Friday, October 25, 2013

Platinum Love: Precious. Rare. Perfect

March, 2010
(phone ringing at 5 am in the morning)


Her (mostly asleep): Hello? What the hell.. is everything okay?
Him: I am at the Bangalore airport and I am taking the next flight out to Delhi.
Her (stammering and now fully awake) : Whhat? Why?
Him: I broke into your mailbox. And I know what you have been upto. I need to talk to you, and we need to figure this out. I’ll see you in a couple of hours. Connaught Place, Barista.
Her (head spinning): (a muted)  Yes.


(7 pm , on the same day, at a road not far from her house, it has started to drizzle a little, a cold rain)


Her: We need to break up.
Him: Fine, let me walk you to your house and give you a last hug at least.


(about 30 mins later)


Him: You are not the same person who I had fallen in love with 5 years back. You have been teasing me that my skills of wooing are rusting, I am going to win you back, and put that smile back on your face.
Her: (looking on; dumbfounded)
Him: And oh, those Anniversary Cards that you had sent me, I will only read them once we are back together. (Walking off)


**********************************************************


When I joined a social networking site (remember “Hi5”) in the year 2004, little did I know that I had just changed my life forever.
I was not a tech freak and I joined just because everyone was, and it  took me a lot of time to understand the workings of that site (trust me, it took me a lot of time to figure facebook too... ) and finally, I managed to join a book discussion group... there I bumped into this guy who had total outrageous fundas (mind you- It was the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown that we were discussing). It was amazing to find amongst the “will you fraandship me” boys, someone who actually had a sense of humour and an intellectual mind set. And after discussing Christianity , hinduism and what not, the proverbial friend request came and which was readily accepted by me.  And then there was not a day that went by when we weren’t talking online, from the walls of our pages, to the DM’s (or what they were at that time) to the chatting platforms; MSN/Yahoo, e-mails and finally the phone.


He is true blood bong. I am the hot headed Punjaban. He thanks to his Dad’s transferable job, has seen most of the country and has studied in 10 different schools. I on the other hand may have seen the country thanks to the love of travel, but was/am a hardcore Delhi ki Kudi. Plus, when we met (virtually), he was in Tatanagar doing his engineering, I on the other hand was gearing up for law school in the NCR region.


Seriously, what were the odds?
In an era where real friends and friendships were hard to come across, this was ‘net friendship’, how long would it last??


So, we are net friends helping each other out in our respective love lives. Decoding the proverbial “What does he/she means”.


After 3 months of hopelessly trying to decode the love signals that were being given by our respective “lovers” in question, whilst talking to each other for hours at a stretch resulted in the inevitable. And we realised that there was more to us than just being “Friends”.
There was one problem though:
We hadn’t seen each other. Oh yeah, pictures were there. But that was the time of low resolution Digital Camera, and lack of privacy settings on the social networking sites, that prevented the real us to come before each other.


But still, the twitching in our heart continued. The seemingly harmless flirtation over the phones and smses kept giving us the heart burnt. And then, finally on 14th February, 2005, we took the plunge. It took me less than 7 hours to say “I love you” to him.
The first 15-20 days we were inseparable, even though we were in two different cities , on an average we talked about 5-7 hours over the phone and then we were emailing and chatting with each other. And when the phone bill came- we were first amused, then shocked and then scared. It was then that we talked mostly through net i.e via email /chatting and ofcourse there were snail mails too and I used to go to a STD booth with 20 rupees with so that we could talk for 5 mins. ( Those were the times of super high  STD rates on cell phones).


The real test however was the “First Meeting”.


It was 8 months later that we met for the first time as a couple. I can still feel that moment like yesterday. The sparks just flew, with the very first handshake (We were too awkward to even hug each other). The chemistry was crackling, and everything was like it was meant to be.
The rest as they say is history.




For the 5 years that I was in Law school , he was doing his engineering for 4 of those. And at the first opportunity that he finally got a.k.a a job, he came to Delhi. [We maintained a 4 year long relationship solely via phones, snail mails, e-mails and a meeting maybe once a year for a weekend]. And thus started the most blissful year in our relationship, of stolen kisses, bunked college classes and dates in real life.
The shocker though came 11 months later, when better opportunity beckoned him to the IT city of Bangalore, and we were back to the square one. But, we were very confident. We had done it for 4 long years, we can pull it off again. Plus, I was just a couple of months away from graduating, and I could obviously start looking for a job in Bangalore.
So after loads of crying, snotting, and being upset and angry over fate and life, I bid adieu to my darling.


Then the over confidence in our ability to maintain a long distance relationship spoiled the party. A self destruct button was hit. And I cheated.


The irony being, that I ended up cheating him with another fellow blogger (Lets call him Mr. X), who I met online. I was no kid, neither was Mr. X.  
How things started to slide downwards, I don’t really remember, but I do remember, the guilt.


It was my own actions, which led to him wooing me back. And woo me back he did. When I broke things up after 5 years of being in a relationship, all I was asked for by him was to still let us be friends.
Even though it was awkward to be friends with your ex, it was probably the best decision that I took that year, and remained friends with my ex. He literally saved my soul. He became a friend all over again, just like we were 5 years ago. Whilst, on one side he was becoming my friend, on the other he started his mission to win me back by showing to me the facade behind the identity of the Mr. X. The lies and the stories that were made to mislead.


The break up lasted for 2 months, and even though we were back together, we were treading cautious grounds. Things were tougher than before. And he was still miles away.


Finally, he decided to move back to Delhi and in  August, 2010 he was back.


***************************************************************************************************


September 4th , 2010 (My Birthday Eve)


Him:  I need some change.
Me: Abhi?
Him: Your Birthday cake is here, and the guy doesn't have change.
Me. Okay. Here you go. (handing over the change)
Him: Come with me na..I’ll get lost.  
[In his defense we were at my Club, and it was the first time that he was visiting the club]
Her: We are at my Birthday party.. I can’t just walk out na.. take someone else na.. Please..
Him : Please..
Me: Grrr.. okay.. lets hurry it up.


[Now the main gate of the club, where the cake guy was waiting was beyond the parking lot. A good 5 minute walk from where we were. We reach the main gate and I scream at the guard for not letting the cake guy get in, scream at the cake guy for not carrying change and pay him off and start walking back.. I am in the front.. trying to navigate the dark parking lot in my heels]


Him: Hey, do you have a problem spending a few minutes away from your precious party and with me instead..
Me: (in a catch 22 situation) .. hmmm no… why? Its just that people will be wondering by now..
Him: arre 5 minutes is all I am asking.


We stop in the middle of the parking lot. Its dark. And I am wondering what is wrong with him. I am praying that I did not end up doing another fuck up.
He asks me to hold the cake for a bit. I set the cake - box in my hand, making sure that it doesn’t slip and avert my eyes for 10 seconds. I look back and he is not in front of me. I look around, and down and see him there, on his knees, with a ring in his hand. Proposing me.


Him: I know that we have been through a lot in the last couple of months. And right now also we are figuring out the nuances of our relationship all over again… But one thing that I know for sure is, that there is no one else who I would want to spend my life with.


Engagement at the Club 
I was proposed in a dark parking lot with my own birthday cake in my hand; after we had been through a break-up, make-up, what the hell is happening to our relationship phase… and the proposal was just how it was supposed to be “PERFECT”.


Today, we are married. And our actual, official engagement function happened in that club only.


He is still my best friend, my confidant, my life, my love .. the most, most precious part of my life, just like Platinum.

Precious. Rare. And perfect.



This is a part of my entry into the "Platinum Day of Love" contest by Indiblogger.