Tale of a Fairy

Do fairy tales exist? I am pretty sure the answer is no. Nothing in our life is a fairy tale, especially the magical twists and sought out love in fairy tales are so unreal. But I know a tale, which is no fairy tale, but has a fairy in it. I am going to narrate it, just sit back and witness the magic of a fairy. It is the tale of an angel whom billions love and admire. An angel who started as the princess of dance, grown into the queen of the expressions and retired to settle down as the emperor of the hearts. Many mastered the art of Kathak before, but she reinvented it, mixed it with the unmatchable beauty of hers, added an extra fineness with her graceful expressions and ruled it. If the record of highest number of filmfare nominations and honour of Padmashree were one side of her glory, her kind heart and altruistic Philanthrophism are in the unseen side of her beauty. It becomes very difficult for a person to decide whether her dance is her biggest asset or her eyes. When she dances, everyone around her just seems to be halted for a moment to engross themselves in her dance and everything around her turns itself towards her so as not to miss the chance and there would be one wish crossing every person’s mind, to see her dance forever and ever. She has so much ease and flow in her steps that it seems as if music is being played on her steps, not the other way around. While in her early days, she grabbed everyone’s attention with the oozing sensuality in her dance, her later days showed the complete portrayal of her charm blended with the free flow, along with not losing her trademark sensuality. And of course, it’s just impossible to describe her eyes. Such elegance was never before seen and was never before captured on screen. Where it becomes very difficult for actresses to portray some expressions on their faces, in front of camera, she does it only with her eyes with ease. May it be the ruthless anger or delightful contentment, there was (is) no other actress who could beat her (at least beat her eyes). The way she smiles with her eyes makes one fall in love with her instantaneously. The only thing we can pardon for coming in the way of her eyes is her cascading hair. It just flows as if it longs to touch her. Coming to her smile, it’s eternal. It makes a guy’s heart skip a beat, literally. Best thing about her is that her eminence did not let her ignore the realities of the world. It’s easy for anyone to sacrifice their careers for their children when they are not in much demand. But she sacrificed it right when she was at the peak stage of her career with a timeless classic Devdas. She took leave from movies to take care of her children. To our pleasant surprise, she came back and that too with a bang in Aaja Nachle. I really don’t know how this film progressed, but it was just pleasing to see her dance, dance and dance. We may not see her much, unlike the golden 80’s and 90’s but no one can replace this sovereign of beauty and the crown’s always hers. This folks, is a short story of an angel who breathed life into the expressions. We all know who she is and if you don’t, it's none other than  our beloved  Madhuri Dixit.

50

One:

It was around the time of my 19^th birthday that I started blogging and the incidents that have inspired me and lead me to take this step were quite interesting. Quite some time ago, I had written a story describing the mind-set of a person whose thoughts oscillate between the love of a girl and his parents’. I saved it somewhere in a pen drive and forgot about it. When a friend of mine, Laharish, borrowed it from me, he and another friend, Uday have read it and asked me from who wrote it. When I replied that I wrote it, they were surprised and encouraged me to continue writing as they found it to be very good. I started blogging with an article about the simultaneous event promotions of Ra.One and F1 in India. That was my first step in the blogging.

Four:

By this time, I got some dedicated readers and I lost half of them with this post. But till today, I don’t regret writing that article. It was about the dark side of Gandhi. Every person has shades of grey in them and I feel Gandhi has got some too, which are darker than known to a common man. That’s what I portrayed and I always stand on my words!

Six:

This one was special. This is an anniversary gift to my friend Sandhya on the occasion of the completion of one year of their love. It was special for me too, because after this post, I established my own style of narration and a special one.

Seven:

Only post in my blog which is a copy paste. But I never thought of removing it as it is the copy of the speech given by the gentleman of cricket Rahul Dravid and it’s always inspiring.

