‘Have you asked her about her past?’ Sameer asked, concerned.
‘No I haven’t, but she said during the game in the canteen that she doesn’t love anyone. So I did not think of asking her.’
‘Aadi it was just a game. Maybe she too was in a relationship earlier.’
‘Oh shut up. This can’t happen. I know she is beautiful and hot. But I know she won’t lie. I trust her.’
We all left after that. During the course of our conversation, we had smoked a total of 10 cigarettes.
November 14. Monday. The day I would get my love. The day which would bring sunshine in my life. I won’t be the same Aadi anymore. I would be committed. I would be committed to a girl whom I loved with all my heart. Every boy would want a girlfriend like her. Every man would want a wife like her. I was indeed lucky. I thanked God from the bottom of my heart that I decided to opt for engineering. Otherwise I would have never met Riya.
Just when I was deep in thoughts, I got a message from Riya.
Jab achanak unki yaad aati hai,
Dil ki dhadkan rukh jaati hai,
Itni khoobsoorat hai unki aankhein,
Ki unse nazar milte hi,
Hamari nazar jhuk jaati hai.
I want to know what you are thinking right now.
But I will wait. Meet you in college.
I replied, I am waiting for you to respond…
She replied, What are you wearing tomorrow? Wear something in green, the colour suits you. What should I wear?
I replied, Wear anything dear. You look beautiful in any colour.
After our brief chat ended, I retired to bed. The next morning, I wore a green shirt and left for college. On the way, I purchased a snow spray and ribbon spray used in birthday parties. I also purchased a red rose. We had a maths paper at 11 am. I was standing on the third floor. I saw her entering the college. My heart skipped a beat. She was looking amazing.
Soon we entered the classroom and the paper started. I left the classroom in 15 minutes and gestured for Riya and Swapnil to leave soon too. I had told Sameer to keep his mobile on vibrate mode so that he could leave the paper as soon as I called him. Within 10 minutes, we were at the gate of our college.
I told everyone that we were going to the garden behind our college. Riya refused to come there. I feared that she was going to reject the proposal. Swapnil convinced her to come along. She finally gave in after much convincing and I told Swapnil and Riya to go ahead. I explained to Sameer what my plan was and handed over the spray to him. I went ahead and asked Swapnil to wait for Sameer as he was the one who would explain to Swapnil what the plan was. Riya and I moved ahead. We reached the garden.
I could feel a sense of fear in Riya’s eyes. Even I was a bit nervous.
‘What do you want to say? Why have you brought me here?’ Riya asked innocently, almost as if she did not know what was happening.
‘You know why you are here, don’t you?’
‘Yes I know it. But I want to hear it from you.’
I had kept the rose in one hand, hiding it from her. She had a mischievous look in her eyes. My heartbeats were increasing with each passing second. I never had this feeling before. Should I go ahead and do whatever I had planned or should I keep it simple? However, I wanted this moment to be special. I looked into her eyes. They told me that she too wanted this moment to be special. Every girl wishes for her guy to propose to her in the best way he can. Riya was no different.
‘Ready?’ I asked her.
‘Yes, go on,’ she replied.
I told her to trust me and close her eyes. Swapnil and Sameer were standing in one corner, ready with what I had told them to do. I bent down on my knees, kept the rose in my hand and said, ‘You are my best friend. A friend like you is hard to get. However, a life partner like you for a person like me is impossible.’
She opened her eyes and looked at me.
‘Really, I don’t deserve a girl like you. I am a flirt, I have the worst image, but still I want to change. I want to improve. I want a girl who can improve me. And it’s you my bachcha. I know you are the one and only, you are my everything. You are the love of my life. I love you babe. And every time I see you, I just want to hug you and never let you go. You are special to me. You make me complete. I will never leave you alone in this relationship. Love you. Do you wish to be my beloved?’
She had tears in her eyes. Tears of happiness. She just nodded and said, ‘I love you too my bachcha…love you a lot. Thanks for this moment.’
