Sadness

No strings attached.
A phrase, I have followed my whole life.

I remember, how I once helped my best friend,
Back in the school days, by covering up
for him, saying that it was my mistake,
that the window’s glass got broken.
Well, I paid a price for it then.
I got suspended for a day.
But I did it with no strings attached.
I did it to save my friend, right?

I also remember, how I helped a teacher once,
In my college, when the a group of
students complained against her
to the principal, and it was a false complaint.
So, I stood by her side, and I chose to embrace
the enemity of my own classmates.
I did that, and I was okay with it,
because I have always followed
the path of righteousness.

There are innumerable incidents like these.
Where I did things, with no strings attached.
But is it the Truth?

Here’s the another side of this story.

I remember, how my best friend,
For whom, I was always there, left me alone,
When I was at my lowest and needed him the most.
The same person, whose mistakes I used to cover.
The same person, whom I trusted the most.

I also remember, how the same teacher,
For whom I stood against my own classmates,
Didn’t stood my by side,
when I in a state of depression.
All I asked her was to give me
some more time, to recover from it.
All I wanted was to see my parents,
but she didn’t grant me the leave.
She didn’t care about my mental health.

We all think that we do things selflessly.
Which we do, to be honest.
But somewhere, inside,
we do expect from these people.

And here’s the thing, it’s okay, to expect.
We’re humans and we do expect from
the people whom we think we’re close to.

We might say that there are no strings attached.
But the truth is, we’ll always expect a li’l from them.

-Abhishek Gupta.