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. 

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.”