Life takes over…
Three years…or…2 years 7 months 17 days 15 hours to be precise…
Is that long enough? A gap long enough to meet someone who has been a part of your existence from you-forgot-when!
Whirlwind…that’s how I name it! More of ‘he came, he saw, he conquered’. And I bet it’s not that difficult to conquer the heart of a 22-year old having romantic notions of falling in love. But, am sure you’ll will agree with me, it’s impossible to remain the conqueror as she grows up…amidst makes and breaks…amidst 1000 ‘I love you-s’ and ‘I want to marry you-s’, amidst changing notions…amidst soul talks.
And he did the ‘impossible’. There were misunderstandings, ego-clashes, not talking to each other for months, blocking each other’s chat IDs yet stalking each other, ‘I hate you’ for months and suddenly ‘am sorry for getting it all wrong’, and talking from where it all began.
Love has always been strange, but this time, I guess its stranger. I mean how can someone fall in love with a face behind some scribbling, some songs, some random thoughts, some pictures…a profile to be precise? Liking, is it? Agreed! But then…why did she feel the city has nothing left when he left for his own? Why did he end up spending a whole evening building up castles in the virtual world just to give her (or themselves) a dream date (which can never beat any other date she would ever have in her life).
Late night chats knowing both are ‘committed’ not to each other, just two common bindings – the city where they grew up and rain – endless coffee and conversations. Talks varied from veiled Rebecca in museum to colors of the old city, from first love in college to commitments, from first rain to dream of rain-walking…and it kept them awake. For nights altogether!
Farewell followed! Though for a short while! But still…it did! And what followed is a realization…should meet for at least once in life.
Smelling adventure? Even they did! He went back. What followed in-between is obvious! Endless phone calls, texting each other, endless poetry and music…in short, being together!
A month rolled…he came back. And they met…on the same place where they had their virtual date. Same place, different time! And were lost forever...
He claims…he had enough reason to fall. True perhaps!
She claims…she doesn’t know why she fell! True again!
To which the answer is: “She fell for a man”. True for sure!
1 week, the dream week of life. When they lived for the moment, not caring about the past, about the might-be future. Perhaps that’s why it was a dream…you can’t live forever ignoring your past and future.
What followed is a series of planning…him planning how she can relocate to his city, or he can relocate to hers, how to gain back his ‘single’ status from the long committed one, punctuated by conversations…all kept secret to give her a surprise.
For her…it was a series of realization…fighting to get back her single status, realizing he is ‘all-around’, seriously thinking of getting serious, being sure that this is it…and all of this to give him a surprise.
Sooner than expected, misunderstandings followed…curt replies and ‘get lost’…
Pause…but mind you…not period.
And then back to ‘sorry for getting it all wrong’. Back to square one…coffee and conversations.
Reality dawned in…in the form of responsibilities…humanity…duty…
They went their own way…with a promise of being together someday, some way…
If not now, maybe when they grow old…when people won’t have any expectations from them…
A long pause…which they mistook for period
In between what happened is obvious…or not so!
He ended up in being a matrimony…comfortable for his spouse, and ‘keep your eyes shut and this too shall pass’ for him
She has been in and out of relationships, more often out than in…all in the process of preparing herself to get married. Will perhaps end up marrying someone someday…and I know she will try to make it ‘comfortable’
2 years 7 months 17 days 15 hours
And they meet again. In-person! Smiled at each other, laughed at themselves….
Realizations…
She has become a habit for him, no matter what happens, she is the only one whom he can talk to in his imagination
He has been the same for her…and she does not want to come out of this one love of her life. She can’t live without loving him.
He is the only one who loves her without any expectation
She is the only one who will keep loving him no-matter-what
She still ends up sending random texts stating, “Shit man…I can’t get you out of my mind”
He still replies: “Huh…as if I can!”
He still can’t have chilli fish because the last time they went out for dinner, she went crazy over it
She still smiles every time someone orders Biriyani, because he is crazy for it
Knowingly, or unknowingly, the only soft drink they have been drinking for the past three years is Mazaa or Slice!
Follows…
Result…
He promises to be together when they turn sixty, having fulfilled other’s (read social) expectations…
And will be together for the rest of their life ‘till death do them part’
They smile…
Suddenly
An emergency call from home…
They rush back to their own lives…
And
Life takes over….
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