CHAPTER 5: Blooming Love

20/06/2012.

Its more than one year since our marriage is over. When we started writing our story, there was only one condition- chapters will be written alternatively. i.e., If I write the first, next will by him.Till 4 chapters it was written like that and it was my turn to write the next. But then I got busy with our marriage preparation and I couldn’t write.

Few days back I really wanted to resume our story but only  today I got time for it. There is no power in office and we cannot work. So, writing this from my office..

So where were we? I mean our story..Yes! He was writing about our SMS relation.

We continued that. Almost everything under the sky was transformed into text. Thousands and thousands of SMS were coming and going from my mobile. From morning to mid night it continued. He tried to call me few times. But I cancelled the call with a message saying “Not now..”. We were not sure where this relation was taking us to. But we continued our chatting.

Everything was going smooth. But situation started to change, when my mom’s astrologer told that my marriage should happen before May 2010.Partner search was at its peak and in January Edition’s Malayogam, my profile was published. My parents had time only to attend the incoming telephone calls. I was sure my marriage would happen soon and I was sharing all these things with him too.

One day when Niyaz called, in between our casual talks, he asked me to marry Sreekant. I was surprised because he didn’t know that we continued our relation after Bangalore trip. He talked like his Brand ambassador and it went on like this, “He will be a perfect guy for you.I know him from my childhood. We used to play cricket together. Till plus 2, I was his junior.He is a very good guy. He writes poem and all. He will be a good match for you. He is not a boring guy. He will be able to understand you..etc..etc.. ”. Finally I told him that, if we are to marry each other, we will marry.

Our SMS relation continued. There were no serious matters discussed. We shared the simple things happening in our life. Each SMS brought a smile on my face.

And one day, reading an SMS, my heart started beating twice its normal speed or it stopped for sometime. I don’t know what happened. But I was shocked. He asked me to hold my partner search and a proposal was wrapped in it.

I was not sure what to reply. Confused. But I wanted to give a try. And then we decided, we will talk for some more time and if we feel that this is not infatuation and if we feel that we are made for each other, we will marry. Otherwise we will continue to be friends. Taking that decision was easy but implementing it was not so.

Time! Time was one thing which came to the scene as a villain. We need time for all this but I was sure my parents would not give me more time. With all the courage, one day I told my mom that I want some more time. I told her all the things happening and also told her that it was not sure whether we will marry each other. But we would like to try.

Now our confusion was transferred to her. This was totally a new concept for her. She tried to convince me saying that it is Western culture and we cannot do like that. But she couldn’t force me because she knew very well that I would not fall in love very easily. And she knew that if I am saying like that, then there would be some sense that. Finally, I was able to convince her. Of course she was a bit worried for her daughter, but she didn’t tell anything against my wish. May be she knew that her daughter would have a perfect life with him.

So we continued our chat. SMS was slowly replaced by phone calls. We shared all the secrets in our life. And a new relation was born out of respect, trust, mutual understanding and Love. Each day used to start and end with only one name and that was his. Each and every second, there was only one person in my mind and that was him.

And thus, I celebrated my First Valentines day in my 24^th age. Love was in the air. I was enjoying each and every moment. It was the beautiful time in my life. He proved to be a happy chance in my life. I got through the interview for which I went to Chennai and became a Direct Recruit Officer in a Public sector company.

I went to Pune for Induction Programme. In the beginning of March, it was time for me to choose the place I want for On the Job training. There was no confusion. As he told, I chose Chennai.

“When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”

I felt it when I got the place I opted, because most of the people didn’t get their preferred places. Girls were crying and boys were showing their anger. I was one among very few who got the opted place. And I reached Chennai for the second time.

This time everything was different. Chennai saw our love. Weekends were full of travel busy exploring Chennai. Almost daily we met. Had fun.Enjoyed the max.

During that time many new things happened in my life. He taught me Bike riding in his Bajaj Discover. I was proud when people looked at me when I rode the Bike. I was proud of our relationship.

