Everyone has a Cupid Tale to tell 2.0

 Click here to read the Part 1 before you proceed...

The competition exams came and went and we both scored enough to get through the college we aspired for. However, my ladylove had something else in her mind. She wanted to pursue Electronics and Communications Engineering while in this particular college, being the highest rated branch, she could not get through it. So she decided to go for the next college in line.

And well even I had to sacrifice my Civil Engineering seat at my dream college to trudge along, errr... behind her. However, I could not manage to get through her branch and had to suffice with Computer Science and Engineering.

So started the next phase of our relationship @ our useless ‘second-in-line’ college.

The initial months passed by dreaming - that somehow I might get through her branch in the remaining counsellings. The second one came and went and by God's ever-showering grace, ECE got filled just before my number.

Now, the third one was around the corner and I heard that a student was planning to shift from her branch to ours. It meant a vacancy and being on the top of the list, I knew, in a week or so, I’ll be there with her to recreate my lion’s territory. I met this girl and despite my inhibitions of talking to the opposite sex, convinced her to stick with her stand. The wait was killing me and finally the day arrived.

*

The mood was tense as the counselling started. There were many present there aspiring to somehow get a seat. I already had a seat, just wanted an upgradation. God won’t play games this time, I somehow knew. Soon the student who had opened the doors of heaven for me went up to the podium to sign the required documents. And with that, came up a single vacancy in ECE.

My name was called and I moved towards the podium with a feeling never felt before. In just few moments, I’ll be with her, in her class. As I took out my pen to sign the documents, I heard a faint sound.

“Waaaaaiiiiiiiittttttttt...”

I turned around to see a guy running towards the podium. He looked like an ugly male imitation of Kajol running behind the train in the climax of DDLJ. I was the badly bruised SRK clinging to the compartment’s door, the only difference being that I would have loved to push her, errr... him away rather than grabbing his hand.

He reached the counselling desk and presented his documents. He was from the Civil Engineering Department of my dream college and wanted to shift to ECE in my ‘second-in-line’ college.  

What a nutcase; couldn’t he do that in the first counselling itself?

I wanted to be the SRK and reach out to my senorita but that useless chap flew away with my seat. My ship had sunk in a deep ocean and as I took those slow steps down the podium I felt like I was sinking too. 

It must have been after a minute or so that I regained consciousness and saw a horde of people encircling me.

“Don’t worry beta, you at least have a seat. See, my son couldn’t manage that too,” said a sweet elderly woman in her attempt to console me.

Well, the poor lady didn’t knew, I least cared about the college or the branch. I had fainted in love.

*

As I reached the college, I was pretty depressed. Our first sessionals had started and I somehow sat through the test, just thinking about the games, The God plays with us, the mango men.

On coming out of the examination hall, I bumped into her in the parking lot. She approached me with a sweet smile.

“Hey, Vipul, I heard about the counselling. It’s so no right!” She said ruefully.

“Well, that’s how it is.” I answered matter-of-factly, putting up a bold face while being a little surprised by her reaction.

“I was so happy that finally some nice guy is coming to our class. All others are so useless here.” She declared.

Those words came as a shocker to me, a nice shock I mean. I knew she was sweet but… so sweet. Wow!

“Well, your bad luck, it seems,” I replied, trying to be over smart.

“Yeah, I feel like killing that stupid guy,” she concluded.

I couldn’t believe that she was saying all this. For the first time, she was talking about me in front of me and well, what a positive feedback I was getting. I was loving it.

*

However, that momentary happiness didn’t survive long and soon I was engulfed in the pain of being targeted by the God once again. I was sick of being the victim of his sadistic appetite. I preferred keeping to myself, not interacting much with the others. Soon, my classmates started calling me Devdas and indeed I had become one. Thankfully, I had not taken to drinking yet.

Some close friends helped me in coming out of this melancholic phase. During this period I also ended up making some female friends, though not due to an individual effort but thanks to a couple of friends who were good at demarcating the lion’s territory. So finally, our group consisted of four guys and six girls and I soon found that I was not that shy when it came to interacting with girls.

However, I was still finding it difficult to move beyond the hi’s with her. I normally preferred to rush through this routine, not even halting for a second while greeting her. My friends had a good time imitating me.

Meanwhile, seeing her talking and laughing with other guys used to add to my woes; not because I had any problems with that but because I cursed myself for not being one of them.

By the end of the first year, nothing much happened and it was around this time that one of my closest cousins shifted to our place while doing her industrial training in the city. It helped a lot to discuss my love issues with her and soon upon visiting Delhi, I even broke the news to my sister who had by now taken up a job there.

Sharing this secret with my closest siblings filled me with a strange confidence and upon returning from Delhi, I had made up my mind to do or die.

*

“Hi, what’s up? Vipul this side.” I said upon calling on her landline number, first thing in the morning.

This was followed by some small talk. While conversing, I came to know that she has recently bought a cellphone. I had been waiting for this day since I got a cell, the previous year. I always found it more convenient to chat with girls through messages than talking on phone. The former somehow concealed my inhibitions.

That night around half past ten I sent her some forwarded message and waited for her reply anxiously. Finally after few minutes she messaged me back a cute picture message saying “Good Night”.

