Love at First Sight - Part 3

Against the Odds

No matter where you go

I will find you

If it takes a long long time
No matter where you go
I will find you
If it takes a thousand years

Image source - Google

----------------------------------------------

“I am really nervous. What if all this is a prank?” she had been telling Saurav the same thing since last evening.

----------------------------------------------

Two days ago:

She had randomly sent a friend request to someone called Gopal on Orkut when she couldn’t find the guy of her dreams. And, the friend request got accepted. Imagine, who does that! How odd.

Read the first part here and the second part here.

After accepting her friend request, Gopal had sent her a message that said, “Hey do I know you?” The question had irked her a little. Of course he didn’t know her, why did he accept her request.

However, after some deliberation, she responded, “No, you don’t.” The message from the other side was prompt, “Well, you sent me a request so I thought maybe we knew each other?” Why did she have to send the request! However, she still responded.

The messages that got exchanged, were something like this:

Her - “We don’t know each other. You can cancel the request if you want to. Sorry for all the trouble.”

Gopal – “Ok. So why did you send me the request?”

Her – “By mistake. I wasn’t expecting you to accept it, anyway.”

Gopal – “I doubt it was a mistake ;)”

WTF does this guy want? She replied, “Yeah, ok. I was looking for someone and when I couldn’t find him, I sent you a request. I know it sounds weird. And I am really sorry for this.” He was a stranger so it didn’t matter if he thought she was stupid!

“Aah! And who are you looking for?” he messaged back almost immediately. She knew he was having fun at her expense. After all people don’t get to hear such dumb reasons for getting friend requests so often.

“No one. I don’t think he’s on Orkut,” she replied, hoping to end the conversation. “So what? If he is from my college, I can help you look for him. What is his name?” his message said.

What was the harm in telling him anything? He was a complete stranger and she was never going to meet him ever. She would tell him and then delete him from the friend list.

So, she typed, “He is in your college and in the dance troop. I had some work with him but I misplaced his name and number. I was hoping to reach him through Orkut but I can’t find him.”

“What is his name?” Gopal asked again. The point was she didn’t know the name! Gopal was asking her too many questions but who wouldn’t in such a case. She thought for a moment and then sent him a message.

“Ok, so here is the thing. I saw this guy in a dance fest the other day and I think I kinda like him. I don’t know his name or anything else about him. I thought I would be able to find him on Orkut but I have clearly failed. I just randomly sent you a friend request. And, since you know too much now and are probably thinking that I am the dumbest girl on this planet, I am going to block you.” She messaged him, then closed the message window and started looking for options to block him.

Just as she was about to block him, there was another message that read, “Wait. Don’t block me. I think I can help you. I know everyone in the dance society. So if you can describe him, I may be able to tell you his name and then you can look him up on Orkut. You may not have found him without the name.”

She thought for a while and then described the guy to Gopal – everything from the eyes to the way his hair was falling on his forehead. She knew there was no way she would find the guy she thought she was in love with.

When there was no response for almost half an hour, she knew she had made a fool out of herself. She was heartbroken. Somewhere. she had hoped Gopal would be able to help her. She decided to wait till the morning to delete or block him. And, then, she received another message.

“Sorry, took me a long time to respond. Power cut. I have added a new picture in my album. Have a look and tell me if this is the same guy you are talking about.” The message from Gopal stated.

She could feel her heart racing as she opened his album. And there it was. The first picture of the guy she was in love with. Fuck. Gopal knows him. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t believe this.

A string of messages were pouring in from Gopal right from, “is he the guy you wanted to find,” to the latest one asking, “you there?” but she just kept staring at the picture.

Finally she responded, all caps, “YES! HE’S THE ONE. OH MY GOD, HOW DO YOU KNOW HIM?????” Gopal replied, “His name is Ahan. And, he is my best friend.”

“WTF. How can this be true? How can someone I send a random friend request to, actually know the guy I wanted to find. Oh God, I might just faint. Should I ask Gopal for Ahan’s phone number? Or should I now look up for Ahan on Orkut?” all these thoughts were crossing her mind as she sat there, absorbing the events of the last two hours.

