A college crush..

The boy's story..

The 7th semester was approaching and there was a building pressure of a vast syllabus to complete, journals to be written, a future to think of...

The first year batch had just entered our college.. I envied their carefree days... They didn't have a decision to make as yet.. I came into this field because I didn't get into a medical college and I didn't intend to spend my precious year to attempt it again.. Sometimes I wished I had been more patient..Maybe I would have got to live my dream.. The years in college passed in jiffy.. I now valued the comfort and security of those years.. I felt lost in a vast sea of career choices.. My friends had been an integral part of my life here.. The best ones I made here.. Now we were all heading different directions.. I often wondered what life would be like after the last semester and as the answer was getting clearer, I dreaded it..
  
   I was sitting with my friends in the canteen, aware of the stares and silent whispers from the first years.. They were mostly loud and immature.. Always shouting over the top.. My classmates were checking out the new girls.. Their last attempt at experiencing a college romance... There was none I was interested in.. They all seemed the same to me.. I was not looking forward to any link ups.. I had had enough of all those things in my college life so far and it was always a waste of time.. The last year I intended to live the most of my carefree time..

    It was a Saturday night and I had been partying till midnight.. I went back home and logged on the internet. I opened my facebook accounts..I rarely opened it and when I did I was flooded with notifications, status updates, tags, friends request ( I usually accepted them without even checking who I accepted) and began checking the thing..( I first made myself invisible to avoid all those who jumped on  my chatlist to chat)
  
   There was a message in my inbox.. Ivy... The name did ring a bell.. I didn't recollect where.. I opened her message.. It read

"Hi.. m Ivy.. met u in colg if u remember.. wud like 2 b ur friend.. if u wish to .." 

I accepted her request.. I sent her a reply..

"Hi Ivy.. ofcourse would like to be ur friend.. I don't recollect where I have met you. Sorry for that.. I am a little bad at remembering faces" 


Immediately I got another message from her.. God!! She was awake at one in the night..

"It's ok if u dnt remember.. I can't c u online.. "


So I went online .. She was there.. Her profile picture was only her sideface.. I couldn't remember still...

we started chatting..


Ivy: Hi
Me: Hi
Ivy:So u come online at this time always?
Me: No, was out today.. came home now so... 
Ivy:ohh ok.. Where do you stay?
Me: Borivali n u?
Ivy: Hey me too!! Where in Borivali?
Me: Gorai
Ivy: R u kidding?? I stay there too.. Don't tell me you stay in sector 1!!
Me: I do.. u also in sec 1??
Ivy: Yes..!! Where in sector 1?
Me: Platinum tower.. U?
Ivy: hehehehe "Sun n shine" your neighbouring building... coincidence no?
Me: Yes, coincidence.. ( I was thinking if she would ask to go together to college.. I don't know I had a feeling that she was trying to flirt.) 
Ivy: Can u give me your cell number?
ME:(So I might be right here.. I thought about it and then felt what's the harm?) Yeah sure.. 9820####**..
She gave me a missed call.. I saved it .. Just in case...
I was getting sleepy..
Me: Okay I got to go.. See u in college..
Ivy: Yeah ok.. Good night..


I logged off..  I got a text .. It was Ivy.. She had messaged
"Hey what is the meaning of your name Romir?"

My name meant "interesting".. I was too tired to reply.. I wasn't even sure if I should tell it to her.. Before I could decide, I dozed off...

My last thought was..  Ivy.. what a strange name...



( to be continued)

A college crush..

   The Girl's story..

    It was the first day of my degree college. Our college is the only one which holds exclusively the course I m studying.. We have a small strength of 240 students. 60 students in each year. By the end of the term everyone knows the other atleast by the face if not the name.
    I had no idea what I was doing in a college like this one. There was not a single face I knew. Everyone in class had pretty much formed a group on the first day itself. I sat with a few groupless ones who had started to bore in 10 minutes of sane conversation. I wished I had taken up courses which my other friends had taken. Atleast I would have had company. Someone suggested we take a round of the college and as reluctant I was to leave my seat( one lazy bum I was), I didn't want to be left alone to my hopelessness. I went around the campus.
   The college doesn't have half the area of my junior college but it is planned cleverly. Its amazing how one can get lost in a college that small. I just asked aloud ," Where is the library?" when I got a reply

"Go up stairs and you would find it on the right side on the second floor"

I looked back to where the voice came from and I saw him.

He was showing me the directions and all I saw was him. :)

He was tall, fair and his face beamed with some unsaid enthusiasm. Politeness was the first thing I liked about him (other than the looks ofcourse) .

I very meekly said," Thanks"

He asked," Which year are you in?"

(well he must have known already.. Second year students don't get lost in a college this small)

I looked around ( foolish I know, but somehow I couldn't hold on to his gaze) and then replied "First year and you?"

