by Atul Todi
They built a team of six developers who they found from all over India. Working out of a small apartment in Powai, Mumbai, the whole team toiled seven days a week, at least fourteen hours a day. While they worked hard, as a team they had fun, went out to the clubs and did interesting team activities. Though Abhay encouraged having fun, the unsaid rule for each member was to never talk about the product to an outsider. Their startup was in stealth-mode, and they did not want anyone to find out about their idea before the product was ready to be launched in the market.
Even though their idea was no rocket science, it still had a unique factor, and they wanted to capitalize on it.
Back in those days, social was still a buzzword. Online commerce was taking off. People had started buying on websites like Amazon and eBay. Facebook was quickly growing amongst the young generation and boasting of adding millions of new users every day. Google ad network had made digital marketing very trendy, and new technology companies were cropping up around the world.
Amidst all the new trends, social commerce was still not heard of.
Online buying was an untapped market all around the world. Compared to offline buying, it was a drop in the ocean, but things were changing quickly. Some countries like India and China were just getting a taste of the Internet. With the smartphone revolution that was happening, Abhay could see the world changing.
Abhay thought of himself as a visionary. He had a clear foresight: a billion people buying online and through smartphones in a span of five years.
He knew that just listing products online was not good enough to sell. New ways were needed to encourage people to buy online and spend their dollars in the virtual world. Brightest minds from around the world were working on building trust-based business models and promoting online loyalty amongst buyers.
The problem they were all trying to solve was how to improve a consumer’s buying behaviour. It all started from tracking user data and predicting future behaviour.
No one had cracked the code back then, and Abhay had a very promising business model. He believed he had the right solution that would make shopping fun.
Inspired by the way people in India liked to shop, he was building an online buying platform where the buyer was offered the best deal online, but there was a catch. Unlike the traditional online sites, which were offering discounts and offers, they were building a group-buying platform, a concept that was quite pervasive in the Indian offline retail market.
People had to buy together to get the best price. This behaviour would create a viral loop that would allow the platform to grow very quickly.
Abhay saw the confused look on Khushi face, so he tried to explain in simpler language.
He told her that if a certain number of people signed up for an offer, that deal would became available to all the customers. However, if the predetermined minimum deal bought was not met, no one got the deal. So everyone had a reason to use their social networks on sites like Facebook to invite more and more people to sign up for the deal and in the process make it go viral.
Working on the idea, Abhay knew that it was still a theory; it had not been tried before. Still Abhay had a conviction that millions of people around the world were going to use his site and it was going to disrupt online retailing.
Khushi looked at him with surprise in her eyes, as if she was trying to remember where she had heard about something similar. Then, stopping him, she said, "Hey, that's like Groupsy. They did something very similar few years back. Right?"
Smiling at Khushi, Abhay told her that more than a decade ago, Groupsy did not exist.
Continuing his story, he told her that they struggled and worked hard for almost two years to build their web platform. While the idea was quite simple, they had to make sure that the plan was executed perfectly. The user-interface design had to be so beautiful and intuitive that it was addictive.
Using unique design concepts and latest coding languages, they built a robust system. It ran on top of a smart algorithm that Abhay had created and was capable of making social recommendations to buyers. To top it all off, using in-depth consumer analytics data, their system could assist the sellers in predicting future sales trends.
"So I understand that you were building your company, but what happened with Tia? Did you guys meet after you left the US?" Khushi asked.
Taking a walk along the muddy riverbank with Khushi, he told her that after leaving the US, they agreed to remain friends and be there for each other no matter what. While he believed nothing would change between them, she knew that nothing would remain the same.
Tia told him, “We are always going to be friends. Nothing more!”
For him, the distance between them did not matter. Being a technology advocate, the virtual world felt as good as real to him. With video chatting and phone calls being easily accessible, it was like she was anyways just a call away. Nothing was going to change.
For her, nothing was going to remain the same. Being close to him meant everything for her. She wanted to be able to hold him in her arm, lay beside him on lonely nights and go for long-walks when she was sad. Technology lacked the intimacy she wanted.
Tia wanted to share her happy moments with him and find comfort in knowing that he was around during tough times. She knew that, with him gone, they could be nothing more than just friends. She was practical, a true rationalist unlike him.
He did not think about staying back with her and she did not ask. With him gone, Tia’s hopes were shattered and she allowed time to fill the void Abhay had left behind.
Khushi could not believe that Abhay just picked up his bags and left Tia behind. She was surprised but continued to listen to Abhay.