It was so odd for her to have found him!

To be continued..

Love at First Sight - Part 2

The Bollywood Queen

Read Part 1 here

On the way home, her phone couldn't stop beeping. She was chatting with Saurav, telling him about the guy she had almost met that evening. “Let’s talk at 1?” she messaged him, hoping for a positive response.

“I can come over now if you want. I don’t think you can wait,” was Saurav’s text, followed by a winking smiley. “No, not now. Mom will get to know that something is fishy. Let’s talk on the phone?” she asked. “Ok, call me when you want,” was the reply.

Once home, she could hardly talk to anyone. She was so occupied in her own thoughts that when her mom asked her how the day was, she could only murmur. She wished ma-pa goodnight and went into her room.

-----------------------------------------------------

It was fifteen minutes past 1 already and her patience was running out. She had called Saurav a couple of times but the call went unanswered. What if he had gone off to sleep? Another ten minutes passed and then her phone rang.

“Where the fuck have you been? I have been calling you and you can’t even bother to check your phone?” she asked Saurav angrily, before he could even say a hello. “Sorry yaar, dad wanted to talk. Acha, I am hungry, tell me what to eat?” Saurav asked matter-of-factly. “You haven’t called into Sanjeev Kapoor helpline. You have called to help your best friend find her love,” she retorted.

After some leg pulling, Saurav finally asked her, “so what’s the problem?” She started to talk, “I am in love with a guy.” She was blushing but thank God, Saurav couldn’t see her. “But that’s not the problem," she continued, "the problem is I don’t know his name.”

“Tu pagal hai kya? Naam bhi nahi pata and you say you are in love?” Saurav was not amused. They had been friends for almost 7 years and there was nothing that happened in their lives without telling each other.

“I know his college..,” she started in her defence when Saurav cut her, “and you want us to go to his college to find him?” he sounded sarcastic. She knew knowing the name of the college was not enough but she had done her math in the past one hour.

“I have an idea. I will tell you only if you promise to hear me out,” she told Saurav. “As if I have a choice,” Saurav uttered. “You remember the movie, Saathiya?” she asked Saurav. There was silence. This meant, probably, that he understood the premise she was setting but he didn’t know how to react.

Image source - Google Images

Then, he spoke, “are you mad? That was a movie. Real life me aisa nahi hota!” Saurav couldn’t believe she was suggesting finding a guy like that. He called her Bollywood Queen but he had never imagined she would take the tittle so seriously.

“You promised you’ll hear me out,” she said, adding, “I know that was a movie. But a little bit of inspiration from Bollywood won’t hurt.” The excitement was clear in her voice. She explained, “Ok. What do we know about him? His college and the fact that he is in the dance society. Now, see, all colleges have communities on Orkut. His college has one too with 1531 members.” She was sounding confident. Saurav sighed. She wasn’t going to give up just yet.

Image source - Google Images

She continued, “Now, I checked that out of those 1531 members, 698 are girls. That leaves us with 833 guys. I could manage to check about 329 profiles and didn’t find him. Now that leaves us with 504 guys. About 248 are pass-outs. That means 256 guys to look at.” She was brimming with enthusiasm.

“Aryabhatta would be so proud of you,” Saurav said. He realized she was serious about finding this guy. “But what if he is not on Orkut?” he asked, concerned. “We’ll get to that,” she said. Frankly, she hadn’t thought about that.

“Anyway, we are left with 256 guys, out of whom 198 are in the music society. That means 58 guys. Yaar, ab tu apni best friend ke liye 58 ladkon me se ek ladka nahi dhoond sakta?” The question had surprised Saurav. He could imagine her standing like Vivek Oberoi from Saathiya and telling him all this.

Image source - Google Images

Neither of them spoke for sometime. Saurav could hear her clicking the mouse frantically. He was hoping his best friend finds this guy. Suddenly, she spoke, almost in tears, “I can’t find him, Saurav.”

