… And they lived happily ever after

“Hello …. “

“Nisha, is that you?”  Rohit couldn’t believe his ears. Sweat trickled down his forehead. Moist gathered in his parched eyes. Ground swept off from beneath his legs. He had known ...  very closely known that husky voice before. There was a sudden silence on both ends of the receiver …. a silence that freed only the loud beats of their hearts.

With trembling hands, trying to hold the receiver tight, Rohit hushed onto his phone receiver again, “Nisha, is that you?”

“Hmmn … Rohit, it’s me … your Moti (fat girl)," minced Nisha, after a long pause, hiding her dam of emotions within her heart. Rohit could sense the stored tears trickling down her soft red cheeks. But he stood there helpless and blank not knowing what to say.

“Hmmn … Uhhh…hmmn, Moti,” Rohit fumbled. He was unaware about the emotions that gathered in his heart. Anger or love ... he didn't know what was overriding him now.

With a crackled voice, he retorted, “Where were you?”

“Why did you go away just like that?” …

“How come you thought of me now? … Huh?" Rohit yelled at her, his voice nearly getting choked. Regaining his courage, he, again was about to say something, when unexpectedly she said …

“I love you Rohit.”

Shivers went down his spine. The anger that had swelled up till now vanished in the thin air. The explanations he sought to have from her for these past 15 years, now, didn’t stand any relevance. Those three magical words from the girl whom he loved the most from the time when he didn’t know what love was, stifled every pain and anger he carried all these years in him. Tears that had welled up 15 years ago, when the soft grip of her hand loosened from his on the immature passage of their school, streamed down his bearded manly cheeks.

Nisha felt guilty. She knew she was at fault. She tried to console him. “Rohit, please don’t cry  … I know I can’t even say sorry for leaving you so coldly that day without even giving a proper reason but …” She knew words wouldn’t give him the 15 years of his life. She knew she had been the cheater in the game. Yes, in the game of love … The love which they loved at the time when they didn’t know the meaning of love. The love they carried in their heart when they were hardly in the 5^th grade of their school. The love he proposed to her on the wintery evening of the 6^th of December, somewhere in the year 1998, while on a school trip to the Karnala bird sanctuary. The love they pledged to live together forever. The love they carved within the heart shapes on their school desks. The love that caressed her when he lovingly called her Moti. The love they lived only with a glimpse of each other from the corner of their eyes, fearing the world around. The love they sensed when their hands, naively, brushed against each other’s while passing the swarming corridors of their school. The love they loved, when ignoring everyone, after her stage performance, she walked down head high and innocently sat just beside him in their jam-packed school ground. The love they lived when she sneaked into her friend’s house to hear him pamper her on the phone. The love they loved in the land of their dreams …

… But on the other side of their dream, they knew not, reality waited ... waited to hit them hard. Yes, it hit them hard on face when her family got crumpled in the financial debt; when her father breathed his last breath not bearing the debt; when her mother toiled hard to exist hand-to-mouth. They had to move … she had to move … move far away… miles away from Rohit. Suddenly the priorities in her life had changed, which, even she didn’t comprehend. Destiny threw her miles away from her Rohit. She didn’t know whether they will ever meet again. He didn’t know whether he will get a chance to hold her tight again. They didn’t know. Their life was not theirs anymore. Destiny ruled it. 

Now years after, the same destiny tossed them back on the same intersection of road from where they parted away last.

Now, she was here … a stone’s throw away from him. Years had passed, but the same day, 6^th of December, was here. Destiny had decided this too.

Gathering all courage in her voice, keeping her fingers crossed, she whispered into the receiver, “Rohit, will you be my valentine?”

He went silent. She felt parched. The phone stood dead there for hours together … may be it was seconds but those seconds seemed hours to her. She had waited long. He had … or hadn’t he? She knew not. She wanted to know.

Not able to bear the stillness, Nisha cleared her throat to say something again, when suddenly a meek, choked “Yes” came from the other end of the receiver. A long pause followed … Butterflies that fluttered in her stomach all these years, now released suddenly. The fear of loss buried in them now turned into the joy of inseparableness. Now she knew … he had. He did … He did wait for her.  She could sense the joy welling up in her love. Yes, her love; whom she had loved more than what it meant to be loved. She felt a wave of breeze blowing towards her; drawing her back to the land of dreams where Rohit was waiting to pull her in his arms, to kiss her hard, to hug her tight, and to shower on her the eternal love they missed to live so long.