"Fourth year.. uhmm.. Final year"
(ghosh!! I know it's a four year course.. did he find me that dumb?)

"What's your name? "  he asked.

"Ivy" I said..

I wonder if he will remember it.. It doesn't look like but it is an Indian name, meaning "creeper".. What a creepy meaning (pun intended)

Without me asking, he introduced himself "I m Romir"

All I said was, "Oh"

God!! Why was I acting so unusually dumb??

He walked back to his class. I kept repeating his name ,"Romir, romir, romir". I couldn't supress my smile.. Miss Ivy.. First day of college and you already have a crush! College is not going to be so much of a torture now..

The next few days of college were boring as ever and I kept thinking of Romir.. I didn't know his last name.. I had searched him on facebook only to turn up with no result.. or rather thousands of result!! I couln't single him out. Whenever in college my eyes kept searching for him.

For a few days there was no sign of him. I attended all days in college. Each day started with the same thought," Will I see him today?"

For the first time, our classes lasted long enough to have a lunch break ( The faculty hardly paid us visit as we were yet to shuffle from one college to another). I had made two friends by then. We went for lunch in the canteen which was just good to sit in. The food was nowhere near the delicacies I was used to in my junior college. ( yeah I still ached for that yummy food)

I was seated in a far corner of the canteen and he was there.. I strained  my eyes to have a better look and to confirm it was really him.. Yes, it was him.. The charmer as he was, he was surrounded by lot of friends.

I went up to the water filter to have a close look at him and he looked at me.. No hint of recognition..HE stared just blankly and then went back to the conversation he was having with his friends. It hurt.. I didn't expect him to start any conversation but the least he could do was give a friendly smile.. Agreed I didn't smile either but I was scared that If he doesn't smile back, it would be a shame in front of his large group.

Days rolled by and I often spotted him with his group in canteen.. I used to secretly stare at him and many times he did look at me but I knew he didn't remember me..


I looked up the list of final year students and found out he is Romir Mukherjee.. I found him out on facebook and sent him a friends request.. Then begun the wait.....

(to be continued)


P.S This is strictly fiction.. People from college please dont get any ideas!!!!

Monster and me (last part)

           Bhai was holding her hand back. That was the first time in a few years that I was calling him out Bhai to myself.
            "You bitch, don't you dare lay as much as a finger on my sister" he was screaming at Neha.
"Arav, just shut up. You know how your sister is. I mean, isn't that why you treat her like trash? How can you trust her?" She was accusing me.
              Bhai turned pale.. maybe a little ashamed.
"I know very well how she is. I was wrong you would change your way Neha. You have a reputation of two timing don't you? Just get out of my house and out of my life"
               Neha was pink in the face. It was apparantly her first defeat with guys.
I was just too happy with Bhai's response and his trust on me. He was suddenly my perfect Bhai again.
That day we didn't speak to each other. I knew he wouldn't say sorry. It was his way of dealing with relations. He never added anything formal to it.
               Next day as usual I returned from school and was about the ring the bell when Bhai opened it himself. It seemed like he was waiting for me. He looked at me and smiled and that was quiet a reception!!
               I went indoors and spotted something gift wrapped on the dining table. It read
   "TO MY KID SIS FROM HER  MONSTER"
                 I didn't know how he knew I called him monster and I forgot to ask him too. I opened the wrap and found a coloring kit. I jumped with joy. It was good to know that he still remembered what my hobby was. It would have cost him lost more than what he would feel free to splurge and I knew at the end of the month he would fall short of money and ask me to lend some of my pocket money which ofcourse he would never return.
                The gift was his way of saying sorry.
I later asked him, "Bhai what does a slut mean?"
He looked at me with a straight face and said,"It means Neha. Don't you use that word ever again for anyone ok sis? Good girls don't use such words" He pulled my cheeks and walked out..
                Eventually I did look up the dictionary.. :P

Monster and me (part 3)

            They both came inside. Monster had a perplexed look on his face. Neha began weeping even louder..
              Monster asked," Did you say Neha that she is a slut?" I had never come across that word, I thought it must be synonymous to "mean". However, I made a mental note to look it up in the dictionary.
              " I.. I did not"..
Neha's outbursts were deafening. Monster asked her to calm down and she did that with a lightening speed.
               " She is lying Arav"  If you are wondering who Arav is then it is Monster's name.
  " She hates me and you being together. She uttered words which I wouldn't imagine a fourth grader to know" she further added.
                 Arav was dumbstruck and so was I. I was battling with my thoughts. What should I tell him? Would he believe me?
                  I went back to the time when Arav was good to me. He would pick me up from school. When we were home, he would teach me to play games on his computer and let me scribble. He was my playmate. Everything was perfect till his so called "growing up" problems began and he became so irritating.
                  I decided to stick to my story. "She is the one who is lying" I shouted back.
 Neha was a bit shaken. She had expected a timid me. This rush of confidence struck her. Blood was rushing to my cheeks. I wouldn't stop now..
                  "Neha was with Sumit. She threatened me to not tell anyone she was kissing him.
              Arav curled his fingers. I thought he would box me over. Neha lifted her hand to slap me. I just closed my eyes which were overflowing with tears.  When the hands didn't reach me for long I opened my eyes to see......
                                               

