Give me another chance… 

She was returning after taking her 12th class board paper. She asked her father to stop the car on the flyover they were passing that moment, she felt nauseous and wanted fresh air. He pulled up on the side of the road, she went to the railing of the flyover and jumped off. It was 13th March, 2020.

…She was a friend of my daughter, stayed in the next building in the complex in Delhi. They would often discuss their subjects, prepare for the 12th board exams together. She had visited our home on my daughter’s birthday.

…It was stunning news. The board exams had progressed under the uncertainties brought in by Covid-19, with students attending papers in masks. Only two more papers to go.

…My daughter was shattered upon losing a close friend, and in such a sudden way. She wanted to see her friend one last time before the cremation but given the emerging Covid situation it was not advisable. There was no chance.

…On 18th March, the remaining board exams were called off as the pandemic had set in, and on 23rd March, the country went into a
21-day lockdown, which was later extended. Eventually, the rest of the board papers were called off, and students were marked for the cancelled papers based on the average of the papers they had appeared for.

…Was it the exam stress? It did not matter how and why, the truth was that she had left without blossoming. Her parents and younger brother were left devastated and I felt the loss, too.

…Could she have waited for just five more days? The entire world was in a lockdown, she would have got time to reflect, the world had changed forever by the pandemic. It was embracing a new ‘normal’, which she did not wait for.

…Could she have given another chance to this world to redeem itself, if it had pained her to such an extent that she gave up on it? Just one more chance. He was working it. In the new normal, no one took it for granted anymore. Everyone has realised that nothing is permanent and that we all have to live life together with compassion and love.

…Life has progressed since then, we have shifted to Mumbai and my daughter, too, has started her further studies. (The featured image is my daughter’s digital art).

…Peace to that little girl, with a prayer for another chance to her!

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