Life just goes on and no matter how hard it is inside our heart, we have to keep pace with it. At the same time, life brings happiness from different sources and makes us forget our sorrows for some time. My friend and his wife moved to their new flat which their parents had gifted them. The parents had booked a 2 bedroom flat in same apartment for them, so that the young couple has their privacy maintained and the old couples have maximum time with their grandchild. That flat was totally opposite of any given Indian home, it was filled with pictures of the Gods of Hindu faith and writings from Islam. The Koran and Geetha shared same space and the rituals were performed with both the in laws getting involved in everything. In a few weeks my friend’s wife had started showing a round belly with occasional movements inside it and we were thrilled when we felt the movements. The Gynecologist fixed her delivery date to be in 4 months and my Prof made her take maternity leave as long as she likes.
The old couple from Krishnagiri had sent invitation for their son’s marriage and I left for the marriage after lab by 12PM. The whole village was decorated. I met the old couple and who made me have dinner at the late hours despite my protests. They introduced me to their son and said about my visits.
“Oh! They have said lots about you. I was very eager to meet you”
“Pleasure is all mine. You are a hero.”
“Oh! Nothing like that.”
“So how are the people here responding? They should have organized a big welcome.”
“Yes. They wanted to give one. But I declined.”
I smiled and turned to his parents, “So who is the girl? Which one of your relatives convinced you?”
“No! She is not our relative.”
“Love?”
“Not really a love story but it has love in it. I met her in one of our camps in Kashmir. The infiltrations inside our border have not stopped and many innocent people are losing their lives because of the fightings. Her dad was our informer and has helped us stop many terrorist attacks and is a very close friend of mine. He had informed about a terrorist hang out last year and we nailed those people. He is the main reason for my Vir Chakra. But last month when I was having tea with him, he disclosed that his life is in danger and he could be dead any day. She was a brave girl and ridiculed his fear and made us smile then. But he died in a few days of heart attack. Natural death has resulted out of the fear he had for possible execution by the terrorists. She was left alone and none of the fellow villagers wanted to help her fearing that they will be seen as informers if they do so. I felt a surge of guilt and went to her home to make sure if she is alright. She was in a salwar, covering her head with the pallu and received with the same warm smile. I never believed in love before but when I saw her, she was so beautiful that the first thing I said was ‘Will you marry me?’ But She said that she will have to think about it, made me wait for a week and said yes.”
“Oh! They have said lots about you. I was very eager to meet you”
“Pleasure is all mine. You are a hero.”
“Oh! Nothing like that.”
“So how are the people here responding? They should have organized a big welcome.”
“Yes. They wanted to give one. But I declined.”
I smiled and turned to his parents, “So who is the girl? Which one of your relatives convinced you?”
“No! She is not our relative.”
“Love?”
“Not really a love story but it has love in it. I met her in one of our camps in Kashmir. The infiltrations inside our border have not stopped and many innocent people are losing their lives because of the fightings. Her dad was our informer and has helped us stop many terrorist attacks and is a very close friend of mine. He had informed about a terrorist hang out last year and we nailed those people. He is the main reason for my Vir Chakra. But last month when I was having tea with him, he disclosed that his life is in danger and he could be dead any day. She was a brave girl and ridiculed his fear and made us smile then. But he died in a few days of heart attack. Natural death has resulted out of the fear he had for possible execution by the terrorists. She was left alone and none of the fellow villagers wanted to help her fearing that they will be seen as informers if they do so. I felt a surge of guilt and went to her home to make sure if she is alright. She was in a salwar, covering her head with the pallu and received with the same warm smile. I never believed in love before but when I saw her, she was so beautiful that the first thing I said was ‘Will you marry me?’ But She said that she will have to think about it, made me wait for a week and said yes.”
The bride walked into the room. She was beautiful in our traditional saree, kumkumam and jewels. She sat along with her mother in law.
“I called home and asked Dad to arrange for the marriage .She is sure to understand the pressures of my job and can lead a happy life with me. I am glad that she said yes when I asked.” He added and she blushed.
Silence prevailed for few seconds when new couple locked eyes and I smiled along with his parents.
“When he came and asked I didn’t know what I wanted from life as there was nothing left. I had lost everyone and my friends had deserted me because of their fear. I thought he will also have the same problems if he married me but later realized that he is already a soldier and has seen bigger problems. But I wanted to be sure if he has asked about marriage because of his guilt or he genuinely wished to marry me. The next week when I met him in market, his eyes conveyed love despite numerous other officers present with him and I accepted.” she said with broken Hindi that she could have managed to learn from the few classes she should have attended.
