Remote Control

The day was a special day for Aniket and Maria. They were having “griha-prabesh” in their newly bought flat, that too in an up-market posh area in the city. They were doing quite well in their own professions and this flat was due for long time. Incidentally they had “arranged love” marriage after one year of courtship. They met up at shaadi.com and their story began from there. The day Aniket first saw Maria; he was not sure about her, but wanted give it a try. He was a little different guy since his childhood. He always liked the unusual things in every aspect of life. And for marriage also, that too an arranged one; while most of his friends were looking for some stunning beautiful girls, he was always looking for some other not so common qualities in his prospective bride. Maria fitted in his requirements. She was a quite girl and looked very untainted on the day Aniket first met her. Aniket quite liked her on day one and after speaking to her for some time, his interest grew on Maria. Maria also possessed same feelings for Aniket that day.

Aniket is working in a MNC while Maria is a lecturer in a college. The first impression of their families was also quite good and both of them wanted to know more of each other before making consent. As the days were passing by, their liking for each other was growing rapidly, and the next possible thing could happen was their engagement. They were madly in love by that time and the couple were truly looking made for each other.
Finally they got married after another eight months.

Life would fill with more colors after the marriage. They had managed everything from the stress of their own careers to household work so well, that their life looked like a complete package of a happy marriage. This new flat was long overdue for them. They had spent a lot for their new home and worked on each possible aspects of it and finally it looked like a perfect home for a perfect couple.

Life was going as usual for Aniket and Maria in their new home. On an ordinary Monday evening, Aniket came back from office and switched on the TV to watch the news. That was a regular habit of Aniket since they have shifted to the new flat and the 40 inch LCD was really a spectacular thing to watch. Though he was not a TV freak, but used to get regular updates by watching the news channels. He was viewing an English news channel, but suddenly the picture goes away and the sound was also muted. He thought there might be some problem in the connections as the remote was also not working at all. He was just about to check the wires, suddenly some smoky picture started to appear on the TV screen. He did not realized the picture as it was too hazy to see properly, but able to recognize that there were two very tall buildings and a thick layer of smoke was coming out from one of the buildings. After a while, the regular news channel feed resumed automatically without any intervention from him. Aniket thought he was too tired and his distracted mind saw all these silly things and nothing wrong with the TV. He even did not tell Maria about this in the night.

The next day evening, Aniket came back from office and switch on the TV as usual. He had totally forgotten about the incident last evening. He casually started to surf the news channels and after few minutes was shocked to see the breaking news; there was an attack on World Trade Center twin tower. He could not understand what is happening and started to switch all the news channels. All of them were beaming the same pictures and he realized that was the genuine news; he was not watching something silly on the TV. Suddenly a cold wave had passed through his spine. He remembered that he had seen something similar just last evening and was thought that as an illusion. He could remember the every details of that picture that he saw last evening on the TV. It seems that the day’s happenings were just the repeat telecast of the last evening. He had seen something last evening that was yet to happen. Aniket was very frightened and switched off the TV. He opened the fridge, took a beer can and sat on the floor. He was looking very restless.

Maria came after an hour. She was out to the library. While opening the door, she asked,
“Did you hear the news, honey?”
She was surprised to see Aniket sitting on the floor while the TV was switched off. Maria expected him to be glued to the TV.
“What happened? Why are you sitting there like this? Is everything ok?”
“No, nothing special, I am fine” Aniket replied “Just saw the news on TV, it’s horrible, and this is the worst form of terrorism”.
“Is any of your colleagues are in New York?” Maria enquired.
“No, I don’t have any update.”
“Ok, let me see what is happening there” Maria took the remote and switched on the TV.
Aniket left the hall and went to the bathroom. He desperately needed a long bath!

Few months had passed after the incident. Aniket didn’t tell anything about that incident to Maria. He thought it was just a bad dream that he had. He had stopped watching TV since then. Now he sat in front of TV only when Maria was there and she insists for a movie, watching together. She noticed the change in Aniket that he was not watching TV after coming from office, but was actually happy for the fact that they were spending more time together and she had total control over the remote. There was no room to complain for Maria.

