Another year..what's new?

Amazing dinner, delightful dessert,
Really lousy wine..
Very first new year's eve
As a mrs-
Smile or whine?

As always, what's new about this?

Chronicles of Love: Episode 1 -- "Dhobi ka Kutta"

Akash remained staring at his computer screen for a long time. It had the picture of a girl and a guy holding hands and laughing, with the caption in the background: “Megha weds Pradeep”. He switched off the screen and started fiddling with the letter he opened earlier. Puffing smoke rings from his cigarette and looking at the ceiling, he sank back into his chair and two years back into his past.

He saw her the first day of the fall semester. She was tall, dusky, wiry thin and definitely looked arrogant. It was his second year in the US and as a grad student and so he definitely knew she was new. She was one of those good looking geeks who sat in the first row, answered all questions and yet looked ravishing enough for him to fantasize about. One class, one hour and three phone calls gave him all the details he wanted to know about her. Megha was a fresher from Chennai, right out of college, very outspoken and was already well known around the campus.

A week of classes and two assignments gave him ample opportunity to start calling her (initially for HW and later on for her personal details), invite her to coffee and then lunch and dinner. Within a month, Akash and Megha became the best of friends and a hot topic of gossip around the campus. Megha did not really give much thought to it; Akash reveled in it.

Before anyone realized, it was the second month into the semester and the best friends now became inseparable.  They had to eat, study, browse the net, do homework or even laundry together. For Megha, it was a very intense and amazing time: finally, here was a sane guy who could appreciate her worth. For Akash, it was practical bliss: the girl was not only good looking and they were sneakily termed the best looking couple around the campus; she was intelligent and patient and helped him around with everything from his resume to cooking.

Third month into the semester, both of them realized that there was only one month more left for them when they could “legally” hang out together and get away with it; from next semester, they did not have any common courses and since Akash was already in Grad school for a long time, he had to think about graduation whereas Megha just started. Time started slipping away from their fingers and moments spent together registered as more precious. The pressure of probably ramifying future plagued their present and had different effects on their completely opposite psyche. For Megha, it brought in a melancholy of sorts when she thought about missing Akash. But, he admitted not a lot and she did want to be the needy girl who might probably mistake a friendship to be something more. For Akash, thoughts of future without Megha in it felt downright debilitating: she was his lifeline more or less now.

Finally, on a fine Saturday, Akash could not hold it in any longer and spilt his beans before Megha. He told her about the first time he saw her in class and the way he could never ever think about anything else from that moment on; how life when she was in it was perfection and how he needs her for eternity and will give all the happiness he could. Megha was thrilled beyond words: it was the first time she was the focus of so much attention, love and poetry. She shrieked her acquiescence and thus started their love story.

The next month brought in a phenomenal amount of snow to Texas, a multitude of problems to Akash and ounces of tears to Megha. The perfect love registered cracks when Akash saw Megha’s friend’s list in Gmail with more guys in it than he liked and she brushed it away as if it was commonplace. The nerve! Or so, thought Akash. Megha started getting irked with constant calls to Akash’s cell from some number in India and him keeping mum about it almost all the time. “Personal issues baby, I’ll sort them out. Don’t worry about them!” And then the ultimate fiasco kicked it when Megha hacked into Akash’s email account to show him her skills one afternoon (he challenged her that she could never) and read his mails to and from some girl called Priya. Every word he told her was written in those mails to Priya. Megha’s world shattered and amidst her breaking trust, she discovered Akash was already engaged to Priya (his sister-in-law’s distant cousin), that theirs was a long distance relationship that has taken the beating of three years and that both of them are on a break since the last one month to cool off their mood swings and get the proper perspective. Megha questioned him incessantly and after a particularly trying three hour fight, the truth jumped in front of her. He, Akash, is still engaged, is not sure about breaking his relationship with Priya and is not really sure why he got into a relationship with Megha. “I am not sure baby. I was confused. Things just happened and I went with the flow”.