Ten:

My nine posts were good and readers liked them. But this one was something unique. It was straight from the heart. This post, “A Final Note” is a story encouraging the spread of the anti-suicide campaigns. Reason behind writing this story is the suicide of my batch mate. I was neither one of his best friends nor did I spend much time with him, but I just couldn’t sleep after hearing the tragic news. My heart was filled with grief and agony and I had to do something about it. I still don’t remember when I took the pen and when I completed the story. I posted it as a tribute to him and it got huge response. More than the response, it was the thought that maybe I could change the mind of at least one person made me happy. According to many readers, it is my best work till date. I don’t really know whether it is or not, but it changed my level of writing.

Fourteen:

This blog post marked the beginning of my beloved series named “College Diaries”. Each and every article of the series is based on the personal experiences and specially dedicated to MANIT students.

Nineteen:

I feel this article is the most underrated work of mine. It was not an easy one to write, I wrote it in two languages separately and yet it was not much appreciated. I learnt a valuable lesson that to maintain a blog, your hard work doesn’t matter. All that matters is the connection of the post with the readers. From that moment, every article I wrote was keeping readers in mind.

 Twenty:

My one such post which I read every time I open my blog. It is the replica of my love and respect towards Nolan and his professionalism. Nolan is loved by all, but understood by only a few. That’s what I want to, through this post, to explain Nolan.

Twenty One:

Well, that’s a hat trick. Three back to back posts which I loved writing. This post started as an idea of describing the most beautiful girl I ever saw and ended up being the most emotional post of my blog. A friend of mine told me, “Man, I tried hard to control it, but at the end a tear drop managed to escape my eye which doesn’t happen regularly”. When I still read it today, I feel elated. This is my favourite post of my entire blog.

Twenty three:

It’s a tribute post to the heroes of 26.11 in my own style of narration and concepts. I am proud of it.

Twenty Nine:
This post was only about the incident happened with my friend, YRK. I didn’t expect readers to be happy with this post, but in contrast, I got many accolades.

Thirty Seven:

There are one or two posts in between which deserve a mention, but I am too excited to write about this. This is probably the post with best concept among my works. I always had this thought about the “Love at First Sight”. But when I put it into words, it turned out to be elegant and beautiful. I got a compliment from my junior that the article is so good that she pictured the placed I described in the article everytime she reads it. These kind of compliments fuel our thought process even more.

Forty:

Twilight! It was an easy one to write and the response to this story was tremendous.

Forty Two:

It was an unintentional article. My junior, Priyanshi asked me to write about some concept in psychology. I accepted the challenge and completed the article. But after sending it to her, I found out that I understood the concept entirely in a wrong way. But the outcome was great, though not the one we desired. Narration style was praised.

Forty Four:

This article elevated the readership of my blog to the next level. I got numerous compliments of which a common one was that I describe the female lead role in my writings with great elegance and I am very good at it. That’s a compliment I would always cherish.

Forty Five:

It was inspired from the trailer of the film “Ugly”. I tried a new style by mixing article writing and story writing into a single work. This was not welcomed by many and it discouraged me of my further attempts towards such a style. But at the end, it stood 7^th among 143 articles in a writing competition and gave me some relief.

Fifty:

Here we are, at the fiftieth step of my blogging career and I thank each and every reader who have been with me through thin and thick. Special thanks to YRK and Bhargava who have taught me the basics of writing in English and Avinash who was my critic at every stage and a very good adviser. Thanks to everyone who have encouraged me and supported me. A very special thanks to Ankita for suggesting me this topic which made me revisit my good old memories.   

AMIGO

“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over.”

~Gloria Naylor

Chapter 1: The Genesis

It was the first time we hugged each other. We broke the record of the highest opening partnership of our gully. Was that worth hugging? Well, we were 9 and cricket was our world. Our friendship, started in that moment, was flowing towards an endless shore. Many records were broken and many hugs were taken after that. Exchange of lunch boxes, prank calling the teachers, teasing one another in the name of girls and many more childish activities converted to rooftop night outs, facebook joint stalking, bunking of classes to hang out at pubs. Actions changed, friendship never did. May it be the backing up of one another when caught cheating in an exam or consoling one another when Sachin got out on 4 in the finals of the World Cup ’03, we were always together. 

