Today Calls Tomorrow: A Love Story

by Prakash Hegade

day ended. Well he got down from the auto and got lucky! The girl in green dress, she was there. Waiting for someone. Aakash looked at her with great curiosity though he was greatly exhausted and… and…“Nayy, not my type”, he exclaimed and walked towards PG.

  He had his dinner and crept into the bed. He had a little cry of missing his home and home bed. You know that happens at first!

  Four: First Weekend Trip

  The week passed like a rocket. It was Friday evening and Aakash was making plans about weekend. Off-course not alone. Over a week he had got new friends and Sumit was his current best. Somehow they jelled and glued well. They both had similar thoughts on many things. Sooner will be times when you will get an explanation on why they became best friends in a week. Or you will never need to know the reason as the story ahead will make it crystal clear. Forgot to mention, Sumit and Aakash are roommates!

  Considering few suggestions the plan was fixed. Lavasa city. Aakash, Sumit and 6 others.

  4 bikes,

  8 friends,

  Saturday,

  Early morning and

  The journey began to Lavasa city.

  A moment it rains and next it’s sunny. Breathe taking journey. The Bike ride in rain, gives a storm from inside. You become a kid when you enter Lavasa city. The swings, roller rides, slides and many others, all the 8 friends enjoyed to the core. Pulling each other down, pushing one from slide, funny pictures and the loud gags. Believe me, it’s one of the best moments of life time. There is no replacement for this in the world, even if the same team meets at same place second time.

  Chai, nashta done! The tired people headed back to room after taking 100 snaps. The day waiting ahead was Sunday to wash clothes and sleep. Wow! First weekend, an awesome trip and life looks so much beautiful. Aakash made an entry in his daily entry and Saturday came to a meaningful end.

  By the way, while washing clothes on Sunday, aakash found a kerchief in his jeans, which was definitely not his. Eww! He threw it way. Don’t expect anything else!

  Five: A Sunday Conversation

  Sunday Evening Conversation!

  Aakash: “Yaar, I found a kerchief while washing my jeans. Weird. I have been thinking all time along. How did it reach my pocket?”

  Sumit: “wait! What did you do with it?”

  Aakash: “what else? I threw it out”

  Sumit: “Arey Yaar. It was mine. I had placed it in your pocket while on bike. Forgot to tell you”

  Aakash: “Saale! I wasted my whole time thinking of it!”

  Sumit: “Bhaaaiiii!”

  Aakash: “okay. Leave it.”

  Sumit: “I need to buy a present. It’s purvi’s birthday tomorrow. Let’s go out.”

  Aakash: “Oh ho. What are you planning to buy? A heart???”

  Sumit: “Come on! You know we work in same team. And she is just my good friend. Cant I buy a gift for my good friend?”

  Aakash: “Then you should buy 2”

  Sumit: “2?? For whom is the second one? You?”

  Aakash: “Yeps bro.”

  Sumit: “whattttt??”

  Aakash: “It’s my birthday as well tomorrow bro”

  Sumit: “!!!!!”

  Aaaksh: “It’s okay bro. I don’t expect any gift. Finding a friend like you here itself a greatest gift for me”

  Sumit: “Now, will you make me cry? Rula de tune tho”

  Aakash: “Chup be!”

  Sumit: “am not buying anything for you.”

  Both headed out to market. Sumit purchased a greeting card and a gift after a long search. Gift was a Chinese clay model. They both finished their dinner and headed back to room. On the way purchased a small cake as well.

  They had a celebration at 12.oo with other PG friends. Aakash got a few birthday bumps. Sumit got busy calling Purvi. Sumit had a confused midnight event. He had birthday celebration of two of his best friends at the same moment. He was the first wisher to two people at same time, one over room and other over the phone call. And later it was a good night sleep. To Sumit. To Aakash. To Purvi.

  Six: The Birthday

  Though it was Purvi and Aakash’s birthday, Sumit felt it was his birthday. How lucky should be a friend who feels it’s his birthday, while he has his two best friend’s birthday! After the work, they all decided to meet at “Dagadusheth Ganesh Temple”. It was first time Aakash met Purvi. They both wished each other for birthday after hello – hi and walked inside the temple.