Back in India, not worrying about their relationship, Abhay got busy with work. She too got occupied with her rigorous medical program. Life was extremely hectic and stressful for both of them. They both started to live their own life and tried to move on.
Moving on was not that easy.
In the beginning they found time, a few times a week, to reconnect and talk about everything in the world, just like old times. Sometimes it was only for a minute, but it was comforting enough to know that the other person was there.
They ‘Facebooked', ‘Skyped' and talked on the phone. Still, with his nights being her morning and his mornings being her nights, it was difficult to manage on a regular basis. While she cribbed about it, she made an effort to be there for him whenever he needed her thoughtful advice. He could not have been more thankful and appreciated her more than ever.
During their virtual talks, Abhay continued to be himself and flirted with her, pretending that he was still back in the States with her. Tia did not reciprocate the same warmth like she did when he was back in the US. Instead, she complained about how their friendship was not going anywhere.
Tia thought there was no future to their friendship. She complained about how much she missed him and his being there with life. The only solution she could think of was to get away from him and distance herself from any emotional attachment to him.
Every few weeks, she decided that they should not stay in touch and go their own ways. To his agony, she would disappear without any prior warning: no calls, no ‘Facebooking' and no ‘Skyping'.
Tia would become untraceable.
He could never understand her reasons for trying to avoid him, but he did not fight her and respected her decision. His focus on his work made his blind to her feelings and deaf to his inner-voice.
Staying apart was not easy. Being at opposite ends of the planet did not help. No matter how hard they tried to stay away, they had become too dependent on each other emotionally. So after a few days, sometimes weeks of ignoring each other, they would always end up reconnecting. She would message him about something silly or ask him for his opinion about some random thing. Other times she would call and tell him that she had fallen sick or needed some advice.
It was her way of telling him that she missed him too much, and c
ouldn't stay away any longer. He melted the moment he heard her voice.
It was just impossible for them to ignore each other for too long; they had become more than just friends. She had known it all along, it took him a while to realise how much he needed her in his life. It was only after he left her and returned back to India that he started to realise what he had left behind.
Meeting interesting people and pretty ladies, who were in abundance in Mumbai, he thought he could replace her, but it was impossible.
Often out with friends, beautiful women from all walks of life surrounded Abhay. They found him interesting and openly flirted. One-night-stands had become a common phenomenon and no one expected any commitment. It seemed perfect for a guy who avoided relationships.
All those pretty women were amusing for a while. Sooner or later they all withered away into thin air, leaving a gaping loneliness in his heart. To his surprise, he was not interested in any of them. Unlike before, his thoughts were always occupied, and their pretty face did not spark his curiosity. Leaving them hanging, all he wanted to do was get back to his apartment and call Tia.
He just wished to see her comforting smile and hear her reassuring voice. The realization of Love was slowly dawning on him.
The ocean of women in Mumbai felt dry. He just looked forward to seeing the one girl he cared about and yearned for. Maybe the distance between him and Tia was the drug that made him want her more. Not having her around whenever he wanted her, made him crave her companionship. During those lonely nights when Tia was not talking to him, he desperately wanted her touch.
With every passing day, struggling to build his company, he missed having her around. He craved to hear her laugh and the way she hugged him to make everything seem better. He longed to see her reassuring smile and hear her voice after every tiring evening, but she was not there.
During their college days, she helped him cheer up, laugh and feel stronger. Whenever he was down, she had an interesting story to help him see the bigger picture and get back in focus. But back in India, only her memories kept him company. Thinking about the times they spent together, he realised how precious those moments were.
Distance had made his heart grow fonder, but the train had left the platform.
Tia was not able to handle their long-distance friendship. She tried hard to avoid him whenever her emotions went out of control. He, on the other hand, did not argue with her and just gave her space and time. Feeling guilty for making her upset and causing unnecessary heartache, he would try to stay away and keep himself occupied with work.
When she was not around he started realizing that she was not just another friend. To want someone so much that he was willing to stay up all night after a tiring day, just to get a glimpse of her, was not normal. Feeling extremely jealous whenever she told him about a male friend of hers was insane.
None of it seemed normal; he had become overly possessive about her.
Unlike college days, he had started to enjoy hearing about what she did in her classes, which involved dissecting and examining living things to learn about the functioning of different parts of the body. He would sit and patiently listen to her talk about different diseases and how they could be cured. He started enjoying her telling him about the patients she saw and how the field of medicine was quickly changing.
