Shaurya saw her from a distance, she was standing at the
entrance of the mall, she had an athletic build, dusky skin, chicly clothed in
a jeans & kurta & a certain glow about her, he slowed down the music
although he didn’t want to but he had to because he couldn’t think if he didn’t
stop the music, he lit up a cigarette & while he dragged on the ciggie, he recalled
about Manisha, he always liked Manisha, even when she was Ashok’s girlfriend,
Ashok was his childhood friend & they were the best of friends since childhood,
they both were good looking, they had peculiarly similar choices, both liked
kesar pista ice creams, both loved cricket & lawn tennis, both were the
mischief mongers of their household & inseparable from each other. Their
parents were also happy to see their friendship & considered the other as
their own children. Shaurya & Ashok both joined in architectural courses in
CET, Bhubaneswar & were having the time of their life. Shaurya & Ashok
shared everything among each other until the moment Manisha arrived in their
lives, it was during their final year in CET around 2008 when Ashok met Manisha
at a wedding of his cousin & they both hit it off instantly, Manisha fell
in love with Ashok from the first day of their meeting & Ashok realized it
a month after they started dating. Shaurya was bugged by the sudden changed behaviour
of Ashok but he didn’t mind because he saw he was happy,he never minded even when Ashok won’t smoke or drink with him
or won’t play videogames or won’t go to their usual leisure spots, he tried to
find out but Ashok would cleverly change the topic.
Then on one day Ashok
stepped up & talked to him about Manisha, “I am in love man, I will marry
her in 3 months after I join the Bastion firm in New Delhi.” Ashok could only
reply in astonishment,” you bastard, you couldn’t have told me about it
earlier, I was worried about you & what’s this nonsense about marriage,
have you talked about it to your parents, what about her & her parents,
what will they feel when they learn of it.” but Ashok was a tough nut to crack,
he was always rebellious, he liked to have his own way & he never cared
about the society. Shaurya tried with him to be reasonable & be patient
until they finish their exams, Shaurya remembered the day he met Manisha, it
was during the midst of their exams, when Ashok called him up & asked him
to come to the Café coffee day at the Marrion, Shaurya went over there, half
asleep, unkempt facial hair & uncombed curly hair, the usual Shaurya but he
was taken aback by the sight of Manisha, she looked beautiful, oh she was
beautiful, she was dressed in a blue Capri jeans, black top & had flowing
tresses, she looked at Shaurya with amazement & asked Ashok if this was
Shaurya ? Ashok was in splits for the next half n hour when Shaurya the
womanizer of the two tried to explain his appearance. While Ashok was laughing
his ass off Shaurya was falling for Manisha. Over the next few months while the
three of them became inseparable from each other & hung out together, Ashok
became more mature & Shaurya who never believed in stuff like love, felt he
was falling in love with Manisha, for the first time in his life, he seriously
felt jealous of Ashok but he loved Ashok more than Manisha, he would never
betray Ashok for his own sake, he felt like he was breathless but his love for
his friend triumphed & his love for Manisha succumbed. All was well in the
paradise of the friends, Ashok & Manisha went ahead in their relationships
& informed both their parents of their relationship and both of their
parents expressed their happiness & blessed them. Ashok joined in Bastion
firm & Manisha a fashion student, joined as an intern at Wills Lifestyle
& both of them moved to Delhi after their engagement. Shaurya was the
happiest for them. They came to Bhubaneswar during vacations & Shaurya went
to Delhi sometimes, everything was fine.
Then one day during a client meeting at
office, his phone buzzed relentlessly, Shaurya didn’t bother at first but when
he looked up to see who was it, he was surprised, it was Manisha, almost
choking from crying, she just uttered the words that were going to change both
of their lives forever, ”Shaurya, Ashok met with an accident in Daryaganj while
going to his house, he is in ICU & is very critical, he asked for you, try
to come as soon as possible.” Then she broke down, Shaurya didn’t exactly
remember the events after that but he remembered & probably never forgot
the minute long conversation he had with a dying Ashok in the hospital, no
words were spoken, both friends just looked into each other’s eyes & then
Ashok died in Shaurya’s arms. That day it wasn’t Ashok who died but the three
of them died together. It took them long enough to get back to the normal
lives. Of all Manisha was the sufferer, she left her internship, left Delhi
& came back to Bhubaneswar, declined job offers & became a recluse,
Shaurya tried to console her, make her smile again, whatever he did, he
reminded her of Ashok & she broke down, it took her a long 6 months to get
back to the world.