  Purvi walked ahead, behind was Sumit and followed by Aakash. It felt like for every step they kept there was musical beat on. They took the blessings, sat in peace for a while and moved to nearby restaurant. They ordered paratha’s and for a change, it was sumit’s treat. They had the introductory talks while dinner, however most of the times, they all were silent. Sumit and Aakash dropped Purvi and returned back to PG.

  Well, before moving ahead, it is right time to know a little more about each of them.

  Aakash:

  He knows his limits,

  And that’s the sky!

  He is the decent,

  And trust is his synonym!

   

  Sumit:

  The kill/dil guy,

  A little shy,

  Friendship is his life,

  And care is his synonym!

   

  Purvi:

  Joy in her face,

  Lively in life race,

  She is not the usual,

  And hope is her synonym!

   

  It does not matter from which part of India you are from when there is a connection of hearts which speak and shout out loud that,

  “You make my life Significant!”

  Seven: Purvi, The Purvi

  It’s the nick names which friends remember. At times they suit the people so much that even the real name completely goes out of picture and mind. But Purvi, was called as Purvi, for she was unique at many things. She was not much deeply concerned on how she looks. But where required, she used to clean up like there is no competitor. You can say just like Hermonie Granger did for Yule ball in ‘Goblet of Fire’.

  She was a good coder and always at first to take up the challenges. She was someone, where you can easily rely on. She was from a middle class family and exactly knew on how to spend the money and how well to manage a month with what she had started earning. She was traditional at office and western at DJ. She was good at sports and drama only on stage. She had realistic perspective about life and very practical with her decisions.

  Its generally not, you find one like Purvi at the age of 21. Say for once she had spilled water on office machine and to get it replaced she had to go to other office branch 20kms from current one. She did it on her own without any others help. But lately, it was little different.

  The day since she met Sumit, who had joined the same team a week later of her joining, few things had changed in her life. Not the fact that she was talking to a guy but the factor of dependency. Earlier if needed to go somewhere, she used to Google and now she had started calling Sumit. She always asked him or he always asked her for lunch/tea. They both used to have conversations all time and the level of comfort-ness increased with every talk.

  That comfort-ness where you even start sharing non-veg messages on whatsapp!

  Eight: The Seat No. 15, 16 Journeys

  As soon as the week starts, we start waiting for the weekend. Time rolls by so fast that weekend approaches at light speed. Relatively! Aakash noticed the uneasiness Sumit had over the week. You know what friends do when they see their friend in trouble! Create more trouble?? Yes, kind-of. A pleasant and soothing trouble possibly would be a right phrase. Though Aakash tried to talk, Sumit wasn’t expressing. He still seemed pleased and normal, though he wasn’t. It was something which only his best friend could understand that something’s not alright.

  To cheer him up, Aakash had planned a long trip for the weekend, with a little difference that it was a bus means of travel. Monday was
a festival holiday, so essentially it was a long weekend. He got the bus pass to visit near-by famous places to Pune: Tuljapur, Akkalkot, Solapur, Shirdi and Nasik. They started the journey on Friday midnight.

  They visited all the famous temples in Tuljapur and Akkalkot. The best part of the journey was hunt for food, query about places, looking over maps to find which places to visit and night travel. They landed at Shirdi at midnight 3.00. That’s the right time to stand in queue to seek blessings from almighty. They prayed for good wishes and as the photography is not allowed inside the temple, they took the pictures from outside for memories!

  Nasik has many places to visit. They covered all the places and finally went to temple which had a lake view. They both sat together looking at the ducks for 2 hours. Neither did Aakash utter a word not Sumit. They were quite for entire 02 hours just looking at lake and ducks! That happiness is something which can’t be explained. When you have your best friend nearby, though you don’t talk anything, it still feels like you had millions of conversation.

  They got their dinner done at a local dhaba and started back journey to Pune. Both were happy for the splendid trip they had. Luckily they managed to get seat number 15 and 16 in every part of the journey they made and somehow it seemed an auspicious seat number to them!

  Nine: The Whaattt??!!

  Post the trip, the friendship got stronger. Aakash and Sumit had become like family. There was no partition in room which said what belonged to whom. There was one key to the room and everyday they had a perfect sync while they left the room as well as returned back. Days passed on and it was almost a month of professional