Few months later, Maria went to Bangalore to attend her cousin’s wedding. Aniket could not able to manage leave for the event as his workload was high at that time. He used to came back late on weekdays in that period as Maria was also not in the home. He still didn’t switch on the TV but was tempting for the same. Since a lot of time had passed after the incident, one day he thought to watch TV after coming from office. It was quite normal for few days. Maria was coming back in the Sunday evening. Aniket enquired about the flight timings and found that the flight was an hour late. So he switched on the TV and was watching some music channel. He had almost forgotten about the old incident, but suddenly once again, the TV screen went black and the remote was not working as well. He quickly stood up and looked everywhere in the room but found nothing and the power and cables connections were also fine. He tried to switch off the TV and un-plugged the power cable. But suddenly a smoky and hazy picture appeared on the TV screen. What he managed to see is that there was a burning train coach and some people were running in the streets carrying some weapons like swords and big knives etc. After few seconds, the TV gets switched off. He didn’t understand what he just saw and straightaway went to the basement to take the car out. He was going to receive Maria from airport.
Maria and Aniket was busy in chatting when she came back to the home and this time also, Aniket didn’t tell anything about the incident to Maria. They had so much to talk about in night that he had totally forgotten last evening’s incident.

Two days after, Aniket was shocked to see the news paper that some miscreants burn a train coach at Godhra in Gujarat and immediately after, there were riots across the state. He could not believe the news. It was the incident he saw on the TV two days back.

Aniket had stopped watching movies on TV even with Maria after that. Any time they wanted to watch a movie, he insisted to go to a multiplex. He even stopped watching the DVD videos also. He even didn’t sit in the room also. After coming from outside, he straightaway went to the bedroom every time. Maria noticed the change in Aniket’s behavior, but this time also avoided discussion.

Again some months were passed by. Aniket had recovered from the shock. But Aniket’s resolution of not watching TV would soon take back seat as the world cup cricket would start within a month and a die hard cricket fan like him, at least, could not ignore that event. So as soon as the games started, he again glued to the TV, especially for the India matches. Nothing like previous incidents happened this time for the last one month and he eventually forget those. He thought those were some weird incidents and may be his stress and fatigue caused them. On the semi-final match day of the world cup, one of his colleague suggested that if India would through to the final, then their office group would like to gather at Aniket’s home and cheer for India for the final match. Aniket readily accepted the proposal and eventually it was India verses Australia in the World Cup final, which surely expected to be a cracker.

The day before the final match, Maria and Aniket went to near by mall to prepare for the next days bash at their home. Like all other people in the country, they were also very confident that India would bring the world cup that time. After some shopping, they were back to the flat and Maria straightaway went to kitchen for preparing the dinner. Aniket switched on the TV and casually started to surf channels. There was no match that day as only the final match was scheduled on very next day. While surfing channels, once again, suddenly the screen goes blank. He thought he had pressed the power button by mistake. But repeated pressing of the power button didn’t bring the TV in normal condition. Aniket was waiting for the screen to go smoky as he knew what was going to happen. That was third time in a row; he was experiencing such a thing. Surely the happenings were very mysterious, but it at least not harmful for him or Maria. He merely saw some incidents in advance. This time he didn’t get afraid and was waiting to see the new picture. As expected the screen got smoky and hazy again after few seconds and this time, he saw some people in yellow dresses were jumping in a huddle. The TV was back to normal within few seconds. Aniket didn’t find anything relevant in the picture. But subconsciously he was trying to interpret it. He finally cracked it while he was sleeping that night.

The next day morning, all the friends were started to come to their home. Maria was very much exited about the house party. She didn’t bother about the result of the match, but meeting with all friends was something special for her. But she surprised to see that Aniket was also not taking too much interest in the match and when all his friends were cheering for India, he just continue to look at the TV, but he was not at all following the match. Anyways the match was one-sided and India lost that final, and all the euphoria of people who came to their home was drained. After all of them left, Aniket casually said to Maria, “I knew, India will loose today.”
“What? How did you know? Though Australia was very strong team, but we still had some chances. We were not able to capitalize on them” answered Maria.
“No, Yesterday only, I knew the result of the match” Aniket replied.
“Wait? How did you know the result yesterday? You guessed, Australia will win as its better team, that’s all, right?” Maria asked confusedly.
“Yesterday I saw them celebrating with the world cup” Aniket said.
“What kind of bad joke it is? You mean to say that you have seen them celebrating with World Cup yesterday, and where did you see that?” Maria questioned annoyingly guessing that Aniket was trying to confuse her.
“I saw it on TV, and this was not the first time, I also had seen the WTC attack and Gujarat riots in advance on TV. I just had not said these to you” Aniket replied.
“Are you not well Ani? What are you saying about?” Maria said while keeping her palm on his forehead, “I must say; this is one of the poorest jokes I have ever heard from you”.
“I am not joking, due to these unusual things only, I didn’t watched TV since last year and avoided even watching movies with you in the recent past” Aniket clarified.
“There you go; I was confused about it for the last one year but didn’t discuss it with you as yet. Now you solve the riddle for me. So you are afraid of watching TV because of it. Come on man, you were stressed out and need some sleep. Don’t ask me to believe all these crap stories. I am wondering; how a techie like you believes in such incidents? Now grow up and go to bed. I will talk to you tomorrow about it” Maria concluded.
Aniket was also feeling tired and go to sleep that night; he was also not in a mood to further discussing the issue.