Shaurya recalled the night when Manisha came to his bachelor
house near Sailashree vihar at 10 pm in the night drunk & laughing. When Shaurya
offered to drop her, she declined “I want to be happy” she said, “enough of
being a sorry sod, I want to live again, I am not mad, I just want to be happy
again.” He couldn’t say no to her. That night, they both sat side by side,
watched pictures of Ashok & them, cried, laughed & comforted each
other. Shaurya almost forgot he ever loved Manisha, for the moment she seemed
just like another wandering soul like him, they completed each other; they
promised each other to be their old selves. All the while Shaurya felt happy
for her over the next few months, bringing her to the normal again, Manisha started
her own fashion classes in Bhubaneswar for budding fashion students, it went
well, slowly she started designing for various brands & also for certain
celebrities of Ollywood. She was successful now, she was happy, she was
responsible, all the while Manisha found her being drawn towards Shaurya
uncontrollably & inexplicably, he was not like Ashok but he was everything
a woman would wish for, Shaurya was manly, handsome, caring & outgoing, he
never expressed his feelings unless required, he never let her down. She tried
sending messages expressing her feelings but every time Shaurya would act like
he didn’t know or he didn’t want to know, there were never any dearth of girls
with Shaurya before but nowadays he acted like a lone wolf, he concentrated on
his work, he opened a new office by himself & started working hard, the
only thing besides his work was Manisha. Shaurya could notice the closeness
between them but he ignored his own feelings of the past until one day Manisha confronted
him & proposed him.
He tried to call it her obsession, what ensued was a 1
week long fighting & 2 week long pampering to tell her that he still
considers him Ashok’s girlfriend & it will take some time to accept her as
someone else. Finally Manisha agreed but her actions were still the same. Meanwhile
Shaurya dealt with his own demons, he loved her but the feeling was locked away
in a deep cavern in his heart, he wanted to let it out but he couldn’t, he
tried, he did but the feeling was lost, lost somewhere in his own heart. He spent
a lot of time with her, everyone around them, friends, family wanted them to be
together, even Ashok’s parents wanted them to be together. Then one day, Manisha
did something he didn’t expect, while watching a movie together at her house,
she leaned on his shoulder, after a while he felt that she wasn’t looking at
the screen or the movie, she was looking at him, he looked at her puzzled, she
looked at him like a child, innocence in her eyes, mischief brewing slowly, she
came closer to him, touched his face & caressed it, Shaurya was transfixed
in his place, completely unprepared for all the things going on. Then Manisha came
closer & kissed him gently, Shaurya was stunned, he didn’t know what
happened next, he kissed her back gently, he caressed her hair, pulled her
closer to him & as she started to open his shirt, the reality dawned upon
him, he suddenly stood up, angry & ashamed at the same time of himself
& his actions. He was burning up with guilt from inside; he got up & apologized
& left her place. Before he slammed the door, all he saw was tears welling
up in her eyes. For 2 days they didn’t talk, all the while Shaurya thought
about everything that happened since day one of meeting with Manisha.
He remembered
their kissing, that moment of innocence when both of them couldn’t restraint
themselves from each other, he gave that a deep thought & then he went up
to the picture of Ashok & stood before it, then he spoke, “I hope wherever
you are, you must be happy my brother, I don’t know what I am doing but I think
if I don’t do this, I will never again be able to look into my own eyes in the
mirror, I have always loved her not that I am taking advantage of the situation
now that you are not around, I have loved her, I love her & I will love her
forever, hope you understand.” Then he picked up his phone, glanced up at the
clock, it was 2 am, muttered to himself” Game face, Game face”, then called Manisha.
