Him and Her

Wednesday afternoons were always dull. The Civics lessons after the lunch break would put HIM to sleep. Like all wednesday afternoons HIM put his head down and looked towards the window and thought, “My tree outside has more action than these drab lessons!” 

But today someone was blocking his view. “Darn this creature!”  

The creature was yawning. The afternoon sunlight made the creature’s hair glow brownish golden. HIM was not sure if he was dreaming or not but he could swear he saw the creature open and brush her wings and shut them close in a nano second. 

For the rest of the civics HIM kept staring at this beautiful creature.

“Who was she? And how could I have never seen her before?” 

The bell rang and the creature moved. She skipped to the first bench exchanged places with a boy, “Thanks for switching places with me. I am glad the teacher never found out that I hadn’t brought the textbook today.” The boy said, “You are welcome, HER.” 

HIM thought, “This creature is HER? I have known HER all this while but how come HER looked so pretty today? Was it the sun? Was it the yawn? What was it?” 

HIM couldn’t take his eyes off HER the rest of the day. He went home and HER couldn’t leave his thoughts. 

HIM thought of HER and wondered, “What was it? Why am I thinking about HER?”  

But HIM never got his answers. All he could remember was HER’s glowing hair, twinkling eyes and angelic smile. 

HIM followed HER everyday. Wherever she went his eyes followed. Whatever she said would make him smile. HIM would play ball with his friends but his eyes and ears would still look for HER. HIM would get thrown out of the team and and HIM wouldn’t mind. 

Once HIM’s friends found HIM in a daze. HIM was looking at something. They looked where he was looking.  HIM was staring at HER! 

Before he knew his friends had started teasing HIM and HER! 

HIM’s creature found out. HIM’s HER found out. HER would often catch HIM looking at her and HIM would often look away guiltily. 

HER didn’t understand, “Why is HIM staring at me like that? Do I have something on my face?”  

Once during History period HER caught HIM looking at her. HER squinted both her eyes. HIM couldn’t help but laugh. The teacher glared at HIM, “You find the nation’s soldiers’ sacrifice a joke?” HER grinned, “Yes!” 

HIM pleaded, “No Miss. I was just... I was...” 

The teacher bellowed, “Get out!” 

HIM put his head down and left. HER’s smile vanished. HER didn’t know why was she feeling bad. 

When the bell rang HER tried talking to HIM. But he didn’t wait to listen to HER. HIM ran off. HER felt miserable. 

HER went home and wondered, “I was just fooling around. How do I say a sorry to HIM? ” 

The next day HER tried talking to HIM again but in vain, “Why isn’t HIM talking to me?” 

Even when HIM’s friends were teasing HIM he ignored HER. He did not blush and smile like he usually did. When HER looked at HIM he looked away. 

HER couldn’t understand why. 

Three days passed. HIM hadn’t spoken or looked at HER. 

The teacher was reading out a poem when HER looked at HIM. He looked cross. 

Just as HER could take her eyes off HIM he looked at HER and squinted his eyes. 

HER stared harder, “Did he just squint at me?” 

Sure HIM had. He was smiling too. 

HER turned pink and dug her face into the textbook and smiled. 

It was the beginning of something beautiful, something new. Love or puppy love. Whatever you call it. 

It probably didn’t last for long. HIM and HER grew up and went separate ways. Like most of the school romances this one was short lived too. But it was one of the best feelings anyone had ever experienced. It was ‘the first’ you see. 

HIM and HER are You and Me. 

We have all wondered sometime or the other, “Who is this creature and why am I feeling this?” 

We have all longed, “When will I see this creature again? When will I get to talk to it?” 

We have all guessed, “Should I tell the creature? But what would I?” 

And we have all been paired and teased much to our embarrassment till we wished we could disappear. 

This love story is about all of us who felt, who were awed and lived this ‘tingly sensation’, when we didn’t realize that it was love. Or was it :) 

Love, Amruta. 

Falling in Love over Small Things

This is the love story of my parents- Vandana and Charudatt Pradhan. Their’s was an ‘arranged marriage’. And yes it was destined :) 

My father was almost twenty nine and was an Architect. He and his friend Milind would study together at Milind’s aunt Viju aatya’s place. Viju aatya was my Surekha Mavshi’s (my maternal aunt) sister-in-law! 