We had long drives exploring places, adventurous trips, Birthday surprises, my first Pub experience, train journeys and lot many things. Being together for 3 months, we discovered many things about each other. And most important among them was, we realized that we had similar tastes in many things. I mean almost all the things.

Of all the boys I have seen in my life he was very special.

He accepted me with all my craziness (or all my kootharas). Wherever we went, I just did whatever I wanted to do. I didn’t have to think too much, whether he will feel bad or he will be angry, before doing something. There were no fights or low moods any of the time. There were no emotional out bursts or misunderstandings.  When we were together, it was full of energy. We felt that we were 100% compatible.

-Asha Jayanthi

CHAPTER 4: SMS

I work as a telecom test engineer. I joined a Chinese telecom company called “Huawei” in 2006. At that time, I have heard one of my unromantic senior manager named Latchu saying –“ I had tested this feature, text messaging during its initial days in telecom. At that time, I had really wondered whether someone would really use this feature. The reason for this was, it is a hell lot of pain to sit and type the whole text. Then, we will send this and will have to wait for a response. I mean, Instead we could push the call button and exchange the information in our own voice, in real-time. But, now I feel that, what I thought was wrong. SMS is such a huge revenue for telecom operators. The people who mainly use it are you youngsters, especially the lovers” and then he laughed out loudly.

I winked looking at Jasmine and Prashantha. They smiled back.

I don’t know why, but when ever I used to see young lovers exchanging text messages in hurry, I used to remember these words from my old manager. But today, I was doing the text message.

“Bye…Don’t miss me too much” I texted to Asha that evening. She was leaving Bangalore today, and was going to Kannur, Kerala to visit her elder brother. I would go back to my solitude in Chennai in the night bus.

My mobile beeped. It was Asha’s reply. My heart felt a pain of joy.

“Oh no…I was about to msg you the same. Don’t miss me too much J “

“take care and keep in touch” I replied.

“Sure…and you too J”

The messages were going in and out too fast. And, I felt that we both were getting close to each other in the same rate. I thanked from my heart for this wonderful technology called SMS. At night 11 P.M, I got in to my bus to Chennai.

Next day morning, I reached my room at around 5 AM and slept again.

At 8, I suddenly got up and checked my mobile. No messages!

“Good morning. You reached ?” I texted immediately and waited for the reply.

“Hey..Good morning J! I reached and am with my brother now J. You J?” the reply came immediately as if she was longing for my message.

I was so happy to see that message and my heart was feeling light. Something inside in my heart was saying that, I am falling for this girl!

The days followed were the days of text messaging. I even took a special pack from Vodafone for 1000 free message per month. I even re-charged her pre-paid mobile for Rs.55, which would give her an unlimited SMS free option for a month. She had asked me to do this favor, as she could never think of asking for this recharge-favor with any of his brothers, since they would kill making fun of her, for being the kind of bold SMS-rebel she had been for years! . We both would message for anything and everything happening in each other’s life. I mean literally, anything. It would look something like this:

“ Hi..good morning! I got up”

“I am cooking now”

“I just took bath. Going to office now. Will message you from there”

“Hi..what are you doing?”

“I am eating my breakfast..u had?”

“I am eating my lunch..u had?”

“I am eating my dinner…u had”

“ I am feeling so lonely…Missing someone badly J “

“Oh..don’t miss me too much”

This is called the status update. Every time your status changes you inform each other. Apart from this, Ashzy had some very special messages. It was called “knowing-each other” messages! She would ask a question in the form of a situation and she would ask me to tell, how I would react to that particular situation. According to her, this would help us in knowing each other in a better way. I mean, Girls are girls!!!

Some of those messages would look like:

“How much percentage weight age you would give for your girl, in terms of beauty and character?”

“What would you do, if your girl fights with you in public?”

“Do you like to travel and see new places a lot?”

“Who is your favorite actor/actress?”

“How important is sex for you in your family life”!!! Even though, I was shocked for this question from her, I replied that it was “very important J”

We Boys!!!

Messages were going in full swing and I tried to convert those messages to voice calls soon. But I felt that she was not so comfortable to talk to me over phone.

 According to her there were two reasons for that.