Monster and me (part2)

  Neha was in the arms of Sumit... They were smooching.. I had never seen anything like that except for once on a clip monster was watching on internet.
      Monster had shouted at me for peeking into his room and made me swear I wouldn't tell Mom or Dad what I had seen. I still don't understand why he was so tensed about it.
     Neha looked at me and I was completely at my wit's end. Her top was unbuttoned at the upper end and she quickly adjusted it.. Sumit was clearly frightened. Sumit was, as monster said, "a harmless dumb creature". He spent hours with Monster in our room equipped with a bucketful of chips. He was overweight. He stayed in Monster's shadow.. He hung around with Monster often, just to get noticed.
     Neha said softly, "Spying, are we?" The coldness in her voice made me uncomfortable.  She was intimidating..
     I stammered, "I.. I just came to call you".. She was getting irritated with my response..
She lost her calm and shrieked," Listen, don't act smart with me. You voyeur!! She looked back at Sumit and asked him, "What do you think?".. Now that was a stupid thing to ask because she knew it well Sumit couldn't think...
    Sumit as expected dare not say anything.. I wondered what Sumit would tell Monster.  Neha didn't let the matter pass.. She threatened to tell all kinds of lies and get me trapped instead..  I knew saying anything would be useless.. She not only had Monster in control, she even took advantage of this Fool Sumit's money..
    I went back home.  Monster left shortly for his classes.. I didn't know how long I sat thinking of what happened.. The door bell rang.. I saw Monster standing at the door with Neha crying...
                       

Bleeding heart

  Running behind the shadows
  of that past left behind,
  Night befalls on the meadow
  where solace I would find..
  Upon the enticing dreams
  a spell of gloom is cast..
  a pearl of tear in my eyes gleams,
  and is lost in the ocean so vast..
  How far the raft of time
  has drifted us apart,
  With memories of you I entwine
  my soul and my bleeding heart..


  

Glimpses from the past..

         "You know what Nishka, life couldn't have been more perfect for me". Preeti was beaming with happiness and why should she not? She is after all in love. She was meeting me after a long time. We had been fast friends in school but in the years after that we had been too busy to catch up. She was still the same bubbly girl who made friend easily. I have lost my innocence and charm long back. She at this moment would never notice this change in me. Love after all makes all the world shrink and all you can think is about that special someone in your heart.
           She and her boyfriend made a cute couple. Everyone thinks they are "made for each other", but I would rather not use these words for anyone. That's what everyone used to say about "US". We were a perfect couple.
          Time raced back in my mind and I felt transported to those days of love. Even the memory of it made my heart ache and my body seethe in pain.. Why do I have to still feel for him? After all he has done to me and to our relationship, why is there still that lame hope of having him back? So much time has passed by yet why is that monsoon still moistening my eyes? I stare and stare into nothingness and suddenly that face looms in front of my eyes... That face, that smile which once made my heart leap now makes my heart throb so hard I fear it will break my ribs.. That vacuum he left in my life will forever be that way..
          Was I willingly closing my eyes to the truth?  Was  his assurance fake?
Those moments of happiness, those promises to be for each other always.. I was so sure he was as madly in love with me as I was with him.. I still am..
          Those late night calls.. Those love messages... The way he used to lovingly call out my name.. That one night when I couldn't sleep and he tenderly sang me to sleep... I couldn't live a thousand years and experience that bliss again.. What would I not give up to get that simplicity and love back... But it is gone with the winds...
          "Are you listening?" She almost shrieked.. I pulled myself out from my thoughts... "Guess what ? He is coming here. Isn't that great? "
            I was already feeling claustrophobic.. Happy couples always made me that way.. I wanted to rush out of this place.. The urge to shout back, "Go and have the time of your life. Don't bother about me" was overpowering but I had to bear with it.. I couldn't give my friends hell for what I am going through and neither did I want to act like a mood spoiler... That's one of the reasons he had given for breaking up..... I need to snap it out of my mind.. I need to go back into the hiding.. Social meetings aren't my cup of tea anymore...
            "sorry Preeti, I just remembered I forgot my keys at a relative's place. I got to rush. You guys enjoy. " She didn't read much into it either... She was busy adoring her sweetheart..
             I walked towards the door and glanced back... They were holding hands and gazing into each others eyes.. Magic of love..........
             I rushed back home into my haven of loneliness where I didn't have to pretend everything is fine...