“I called home and asked Dad to arrange for the marriage .She is sure to understand the pressures of my job and can lead a happy life with me. I am glad that she said yes when I asked.” He added and she blushed.
Silence prevailed for few seconds when new couple locked eyes and I smiled along with his parents.
“When he came and asked I didn’t know what I wanted from life as there was nothing left. I had lost everyone and my friends had deserted me because of their fear. I thought he will also have the same problems if he married me but later realized that he is already a soldier and has seen bigger problems. But I wanted to be sure if he has asked about marriage because of his guilt or he genuinely wished to marry me. The next week when I met him in market, his eyes conveyed love despite numerous other officers present with him and I accepted.” she said with broken Hindi that she could have managed to learn from the few classes she should have attended.
“The villagers here are a changed lot nowadays. They wanted to organize this marriage as whole village event and made arrangements” said the old man clearing the last doubt I had.
The marriage happened without any rituals as Periyar had taught us and I left from there by afternoon wishing them all the best and a happy married life together.
The marriage happened without any rituals as Periyar had taught us and I left from there by afternoon wishing them all the best and a happy married life together.
Life was back to normal and in a few weeks Prof had selected a girl as intern. She was from Delhi and within a few days, became the sweetheart of our lab. She was more like a small kid amidst us and enjoyed all our care. I smiled after a long time in her company and soon the movies, outings came back in my life as we had same preferences in food and bollywood.
3 months rolled like a few days with increased work pressure, cinemas and outings. We were reaching towards the conclusion of our research and were on the edge of a breakthrough. I spent most of my hours inside the lab and we were having the time of our life in research. The intern had become an integral part of the lab and many experiments were done by her. My Prof asked her to make the draft of our research paper with my help which made us spend most of our time together.
It was a Friday evening and we were in the cafeteria discussing about the research paper, when she asked me,“Have you loved anyone?”
“What?”
“Have you loved anyone?”
“Why is the question in past tense?”
“No! I don’t see you use your mobile at all. No mails and you are not in Facebook even. I feel if you cared to love anyone at all.”
“Hmmm. Nice observation. But isn’t love something about the heart? Mail, mobile, facebook can all happen from my room as well”
“Ha! As if you go to room. In these 3 months you have went to you room just for 4hours each day and most days you forget your mobile in the lab”
“Ok.”
“But you seem to be lost in thoughts whenever I say something about college and the next moment you have a small smile which you try to hide.”
I looked at her now. She was looking deep into me. She is not the kind of girl whom I can say a lie and move on. I wanted to change the topic very badly.
“Seem to know lot about love. Are you in love?”
“Hmmm. Mine is past. Tell about yours”
“What? Past? What happened?”
I couldn’t understand how a girl who is certainly looking good and is a great person to be with once you know her, can have a failure in love.
“Hmmm. See there was this guy from my school who loved me madly and I ignored. But he kept visiting me and proposing his love time and again. At some point of time when I was very depressed and desperately in need of love, I thought about him. I was sure that he didn’t love me for my looks and said Yes when he next proposed. It went well for a year but after that I felt something odd happening. Soon he felt insecure that his Diploma is no match to my BE and my ambitions are too high for him. Initially I saw the restrictions he imposed on me as a form of his love but soon I felt the freedom I enjoyed all life is slowly taken away in the name of love. I tried to explain that choosing my friends is my choice and not his. But this wasn’t stopping there. He started criticizing everything I do and my life was slowly becoming his. I didn’t like it when he dictated my level closeness with my cousins, family and even other girls. We broke up. He went on his way and never called again. I just regret that I loved him; nothing more nothing less.”
There was no tear, no smile but the feeling that she had in her face was regret.
“Better late than never. Good that you didn’t pursue this relationship in hopes of mending him like the majority hopes and fails.”
She smiled, caught my hand and said, “Thanks.” We remained so for a few seconds.
“If we sit here for some more time holding hands sure the campus is going to think I have made a kid love me.” Saying this, I stood up.
She showed anger and said, “Am not a kid.”
“What?”
“Have you loved anyone?”
“Why is the question in past tense?”
“No! I don’t see you use your mobile at all. No mails and you are not in Facebook even. I feel if you cared to love anyone at all.”
“Hmmm. Nice observation. But isn’t love something about the heart? Mail, mobile, facebook can all happen from my room as well”
“Ha! As if you go to room. In these 3 months you have went to you room just for 4hours each day and most days you forget your mobile in the lab”
“Ok.”
