life.
She got married.
Aravind also took another path in life.
Time passed.
One year.
Two years.
Five years...
Aravind didn't even remember exactly how many years had gone by.
But somewhere inside him...
Nitha's memory remained locked away.
He thought he had forgotten her.
---
Now...
Aravind suddenly returned from his memories.
He was still standing on the road.
The shopping bag was in one hand.
The mobile phone was in the other.
That number was still on the screen.
One question remained in his mind:
“Why is she messaging me now?”
He looked at the number again.
“Is it really Nitha?”
he asked himself.
Then he answered himself.
“After all these years... why?”
For a moment, Aravind felt as though his head was spinning.
His mind was going back into the past again.
“What is happening to me?”
he asked himself.
“Am I going back into all those old memories again?”
He felt a little afraid of himself.
“What's wrong with my mind?”
he wondered.
Everything he had forgotten for so long...
was returning with a single message.
Old voices.
Old faces.
Old days.
Old hopes.
Everything at once.
He looked at the phone again.
Then shook his head.
“No... I shouldn't go back into this again.”
he told himself.
But...
the phone vibrated again.
WhatsApp — New Message
Aravind slowly opened the screen.
This time, the message was more direct.
“Have you forgotten me?”
Aravind's eyes remained fixed on those words.
Another message arrived.
“Where are you?”
His heartbeat changed again.
He didn't reply.
He simply stood there holding the phone.
One question remained in his mind.
Why, after all these years, did Nitha need to find him?
Was it the return of an old love?
The return of a friendship?
Or...
the beginning of another danger entering his life?
Without realizing it, Aravind looked at the number again.
A name he had tried to forget years ago...
was now back on his mobile screen.
NITHA.
On Aravind's face appeared both the pain of an old love and the suspicion of an investigator.
He finally opened the reply box.
His fingers remained still above the keyboard.
What should he write?
Should he ask:
“Who is this?”
Or...
“Nitha... is that you?”
His finger moved toward the second option.
Then...
Another message arrived.
“Aravind... I need to tell you something.”
Aravind's eyes narrowed.
For the first time, the investigator inside him suspected that this was not simply the return of an old love.
He tightened his grip around the phone.
Only one message remained on the screen.
“I need to tell you something...”
Aravind didn't know it yet...
but Nitha's next words were going to affect not only his past...
but also his present life.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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