She accepted the rose. I stood up and we hugged each other. As soon as we hugged each other, Sameer started blowing the snow spray and Swapnil blew the ribbon spray.
She was overwhelmed with whatever I had done for her. We hugged each other for some time. We looked into each other’s eyes. Her eyes asked me whether I would be with her forever. My eyes replied to her that I was with her—always and forever…
We left the garden holding hands, looking into each others eyes. It was so beautiful. A new life had started. I succeeded in making this moment memorable for a lifetime.
I tried hard to control my feelings, but was falling for her even more with each passing day. I tried to hide my love from her. I tried to convince my heart that she was just a friend. But it was a lie. Deep inside I was falling in love. I tried to avoid looking into her eyes. But I couldn’t.
A simple glance turned into a stare. Still I pretended that I did not care.
However, I was with her. I was with my love. I hoped it wasn’t a dream. I wanted someone to pinch me. I hoped everything was real. I wanted to shout to the whole world that I was in love.
I called her as soon as I reached home.
‘What is my bachcha doing?’ I asked her.
‘I am making tea for my mom. Then I have to go to the general store. And later I have to help my brother with his homework.’
‘Uhhh, packed schedule. Good. What about your husband? Even I want to have tea made by you.’
‘Come home then. My mom will give you tea with sweets. After all, her son-in-law would be coming home for the first time.’
‘Let it be. Better, I stay at home. You do your work.’
‘Miss you. I want to give you a tight hug, you made my day so special. I have made a diary entry of it to cherish it forever. Thanks for everything. It was the best day of my life. I can’t get better life partner than you.’
‘I am missing you a lot too. You just want to hug me. But I want to do much more to you. I want to kiss you, touch your hair, hug you tight…’
‘Stop being naughty on the phone. My mom is around. Love you bachcha. Miss you a lot. Now shall I keep the phone down? I have lots of work.’
‘Okay. Bye. Do miss me.’
I could not sleep as I was thinking of her. This kind of love was new to me. It was true love. I had butterflies in my stomach.
I wanted to be with her. I was experiencing the feeling of first love. I was not able to sleep at all. I was unable to concentrate on anything. Whenever I closed my eyes, all our moments together flashed in front of me. I was proud of myself that I had proposed to her in a special way. I had seen many of my friends proposing but I had never seen anyone doing something like this. It was something unusual and unique. We did not get time to hang out somewhere, but even the little time spent with her, holding her hands and looking at her, staring at her, was special. I was realizing what love was, why people used to say falling in love is always wonderful. I was feeling it today. You may achieve everything in your life—money, status, power, everything—but it could not overcome the happiness of what it was to be with the one you loved.
November 16. Mid-terms had come to an end. We decided to go out somewhere. It was our first date as a couple. We did not plan for it though. We decided to go to a shopping mall. We left college as soon as we finished our last paper. We were waiting for the train at Aerol station. Swapnil and Sameer were at the station itself.
‘See how friends change when they get a girlfr
iend,’ Swapnil said to Sameer jokingly.
‘Oh come on, Aadi has not changed. I told him to leave immediately after the paper,’ Riya replied.
‘So now you have started taking his side? Very good.’
‘Stop it yaar, Swapnil. We are going to a mall.’
The train came and we left. Riya was not used to train journeys. She stood close to me and held my hand tightly. I loved the fragrance of her body. I was showing her the poster in the train that had the names of the stations of central railways. She gave me a confused look. It made me smile. She did not care about the world. All she cared for was me. I felt special to have her in my life. We had to catch another train to reach our destination. She did not like train journeys. I could see it in her eyes.
‘Bachcha, 5 minutes and we will reach,’ I assured her and she came and stood closer to me.
‘This is frustrating. We could have come by rickshaw,’ she said, disgusted with the huge crowd that left no room for us.
‘Leave it now, we are about to reach Mulund.’
