Chapter 01

Ananya, known as Annie to her friends - had just arrived in Kolkata. In the first week of February - It was not very cold, still just the thoughts of being all alone for the first time in her life made her shiver a bit. It was 5 am in the morning and she waited for Shivani to come and pick her up. Shivani was her school mate who had shifted to kolkata with her parents 3 years back. Now 20 years old, they were very close buds.All around her she could hear people talking, she could barely understand the language as she was not familiar with Bengali.

Just then like a hurricane, came Shivani. She hugged Annie from behind and said "Heeeeeeeeeelo". Annie felt so relieved and happy. It is really surprising, when we are alone we tend to look for anything that is familiar and when we see it finally, it gives us such a rush of warmth.

"you have lost so much weight" was the first sentence that came out of Shivani’s mouth. Annie stood and looked at her.

Shivani was a girl of all 5 feet, but every inch of that was full of life and fun. She had Short curly hair, beautiful in texture as nearly all Bengali girls have and big eyes that oozed with trust and friendship. She was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Her car keys were dangling from her hand as she rattled on all the questions. “How is uncle, how is aunty, how is Aniket”.

“everyone is fine back home. Aniket has sent his hi to you” Annie replied. Aniket was her younger brother.

Annie and Shivani walked out of Howrah station and moved in the direction of the car. Annie was going to stay with Shivani till she got a decent place to live. If Shivani had her way, Annie would stay with her always. Shivani had just completed her Grads in political science and was in mood to spend next 1 – 2 years just having fun. Her father was a businessman and had plenty of money and only one child.

She was a spoilt brat in truest sense. Annie didn’t have this luxury. She had always been a hard worker and wanted to do something for her family by getting a decent job.
Shivani had a cute and pink (like nearly everything she had) Santro. They got inside and Shivani turned on the engine as well as the Fm. The song coming was one of Annie’s Favorite from Elton John – “Sacrifice” – the words of the song came like a warm cup of tea…..