celebrating togetherness: .....the platinum day of Love

 "Hey titas!stop!.... STOP! " .....was a female voice beside me that urged the puller of her rickshaw to stop. It was still early days in college ; I was almost running as i was late for Anatomy class . I looked up at the owner of the voice & vaguely recalled that this was the girl who had passed snide remarks at me for shooting paper bits from rubber bands at other classmates , the previous week. I was so pissed off with her then, that i hadn't even noticed that the girl had a sweet face, which i now could see.
    Getting up on to the rickshaw , i said "thanks for this. . . . . umm...errr." and realised i didn't even know her name. Rather embarassed , i blurted out , “Sorry , i don't recall your name. ." . "Papiya", she said with a smile!
Thus began our friendship from a rickshaw ride , which quickly changed into a mutual liking . We became inseparable in college , sitting together, having tiffin together as well as returning after college hours together. I understood, little by little , that Cupid had struck me , a feat that i had thought impossible in the past, as i poked fun at other guys having girlfriends. Classmates began to tease me but i was unable to propose to her . Once or twice, i had tried to utter the topic of relationships but she had made it clear that we two were "just good friends".
      Then the days started getting dreary. I was almost head over heels in love , even managed to churn out a poem or two (never knew i had poetry within me) !! My mind started playing the proverbial ‘guitar’ in every occasion that i was with her, and she often caught me unaware, gazing longingly at her. Inside my mind, the Devil was tearing apart my thought processes, as he made it impossible for me to focus on anything! Right through the day, my conscience kept telling me , that the time was rife to profess my love for her, come what may, and that in our current scenario, i was not going to go anywhere, rather than stay on as a loyal sidekick of hers, when she decided to commit to any other guy!!

    One fine evening ,i decided , enough was enough and sent a long text message which declared all my inner feelings & stated that if we were not meant to be together as a couple , it's better that we don't stay together at all, because my feelings for her were growing incessantly by the day. Deep down, i felt maybe even she loved me, but she was unable to realise it. I thought maybe if i was away from her,only then she would realise it.

     What followed was a stage of utter confusion. I avoided her at college ,and  sometimes most awkward situations arose due to this. Best friends for such a long time were complete strangers now. Friends reported that Papiya was found crying , but i tried to hide my inner troubles and strived hard to put up a normal face. Hours passed in college , that turned into days and days into months, and no signs of any reconciliation . I began to wonder how i would put a person whom i loved and  saw everyday , out of my head.

                
  Then IT happened. 4months later, it was the first IPL semifinal and i was in front of the television when my cellphone flashed a message. It was from Papiya and my heart skipped a beat. As the text opened , my jaw dropped and as i read on those magic lines(i don't share those lines, some things are best left personal) ,i didn't understand what i would do . Here was something i wanted so dearly for so many days, and now that it was achieved, i felt rather empty. It was close to midnight already, and needless to say, i was too elated to sleep that night!

The next day indeed turned out to be our Platinum Day Of Love ,as it was an emotional getting together . Friends helped us get over our awkwardness and cheered for us . We looked at each other and smiled, for the first time in so many months! We were akin to some celebrities, who had taken over the college , as all our batchmates made a huge fuss over the proceedings, and embarrassed us to the core! And , we did bunk the last few classes , to set out for our first ‘official’ date!

Sitting by the famed Rabindra Sarobar Lake in South Kolkata, we tried to inhale the air of relief and unbridled joy , surrounding us! None of us spoke, but from time to time, we cast glances at each other! It was strange......but it felt good to be back together! And oh, yes, we held hands, rather clumsily at first, then snugly, as good times beckoned!!
        It's been 5 years since we got together , right through college days, ending college, and foraying into the lives of Medical Interns! We've had excellent times and vociferous argues, but we do feel splendid together, and the day of our Platinum Day of Love still lingers ,as if it was only yesterday! Like the purity of Platinum, and the unconditional glow of its exteriors, the purity of the emotions of that day , and our glowing smiles , have stayed on, fresh in the memory! That’s the essence of that one special day, which was not extraordinary by any stretch of imagination, but the happy events had eked out a prized niche for the day in the vault of my mind ! Hope to stay this way . . . . . . . . :)

This is a True story!

written as part of the Platinum Day of Love contest, in association with Indiblogger.

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