Vague incidents started coming back to Megha, which now struck alarm bells that she should have seen long ago. Shopping for emerald chains and claiming them to be for some family member, teddy bears and chocolates and ipods for some purported distant cousins, skirts and shirts and size 8 shoes from Aldo for “Mom” (seriously??!! And I did not notice this then??!!! ) made her realize how dumb and blind she was! Ughhh, “the pigs that men are” she postulated and decided to throw Akash from her life which was only ecstatic for him as he was really keen to lose the “loose drama queen” from his life. What followed was Megha using up three boxes of Kleenex in two consecutive nights. Two cartons of chocolate ice creams, lots of pastries, a week of sobby songs and one night of pure logic made her see that there was another girl somewhere back in India who is being as stupid as she was and she did not even know it. By then, Akash was well on his way to India for winter break.

The moment he went to Priya’s place, he knew something was wrong. ‘Coz she did not even come out of her room and her father literally threw him out of the house. Apparently, someone had called them and informed them that their “hone-wala damad” was having an “affair” with some girl in his college. Akash tried reasoning with them but his ex-hone-wale-father-in-law was adamant about calling up his parents and telling them everything if Akash pestered his daughter any longer. Since Akash had already lost his interest on the girl by then, given her lack of interest, he let the matter rest after only a few days of fight.

On his flight back to Texas, Akash seriously formulated a plan to get Megha back into life which consisted of calling Priya a bitch several times over and telling her that the whole engagement was a thing his parents had forced him into. He wanted to give the whole sordid affair a break of about two to three months and so, decided to call Megha in March, on her birthday. All his ideas went down the drain when she told him that she was engaged over the last month. Her ex-boy friend came to support her through the tough times she was in, love rekindled in their lives and they got together on Valentine’s Day for a simple ceremony at her sister’s place while their parents took care of the formalities in India. The marriage was set for some time later, may be next year or so…aur aapko zaroor aana hai! Reeling in the shock, he got home and after a month of contemplation, he decided to dig up things with Priya again, only to discover that her parents were already looking into other alliances for her. Depressed he took to drink for a few weeks after which his visa status shocked him enough to get serious about getting a job. Two months later, in July, he struck gold in California and went on to take up his responsibilities in the new job, one year older in his life and none the wiser.

Ever since then, he realized how important Megha was in his professional life and how much he depended on her. Umpteen number of calls and mails and one year later, she answered his pleas with a mail containing one picasa album’s link in it: her wedding pictures. Megha married Pradeep as soon as she graduated, exactly two years after she met Akash and is now living happily in Maryland with her perfect husband, a house and two cars. All she needed was a dog to make the complete family, though Akash. The same day, he got another mail, this one not electronic and thankfully not any more pictures. His emotions gave way when he saw an invitation: Mrs. Priya Sharma and Mr. Amit Sharma cordially invite you to the First Birthday Celebrations of their only son, Dev! The party is being held at their home in Atlanta and it would give them immense happiness if you could grace the occasion with your presence and bless Dev! (Apne family ko bhi saath lana mat bhulna!)

Many hours later, Akash realized he was losing his mind: that his cigarette packet and his life were both empty. There wasn’t much he could do about one and he did not have the energy and enthusiasm to fill the other. And all the two years, the same question irked his mind. Why oh! why did Gods give all the happiness of the world for one semester and then suddenly spit in his face? What mistake did he do to go through this ordeal? How merciless can the world be that he has to endure this? And then, there were the supplementary doubts lingering:  Who called Priya’s father? Megha? But she did not have their details. So how could she? Was it her actually? If she could, would she really?

And now my question: Should she?

Chronicles of Love

For a long time, love was my greatest muse. It was in my life, around me, over me and sort of engulfed me. I reveled in it, enjoyed talking about it and listened to other people talk about their life. It was the zenith of my living, the very pristine moments of my existence when I felt the most alive.

Since it has been and still is such an integral part of my life, I intend to chronicle it in my blog and hence the name to this series. Also, someone I know really liked this name and this is my way of acknowledging their liking my work ;)

The series will talk about the various experiences of love that I, my friends, family and acquaintances have seen. The names, times and places have been changed to protect anonymity. Please read on, enjoy, learn and if u r interested, do comment on them! Hope u have as much fun reading them as much as I have writing them!

The muse

Nature, by far seems to be Science's worthiest mistress.. And us scientists and philosophers: imaginative and daring playwrights bringing them together to fall in love..

Winter Break

One bed,
Two comforters,
Three pillows,
Four slices of pizza-
And five brilliant books.
Bliss!