by vidit chopra
41 likes, 68 comments. On the Wall…it’s complicated
By
Vidit Chopra
DIGITAL EDITION
PUBLISHED BY:
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41 likes, 68 comments. On the Wall…it’s complicated
Copyright © 2013 by Vidit Chopra
Cover Design : Sachin Loothra & Sanchit Malhotra
Thank you for downloading e-book. This continues to be copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed for any commercial or non-commercial use without permission from the author. Quotes used in reviews are the exception. No alteration of content is allowed. If you enjoyed this book, then encourage your friends to download their own copy.
Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
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There are number of people one needs to thank and then are those who want their name to be present in the book because they do believe they have every right to demand so and the the fact is they do. So, here, I would thank everybody whose name pops up in my head right now. I would like to thank my parents, Kriti, Mallika, Arpit, every person in my family, every person in my extended family, my team at Observer’s Paradise – Sachin, Sanchit, Gaurav A, Gaurav P, Tanmay, Arnav, Ravi, Sumit, all of my batch mates at College and finally, a couple of unnamed people who have been a huge inspiration for the book.
I hope you enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.
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41 likes, 68 comments. On the Wall…it’s complicated!
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Prologue
“So this is it. No matter how hard we try this world never let us the way we want to be.” Vishal said.
Tanya was too gloomy to utter a word.
She knew that the nightmare she had always feared was coming to life. After ten long years of a lovely struggle trying to understand each other better, appreciating the good traits and accepting the flaws, trying to make ends meet, trying to convince their parents about their relationship and trying to avoid running away from home it had all come to this.
“I guess this is the………the end.” Tanya said struggling all the more with each word that came out of her mouth. She hated all of it.
“I guess it’s time for us to part our ways. Thank you for the wonderful memories and I am sure I will take them to my grave.” Vishal said as both of them stood on the airport waiting for the departure of their flights. Vishal was going to United States of America for an internship program, exactly the dream that almost every parent of the middle class family sees for their child and hopes they will be able to see their child going in for one! Tanya was going to her aunt in London where she would be doing something or might eventually end up raising a family, which now seemed beyond her control.
“You have given me a lifetime full of memories and no matter what the world says, no matter what you think, no matter what went wrong between the two of us I will forever and ever keep loving you no matter what.” Tanya said as tears rolled down her beautiful dark brown eyes.
Vishal wanted to say, “I love you too.” But something stopped him from saying so. May be the things that had conspired in the past few days stopped him from saying what he actually felt.
He hugged her instead. Her sobs now converted into full-fledged howls while the few other occupants of the waiting area stared at them. She was broken to the core of her heart and most probably to a point of no return. Certainly there wasn’t any way to make her happy other than Vishal and her being together, getting married, raising a family and living happily ever after but this was not to be. This wasn’t another Bollywood movie with a happy ending. There are happy endings in reel life not in real life, not always anyway!
They both knew that their being together was never going to be the truth of their lives. They had to part their ways and it was a fact of life, a challenge which they both had decided to take or rather had to accept while both of them knew that survival won’t be easy!
Vishal kissed her on the cheek, wiped away her tears and hugged her again. They both were just inseparable at the moment but then came the boarding announcement for the flight to New York, USA.
Vishal kissed her again on the cheek, picked up his baggage to move for the boarding. He kissed her on the cheek once again and started walking.
“Please don’t go.” Tanya caught hold of his hand and said.
Vishal was also on brink of breaking now, tears ready to fall as something pinched his heart.
“That’s not possible Tanya, you know that. Even if we decide to do what feels right, we are either going to end up starving to death or will be slaughtered by your dad’s men in some part of the world. Practicality sometimes sounds better even if it feels wrong.” Vishal said.
“I don’t care Vishal. All I care about is being with you. I love you and I will continue to do so for the rest of my life. I know I might be sounding insane here but I will as it is, die without you so I would rather die being with you rather than by being away from you!” Tanya replied.
All Vishal could do was smile but she definitely had a point he thought to himself. The boarding call came for the second time but Vishal ignored it. He was pondering over the idea which Tanya had just put in front of him.
“It’s time to go. It’s time to go.” Tanya’s brother Kushal came and said with a sense of urgency. Kushal knew about Vishal and Tanya and was very supportive. It is a big virtue if you are able to convince your girlfriend’s brother that you are the one for her!
“What happened? You sound weird.” Vishal said.
“The security men are keeping a watch on you both. They are dad’s men. Its better you go for the boarding. We also have a VIP boarding process set for us. The arrangements have been made and we too will have to board right away.” Kushal said still anxious and a bit dejected, for he too knew that Tanya and Vishal were never going to survive without each other and the world wouldn’t let them survive with each other.
Vishal grabbed his baggage again while rubbishing the thoughts of a possible running away plan. This time he wasn’t stopped by Tanya. He went towards gate number 3 for the boarding while Kushal took Tanya to gate number 7 for their special boarding.
It was a 4 AM flight for Vishal and 5 AM for Tanya so there wasn’t much rush on the airport. After walking a few steps Vishal turned around to look at Tanya walking away from him and most probably from his life as well. Tanya too looked at him and their eyes met. There was love in both of them and that love was for each other. Vishal smiled trying to reassure Tanya that everything will be fine while Tanya’s eyes kept on spilling the tears. Then she tried to force a smile and was successful in doing so even though her eyes and her lips were showing two completely different stories!. The fact that this was the last time she was seeing the love of her life was killing her every second.
Survival was bound to be difficult for, since the time they both had started understanding things, they were with each other. Through high school, through college they were together trying to help each other and being a pillar of support for each other whenever required. They both loved to write poetry even though their rhyming was of high order yet they both liked writing for each other.
They both kept walking towards their respective terminals for the boarding, eyes locked onto each other till the moment they both couldn’t see each other any longer. Finally, tears tri
ckled down Vishal’s eyes as he said, “I will always love you.”