Chapter 2: The Promise

It was the last day of our high school, a pause in the 8 years of our friendship. I got admission in an NIT and Arun opted for a local Engineering college. Something’s are going to be changed, but we made a promise that we would keep in touch and hang out in every semester break. One thing I was sure of was that I would never get a better friend than Arun and it won’t be much of a problem staying connected in this Internet era.

Little did we knew about the path awaiting us that would lead to the next part of our journey. We think some people are important and we make them a part of our lives. But in most of the cases end up being something else. There neither misunderstandings nor quarrels are the antagonists, contrary to what we think. It’s just that as we grow up, we also grow apart. We didn’t think of all these. We knew one thing: We made a promise and we are going to keep it!

Chapter 3: The Despise

AFTER 5 YEARS,

PLACE: FACEBOOK.

Arun: Hey                                           7.30 pm

             üseen                                        7.31 pm

Arun: Hey, busy?                              8.30 pm
             Dude, I saw the “seen”
             notification, are you busy?

             üseen                                       8.35 pm

Arya: Hey man. Sorry, I am a    8.36 pm
            little busy. Gtg, bbye
.

Options > Turn off chat

“ Continues with his important work of looking at trolls in a random funny page.”

THE Liebster Award

I really don't know the content style. Putting it in simple words, I will thank YRK for his valuable nomination. I don't know about the award and its rules. But whatever it is, it sounds fun, especially the 11 questions. A little of what I read it was and boom....

Liebster Award is given to up and coming bloggers who have less than 200 followers. It’s appreciation from fellow bloggers and your chance to introduce yourself to other awesome bloggers.

If you receive this award, you are expected to:
1. Post 11 facts about yourself
2. Answer the 11 questions the tagger has given you
3. Tag 11 more Bloggers (with no more than 200 followers; no tagging back) and make 11 questions for them
4. Tell the people you tagged that you did.

11 facts about myself:

1.  I am a guy who hails from and is in love with the Hyderabad city.

2. I am one among the millions of normal guys who think they are normal, but are not.

3. I mostly write love, but am not acquainted with it.

4. I am the guy who don’t usually trust people. To gain my trust, you have to earn it.

5. I am the one who loves the god of English literature, Shakespeare, but hates his followers for my own reasons.

6.  I study Mechanical. May be it’s an extra-curricular activity and my main activity is working in my management society- IBC.

8. I believe that “God” is a concept which is heavily manipulated and commercialized. Talk with me for hours straight and yet you can’t figure out whether I am an atheist or a theist.

9. Whenever people say to me that Indian music is shit and that I need to listen to English albums, I just feel pity for them.

10.  I am a person who sees deep inside the other people’s personality. I have been unsuccessful in judging the people, a lot, in the past. But now, I am a pro.

11.  People listen to anything you say when you’re a celebrity. That is one of the reasons why I want to be one.

Questions YRK has put to me:

1.     Why blog when you can speak?

         People will think that I am mad, if I talk to myself.

2.    Is rhyme the essence of poetry?

         Definitely. If it was not, then everything would have been prose!

3.    Have you ever felt your heart pain, practically?

         Practically?? Never. Figuratively?? Yes.

4.    Why should I not start quizzing you?

         Dude, you already did!

5.    Why did I mark your name above?

          I think you love me :P

6.    If not for social networking, how far would you and I have been?

         Further than we are at the moment.

7.    Define an ideal parent.

         One who’s like the dark knight, a silent guardian.

8.    Coffee or wine?

         May I choose milk??

9.    After you have entered the college, did you ever run out of ink?

         Yes, many a times.

10.  What is an ideal birthday gift?

         The Batarang. :D

11.    If you were Robinson Crusoe, what would you have done?

Who?