Good night??? Oh my God! Was that too late to message her? Am I just going too fast? Should I slow down a bit?

All these questions cropped up in my mind while I cursed myself on this foolishness.

“Hey, Goodnight. Sorry for disturbing you that late.” I messaged her back.

Soon, my cell beeped again and on reading the message, my heart skipped a beep, errr... beat too. 

“Hey, c'mon; I had sent that picture message just like that,” she clarified and with that started our longest chat till that day. Our cells kept beeping for the next couple of hours and wait for each beep was filled with a unique blend of joy and anxiety.

How stupid we had been till now, we concurred and laughed at our foolish inhibitions, of course, in hahahaha, hehehehe, lols and rofls.

The next few days were spent telling my close friends about the latest developments in my lovelife. Meanwhile, our sms chats continued unabated and finally, I could feel that that elusive geometric progression is taking place in our relationship. However, within a week, it turned out to be just a silly illusion.

*

Mustering up the courage to hit a six without even scoring a four yet, I decided to propose her. And what a fantastic stance I decided to go with. I messaged her. Yeah, yeah, I know it is like hitting a six with a defensive shot and such things only happen in older versions of PC games.

Times had changed but I was still a loser.

“No”, came the reply and I could just message back a “Sorry” and “Can we atleast be the best friends” crap.

“You really wrote that?” asked my friends the next day and had a good laugh. My cupid tale always kept them hooked and amused and it usually spanned half the time of our conversations.

After that rejection episode, I started getting a feeling that she is distancing from me. Maybe, it was I who was trying to get too close and she was not yet ready for such proximity.

Meanwhile, I realised it was important for me to concentrate on some other aspects of college life too. Ours being the very first batch, there were no existing avenues for extra-curricular activities. I decided to exploit this fact and start a college club.

At the back of my mind there was always the notion of proving my worth to my ladylove. Moreover, as the activities were to be conducted on weekends, I thought I’ll get the opportunity to spend time with her without much ado. Of course, I had convinced her to be a member of the club.

As the time progressed my restlessness too kept rising. Not getting a sms reply used to turn me gloomy. If she didn’t pick up my phone, my mind started calculating all the possible combinations and permutations of negative reasons. On whole, I turned into a wreck once again. My appetite was down, I was not talking much at home and I was no more the cheerful me.

It wasn’t that we were not talking but somehow, I kept getting the vibes that I had made a blunder by jumping the gun too soon. We used to have frequent phone chats but in the college, she mostly preferred to keep a distance. The club I started had been a hit but I found her totally disinterested in this achievement. She was turning into a puzzle for me. 

This went on for a couple of months and meanwhile even my mother came to know the reason behind my despicable condition. Well, it was the same cousin who had to spill the beans on being cajoled by her.

One cannot hide anything from the mothers. Maybe, the bond that is created in the womb transcends much beyond the physical severing of the umbilical cord. However, she was a sport as even she was pretty fond of my ladylove. This gave me more strength and confidence.

*

It was in the month of September that year that my group packed the bags for the famous college fest at the Imperial College of Engineering. Well, if you read popular books and watch popular movies, you definitely know which college I am talking about. We had just arrived and were attending the fashion show in the grand amphitheatre when I got a call from her.

I was on roaming and the rates were pretty high back then but the frugal me could not resist picking up the phone.

“Hi, Vipul, you reached Delhi right?” she asked from the other side of the phone after the customary hellos.

There was a lot of noise, so I had to rush outside.

“Yeah, in the afternoon. The fun has just started here.” I shouted back, trying to rub salt on her wounds. With the help of one of my highly persuasive friend, I had tried my best to convince her to accompany us but even his persuasion powers had failed.

“Well, we have convinced our parents and we are planning to come over tomorrow. If we come, you’ll be able to arrange the passes right?” she asked, referring to herself and her close friend.

I was elated and after confirming with my friends if they had any issues about it, called her back after some minutes.

“Yeah, pack your bags. I’ll make the arrangements,” I said, already chalking out my plans for the next day. The remaining day and the next morning were spent waiting for her.

I had never dreamt in my life of being with her, miles away from our homes. She was being sent on the assurance that I would be responsible for her. Yeah, yeah, that meant even her parents were fond of me, I deduced.

I had to make the best use of these two days to woo my ladylove. It was a simple proposition of now or never.

*

It was around noon that she finally arrived along with her friend. As my friends were leaving the campus for Delhi Darshan, I had to stay behind. It was like prioritising between friends and love. Somehow from within I didn’t get a nice feeling about it.

Once they were gone after exchanging pleasantries with her, we set out to explore the campus. I had already been there since the previous day, so in layman terms, my job was to be their guide. We loitered around the campus stopping here and there to watch or participate in various activities that were being conducted in the fest.

It felt great walking with her hand in hand. Okay, okay, not hand in hand but at least we were walking together.

It was fun watching the expressions on the faces of her classmates who were also visiting the fest. As such, other than a couple of her friends, no one from her branch knew that we had known each other for so long or that I had a soft or should I say mushy corner for her. So obviously, it was a surprise for them to see us together.

Finally, I was creating the lion’s territory far away from home.

***

Yet to be concluded. Don't crib about the length; my love tends to be lengthy.

Click here to read the Part 3 ...

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