1) SMS will help more in knowing each other, than the voice calls (which obviously was a stupid reason!)

2) She was feeling shy to talk over phone all on a sudden. She wanted more time (Which was of course the correct reason)

But, I was happy for one thing! This ‘Shy thing” she was feeling to talk over phone, was only with me. I mean, she would talk for hours with anybody else over phone without any shyness. So we were going in the right track, and our SMS continued.

Eventually, “I miss you” started to occur a lot during our messages. This obviously was a sign of falling in love. And we both knew it each other.

We miss a person, a lot, when we love a person a lot! I was feeling happy for it, and I felt that she was also enjoying this strange “missing” feeling!

 I was sitting in my office on a fine evening, when I got an SMS as usual.“ I am listening to a song now. Can you tell me which one?” She asked.

For no particular reason, the first song which came to my mind was “Na..hai yeh paana. Na khona bee hai….tum se hi”. The beautiful song sung by Mohit Chauhan, and composed by Preetham from the film “Jab we met”

I texted this song to her!

After few minutes I got a reply!

“I almost fainted. You won’t believe this! And I am still shivering now. I was listening to that song a few minutes ago when I got your message. I cannot believe this.I know, there is a strange connection between us”

I kept reading that message again and again! I felt a sudden rise of heart beat inside me and I was having this strange feeling called “being in love”.

“Yes! I was falling in love with this wonderful girl”

-Sreekant Narayan

CHAPTER 3: Nair Girl

When he left, there was a smile on my face. We talked a lot today. About our dreams, future, life etc..etc. Sometimes in life, we don't want much time to understand some people. He was like that for me. Someone whom I felt I know before we met. That somewhat stranger feeling about him was gone. I kept thinking of him and slowly fell asleep. But it was not a long sleep. When I opened my eyes he was in front of me."Come..this is our station.."he said with a smile.

Morning 5 O'clock.It was so cold and I was shivering. Still I was in my full energy. He enquired someone the bus number in which I had to go. When I got into it, he stood there nearby my window for some more time and when it started, he showed with his hands "call you/call me”. Anyway I understood that we are gonna keep in touch.

New Year is getting unfolded with lot of happiness! And I never knew that this year will be full of surprises and happiness.

When I met my friends, he was the only subject in my talk. They also know him as he was our senior and I felt that they had kind of good impression about him.

He called me 2 or 3 times asking if I was having fun with my friends. I was shy to attend his call in front of them. I didn't want them to make fun of me. So I talked very little over phone.

The next day evening when I was sitting in front of Forum Mall with my friends, he called me and kept the phone saying that he will come there in sometime. I was not prepared for this. I didn't tell this to my friends and we continued chatting. After sometime, he was there.

Opposite to what I thought, my friends welcomed him to our group and our chatting continued. In between our talks, came Mr.Mammotty's movies and when all my friends were supporting his talent, I told Kamal Hassan is better than Mamootty. Then there was a heated debate. I was all alone fighting for Kamal Hassan and when I was about to lose, there came a voice

"What she told is also correct.Kamal Hassan is a versatile actor. I too like him”. That was he!

Public support! That’s one thing which I love the most. And when this guy supported me without even asking for that I loved it. With a laugh, we gave a hi-fi. That was our first voluntary body contact.

After sometime, I declared that he would give a treat to us and we all went to a restaurant. There, this embarrassing incident happened. He sat beside me and was asking the things I did that day. Then my dear friends told him that I was talking about him the whole day. I showed actions with my eyes to stop making fun. Then my friend Niyaz who was his neighbour too, put forward a shocking question,”You are a Nair rt? Then why don’t you marry her?”

God! I was so embarrassed. For a second, I dint know what to tell. But he managed the situation very well. He just smiled. Then, why to wait. I too smiled as if I didn’t care about it.

As we say in Hindu Mythology, some God who has passed by that way might have heard our talks. We both didn’t know then, whatever Niyaz said for fun will turn out to be true someday!

Anyways after that Restaurant incident we became a lil more close.