11 Bloggers I recommend:

http://ecstasyofthoughts.blogspot.com/

http://myscrappedunderbelly.blogspot.in/

http://squintyperception.blogspot.in/

http://ibcmanit.blogspot.in/

http://rohitrockingalwayz.wordpress.com/

http://ankitabhargava20.blogspot.in/

http://ahirraoakshay02.blogspot.in/

http://the-brimming-brook.blogspot.in/

http://aayushkumarpandey.blogspot.in/

http://santosh4u.com/

http://captainsanjana.blogspot.in/

My questions:

For comparison questions, answer with reasons:

1.Movies or Books?

2. Rahul Dravid or Sachin Tendulkar?

3. Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings?

4. Christopher Nolan or Steven Speilberg?

5. Why did I mark your name above?

6. What am I to you a year back and what am I now?

7. What is “life” to you?

8. To you, who is god and what is a religion?

Answer on the scale of 1-10 (with explanations, if possible):

9. Your writing.

10.  Your first crush.

11.  Importance of love in life.

THE REUNION 2: FLOOD OF LOVE

To read the first part, click here: THE REUNION: FLOW OF LOVE

“It’s an insane world, but in it there’s one sanity, the loyalty of old friends. We must believe in one another.”

                               ~ Ben Hur

MY SWINGING FEELINGS:
   

     People think moments are birds which just fly by and we can do nothing about them. But truth is that they just are like the kites. Yes, they fly. But how and where they fly to, is connected to a string and controlled by us. All that we have to do is fly them with craft. That was one moment which I felt was slipping from my hands. I fell in love with the lover of my best friend! And if that was not complicated enough, she was the reason for Arya to get drifted away from us. My thoughts kept oscillating between love, guilt and hatred!

IS THIS SCENE EVEN RELATED TO THE STORY??!! :

   The dark steps creaked as she stepped down to the dining table. Everyone was busy already sharing their nostalgia as she pulled her chair. Being mechies, our first topic was about girls, besides the chai sutta moments at Mata Mandir. We were having dinner and started talking about the good old days and Prakash, after his third tequila shot, grunted, “Remember Asha, she was a bitch man! She just behaves friendly with any person who has a bike. Man, girls just didn’t have any morals back in our college days". Everyone were silent, the place seemed gloomy and then she spoke, for the first time. Her voice husky as a flute, she said, "it hurts…" lost in a world looking deep into the emptiness. Vivek erred at her.  Gaining back the worldly existence, she said, “… to be misunderstood. A girl could not have been so worse. It must have been a misinterpretation. A girl has a beautiful heart, like a calm song. Gossips are disturbances, the noises you hear. Had you tried to listen to the song, it could have been a different table today. Misunderstanding hurts, but only after the words can't be taken back. Just think before you speak.”

 The silence prolonged except for me, for I saw more than a good understanding girl, a keen mind in her.  Her beauty was encroached by her dullness and her sweet heart by her calmness, but I noticed beyond.  He knew her true affection, he could read how she would care. All said was a sentence, but I fell in love.

THE TURNING POINT:

    

    The way she balanced motives with grace while speaking killed my two other emotions and all that’s left was love! I had decided to leave the reunion to avoid any further embarrassing confrontations. After the dinner, I went to Ananya and said, “Hey, I have to go. Where’s Arya? I’ll meet him once and take leave.”

   She said, “Come on! Just one more day and this reunion would be complete! Why do you want to leave so early?” I just insisted on leaving and asked her to at least give his contact number so that I can contact him later.

    She replied, “I didn’t want to get to this until you guys have done with your reunion. But as you’re insisting, I have to. I’m his cousin. All the avoiding he did to you guys, all the fake love stories he did weave and the changes he made you see in him were not real. He was suffering from Huntington’s disease which he came to know in the summer vacations after the second year. As soon as he was informed of his disease, he tried to get away from you as he didn’t want you guys to get distracted and drawn off, with the uncoordinated, pitiful and complicated part of his life. All the phone calls were about me helping him with his medic dates and suggestions. He asked me to arrange a reunion as soon as he passes away as he wants you to know that he loves them and he wants to be remembered.”

