NUTMEG, CHAPTER 11: COMEBACK

2^nd FEBRUARY 2019, 10:40 PM

The minutes hand of the tiny smiley-faced clock nudged forward, breaking the silence of the night, causing Parth to steal a glance from his book. The clock, gifted by Navya on them being together for a month, always brought a smile to his lips as he sheepishly remembers that he still needs to gift her something. Registering that there remained 20 minutes for Barcelona’s next match against Valencia, he flipped the next page of the murder mystery novel he was reading. The stillness was cracked with sound of his mobile’s ringtone as he picked the phone up almost instantly. The caller-Id flashed a familiar name and number, that had become lost in the annals of his hundred contacts and his memories – “HOME”. It had been months since he last talked to his family and while he was still contemplating whether to answer the call or not, the ringing died, flashing a missed call message on the screen. Parth had loving memories of his childhood with his family but had drifted apart from them ever since his elder sister, Pari, died following a road accident nearly four years ago. Circumstances leading up to the accident led the younger Parth to blame his parents for the demise of his loving sister and his anger led him to avoid any possible contact. With time, though he had understood that the blame lied with the circumstances, he never gained the courage to restore normalcy to his relationship with his parents, fearing getting flooded with memories of Pari and had not been home for the last few years. Deep in his thoughts he remembered about the match to be starting in about 5 minutes and switched on his TV.

Barcelona were coming into this match basking in the glory of registering an emphatic 6-1 comeback in the Spanish Cup quarterfinals, with Phillipe Coutinho probably playing his best game in the Blaugrana colours. Barcelona had lost the first leg 0-2 away from home in a match in which Messi was rested and were in the dangers of crashing out of the tournament, which they have won 4 times in a row now. However, Messi and his team turned up the style in the home leg and made mockery of the claims that the team was throwing away the Cup tournament to focus on more important La Liga and Champions League titles. The semifinals had pitted them against their arch rivals Real Madrid, with the first match of the two-legged encounter to be played within days, but priorities for tonight lied in the league encounter against Valencia, with a chance to extend their lead to eight points at top of the table. Though they had struggled for most of the season, Valencia had enough talent to cause Barcelona trouble and it was evident in the first few minutes as Valencia captain Dani Parejo has an early shot at goal which was saved and was quickly followed by another effort that struck the goalpost. True to their possession-based style of play, Barcelona controlled more of the ball but Valencia’s attacking mentality and solid defensive structure were restricting them to trying out shots from distance. The confidence Parth was feeling following the comeback victory against Sevilla lasted only for 24 minutes as Valencia managed to draw first blood. Parejo was in thick of the action again as he stole the ball from Messi and passed to Moreno, who guided the ball brilliantly between defenders for Kevin Gameiro to score the opener. Barcelona almost provided an immediate response to the goal with Coutinho’s cross was nearly turned towards his own net by Valencia’s defender Garay only to be saved by reflexes of his keeper Neto. The passion of both teams involved was on display as Pique and Gameiro, jumping for an aerial ball, had a clash of heads with blood oozing from Pique’s head due to the impact. As he received treatment on the sidelines, the Barcelona defence were left vulnerable. Shortly after a bandaged Pique made his way back to the pitch, Sergi Roberto fouled Valencia forward Wass to stop him from getting to a cross, in turn earning them a penalty which was duly converted by Parejo. The score line after 32 minutes would be 2-0 in favor of Valencia was one that neither the Barcelona players nor their fans could fathom.

The struggles of his team reminded Parth of his own struggles following Pari’s death. He had almost lost his sleep with his mind never allowing him to be calm or at peace. For the minimal time he did manage to fall asleep, he would wake up with a jolt due to the nightmares. His friends in college tried their best to cheer him up, avoiding speaking about his sister at all in the hope that it would distract him from the pain. Though they did care for Parth, this ‘out of sight, out of mind’ philosophy wasn’t working as the more kept his anger and hurt confined to himself, the more it pulled him into the darkness. He had become a walking dead soul, being present at every plan but hardly ever involved with the reality happening around him. From laughing hysterically at some funny moment to experiencing a chocking feeling of emptiness and dread the very next moment, Parth had hoped he’d be back to normal as time rolled on. As months passed on without any improvement, he began to suspect that he was suffering from depression, but as mental health is ignorantly viewed in the society, his idea was scoffed at by his friends and they advised him to just ‘try to be happy’, not knowing what a struggle that had become for him. Feeling no chance of a respite, he found solace in the smooth warmth of alcohol and before he could realize, he was on course to become an addict and it came as no wonder to anybody as his grades plummeted at the end of that semester.

He was drawn back to the present by the cheers of the Camp Nou crowd celebrating a goal. The right back Semedo had been fouled while Messi pounced on the loose ball and guided it into the net, only for the goal to be disallowed as the penalty for the foul on Semedo had already been awarded. Messi sent Neto the wrong scoring the penalty to get Barcelona back into the game and luck seemed to tilt in their favor when Gameiro looked unable to continue due to his prior head clash with Pique and had to be substituted. As Valencia were sill recovering from the double blow, another Barcelona’s attack results in hitting the post. As play resumes after an eventful first 45 minutes, Jordi Alba, who was rested for today’s match was brought on to maximize the team’s efforts to equalize. The fact, that the squad lacked a natural replacement for the impact Alba provides, was glaring at this moment. Valencia’s keeper Neto was made to work hard as Barcelona’s academy graduate Alena got more involved in the game, resulting in a string of attacks, only to be thwarted by the keeper’s heroics. Parth had afoot in the mouth moment as Valencia nearly snatched a third goal and a big miss followed soon after. However, hope is never far away when the best player in the world plays for your team. Messi, like a true leader, got Barcelona to level terms on the 64^th minute scoring off a fancy flick by Aturo Vidal. The joy was evident in his voice as Parth screamed after the equalizer goal, with Messi celebrating wildly on the screen. The jubilance was short-lived as minutes later, the entire stadium fell silent fearing another injury, seeing Messi move to the sidelines to receive some treatment to his leg. Though he shook off the knock to come back into the game, Barcelona let the momentum escape and the game dragged on to finish 2-2. Though it wasn’t the best possible result, Parth was pleased that the team had mustered another resilient comeback, just days after an historic one and this would bode well for the team, preparing them for a tough line of fixtures throughout the month.

Parth’s own comeback may not have been as spectacular as tonight, but it was something he was proud of. Being dismissed by many as hopeless and a failure, Parth realized the depths of the pit he had fallen into and fueled his anger to fight against the demons that haunted him. Kicking the bottle addiction away was the first step and his friends helped him along in this quest. He began running in the morning, hoping to be exhausted and tire himself to sleep every day.  He found peace, sitting in the porch of the nearby temple witnessing the hope and positivity in the eyes of the devotees. There were moments where he would feel like drowning himself in the sorrow again, but a tiny flame now burned inside of him, reminding him that this wasn’t the person his sister would have hoped to see. She had sacrificed a lot for Parth’s education and he was determined to not disrespect her efforts by throwing his life away. Steadily, he returned to his former self, cracking silly jokes again at the expense of his friends and enjoying with them. Witnessing Parth’s recovery to be cheerful again, with a stronger mentality, many believed that he had overcome his demons but only he knew the darkness was still there, the only difference being, he controlled it now instead of the other way around. Realizing it was about time he reconnected and talked to his parents, he reminded himself to call back home first thing in the morning the following day, as he drifted into a peaceful slumber.