“So what? We can go to his college in the morning and find him,” Saurav responded, trying to cheer her up. “Are you mad? What am I going to tell him, why are we there? I can’t tell him I love him,” she snapped back almost immediately. “Umm, we’ll just get his name or number or something?” Saurav suggested, unsure of what they really could do now.

When she didn’t respond, he asked, “what are you thinking?” “Nothing, leave it. We’ll see what to do in the morning. I am tired,” she said. They spoke for a few minutes and as they hung up, her mouse clicked on the ‘Add Friend’ option.

She didn’t know for how long she had been staring at the monitor screen. She logged into Orkut again and she had one notification – ‘Friend request accepted.’ She had just thought about checking out the profile when she got a message. As she saw who the message was from, her heart started to beat faster.

She knew she shouldn’t have sent the request. What she didn’t know was that she was about to start the biggest adventure of her life.

To be continued…

Love at First Sight - Part 1

The Poetry in Motion

His radiant smile,

Her shy laugh.

His eyes twinkling like stars

Hers on him.

He didn’t look at her,

She couldn’t look elsewhere.

She was just one in the crowd,

He, her first love

She was standing there, looking towards the grand entrance; the announcement was in progress in the background. She saw the troop walk onto the stage and as the music started to play the dancers took their positions. And, there he was, right in front of the formation, dancing like poetry in motion.

She loved dancing and didn’t miss a single opportunity to see dance performances in college fests. Today was one of those days when she had come to a dance fest with her friend, Vrinda. Till now, the performances had not been very exciting and she had been chatting with Vrinda without bothering to notice what was happening on the stage. But he had caught her attention.

 

She stopped listening to what Vrinda was saying. She couldn’t even hear the song he was dancing to. The only thing she could do was look at him, jaw dropped. As if nothing else mattered. She couldn’t take her eyes off him. Yes, he was a good dancer, but there was something else about him. Something, she couldn't describe.

The performance came to an end and he walked off the stage. She forgot about Vrinda and rushed towards the backstage. She had to find him. Through the crowd, she made her way to the green room but he wasn’t there. Disappointed she turned around.

Then she saw him. He was talking to another girl, his silhouette glistening in the setting sun. His sweatshirt was resting on his shoulder, hair falling shabbily on his forehead. "He was looking so… sweet? No! Sexy. Yes, that’s the word," she thought! She felt so jealous watching him talk to someone else that her own feelings surprised her. After all, he was a complete stranger. He smiled and she missed a heartbeat!

She walked up to him and said, ‘Excumeyoudawel.” It seemed like words fell off her mouth without making sense. “Uh, I what?” he asked, unable to interpret what she spoke. “Oh that smile, kill me please,” she thought to herself before gaining composure and said, “Oh, I meant you dance well.” She wasn't sure if she should smile or keep a straight face. She didn't want her face to give away her thoughts. She didn't want him to think she was stupid or mad or scare him off or.. look desperate!

He blushed. Then smiled and said, “Thanks a lot.” They had just spoken for a few seconds when his friend came to call him. They had won the first prize and he was needed on the stage to collect the trophy. He said bye to her. She saw him walk away as the lyrics of a song came to her mind:

“I like the way that you walk
And, all the things that you do
You like honeydew

Those bees are all around you”

She had her eyes on him all the time. Vrinda found her and asked her what she was up to. She pointed in his direction and said “isn’t he cute?” Vrinda smiled, “yes, he is. Now let’s go eat something.”

“No, I want to talk to him but I don’t know what to say,” she argued. “Tell him he dances well,” Vrinda suggested. “Done. I have already told him that. I want to talk to him more!” she said. For a few minutes they both kept standing there thinking of a way to help her start a conversation with him. Then she sighed and spoke, “leave it, Vrinda. I don’t have anything else to say to him. Let’s go,” she said and started to walk with Vrinda.

Her dad was there to pick her up and she had lost him in the crowd. She was struggling to understand her own feelings and as she hugged Vrinda and waved her goodbye, her mind kept wandering off to him. In the car, she messaged Saurav, “I am in love. And, I need to find him.”

She didn't even know his name but she knew that the Cupid had struck. This was love at first sight.

To be continued…