Yeah these relations sound quite topsy turvy but it happened to be a small world. 

A world that brought my mum and dad together ! 

Viju aatya liked my father and suggested him as a suitor to my mavshi for my mum who was a twenty four year old Banker. 

The two families met and had a typical ‘chaha and pohe’ program.  

Young Vandu and Charu sat ten feet away from each other and did not even get to speak a word ! It obviously was love at first sight for my dad as he liked her and said a yes! My mum asked for sometime to reply and suggested that they must meet again. 

My mum says, “Instead of looking for answers of why should I say a yes to this man I started looking for reasons to say a no. I didn’t find any. And I had liked him too. He seemed nice and said a yes!” 

It was that plain and simple! No romantic gestures, no chasing the girl around, no love letters (initially). 

On their first date after the two had said a yes and before the they could get engaged the two went to Marine Drive. They got into a double decker bus and sat on the top on the first seat enjoying the wind while my mum says, “Was dealing with the butterflies in my tummy.” On the katta of the Marine Drive overlooking the sea watching the sunset together they spoke quite a lot for the first time. 

The two later stopped over at Sion’s Vrindavan hotel for a cup of coffee before they could bid a goodbye. It was here that my father held my mum’s hand over the table. Vandu’s heart skipped a beat. That was the most romantic gesture happened to both of them :) 

The name Vrindavan also holds a special place in both their hearts as that was the first restaurant and that was also the name of the building they both shifted into after their marriage- those little signs had started showing up :) 

Soon the two got engaged and got married a year later. My father wanted to have a home of his own and my mum admired and respected this decision so had waited for a year. 

Vandu almost went alone on her honeymoon!!! 

My parents were in waiting for their first class AC compartment also they had already secured a confirmation in another class. As there was still some time for the train to depart my father got off at the station to cancel their waiting seats. 

The train started to pull away from the station. Vandu was all alone on the seat wondering where her husband was. She started looking around but my dad was nowhere to be seen. My dad was with the TC on the platform when he saw the train moving away taking his new wife and leaving him behind! 

What he did next was no less than what a hero would do. He ran along the train and jumped into a bogie. And just as my mum thought she would be the first wife to go alone on her honeymoon my dad appeared sweating profusely walking the whole train till he found my mum! 

Yesterday on 8th May my parents celebrated their twenty sixth wedding anniversary! And they are as happy as always. Over the years I have seen them squabble like kids over small things. But even then their love for each other hasn’t diminished a bit. Its growing with every passing year. 

They find love in small things that they do for each other.

No they cannot dance or hold hands or even pose together for a photo with their arms around each other in public. They are that shy! 

But i see their love when my mum fusses over my dad’s pain in his leg, when my dad asks my mum which shirt should he wear, when my mum makes the food a bit spicy for my dad even though she doesn’t like spicy food.  

Love is when my dad cooks some night’s simple dinner because he knows his wife would be exhausted after work. When my mum makes my father’s favourite vegetable even though that means getting up at five in the morning before she leaves the house at seven thirty for her work. 

Love is when my father fills all those water bottles and keeps them ready in the morning before she leaves so she stays hydrated at work. Love is when they take off time every morning to enjoy their first cup of the day before they head separate ways. Love is when my dad keeps a small piece  of chocolate for my mum even though its one cube. Love is when they both remind each other of their respective medicines and take them together before they doze off. 

This is love too! Love needn’t be loud and vocal. Love needn’t be a grand and heroic gesture.  Love isn’t saying ‘I Love You’ everyday. 

Love is in small things that make one’s life beautiful. And when that happens that’s love :) 

Love, 

Amruta. 

In Love Since their 20's

Anil and Kusum Kalgutkars are my dad’s best buddies and now our family friends. Since their daughters and I were a baby we have been going out on vacations together and its been fun. As a kid I always found them adorable but did not know any back story. But as I grew up I could pick up certain ‘not so normal’ (read arrange marriage) traits and finally one day over dinner grilled them. What came out was a bag of revelations of not just their stories but of my parents‘ too :)   

Anil kaka and Kusum kakee were college sweethearts. And my dad was the third wheel in their relationship, a witness to almost everything! 