     It meant that we misunderstood him all the while! The irritating times for us which we spent on phone, the confusing moments which we spent questioning about his mottos of choosing a wrong path, the never ending hours which we waited for him to return; were all something bigger than what’s seen. Everything was a part of the plan. Never in his life did he place anyone above us. He thought that a lonely death is worthy to endure to make our lives undisturbed. If dying with many people praying for your life is something eternal, then dying alone praying for other’s life is greater than divine!

ONE LAST TIME:

    As the first rays of sun kissed the bleak winter land of Bhopal, we waited in distress for the hearse to arrive and it did. As the coffin was being taken out from it, a tear rolled down my cheek. 

Life is beautiful

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL

“Love has no boundaries, but has certain rules. Sacrifice and acceptance being the most important among them.”

THIS IS ME:

At last, I am going to propose her today. It has been over two years since we met and she became an inseparable part of my life. I am just another fat idiot who sits in the back benches trying to ignore every word said by the lecturers. The only thing I know (knew) was to write and I stopped doing that too, when my writings were rejected by college magazine to publish their “jugaadu” writers’ articles. In short, I have nothing special in me. These thoughts are the ones which held me back from proposing her all these days. Today, I got placed in a reputed company. Of course, I was given a job designation which I was not even aware of its existence before 2 months. But I’m happy, as were the 90% of the students who got jobs which are nowhere near their dream jobs. I told my parents and they were proud of me. The next thing I decided is that I am going to propose to Maya!

5 YEARS LATER:

“Love is magic, figuratively and literally. If magic is nothing but a simple act covered up by illusions which make it look difficult to understand, then love is no different!” With these lines, I completed writing my third book at 5 am in the morning. Then I went on to make two cups of coffee and with that I woke up Maya. Her hair all messed up and mascara half faded, she was looking eternal in those shorts and Minion tees. As her brown eyes were still half closed, her two beautiful glossy lips were sipping the Coffee. After she drank the coffee, I kissed her and my son who’s speeling and got out from there. I now have Maya in my life and I became a writer. Wasn’t this all I asked for?

“Life is beautiful. Isn’t it?”

THE PROPOSAL:

As I went to her home, aunty said that she was upstairs, in her bedroom. I knocked and went inside to surprise her, only to find her bleeding from her head. We took her to the hospital and all the tests were done. Aunty came out furiously, slapped me and told me not to bring her daughter home again. I went in. She told me crying, that she is pregnant and the guy responsible for it refused to even talk her from the moment he came to know about it. She tried to shoot herself with the airsoft gun, but being the plastic bullets, they only penetrated till the border of her brain. Her condition was stable for the next 7 months but while giving birth to her child, her brain condition got serious and she went into the state of severe trauma. From then on, she can only perform the involuntary actions such as eating, drinking etc.

NOW:

I gave up my job and started writing again so that I can always be there to take care of her. I moved away to US as my parents found it humiliating that I’m raising her child as my own and making her a part of my family. I still wait for her to wake up. And I don’t even know if she accepts my proposal.

“Life isn’t beautiful in itself. It’s your way of acceptance and adjusting power that makes your life beautiful and meaningful.”

     Vantage Point

SASARAM POLICE STATION, BIHAR.

TIME: 10.00 am

“Sir, this week I can give you only 15%. Competition has grown so much that we no longer can demand the prices.”

“Don’t give me all these stupid excuses. You are after all a pimp. I can completely wipe you out from the records and then out of the society. I’ll reduce the percentage to 20% but I need three girls per week, instead of two”, said the inspector scratching his belly. Then he called out his constable, “Ramu, take the money and send this disgrace out of the station. And also call in the next case.”

“Namaste sir, I am Arun. My daughter went missing this morning. Please do something sir” said Arun, crying heavily.

“Don’t panic and just explain me clearly what happened.”

“Sir, at around 7 a.m, I was going to drop my daughter in her school and midway and we stopped at the Neelam market to buy groceries. I told her that I’ll be back in five minutes and not to move from her seat. I went away and when I returned, she was not in the car. There were some blood drops on the back seat where she was sitting. I trembled and searched everywhere around. Then I came straight here” said Arun, in a choking voice.