Mulund was a crowded station. We caught a rickshaw to reach R Mall. We were carrying a folder in our hand which had all the assignments and experiments. I kept it behind the seat in the rickshaw. I came closer to her and put my hand on her shoulder. She blushed.
‘Love you.’
‘Love you too,’ she replied. I could never get tired of hearing her say this. It made me realize that this was not a dream.
I came closer to her. There was hardly any distance between us now. We were both staring at each other. There was complete silence. A sense of fear. A sense of love. Her eyes spoke a lot. They told me how much she loved me. She whispered the same in my ears and closed her eyes. Our relationship was moving so quickly that it had been just two days since I proposed to her and here we were sitting so close in a rickshaw that hardly any air passed between us. I was about to kiss her. Kiss her in public. I couldn’t have cared less about the onlookers. We were deeply in love and nothing else mattered.
Her eyes were closed. I went closer to her. I remembered Nikita…
Will she be a better kisser than Nikita? Nikita was hot. More experienced may be. What if even Riya is experienced? I did not care. I loved her. However, she had never told me anything about her previous relationships.
My hand was resting gently on her cheek, while my fingertip slowly moved down her neck. She was breathing heavily, a sign of nervousness. As I was listening to the sound of her breath, her hand slowly began to move up along my back. I felt the movement of her cheek. I began to inch towards her. My heart began to beat faster, and the closer I got, the more nervous I became. My hand moved around to the back of her neck and into her hair. As I reached her, I could hear my heartbeat echoing throughout my head. I pushed back and my cheek came to rest on hers. I was disappointed with myself, but she turned her head towards me, gently encasing my bottom lip between hers. My fear instantly dissipated and I kissed back, leading to the most romantic embrace. Our lips met. Our first kiss that lasted until we reached the mall. It was out of the world. I was a fool to compare her with Nikita.
‘Please don’t leave me ever,’ said Riya after the kiss ended.
‘No my jaan, I won’t leave you. I cannot live without you now. I cannot get anyone better than you. In fact, I do not want anyone better than you. Love you so much.’
We got down from the rickshaw. The driver gave us a strange look. Maybe he was watching whatever was happening from the rearview mirror. However, I couldn’t be bothered about it. It was my first kiss to my love.
We entered the food court of the mall. I ordered my favourite—paav bhaaji. We decided to share it. Riya dipped the paav into the bhaaji and fed me with her own hands. It was an out of the world feeling. Riya was looking more beautiful when she was feeding me. My love for her was increasing day by day. Romance was in the air. Each moment with her was like whiskey. The more time I spent with her, the more I went out of my senses.
‘Aadi… let’s watch a movie.’
‘Now? Its already 3.30 pm. Won’t you be late for home?’
‘I will make an excuse. Now come on, let’s go. Please.’
‘Okay, let’s check the movie timings.’
We went to R Adlabs. There was only one show in the next one hour.
‘Are you sure you want to watch this movie?’ I asked.
‘Yes, let’s buy the tickets.’
The show was for 3.45 pm, the movie was Tajmahal, and the hall number was Screen 2.
I wondered what went on inside these girls’ heads. Maybe they just wanted to spend some quality time with us. But Tajmahal was too much for me to bear. But for her sake, we went into the theatre.
The movie soon started. I completely ignored the movie and just glanced at the innocence in Riya’s eyes.
‘How much do you love me?’ she asked.
‘A lot,’ I said.
‘I love you more than that,’ she replied.
I took her hand in mine and kissed it. She gave me a smile. We just kept looking at each other. Throughout the movie we were engrossed in cosy moments like these. I could sense the fear and excitement in her. She was bold and sweet at the same time. Very rarely does a girl have both qualitites. I was lucky to have them in Riya. We did not exchange a single word but our eyes said it all. As the lights were on, we realized the movie was over. I hadn’t seen one scene in the movie.
‘What will you tell your friends? That we watched Tajmahal? And if you say so dear, what story are you going to tell them?’ I teased her.
‘Shut up,’ she said blushingly.
