Platinum day of love- a short story

Shrisha looked at her watch as the phone began to ring. It was five-thirty in the evening. She was surprised to see the caller's name as she was not expecting any call at that hour of the day let alone from the person who was calling her.

She noticed that her hand was shaking, but she ignored it and swept across the green circle on the phone's surface to answer the call. She put the phone to her ear,  clutching it so hard that she felt that it might snap and said 'hello' in a tight voice that barely sounded like hers. 

'hey shrisha.. Its me Suraj' he spoke immediately. Fearing that she would hang up on hearing his name he said 'I need to talk. Please don't drop the call' to which she replied 'hmmm.. Go on. Am listening'.

'how are you?'

'I'm fine. How about you?' 

'okay, doing okay. Are you in Bangalore on work?'

'yup. Would be leaving in a week. Are you still with cubed?'

'ya.'

Before she could say something, 'Can we get together Shrisha? Will you have time?' He muttered the courage to finally say the words which he had been holding onto since a long time.

She felt herself going weak on hearing these words. 'Yes. I'd like to see you. When?'

'Are you available this weekend? How about lunch tomorrow?'

'I can't. I have a meeting at 2 and cant afford to miss it so I can't really change it'

' thats okay. What about tomorrow evening? Are you free?'

'yes'

'shall we have dinner?'

'am afraid I cant go for dinner as it would be late to go home Suraj. How about coffee?'

'Okay. where shall I pick you from?'

'Come over to coffee lounge near Indiranagar. I'll be there'

'I'l come around six-thirty. Is that all right with you?'

'Its fine. See you then.'

'Great' he said and hung up.

She still couldn't believe that he had called up after three long years and he couldn't believe that she had agreed to meet him.

Next day he was there at the coffee shop at six-fifteen with a anxious look on his face. He kept looking at his watch every few seconds waiting eagerly to see her. Did she look the same or had she changed? Would she talk to him with the same intensity that they would speak? As he sat immersed in his thoughts, his cell phone began to ring bringing him back to reality. 

It was Shrisha's call and he thought she was calling at the last minute to cancel the coffee-meet.,but he was relieved when she asked him where he was seated. 

He saw her immediately, the moment she steeped in. She had worn a pink chiffon dress that suited her immaculately well. He just couldn't take his eyes off her. He swallowed, trying to get a grip on himself and then stared in surprise as she suddenly turned her head abruptly and saw him.

He saw her approaching him with a gait full of confidence and then she smiled. At that moment he realized how much he had missed her and his love for her. By then she had neared the table and he motioned her to sit down. 

She saw that he had chosen a small table near a window in a corner where they could talk without being interrupted often. A waiter was with them in an instant.

Suraj looked at her and raised a brow. 'the usual?'

She nodded.

'A Choco frappe and iced eskimo'

As the waiter disappeared, he looked at her intently and said 'You haven't changed. You look exactly the same as I saw you last time'

She nodded in approval and smiled at him weakly, wishing her heart would stop impounding the way it was. It took all of her self-control to cut his gaze and look elsewhere.

The waiter was back at the table to serve them their order and asked if they needed anything else. On getting an affirmative answer, the waiter walked away.

Once they were alone, Suraj smiled at her as he remembered the times they had spent together. 

She took a bite of her choco frappe and asked curiously, 'have you visited Bangalore in the past three years?'

'yes, quite a few times.'

'why dint you phone me?'

He reached out, put his hand over hers. 'i didn't feel I had the right. I was the one who brought an end to our relationship . I was positive you had probably met someone else by then, fallen in love, made a new life. Moved on.'

Shrisha gaped at him as she thought: fallen in love, moved on. How can he think that? Doesn't he know how much I loved him, with all my heart and soul. She sat right in her chair as her eyes welled with tears. She dint want to cry at-least not in-front of him. She looked away, blinked back her tears.
Having noticed the changed expression on her face he said 'I've upset you. What's wrong?'

'I'm surprised, that's all.. That you think I could move on. So quickly..'

'its been a long time.. Three years.'

' you haven't moved on. Our have you?'

He didn't answer at first and then he admitted, 'no, I haven't.'

Shrisha heaved a sigh of relief and said ' I may be crazy for telling you this and feeding your ego, in a way, I guess.' She paused, took a deep breath and finished softly. 'I love you. I always have and suppose I always will.'

He nodded, held her hand tightly in his. His gaze fixed on hers. 'Shrisha I love you too and cant imagine my life with someone else.'

She stared hard at him, her eyes narrowing. ' why dint you call me earlier? Weren't you ever tempted?

'Of course I was! I must have dialed your number innumerous times only to disconnect before it rang. But just as I told you, I thought I dint have the right for it was me who had ended our relationship. I also knew I had many problems to work out in my head.'

After a moment of silence he continued 'yesterday I realized that if I let go of you then you would be gone off forever'

Finally she said in a low voice, 'I've waited a long time for your call. I could hardly believe it was you. And ever since, I have been anxious until I saw you standing here waiting for me.'