-Asha Jayanthi

CHAPTER 2: Happy New Year

New Year Night! And at 12.00 AM, I was searching for coffee bytes toffees. The only thing running through my mind at that time was to impress her somehow. I was sure that she loves these kinds of "weird" things and that was the first thing I loved about her. I got out from the train and searched for any shops open at that time of the night. But, at deep back of my mind I was worried that, if I ever get these toffees, I will have to disturb all the sleeping souls in the train and distribute it, which will eventually create a scene. So, one part of my brain did not really want me to find the toffee shop open. And, finally that part won! I could not find any shops open there.

I came back with my usual grin and said her -" I could not find any shops. We should have planned it before itself"

'Oh..That’s Okay. At least you tried." she said in her sweet voice.

I felt happy, that she was happy about the whole thing.

 Now coming back to her sweet voice, she has a dual personality sometimes. Whenever, she wanted to show her real anger towards someone, all on a sudden her looks change, her voice change and people would burn in her one single stare. Whenever she did that, I used to get a sudden rise of heart beat inside me.

But, when she is sweet, which she is for most of the time, and then she is very sweet.

I mean, I loved it!!!

 So, I came back and sat in my same old position and time was somewhere around 2.30 AM. My berth was staying vacant somewhere there in the other compartment of the train and I was still sitting with this girl in this confined space!!!

Finally I said -" I think, I have to go now to my berth and sleep"

She did not say anything, but her eyes where asking -" Why? You got bored or something?"

"No. It’s too late and I am having a small back pain, sitting in this awkward manner for long time"

"Oh..is it..you can go. And I also will sleep" She said.

I got up reluctantly, even though I wanted to stay beside her for the whole sweet night.

"Good night...and happy new year" I said.

"Happy New Year...indeed!!! " she replied with a smile.

 I came back to my berth and started sleeping. But, I was not able to sleep! Some kind of a strange feeling was pricking inside my heart, and I was enjoying that pain.

I started thinking about Asha.She was smart, beautiful lady with a very good positive attitude towards life. I mean, she knows how to enjoy her life !!! "Why so-serious?" kind of an attitude. But, I also understood that, she took things like relationships, family, friends and all very seriously! I love such girls!

I was not going through a good phase of my life at that time in all the sense. 3 months before I had resigned my job for aspiring an MBA. Later, when I felt a lot unsecured about being unemployed, I got a job, but it was in Chennai for Ericsson R&D. Finally I decided to move to chennai and in November I reached the hot-Chennai. I was all alone here, trapped in the solitude of this dark city. I had a bad time indeed!

And, it was during one such day, when I was sitting in my office meeting, I got a call from this wonderful girl, Asha. Now, I am traveling with her in this same train to Bangalore. "Happy new year, indeed". Those words reverberated in my mind. I fell asleep in the sweet rhythm of train, and I heard a song being played from the small chamber of my heart - "Na hai yeh pana Na khona he hai....Tum se hi.."

-Sreekant Narayan

CHAPTER 1: December 30 (The Girl’s View)

It was on Dec 30th morning I reached Chennai with a bag full of certificates and a mind full of energy. Inside my mind, I had a wish to meet a guy who has made an impression on me through Gmail chat and blogs and that is how I reached there before one day of the interview. Even though he is my senior in college we have hardly talked 2 or 3 times in person. So how can I suddenly call a somewhat stranger and fix up a meeting? I am a girl after all. So I took my mobile and called my classmates. I thought I will meet them first. But as one of them was out of station we planned the meeting for the next day evening.

Now I have a full one day and the unexplored Chennai in front of me. Then I didn't think much, with all the courage I have, I gave a call to this senior guy. I was practicing how to start the conversation and I was clearing my throat so that I can make my voice as sweet as I can. Then, I heard a lady's voice over there 'The user you are trying to reach is currently busy'. Yes! He cancelled my call. Ouch! That was a big hit to the ego of this self-proclaimed attitude girl. I wanted to switch off my mobile. It was completely dark everywhere.

Huh! Who invented this stupid mobile to spoil one girl’s mood in the morning itself. But just then it blinked, "In a meeting..will call you..”

