How I ruined my cousin's date

To Err is Human. And sometimes to hide this errr... we lie. Because the truth can get us into trouble.

But "There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right." Very rightly said by Martin Luther King Jr. Our conscience is the voice of our soul and very few have the courage to listen to this voice and do as it says.

I live with a chatterbox of a conscience. I left home in 2003 and like any other Indian parents, my parents worry every minute for me. But they know they can always trust me, because I (mostly) never lie about my plans or whereabouts or late night parties or the company I'm out with. But the incident I'm going to narrate is not about them.

Back in 2007, when I was in my Engineering final year in Chennai, a cousin had joined the same college as mine. Let's call her Rhika (Name changed for privacy). I was like an elder sister to her in that new city that she had just moved to. And being from a small town, she wanted to experience a discotheque.

The problem was that the closest good disc allowed only couples. I had a friend to go with, but she didn't. It was semester break time for college and only very few final year students were in the city who were doing their internship in Chennai. In the end, we requested a batchmate of ours to accompany the three of us, in spite of knowing that the guy holds the reputation of a playboy. We never gave it much thought as the plan was only for few hours. And of course, we warned Rhika about him. What harm could have come of it?

So we entered the disc without any hassle as two couples, spent good time there, had a few drinks, danced and left as planned. There was no Whatsapp in those days. So the mishap happened over text messages during the next 24 hours. To cut the long story short, Mr. Playboy proposed to Rhika before sun rose the next day. She had probably fallen for his charms and was naive enough to accept it. And then he told her, he would like to take her to Pondicherry next weekend. 

Tell me if I am wrong, but I do not believe that love happens overnight. What happens that fast is lust. And when a love-lorn Rhika told me about this getaway plan, I freaked out - out of care for her. So I gave a call to an elder cousin of ours and narrated her the incident of the past 24 hours, hoping she would talk Rhika out of it. Instead, she went hyper and told everything to Rhika's family. 

Result was that we both got verbal bashings over the phone - from her family and our dear broadcaster cousin. Yes, I got it too, as I was blamed for taking her out to party and introducing her to that guy. Rhika was angry on me for outing her. It was like hell breaking loose. In the end to avoid further shit, I vouched to her family that she broke up (even before they had started). 

Surprisingly, my parents weren't angry on me even after knowing about the incident. The habit of 'not hiding' had saved me, as they knew I was partying that night with friends and was taking Rhika along. And the trust factor that had grown between me and my parents, made them believe me when I told them that I was not at fault here.

That affair went on for 3 months in a hushed up way, until the day the boy left Rhika for another girl!!! A heartbroken Rhika often says, "I wish I had listened to you and not wasted those 3 months!"

May be things could have turned out better for them, proving me wrong and making her live happily ever after with him. But back then, my conscience told me that telling the truth was the right thing to do, though I had to later lie to everyone to save my relationship with her.

Till date I have not asked her whether she went to Pondicherry or not :D. I keep the 'telling the truth' practice restricted to my life. Others can decide what is right or wrong for them by themselves. If they make a mistake, they'll learn from it. We all do.

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This post has been written for Kinley, in association with Indiblogger. Watch this video and you'll thank me for the happy tear you might shed.