“I had crush on four girls in past” Ajay smiled shyly, blushing little.
“Wow, interesting. May I know all the stories?” Rishitha’s eyes lit up and her mouth curved into a smile.
Cappuccino’s aroma was spreading around the table, raining outside, wind disrupting the tree leaves and they could see the rainbow in sky from glass walls.
Ajay and Rishitha were software engineers. Ajay was working in Infosys and Rishitha was in TCS. Both were appointed at Hyderabad offices. They were asked to meet by their parents as a part of match-making process. They talked about jobs, families, career plans, and habits. When they discussed about their past relationships, Rishitha admitted that she had one love failure story. She explained about her unrequited love story, how she had fallen for her crush, how she was unable to tell her feelings to that guy, how much pain she endured when that guy got married recently.
Now, it was Ajay’s turn. Ajay took one sip and started telling about his past.
“I had crush on four girls in past. At least you know about your crush. But, I don’t even know my crushes’ names. When I was in 10th standard, I participated in state-level science exhibition organised in Sangareddy, Medak from January 9 to 12, 2008. A dance competition also had been conducted by the organisers on third day at MNR medical college’s auditorium. My friend and I sat in the 4th row. Then came this girl, with Indian flag colours applied on left cheek and right cheek, wearing dress similar to what Kajol wore in “Des Rangila” song. She performed the very same song. God! She nailed it. Her expressions, dance moves, ending and what not. Entire auditorium applauded her performance with a standing ovation. I really fell for her smile. There was something special in her smile. I haven’t had that sort of different feeling until that day. I couldn’t see her face clearly as her face was covered with colours. She disappeared immediately as soon as her performance was over. I wanted to follow her, but I couldn’t as my teacher was sitting next to me. That day was the first and last day of my crush on her.”
“I haven’t got same or similar feelings on any other girls afterwards until I saw someone in Araku. My family went to Araku during December 2009 when I was in plus 2. Generally, the temperature is very low during winter season in Araku. On second day morning, I woke up early as I was unable to sleep due to low temperature though I wore wool sweater and covered with two blankets. I went out for tea. Then came a girl, sat opposite to me, covered entire body with sweater, feet and hands with socks, face with scarf. I was looking at her eyes when she was waiting for tea. She turned towards me and our eyes met. Her gaze was extremely intense that made my heart beat faster than normal. I didn’t take off my eyes from her. She pulled down her scarf to drink tea. She took one sip and immediately smile appeared on her face. God! She was beautiful. I looked at her while having tea. Her father observed me and gave me an irksome look. I turned my gaze. They finished tea and stood up for leaving. She pulled up the scarf and looked one last time. It was piercing through my heart. I wanted to follow her but I couldn’t as her father was aside her. The sad thing is I have forgotten her face as it has been almost 9 years since that incident happened.”
“How come you forget those girl’s I mean your crush’s faces?” Rishitha stopped him in between.
“Come on, Rishitha. When you see a person’s face regularly, you will remember his face. But if you see a face one time in life and never seen thereafter, you will eventually forget his face even you admired him a lot for that temporary moment” Ajay was feeling proud of his wisdom.
“Yeah. Right. Go on” Rishitha was back to interesting mode.
“During my 3rd year of engineering, an inter-college stage play competition had been organised in my college. Many colleges had participated in that event. All performances were average except one performed by Vikas institute of Technologies. It was a love story between a Hindu boy and a Muslim girl. Stage play was about how they met, how the fell in love, how their parents became villains in their story, what happened at the end. A big screen and so many TVs were fixed for showing what was happening on stage. There I saw one Muslim girl. That girl stole the show with her eye expressions, her dialogues and her chemistry in the bond. The girl would die in the end and her performance was top-notch, made so many people shed tears including mine. This time I followed her after the play was over. They were taking selfies in front of me facing other side. I wanted to walk past them and look her face, but my friend came and took me inside as his performance was about to start. Her eye expressions haunted me for some days. I felt that magic feeling when I saw her eyes. I had waited outside of Vikas institute of Technology in the desperate of finding her, but no avail. After some days, I stopped searching for her”
“The fourth one is you”
Rishitha had been listening interestingly with full attention until the last sentence. She was in a disbelief. “What?” she blurted out, puzzled.
“Yes. The fourth one is you, Rishitha. I came to TCS to attend an interview. There I saw you, looking fully confident, wearing sky blue salwar kameez. You sat opposite to me. My gaze was fixed at you. There were so many girls over there, but, still my eyes were looking at you only. You also looked at me and that’s it, the same feeling. I had been nervous until that moment, not any more. But you turned your eyes away. I lost in your thoughts. They called you inside. I was looking at you while you were going in side and coming outside. You had smile on your face when coming out. They called my name when you were leaving from the office. I was in a dilemma whether to attend the interview or follow you. I chose first, I went inside but my thoughts were somewhere else. I didn’t perform well. My interview hadn’t lasted for more than 5 minutes. I came out, ran towards exit house in the hope of finding you, but to my despair, I lost you, at least I thought like that”
She smiled and about to say something when her phone rang. Her parents called her and inquired whether she liked him or not. She said she liked him and agreed for marriage.
They got married. On their first night, he decided to postpone their intimacy as he was feeling nervous and instead he wanted to know more about her. He asked her to bring her photo album. She brought it and sat aside him explaining about the pictures. He saw her two month old picture, name day pictures, first school day picture, and puberty function pictures. She was explaining him about each and every picture and they were sharing laughs. Now, he was looking at her 10th class pictures. She stopped explaining and her heart beat became faster and faster for each passing second. He turned the page. He saw a picture of a girl performing on stage, having Indian flag colours on cheeks. He was in a deep shock. He rubbed his eyes and saw at the picture once again. His first crush’s picture. He looked at her and she turned her face other side and smiling. She didn’t say a word.
He turned pages quickly and found a picture of a girl who covered her entire body with sweater, giving poses in morning mist. He couldn’t believe his eyes. His second crush’s picture. Then, he turned some more pages quickly, he found a picture of a girl in burqa giving poses along with friends. His third crush’s picture.
“I am not a Muslim, Mr. Lovely husband. I just performed Muslim character in that play. That guy, who performed Hindu boy role, was my crush” finally Rishitha stopped her laughing and continued “I was about to tell you all this on that day itself, but I got a call from my parents. I wanted to keep this as secret, but today due to this album you found out”
It took two minutes for Ajay to come to normal senses. He hugged her tightly and said “I love you Rishitha. I wanted to tell you the day I saw you. But I couldn’t. We are made for each other. Soulmates” She also hugged him tightly.
He stopped and said “I have been having crush only on one girl”, exclaimed.
“True” She laughed and they continued their love making.