“Show me the exact place where you parked the car.”

NEELAM MARKET,

12.00 pm.
“Inspector observed the surroundings and said, “Ramu, bring that panipuri stall owner, beggar and security guard of that ATM. And don’t forget to order two samosas and a tea.”

Kidnapping is such a case where interrogation is a more powerful weapon than an investigation and inspector Sasaram is said to be the best interrogator available in the state.

BEGGAR,

Explaining the scene between 6.45 am and 7.15 am.

“Sir, my ‘business’ was on a poor run and I had to start as early as 6 am so as to feed my family. This week, my posting is at the Neelam market junction and I was on duty at that time. Some red car stopped and this sir got down from it. I limped towards him. He talked to someone sitting inside the car and then gave me a ten rupee note and walked towards the market. Then suddenly around ten trucks passed from beside the car. After sometime, he was back with some big cover in his hand and a man was beside him. Within seconds, he was running everywhere around. That’s all I know sir.”

PANIPURI STALL OWNER,

Explaining the scene between 6.45 am and 7.15 am.

“Sir, I couldn’t see clearly what happened as my stall was filled with customers who come for jogging in the nearby park and take a break at my stall daily. All I remember was that this sir (pointing out to Arun) bought a large pack of panipuris from me and asked me to help with his car door as it would be difficult for him to do so, holding the big cover of panipuris. When I opened the door, he kept the cover inside the car and all of a sudden, he started panicking. He asked me whether I have seen any 10 year old girl nearby. I said no and he started running around, asking everyone.”

ATM SECURITY GUARD,

Explaining the scene between 6.45 am and 7.15 am.

“This sir came to me and complained that ATM machine was not working and I showed him another booth and he went away. Then ten trucks were moving on the road and some people got down from the first running truck and moved around. Then they climbed back into the last truck and went away singing some songs loudly. There was a red car parked near the road and door opened slowly. After sometime Arun sir came to me trembling with fear and asked me “Have you seen anyone getting down from the car” and I said that someone opened the door 2 minutes ago and must have gotten down at that moment. We both then went searching everywhere and she was nowhere to be found.”

“Ramu, call all the check posts and ask them to check each and every truck carefully for the girl. Call Rani back and ask her to inform us if she gets any ten year old girl as the new prostitute. Spread the posters of the girl around the market and announce a reward for the person who brings back the girl. And also trace the beggar. They steal away the children to please their bosses for getting them a new beggar.”

They tried everything and even waited for the phone call of the kidnapper but did not get any! Three months later, the case was closed due to no clues or evidence.

AFTER 2 YEARS:

Police got a phone call from people complaining about the rotten smell from the Arun’s house. They haven’t seen him in days and suspected that he is dead. When police broke into the house, they found the body of a girl and in the post mortem, it was revealed that she was being constantly raped from more than two years and she died of the internal bleeding in her brain due to some injury. The inspector just collapsed onto the floor scolding himself for missing that one point. Two years back, when they went to the market, Arun showed him the parking spot. Talking or involving in some activity with beggar, guard and stall owner to gain their attention just enough, leaving a door unlocked so that it may get opened due to wind, planning the timing so as to overlap with the time where movement of trucks is at the peak in Bihar, showing the inspector a specific spot from where all these things form a closure and his view gets entrapped within the limits Arun had set; all these things were the part of a plan. They saw only what Arun had shown them and they searched only for what Arun had wanted them to do so. The girl was never in the car. A perfect plan for a psycho whose lust made him do unimaginable things, without raising a doubt. He imprisoned the girl inside his home so that she won’t tell anything to anybody. There was only one hint, that all the evidences were too clear to ignore and too opaque to be seen through. A hint which is hard to find or may be a hint which is too easy that it may be overlooked.

v Bihar case is just a sample. There are millions of unsolved cases in our country which need just a vantage to get solved. Thousands of girls are being molested by their own parents which should be brought into limelight and children should be given knowledge about their body and places which are private to them and should be encouraged to complain to others when touched there. Prostitution should either be legalized or be provided with a severe punishment, so that they become part of the society rather than an anti-society. If we go on discussing, we get thousands of solutions. But the problem is with the implementation. Hope it gets solved in the near future.

