All incidents and character of this story is complete fiction and
resembles nothing else than the creativity of the author. But every fiction is
inspired by reality and this story is not an exception.
It was a
cold chilly morning of February in Ranchi. I was sitting on the wooden bench of
the park on the shore of the lake. As it was only 8 in the morning, there were
not much people around. The park was deserted and silent. The extraordinary
tunes of various birds were adding marvelous effect on the lonely silence. I
liked this place a lot usually in the morning because it was the only peaceful
and romantic place that could add a compliment to the novel I was writing. I was with my diary and a pen in my hand.
I turned
the pages of my diary straight to the last page with the ink. Before proceeding
to write my story further I read and recapped few lines of the previous chapter
which was:
My head hung low as I
felt insulted in front of the whole class including ‘her’.
Wait
a moment, there was no reason to quote her specially. I don’t know why I did
so. After all she was also just a classmate whom I had never spoken to. And by
the way and most importantly she was the reason behind my incomplete assignment
may be indirectly. After all I was a genius capable of solving any stupid
combination of transistors and diodes.
I was
trying to initiate the next chapter of my holy text. But suddenly I noticed a
guy sitting on the same bench at another corner. I was so much immense in my
writing that I couldn’t notice since when he was sitting there. His facial
expressions had no coordination with the romantic weather. He seemed to be
thinking something deep inside him. He had two greeting cards in his hands, one
was a ‘birthday wish’ and another was a ‘miss u’. I tried to interact with him,
‘Hi!
waiting for someone, I suppose it’s your girl’s birthday and she has kept you
waiting for so long. Am I right’?
He looked
at me. I can guess on seeing his eyes that something was wrong in his life.
‘Yes I am
waiting for her but since last 4 years..’. There was pain in his voice and he
was trying not to make an eye contact.
I was
surprised on his answer, it seemed to be a joke but his eyes were notifying
that it was serious. Being a writer of romance literature I am always
interested in love stories and this was an extraordinary one. I closed my diary
and put the cap back on pen. I turned towards him and said, ‘so what happened
between you both? Where has she gone? Is she about to come today?’There were
lots of questions in my mind and they all needed an answer.
‘What would
you do with all these? It’s not that you can get her back to me’, he said in a
soft voice.
‘But I want
to know about you. Not all love stories are perfect, some are extraordinary and
I think yours is one of those immortal love stories’, I tried to convince him
with some true words of praise.
‘Ok if you
really want to know then I am telling you’:
I exactly
don’t remember, since when I knew her. She was my childhood friend and I know
her since I was five. We grew up together, being in the same school and in same
class. I don’t know when but slowly and steadily our friendship turned into
love. We both loved each other and true love need not to be expressed but it’s
all about feelings. We even had plans to be in same college. She often said
that we should never preplan anything in our life because who knows what
destiny is going to bring for us. Of course she was right and one day destiny brought
something which was not a part of my plans.
I
still remember the day. It was the same February four years back. The post
morning sunshine was although getting intense but there was a lovely feeling in
the moderate breeze of the wind. I was waiting for her since my arrival at the
park two hours ago. Although I was and I am a kind of person who waits nothing
and no one. But when it came to her, I was ready to wait till my last day on
earth. It was a day before her birthday. May be it was too early to wish her
exactly fourteen hours before the midnight but I would love to do so as she did
the same on my birthday. Suddenly I saw her coming towards me. My world started
turning ups and downs. I don’t know but whenever I stood before her or find her
sight chasing mine, I got nervous. But it was not supposed to happen because I
was a very good public speaker and people enjoyed listening my speeches
whenever I was on stage. Then why the hell do I get nervous in front of her? It
wasn’t a million dollar question and it had a perfect answer that I loved her.
By the time she was in front of me. She had a feeling of guilt to keep me waiting
for so long.
‘Everything okay?’ basically I was
asking her why the hell are you so late? But when you are talking to a girl you have to
mind your words and if she is the girl you love, then you must think a thousand
times before putting an allegation.