"Oh!!I was relaxed and typed "oops..I simply called.."

Then after 2 minutes my mobile started ringing. I took the phone with the practiced "helllooo..." and told that I was in Chennai and as my friends are not in station I would be free in the evening. Before completing the sentence he told that he is also free in the evening and he would come to meet me at 5 PM.

Wow!!I was so excited.

I dressed up quickly and went out to explore Chennai till evening. At 3.45 PM when I was in Marina beach, he called me and told he doesn't have any work in office and thus our meeting was advanced by almost 1 hour. And from Teynampet, I saw him coming in a bike wearing a Red T-shirt and a smile. I walked towards him with a big made up smile to overcome my shyness. Suddenly I realized that I have not practiced what to tell him. He was giving his full smile to me. I have to tell something now. I kicked on his bike and told,

 "Wow.. Nice bike".

 Cha..from where did that dialogue come from??(There was nothing nice about that bike. It was Bajaj Discover 2006 model)

*Grin*

May be he understood that I was struggling a lot and as a big help he came with the dialogue "Now where do you want me to take you in this bike?"

I smiled and told we have to find out our interview place. That was the first time in my life I sat on the bike of a somewhat stranger.

After finding out the interview hall we decided to have a cup of coffee. After sometime, we  saw ourselves in Chit Chat waiting for one Peach Melba and 2 cold coffees. He was talking his personal things to me as if we knew each other for a long time and this made me feel that he is not a stranger now. I talked about all the brave things which we did against Mechanicals when we were in college. Then we started filling up sudoku on the table mat. I wanted to win somehow and I wanted to make him know that I have brain but very soon I realized that it was level 5 and I am not gonna fill it in seconds. Just after getting 2 cells filled, I looked into his paper and saw him sitting with 1 cell filled. Then came our Peach Melba. Taking this opportunity, I proclaimed myself the winner and I stopped the game because I didn’t want to fail the first day itself. I was already so impressed of him for 3 reasons. 

1) He was a guy among very few who got placed in the highest paying company.

2) He was the one who taught chess to a brilliant guy in our class.

3) He was a CAT aspirant and I knew that he is very good in aptitude.

Coming back to our Melba, Principles are principles. I don't like having food from the same plate with others. My dear friends always used to tell that it was a bad habit of me and now I didn't want to change my bad habit in front of a Peach Melba which was tempting me by the look itself. How can I tell him that I want a separate one when one glass itself was Rs.180/-and I was damn sure that he was gonna pay for it. I was in dilemma. But as it was a big glass I decided to start eating from my side without touching his part of ice cream. And I was having it so fast because I didn’t want his part to melt and come to my part. It was so delicious and I was enjoying it. Suddenly he put his spoon in my part saying

'Peaches are all here'.

Ah!I was so diappointed.But I didn’t stop as I was unaware of the sudden attack and I was not prepared to stop eating.I had one last spoon and with a smile I told him that I am done. Then our chat continued. It was so interesting and I never got bored even for a second. I noticed that he never boasted which almost all guys do! After a long chat from chit chat we started our journey to my hostel.

It was night by then. I was impressed by his driving. He didn't do any sort of circus. Never tried to draw 'S' in roads. Through the traffic, it was a matured way of driving. When he dropped me I thanked him for that wonderful evening.

That night, I was lying on the bed in the hostel room in the fear of Chicken guinea with lots of mosquitoes around me . But in between all this, I was thinking of the wonderful few hours I spent with him. It was awesome. He is a perfect guy!

Some years rolled back.. Third year of my college. One day after combine study when we were heading back to hostels, we saw someone in the middle of a group, distributing something from a cover. Assuming that it was that guy’s birthday, we decided to go and wish him and get some chocolates for free. We ran towards them. Then we saw this guy, distributing his pass port size photographs to all around him!! My roomie also got one. After sometime that photo got a place in our room’s wall as we didn’t feel like throwing it away and as a symbol of our senior’s creativity we decided to give it a position in our room.