“But you seem to be lost in thoughts whenever I say something about college and the next moment you have a small smile which you try to hide.”
I looked at her now. She was looking deep into me. She is not the kind of girl whom I can say a lie and move on. I wanted to change the topic very badly.
“Seem to know lot about love. Are you in love?”
“Hmmm. Mine is past. Tell about yours”
“What? Past? What happened?”
I couldn’t understand how a girl who is certainly looking good and is a great person to be with once you know her, can have a failure in love.
“Hmmm. See there was this guy from my school who loved me madly and I ignored. But he kept visiting me and proposing his love time and again. At some point of time when I was very depressed and desperately in need of love, I thought about him. I was sure that he didn’t love me for my looks and said Yes when he next proposed. It went well for a year but after that I felt something odd happening. Soon he felt insecure that his Diploma is no match to my BE and my ambitions are too high for him. Initially I saw the restrictions he imposed on me as a form of his love but soon I felt the freedom I enjoyed all life is slowly taken away in the name of love. I tried to explain that choosing my friends is my choice and not his. But this wasn’t stopping there. He started criticizing everything I do and my life was slowly becoming his. I didn’t like it when he dictated my level closeness with my cousins, family and even other girls. We broke up. He went on his way and never called again. I just regret that I loved him; nothing more nothing less.”
There was no tear, no smile but the feeling that she had in her face was regret.
“Better late than never. Good that you didn’t pursue this relationship in hopes of mending him like the majority hopes and fails.”
She smiled, caught my hand and said, “Thanks.” We remained so for a few seconds.
“If we sit here for some more time holding hands sure the campus is going to think I have made a kid love me.” Saying this, I stood up.
She showed anger and said, “Am not a kid.”
Some kind of instant liking spread in my heart when I heard about her past. I don’t know why but my heart took her to great heights as her stand was not common in the society filled with emotionally crippled love stories where break ups are considered as inhuman if it’s wasn’t a forced one. After all to let go off something that we valued as the most important in life demands great strength in the weakest part of our body.
My phone started ringing and I signaled her that am going to room.
Dad spoke when I attended the call, “Hello. Did you receive any letter?”
“No I didn’t check it for two days. Why?”
“Check your letters man. Call me when you are ready to speak”
What? Why would he say such a sentence before putting the receiver down?
I searched for my name in the numerous letters in our common post box and found a big invitation. Yes! I can’t be calm after seeing this. I came back to my floor and opened the card. It was her marriage to some guy owning a few companies in Erode. I read the invitation twice to make sure it’s invitation indeed. Yes, truth slapped me on my face saying “This is the end of your love”.
I stood there in front of my room trying to put the key in the lock and failing to get it right. The intern came near, pulled the key out of my hand and opened the door. I went in and tried to close the door behind. She held the door making sure it not closed in full or locked and left. I found a letter in it. But I was not in a mood to read anything. I sat on the floor and opened the invitation again to see if it’s her name. The words were blurring and I couldn’t be sure of any words other than her name. I threw away the card which landed on my table in a vertical position right in front of my vision. I folded my hands on my knees and drew them close to rest my forehead upon. The full sleeve shirt started getting wet in a few seconds. The cover which was lying next to me, still had a letter.
Dad spoke when I attended the call, “Hello. Did you receive any letter?”
“No I didn’t check it for two days. Why?”
“Check your letters man. Call me when you are ready to speak”
What? Why would he say such a sentence before putting the receiver down?
I searched for my name in the numerous letters in our common post box and found a big invitation. Yes! I can’t be calm after seeing this. I came back to my floor and opened the card. It was her marriage to some guy owning a few companies in Erode. I read the invitation twice to make sure it’s invitation indeed. Yes, truth slapped me on my face saying “This is the end of your love”.
I stood there in front of my room trying to put the key in the lock and failing to get it right. The intern came near, pulled the key out of my hand and opened the door. I went in and tried to close the door behind. She held the door making sure it not closed in full or locked and left. I found a letter in it. But I was not in a mood to read anything. I sat on the floor and opened the invitation again to see if it’s her name. The words were blurring and I couldn’t be sure of any words other than her name. I threw away the card which landed on my table in a vertical position right in front of my vision. I folded my hands on my knees and drew them close to rest my forehead upon. The full sleeve shirt started getting wet in a few seconds. The cover which was lying next to me, still had a letter.
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