She answered but was silent, Shaurya mustered up his courage & then spoke
“hello”, silence, “hello”, silence again, he felt like banging his head on the
wall but then he said, “I know you are listening, please say something, I know
the way I reacted was not right but I understand it was my mistake”, he was trying
to explain when Manisha spoke up in an icy tone, “no, it was my mistake to feel
that I fell in love with you, what I did was just a horny act of a slut,I guess
that’s what you think of me now, don’t you Shaurya ?”. he felt like someone poured
acid all over him, her words pressed like thorns into his heart, “how could you
think of me as a lowly person, how could you think of yourself like this, no
god no ”while he was trying to soothe her, she cut him short, “you don’t love
me, you don’t try to love me, you don’t want to love me”, he decided it was
enough now, “you can fight with me over the phone or you can fight with me
tomorrow all day”, it was enough to calm her down, “tomorrow, all day ?”She gushed,
“Yes tomorrow, just you & me, it’s a date”, he blurted out, silence on her
end. Then she said, “10 am sharp, Maruti mall, be on time.” He managed a “Sure”
before keeping the phone down.
The ignored cigarette singed his skin near the thumb, he
jolted back from his memory lane, threw the lit cigarette after taking the last
puff, rolled down the glass of his side window & let the air enter his car,
the dust pushed in with the air but he didn’t care, it was his car not anyone
else’s, he waited till the smell of cigarettes died & the car smelt
somewhat less than before, he pushed on the ambi pur to let the smell off, all
the while intently looking at her, preparing to face her after last night’s
phone call. She looked like an angel in distress, looking for someone desperately;
he rolled up the glass & switched on the AC. He looked at the mirror before
seeing her, adjusted his ever so curly hair trying to look cool, took a deep
breath & switched the music on & changed the music from the lonely
island’s I just had sex to Christina Perry’s thousand years, her favourite.
Then stepped on the accelerator & drove to the mall, stopped his car,
rolled down the glass of his side window & looked at Manisha, she looked
like she was waiting for someone, Shaurya knew better, she recognized his car
& looked at him with anger, Shaurya braced himself for the debate that was
going to ensue soon, honked & she started to walk towards him. Shaurya
looked at her as she walked towards him, she was perfect in everything she did,
even her gait looked like a supermodel’s ramp walk although gentle & not
raunchy, as he was transfixed in his thoughts, a knock brought him back to reality,
Manisha was knocking impatiently on the glass, even though his 10 minute
preparation to see Manisha, Shaurya had forgot to unlock the side door of his
car. He unlocked the door & she came in, she looked at Shaurya with mock
anger twinkling in her eyes,” you are always late, its 10.20”, she complained.
He tried to look innocent & cited his work at the office about some
building design; “I was busy with the galaxy apartment design.” She sighed,
“why do you always have to lie about your lateness, galaxy blah blah apartment,
you can tell the truth, its 10 am you never go to your office before 10.30,” he
felt astonished at her knowledge of him, “in this case, you can say that I
didn’t think it was important to meet you or spend time with you, that’s why I
was late”, she looked like she was hurt, it killed Shaurya to see Manisha hurt,
she continued, “Who am I to you, I am just a liability to you, I am just your
dead friend’s girlfriend whom you never liked & had to put up with.”
Shaurya felt immensely bad about being reminded about Ashok like this, he
corrected her, “you were Ashok’s girlfriend, not some dead friend’s, you are my
best friend’s girlfriend & unfortunately he’s not with us anymore, don’t
insult your & my relationship with him, we both know the value of our
relationships with him & with each other.”, she again started to say
something but Shaurya stopped her by putting his palm on her lips.
It was a time
for revelations, no more fights, no more misunderstandings, he gestured her
towards the music player, turned up the volume a little bit, a thousand years played
like a magic, she looked confused, her eyes twinkled with anticipation, he took
off his hand off her lips, then he drew closer & uttered “I Love You, I have
loved you since the day I met you, back then you were Ashok’s girl & I chose
to forget you as my love but over the time & since he passed away, I have
never stopped thinking about you, I Love you Manisha Ray, I loved it when you
kissed me, I didn’t have the courage to do that, you for all I know you
complete me & I will be miserable without you, I can’t say anything more
but all I know that I love you madly, I Love You, I Love You.” She was crying
lightly when he finished his sentence, she complained “why did you stop, you
idiot”, “you sound so romantic when you say things like this”, then she drew
closer & said, “I Love you too Shaurya Gautam, I Love You with all my
heart.” Before she could say anything else & cry anymore, Shaurya grabbed
her & kissed her, he kept kissing her until some people surrounded the car
& started whistling at them. They came back to their senses, embarrassed,
happy and nostalgic. As the hooting died down, Shaurya asked “where to baby?” &
she smiled & replied “wherever we can be together.”
Then they drove off, to happiness, bliss & togetherness.
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