For months he was there in our wall, watching all our girlie things. Then one day my junior girls came to a room with a declaration that “Asha chechi will not fall in love”. I have always been against this love thing and all but at that moment I wanted to play a prank on them and I created a story from air. The hero of the story was  the guy on the wall. My roomies spiced it up and our juniors were carried away by my love story in which we loved each other a lot but we haven’t revealed it because we both believe that if it is true love we will be brought together one day. And thus that somewhat stranger guy became my lover in the story. But his photo didn't last there for long. It was removed one day as a part of cleaning when my roomie's mom announced her visit to our hostel. I never saw that photo again. And that story got faded in years.

I was back to my present when I heard my mobile ringing. He asked my plan after the interview. I told that I was going to Bangalore to meet my friends. When he asked about the ticket, I told that I will take it the next day or I would go in General compartment. He told that he would book ticket for me and kept the phone.

Next day evening I was waiting in front of my interview hall for him to pick me up. I was so excited being interviewed by a panel of executive officers which included civil service officer too. I called my parents and my dear friends and shared the excitement about the best interview I had in my life. But I was missing something. I was waiting for someone to share my happiness in person and I was badly waiting for him. When I saw him I ran towards him. It was not last day's Miss.Shy.I felt so happy when he told that he would start his bike only after hearing my interview news and he listened to me very carefully and became a part of my happiness.

Then we started our bike journey. First to hostel and then to Railway station. On the way I noticed that I was the only girl sitting with 2 legs on one side of the bike. With a big bag on my lap and without having a handler to hold I was struggling to sit. I was holding the back side of the seat tightly so that I would not fall down. Even though he asked me several times whether I was comfortable I didn't tell anything about that missing handler. Even in that uncomfortable posture I was always making sure that even by mistake I would not touch him. Girls are always girls!!

Then we went to food court and had dinner. It was night and all were in a mood to welcome New Year. After long journey we finally got into train. During the journey, I noticed him calling his parents frequently and giving them the latest update. I was surprised seeing a boy calling home frequently but to be frank I was not so impressed of this. But I was impressed when he told that he is calling because they would be worried if he didn’t. Hardly we come across people who care for others. And here is a software guy in front of me who cares for his parents happiness.100% impressed!!

-Asha Jayanthi

Peach Melba

Dedicated to my beautiful girl friend (Chapter1), who later became my wonderful wife (Last chapter), Ashzy!!!

 It was the last week of December 2009, when I met her on that beautiful evening at the streets of Chennai!

And, I never thought that, the New Year was waiting for me with lot of surprises!

 New Year Night! And at 12.00 AM, I was searching for coffee bytes toffees. The only thing running through my mind at that time was to impress her somehow. I was sure that she loves these kinds of "weird" things and that was the first thing I loved about her. The train was heading towards Bangalore and it was a December.

The Night was cold! And to make the conditions even "hotter", me and Asha were sitting together in a cramped side-lower window seat of the train. We were sitting face to each other. She was talking about a lot of things and I was getting a feeling that, she wanted to talk and finish everything she knew in that night itself. So, I was mainly doing the "listening" part and was occasionally talking about a few things. But, the main thing I was thinking about, in the back of my mind, was about, "how more to impress her?"

I mean, Boys are boys!!!

 They always have this kind of a feeling when a smart girl is around you.

And, in this special romantic new-year, I was with her in this cramped up space. The only thing separating me and her body was a pillow. I was leaning towards the pillow and the pillow was leaning towards her legs. We both were sitting. I was taking extra-care not to lean so much, so that she won’t think about a "sexual harassment" there. But, I somehow felt that she was enjoying that seating position. I mean, boys are still boys. But, the kind of a decent attitude she had, I was sure that I cannot impress her only through that seating position. So, that’s why I started talking about, "how I wanted to be a writer and how I want to write scripts for movies and all those creative stuffs”!!! But for sure, I was starting to get a bad backache sitting for long in that position.

 I felt that the train was traveling too fast, and I would reach Bangalore earlier than I expected. And, I wanted more time to talk with her. To know her More!!! And, I felt that she also was trying to know me.

 That was when we met. Jab we met -2.

-Sreekant Narayan