“You only see what you can see from your point of view. It doesn’t mean that whatever you see is the only truth about it. For example, we read the title of this story as “Point”. To see everything clearly, we need something else, something which provides a better view than this. The word to the left of the word “Point” is coloured white. Just highlight it and you’ll see the actual title. All you need is to select a perfect point and hit the perfect target and that point is called the “Vantage Point”.”

The Reunion: Flow Of Love

“The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.”

20^th December, 2025

Bhopal.

I tried my best to invite the last person of our gang over the phone. But all I could get was, “Man, is it really necessary to be there in person? Can’t we all just hangout in Skype, like always?” Prakash said. No doubt he was a busy guy. Why wouldn’t he be busy! Battlefield7 was released the day before!

“Haven’t changed a bit, have you? Lazy ass, as always! But pack your bags because this time, Arya’s coming to the reunion.”

That last sentence was enough to persuade him to come to the college. Some people come into our life like a gentle breeze in the spring. Whatever the mood may be, their presence makes our day beautiful. But a very few enter our lives like a tornado, they shatter everything, show us the extreme nature of life and when they leave, we are left with the feeling, “Dude, That was one hell of an adventure.” Arya was that tornado in our lives.

27^th April, 2012,

MANIT, Bhopal. 

It was the day when we saw Avengers and decided that our gang would be called as “The Mech Avengers” from then on. After a long quarrel and a match of arm wrestling, I got to be the Iron Man. Being a mechie gang, we had no Black Widow. Our first two years were a roller coaster ride with the impeccable teamwork. May it be the new copying techniques in the exam room or making a GT successful or breaking down every bit of the furniture in mess, we were perfect. But from the third year, it wasn’t the same. As we grew up, we also grew apart. Life happened!

Lets ride through the reunion; 31^st December, 2025:

I’ve reached the place of reunion. My AR-15 made sure that I did not forget to buy gifts for everyone and a gas mask too, as Bhopal is not among the “30 cities where you may breathe” list. I prefer to call my robot ‘Jarvis’, but that name was not allowed as millions of people applied for the same name!

  Captain and Thor were already there (it seemed a little awkward to still call them with those names). They brought their families with them too. We met twice or thrice before this but this time it’s going to be special! Arya is going to join us! Though we were out of contact for more than 10 years, he never really was out of our hearts. We started discussing about our good old times.

Once again irritating you with a small memory; August, 2014:

Right from the starting of the third year, we started sensing that something was wrong with Arya. Summer vacations changed him completely. He used to skip our tequila nights, just to talk to some girl. But one good thing was that he became a confident person, unlike before. He moved away from our block into a more isolated one. We all hated the girl for snatching away our best friend from us. We wanted him back badly, but that didn’t happen for 10 years, at least.

Back to our reunion scene:

“Hey guys” greeted a woman, whom we’ve never met before. Her smile sent down a instant pulse down my heart and her bangs made her face resemble a modern angel. A small mole just below her lips, just intensified her flood of beauty. I felt that she may be the reason for which I was left alone in this huge world. She may complete my life. I felt lucky that I was the only single member there in the gang. Otherwise, I would’ve had to face a severe competition, by the end of which we would have disgusted the woman with our trials.

“Ananya” she introduced herself by extending her hand. “Arya must have told you about me” she continued.

That’s it! That was enough for us to recall who she was! No one cared to show the courtesy of shaking her hands then. She was the woman who was the reason for this 10 year long wait. There were many situations in my life where my heart contradicted with my mind but for the first time, half a part of my heart was contradicting with the other half. I didn’t know what to do.

I examined the surroundings. Only question was in everyone’s mind, “Where’s Arya?”

                                                                    To be continued...


To read the second part, click here: THE REUNION 2: FLOOD OF LOVE