He smiled, his eyes sparkled as he spoke, 'will you marry me?'

Suddenly she couldn't believe her ears as she heard the very words she had desperately waited to hear since a long time.

The time had finally come.. :)

Nothing is permanent..

In the cycle of nature there is no such thing as victory or defeat: there is only movement.
The winter struggles to reign supreme, but, in the end, is obliged to accept spring’s victory, which brings with it flowers and happiness.
The summer would like to make its warm days last for ever, because it believes that warmth is good for the earth, but, finally, it has to accept the arrival of autumn, which will allow the earth to rest.
The gazelle eats the grass and is devoured by the lion. It isn’t a matter of who is the strongest, but God’s way of showing us the cycle of death and resurrection.
And within that cycle there are neither winners nor losers, there are only stages that must be gone through. When the human heart understands this, it is free, able to accept difficult times and not be deceived by moments of glory.
Both will pass. One will succeed the other. And the cycle will continue until we liberate ourselves from the flesh and find the Divine Energy.
Therefore, when the fighter is in the ring – whether by his own choice or because unfathomable destiny has placed him there – may his spirit be filled with joy at the prospect of the fight ahead. If he holds on to his dignity and his honor, then, even if he loses the fight, he will never be defeated, because his soul will remain intact.
And he will blame no one for what is happening to him.
Ever since he fell in love for the first time and was rejected, he has known that this did not put paid to his ability to love.
What is true in love is also true in war

Re-posted from Paulo coelho's blog

A dream worth forgetting...

Swasthi awakened with a start, and after a moment she sat up, blinking, adjusting her eyes to the pre-dawn darkness. The room was filled with silence. She was still thinking of her dream, the first in the last twelve months, which was surreal.

She remained still, breathing deeply, pushing away the feeling, knowing that it was... just a feeling.

She lay on her bed thinking why she had got the dream when it couldn't materialize. But then, every happening has a validity, is vivid, lifelike; even now as she rested against the pillows, she recollected his face as she had seen his profile pic in a networking site a few months ago.

A tear droplet ran down her cheek making a blotch on the white pillow case having pink florets. She could feel the damp of the droplet and her thoughts took her to the world which she had dreamt when he was in her life. Slowly the tears turned out to be a small stream thus breaking the revire of her thoughts.

She sat up, switched on the bedside lamp, slid her legs across the floor and walked to the couch that lay at the other end of the room. She realized that she was bathed in sweat despite the chill.

She sat down on the couch, folded her legs, she could feel the chill of the wind that was seeping into the room through the crevice in the window. She was staring into the blank wall in front of her, contemplating the dream she had a few minutes back.

He was there beside her, talking to her in the same husky voice,  twitchy smile on his lips and  sparkle in his eyes. Post which he held her hand and apologized to her for having dumped her without any fore-warning despite knowing how much she loved him.

The dream was rooted in an uncanny reality and had shaken her. A question hovered over her mind.. Why the dream now that it has almost been an year since he had gotten married and had moved out of country along with his bride to set up a new home away from the home that they (swasthi and he) had imagined..

Does he even remember her? guess no.. He seemed to be very happy and adjusted to the life he had carved for himself.

The memories that they have had together came flooding through her mind. They had met through a common friend. What started off as casual friendship had turned out to be more in less than five months, the bond being such that they couldn't be without talking to each other and expressing their emotions for even a single day.

The second time they met, he took her for a ride on his bike. the brief handshake they had, had given her a frisson, and this shivery feeling ran through her spine. Like in the movies, he was seeing her through the rear view mirror and having sensed that she was blushing sitting behind.

Then they went to a coffee bar, ordered cold coffee for both of them and spoke as if there was no end. later he dropped her to the nearest stop where she could get a bus back home as she had refused his offer to be dropped near her home.

As he reached home, he called her to tell she looked gorgeous in the black kurta and the creame pant. She said he looked good in the green t-shirt. After hearing this he blew a first kiss to her over the phone which she reciprocated.

She was still thinking about that day when she heard the bark of the neighbour's dog that brought her to reality. Suddenly she sat up straighter and thought why she had got the dream which had him? it was then that she realized that she had dozed off while reading the fiction- secret wishlist by her favorite author Preeti Shenoy. She was reading the part wherein the protagonist makes a secret wishlist due to her cousin's force.

It dawned to her then that though she had started believing that she had moved on in life, she still loved him. Suddenly there was a wrench in her stomach and her hand slid from across her chest to clutch her stomach. Tears started rolling down and she let them flow, sobbing as though her heart would break, until finally there were no tears left in her.

Glancing at the small clock on her bedside table she saw that it was already four a.m. On an impulse she so wanted to tell him what happened, but stopped and pushed herself up out of the coach very purposefully, and, turning off the lamp, she went back to bed.

He was married to someone else and that was that. Sadly, she was  still single.