‘I really love you a lot. Always be with me.’
We smiled and as we left the mall, I realized I had left the folder in the rickshaw. We were so engrossed in each other that I had totally forgotten that I had kept the folder behind the seat.
‘Jaan, I left the folder in the rickshaw!’ I told her.
‘What? Are you serious? You are so dumb yaar. Now what?’
‘I don’t know. We have lost it. What should we do now?’ I was worried.
‘You screwed everything up, man! You should have realized it earlier, at least.’ She was looking at me furiously.
‘Now what?’
‘We have to write it again and submissions are barely six days away. How will we complete so many write-ups? How could you forget it?’ She was almost on the verge of tears.
‘Don’t worry, jaan. I will write everything—for you and for me. Don’t worry. You are such a passionate kisser that I forgot everything. I could only feel your lips.’
‘Can you be serious once in your life Aadi?’
‘Okay fine. I am seriously telling you that I will handle it. Trust me.’
But deep down I was worried. How will I be able to write so much in such a short span of time? If I had shown my nervousness, she would have started crying. I did not want to make her upset. But what next? There are five subjects and each subject has almost 7 to 8 write-ups. That meant almost 35 write-ups. Moreover I said I would write Riya’s write-up also. That made it 70. Impossible. I was screwed. Why on the earth did I have to keep it behind the seat?
I went with her to drop her home by bus. She was worried and I could see it. I tried to make her laugh and smile by reminiscing about all our memories from the day we met for the first time. She finally smiled.
After leaving her home, I boarded the bus back to my home. Along the way, I kept thinking to myself how submissions were going to be the worst. Good start to engineering life, I said to myself.
All that made me happy was that I had met Riya. Nothing else. 70 write-ups in 5 days.
Too Close, Too Fast
Lectures were over and we were given a study leave or PL as we called it. But I still had to give the submissions. It was already mid-November. Exams were declared for December 7. I was writing all the assignments for Riya and me. Riya was also helping me out. We had classes almost every evening. It was difficult for us to meet now since our classes were differ
ent. Therefore, we decided to bunk classes and meet in the evenings. The syllabus had been almost covered. Not many important topics remained. We decided to meet in central garden near our class. Not everyday, but every alternate day atleast.
The central garden was one of the most famous grounds in central Mumbai. During the daytime, kids played cricket and football. Mostly cricket. And it became a lover’s point in the evening after sunset. Couples used to hang around and sit close to each other. People who used to walk on the roadside could not see anything on the ground clearly due to the darkness. That allowed couples to indulge in anything they wanted.
We decided to meet there at around 6.30 pm. She came by rickshaw from Aerol, Navi Mumbai. She was wearing a black top that revealed her cleavage and a long white skirt. I was blown away by her outfit. She gave me a naughty smile. We went to the ground and we sat there and talked. I asked her about her family and where she had studied earlier.
‘Ameya, my brother, studies in St. Xavier’s, Aerol. He is currently in class 7. We shifted here a few years back due to my father’s business. I do not have many friends here, just three to four, out of which one is from our college. The rest are from my neighbourhood. Actually I really hate staying in Aerol. But I do not have any other option. I got admission in this college through management quota. It’s a boring life here in Aerol. Western Mumbai was much better. We used to have lots of fun there. All my friends are there. We used to go shopping, watch movies, and had an awesome life there. But due to dad’s business in Navi Mumbai we had to shift.’
‘Okay. Then I must thank your dad for taking the decision to settle here in Aerol. If he had not taken that decision, we would not have been sitting together like this.’
She smiled and I kissed her forehead. She asked me about my family.
‘I have one sister, Ketki. She is very sweet. We have the same bonding that you share with your brother. My family is very frank with me. My dad is an engineer and works on ships. He stays away for 2 months and then is on leave for 2 months. My mom works in a government office. It’s a normal life. Nothing special. Nevertheless, I love my family a lot. They mean a lot to me.’
Few Things Left Unsaid Page 5