‘Yes of course! And I am sorry to
keep you waiting. I was stuck in the 12 pages of passport application form my
dad gave me to fill’, her voice was tensed as if she was hiding something.
‘Oh! That’s better that you are
leaving the country, so that I won’t have to wait for you like this!’, I
unintentionally tried to tease her. But besides laughing at my joke, she got
tensed. And I knew it, I was capable of reading her face. I knew her since our
childhood. I didn’t ask her as I knew she will herself tell me latter or may be
the problem doesn’t exist latter. As most of the problems in this world are
volatile in nature.
‘There is a very big problem, I am
really going to leave this country in about a month’, her sad voice was
notifying that she was not joking. ‘Ya, it’s true. Dad got the family visa
and he has decided that mom and me would
shift to Dubai’.
All of a sudden everything felt silent. There
was darkness appearing into my vision. I was wordless. But somehow I gathered
consciousness and asked her, ‘What about your dream of being an engineer’?
‘I have applied for computer
science in Central College of Engg, Jumairah. And most probably I would get an
entry. Engineering can’t be an excuse to escape from going to Dubai.’
‘Yes it can be. We had decided to
be in the same college here in India. How will I live without you’, this time I
was angry and a little selfish.
‘But live always don’t be as we
wish it to be, and that is why I always said that we should never preplan our
life. Everything is destiny and we need to accept it.’ Although I was
pretending selfish but she was sincere about destiny.
For
the next half an hour we kept sitting quietly on either end of the bench,
thinking what to say next. The only fear that I had was a threat on our
relationship. I almost knew that it isn’t going to work in a long distance. I
was scared to lose her from my life. The other factor was that how would I
survive a new environment of engineering college that too without her.
By the time it was noon. I initiated the talk
this time, ‘It’s ok if you want to go but please think upon it once again’.
‘Ok you tell me what should I do? I
wish to go but I promise I would follow your decision over mine’, she replied
in a brave and confident way.
We both
left back. I came back to my room and started thinking of some ways to not let
her go and also some ways to survive without her. One half of my mind was
saying,”if she loves you why is she going so far away”. While another half
seemed to be quite sensible one which argued that let her go, she has a bright
future over there while making a good future in India is never easy. Adding
some more sense it quoted further, “if she loves you that doesn’t means that
she will always be with you, love is unconditional and if you add a condition
apply then it’s no more love, it becomes a contract. It seemed that two
different persons were having debate within me one sensible and another
selfish. Finally wisdom took over greed and I decided to let her go.
It
was 4:30 AM at Nagpur International Airport. A last minute conversation between
me and her was on. None of us were happy on her departure but destiny is
destiny and the biggest problem with destiny is that sometimes it doesn’t
coincide with our desires.
‘I will keep loving you more and
more with each passing day of my life. Today I love you more than yesterday and
less than tomorrow, Bye and have a great life’, these were my last words of
emotions to her. I waved her goodbye at the Delhi international airport and I
was back into my life. Although I was missing her with my whole heart but I was
also having a feeling of satisfaction that I did something special to prove my
love for Shalini. Now I can proudly say that mine is a sound affair, an affair
which free from selfishness and where love dominates the other factors.
So this was
my story and since that time it has been my usual schedule on her birthday
every year to visit this park, sit on the same bench where we sat together
someday and rewinding a thought in my mind, “TOMORROW I WILL FIND SOME ANOTHER
WAYS TO GET HER BACK, AFTER ALL TOMORROW IS ANOTHER DAY”.
I got too
much emotional with his story. Although I had written a number of heart
touching stories but this one was special, it was not fiction, it was real and
extraordinary. I was wondering that how this guy is unable to forget her in
long four years. Whereas in my case I was always having arguments and fights on
no logical reasons with the girl I believed I loved.
I got two
important lessons from his story:
Firstly, if
you love someone, your love should be unconditional. Secondly, when destiny is
preplanned by God then why should we preplan according to our will?
