ARIANA

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I had always wondered what it was to have been my friend, Ariana.. She was great,had everything going for her..Attractive physique,rich parents,quality education, successful career and ended up marrying a wealthy man too. I thought her the luckiest woman alive. Well,that was some two years ago when I last saw her. Now, I had my middle class family, five adorable kids and a job that reminded me life waits for no man.

It’d been a stormy night..it wasn’t raining, nor were there any thunder rumblings or flashes of lightning.. There was just very thick cloud and rough wind. I was sitting in my house watching the broadcast news at 8pm when there was a break for obituary announcements..on the screen came a very familiar face..a face I would never forget. As the nerves in my brain plugged at this discovery,tear drops raced down my face like in a marathon…it was Ariana!, my friend Ariana.

Even as the pallbearers placed the casket before us all, everything still seemed astonishing. The book of eulogy or condolence or whatever they call it these days was brought forward and people went up to it, scribbled short sentences and left.. Ariana had no children, her husband sat at the far corner of the room, his face expressionless.

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I went up to write my own condolence, before I wrote mine, I read through a few eulogies before mine..most of them were emotionless scribbled ink on paper having these same identical messages “wish we got along more” or “wish I got to know you more” . A few tear drops escaped my eyelids and I scribbled down the same words (I know I told you she was my friend,well it was imaginary on my part).

It was time for her husband to read the eulogy and then he made an announcement, that shocked us all.
My wife left an eulogy for herself and asked me to read it to you.
His face was still expressionless as he drew out a piece of paper from the pocket of his suit..

“By the time you all are listening to this, I’d be dead and long gone. I know nobody knew me enough to eulogize me, and that is why I have done so myself. I enjoyed every moment I spent on earth up until this moment where I lay lifeless.. I had lived a life I thought was epic but it was far from that.
My parents were rich so I had a stereotyped life. I never got to savour in any moment. I already had a chosen career and I married the husband my parents wanted..I lived my whole life by other people’s decisions..I had no children, not because I didn’t want to, but because my parents had left their entire fortune to me and all I did was work. I pushed the baby idea until my body gave up from the stress. I know a lot of people would have envied the life I lived, but that is because they did not understand the pressure behind it. I do not expect the funeral room to be filled with people because I had no time to make friends..I had lived my life without memories.
I may not know what it means to live a simple life but how lucky you all are if your life is yours..mine belonged to my parents.
I want you all to learn from me, live your life yourselves for our constellations differ.. And though we are all stars lighting up the galaxy, yet no star can shine the light for another. Do not live. your life as someone else.
Life was made to be enjoyed,not endured. I wish you all a better life than I had,
Ariana”

When he finished reading her eulogy,he was beary-eyed, my own face was uncontrollably soaked with tears. Here was the woman I envied, a woman who despised the life she lived. I bowed my head in shame and I walked through the pew, true as her words, very few people had attended her funeral.
I walked home, refused to take a cab.. Each flower looked more beautiful..each child I saw walk, was even more graceful.
I made up my mind to go home to my children and not be the person anyone expected me to be,but be the best I could…because I had learnt from Ariana that there was a change only me could create and it didn’t need me being anyone other than myself”

Our stars are different, love your life and live it..Someone else adores the life you despise