Kusum was this young pretty looking girl from Ajmer who had come to Mumbai to study architecture from the  “JJ School of Arts” and Anil was this hairy bearded Andheri boy studying architecture from Raheja College. 

He was two years older to her and lived in a different town and was from a different college altogether. And they DID NOT have any common friends nor did they find each other on ‘Facebook’ (forget mobile there was hardly a landline then) ! 

So how did they meet? Well they were interning/ working at the same workplace while they were studying. 

Kusum had come over for an interview. Anil’s boss had put him in charge of giving her an assignment and looking how she was doing it. As she sat on the table drawing sincerely Anil was checking everything alright. But it wasn’t the drawing he was looking at. He was looking at her and couldn’t take his eyes off her! 

So when my dear kaki after spending some time on the drawing showed him what she had done... He scrapped it and made her draw another one!! Ofcourse that was so that he could see her for a longer time. By then she had already passed the interview and was permanently welcomed by Anil Kaka in his life :) 

One of the naughty incidents that Anil kaka enjoyed sharing(much to the annoyance of Kusum Kakee) was the ‘train incident’. This was the time when people didn’t have any communicating device. They would follow the time and place as fixed in their previous meeting and WOULD TURN UP without confusion! Their common place of meeting was the Churchgate station. 

It was a Sunday and they had decided to meet sometime in the afternoon. Though Kusum lived at Churchgate in a hostel that day she was visiting her cousin in Goregaon (another town in Mumbai). Since it was a Sunday afternoon the trains were empty and she sat into the gents’ compartment reading her book. Anil was going to meet her at Churchgate directly.  

As destined, Anil got into the same compartment at his station and saw Kusum sitting in the middle of seat. She was engrossed in her book. He tried to get her attention but she was following a ‘I-don’t-want-to-see-nor- entertain- idiotic-men’ policy. So Anil went and sat next to her. She still chose to put her head into her book. Anil then shifted closer to her. Kusum shifted further away wanting to get away from this man. Anil Kaka shifted closer. Kusum shifted farther. He started drawing closer. Now Kusum lost it, “Who was this man irritating me?” And when she finally looked at him there he was flashing his white teeth amidst his black beard- my Anil Kaka beaming at her naughtily! 

Though the two belonged to different communities and castes the two got married almost without any glitches. Kusum had already told her parents that she was going around with this guy from Mumbai the day she started seeing him. Anil’s mother had just one worry- “Will Kusum, a vegetarian adjust with our non-vegetarian food and the smell in the house?” :) 

Today the two are in their twenty-sixth year of marriage and thirty years of togetherness. They have two lovely daughters- Deepika and Ketki and run their own architecture firm in partnership and going strong like never before! 

Last night as I asked them and my parents, “Did you go on double dates before marriage?”, they exchanged confused looks, “What’s that?” And when I elaborated they smiled and said, “A lot! It was fun and has been a lot more fun taking you kids out with us.” 

The Love Story Project

I am a sucker for love stories. Who isn’t? 

Watching those eternal movies be it a Proposal, When in Rome, Pretty Womanor a DDLJ, Wake up Sid, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai made me worship the love in those love stories. And made me crave for one for myself :) 

The movie that makes you sob like a baby in the end is the best ever. My list goes on and on with such ‘best ever’ movies and books. 

Writing love stories is my personal favourite genre. I can write all kinds- the cliched ones, the cute ones, trying my hands on the odd love now. But till now I haven’t had the heart of ending a story á la Nicholas Sparks or a Mughal-e-Azam where someone dies in the end or never gets his or her love. 

If its a love story it HAS TO have an happy ending- thats my definition of a love story! We hardly realize we are surrounded by love stories- heroic ones, run away ones, against all odds’ ones. But every story is special in itself and must be told.

Now I am on a mission to collect these real love stories with an happy ending. And what better place to find them but around me- amidst my family and friends. 

On this blog I will be writing true stories about people whom I love, people whom I adore and people whose stories are truly epic. Everyone’s is ;)

Happy reading all! 

Do write to me what you feel after reading them. And if you like please do share :) 

Love, Amruta Pradhan :)