To his surprise, he became cool with her telling him about her family and extended family. Unlike college days, instead of being cynical, he patiently listened to her complaining about things and genuinely laughed on her jokes.
His behaviour was not normal and he felt like a changed man. What was happening to him he did not know, but he knew one thing very well: he really missed her. He missed everything about her, things that he never even noticed back in college.
Besides her big audacious Bengali eyes and her beautiful, bursting smile, he missed the way she bit her lips when she was nervous. He reminisced the way her nostrils flared when she was furious, the way she blinked her long eyelashes when she was embarrassed and the way she tucked her long curly hair behind her ears when she was serious. He remembered her fascination with using big words and profound belief in the supernatural. He missed her freaking out when he smoked cigarettes and crying while watching melodramatic movies.
It was all etched in his memory, but he never noticed them back in college.
When Abhay was surrounded by beautiful ladies, he missed the beautiful curves of her body; when flirting with sophisticated women from the Mumbai fashion-conscious crowd, he missed her bizarre sense of colour and awkward nerdy outfits. It was like she was always there with him, when she was not there at all.
Feeling silly, he often chuckled just thinking about small things about her.
Abhay and Tia joked about how they had started talking more being thousands of miles apart, than they did back in college. They wondered how they were more concerned about each other's well-being, when there was not much either of them could do. They both realised that every minute they spent on the phone or Skype had started to feel more valuable than hours spent together back in college.
They complained and cribbed about the distance between them, but they were both addicted to each other.
Talking to her was something he looked forward to every day. Just to hear how she was and what she did and to tell her about what he was doing, felt enough for him to let go of all his daily stress. She listened to him patiently and tolerated his cribbing and complaining about how difficult running a startup was. She understood him so well that he felt comfortable telling her everything that was on his mind.
Every time he had a problem, she would give him thoughtful advice, encouraging him to hang in there. In fact, her telling him that it would all be fine made him believe that it was indeed not all that bad and his destination not too far.
More than a year passed like that: talking via virtual mediums, promising each other that they would meet soon. Between her mood swings, when she stopped talking to him for days, she told him that she was waiting for him to come back. He told her that he could not wait to hold her in his arms and be with her.
During drunken phone calls, they talked about all the crazy things they would do to each other when they met. During their intoxicated Skype calls, they fantasized about wildest adventures they would go on. Yet, during all those deep and intimate talks, they never talked about love explicitly. It seemed like something that was understood, and their relationship did not require any solemnizing.
With every passing day being away from her, he was clearly falling in love with her and for the first time he started to realise what love really was. Hearing her voice when the whole world seemed to be screaming, allowed him to breath. Seeing her smile, when he wanted to cry out of frustration, gave him a sense of peace. When he could not get through to her on the phone, he would get worried, and when they missed a Skype date, he would wait for hours until she was ‘virtually' with him.
He knew they were more than just friends, and he had started including her in all his future plans: Traveling the world together, getting a house on the beach and even owning their own vineyard. Her dreams had become his; he wanted everything she had ever wished for.
It was all going perfectly, until that one dreadful day. A day that made him finally realise what she meant to him, yet, it took everything away from him.
With puffy eyes, looking as if she had been crying for a long time, she called on Skype. In a hushed tone, she spoke and dropped a bomb on his heart. They had been continuing their relationship online for two years since the time he left, but she was finally getting done with her degree that summer and her parents had started to look for suitable boys. Her mother had even fixed up a few dates with successful marriage candidates: all doctors, engineers and businessmen, the best in their fields.
She didn't want to meet any of the boys her parents had chosen, but she had no option. She fought with her parents and tried explaining to them how she did not want to get married, but they had a milli
on reasons to make her think otherwise.
Her parents told her that all the good Indian boys would get taken, and no one would marry an old girl. Even worse than the first excuse was their strong belief that later she got married, lesser would be her chances of having kids. And, the worst reason of them all, society would look down upon them and think there is something wrong with their daughter.
They were emotionally blackmailing her and left her with no options. She had no excuse to counter their persuasion.
Abhay knew his time was running out. He had to do something because there was no way he was going to let her go. Feeling insecure and scared that he would lose her, he realised how much he loved her. That moment he realised that nothing meant more to him than being with her and having her in his life.
"I love you!" he finally said it.
It took him a few years to say it, but that evening it instinctively came from inside, and he meant it. The moment she least expected to hear those words, he finally said it. He was not going to let her go. So he asked her to tell her parents that she was in a relationship with him, and they did not need to look for anyone.