Next day evening, when Aniket back from office, he straightaway went to the bedroom and after having bath, didn’t come out to the hall as usual. Maria was watching TV in the hall and she called him to join her. She wanted to help Aniket to overcome the fear and had arranged some movie DVDs to choose from for that evening. When he didn’t come after repeated calling, Maria literally dragged him out of the bedroom and they watched a movie together.
“Did you see something unusual tonight?” asked Maria.
“It didn’t show up everyday” answered Aniket.
“Come on Ani, there is nothing like you have experienced, you were stressed up honey. Let’s plan for a vacation, its long due for us” Maria said in anticipation.
Aniket agreed.

They went for a week long trip of Kashmir and it was very memorable experience for them. City life did take a toll of everyone. After Aniket came back from the holiday, he was refreshed up and had left behind the past. The days were passing by as usual and nothing supernatural had happened to their TV yet.
Almost a year and a half had passed. They had been to another vacation at Singapore as Aniket had to go there for official visit. Aniket and Maria both used to watch TV together again. He had totally forgotten about the past incidents.

One day, after coming back from Singapore, Aniket took a leave from office as he was not feeling well. Maria wanted to stay back but he insisted her to go to the college. In the afternoon, Aniket was watching a movie alone on the TV. Suddenly the TV screen gone black again and the remote was not working also; he was about to experience that again. He didn’t give it much attention as he experienced it before. Anyways, after a while a hazy picture of an airplane appeared on the screen which was crashed and long flames of fire were coming out of it. Few second later, the movie resumed and the TV was working as usual. This happened to him after a long gap of almost two years. It didn’t bother him this time as he thought that it had no connection to him, it was just another stray incident that might happen in future.
In the evening, Maria came back early.
“Hi honey, how was the day at home? Feeling better?” Maria asked while entering the flat.
“Ya, nothing special, will resume work tomorrow. I was sleeping all day” answered Aniket, “You are early today”.
“Actually I have to go to Bangalore to attend a seminar tomorrow and have to catch an early morning flight. So I thought to come back early to spend some time with you” Maria replied.
“Oh, that’s great! When are you leaving?” asked Aniket.
“4.30 a.m. have to catch 5.45 a.m. flight to Bangalore” Maria answered as she was started preparing dinner in kitchen.

Aniket switched on the TV again and was watching some music channel. Suddenly the afternoon incident was refreshed in his mind. He was speechless for a while as a very horrific thought came to his mind. He straightaway went to the kitchen and asked “Can’t you postpone the Bangalore visit?”
“What? But why should I? Do you have any other plan tomorrow?” Maria asked in surprise.
“No, you just cancel that right now. You will not be going anywhere tomorrow” Aniket insisted.
“Are you all right? What happened? Why are you talking like this?” Maria exclaimed.
“I just can’t let you go, you please cancel the visit” Aniket replied.
“Don’t be silly Ani, tell me the problem you have” Maria insisted.
“I don’t know how you take it up, but this is a fact. Your flight might crash tomorrow” Aniket said.
“What?” Maria exclaimed, “Are you gone mad? Don’t be childish. You got the information from where? Did the captain of the flight tell you about this?”
“I knew that you wouldn’t believe it. I saw this in TV today afternoon. I have seen such a thing after a long while and previously none of it was wrong” Aniket said with a pale face.
“Come on Ani, sometimes you behaving like a five year old boy. You know all these things were crap, but still you insisted me not to go, and for a while let’s consider the fact that tomorrow one of the aero-plane will going to crash, but how do you know it will be the flight on which I will travel? Did that picture show you the flight no. also?” Maria asked in reply.
“I don’t know anything, you will not be going anywhere tomorrow” insisted Aniket.
“Enough is enough Ani. I am fed-up with this silly thing. Think whatever you can, I am going to Bangalore and that’s final, you understand” Maria replied strongly.
Aniket knew it’s useless to convince Maria now. She had already determined to go. Nothing could stop her now. The only thing he could do was to pray to God.
Aniket wished a happy journey to Maria next morning.

Six Months Later…

Six months had passed since Maria left Aniket. Her flight never reached Bangalore. Life had become a burden for him. He was still living in the same flat. He had started to spend most of his time in office, even in week-ends. Aniket’s life had become aimless and he started drinking heavily whenever he was alone in the home, which was unfortunately most of the time. His parents were staying with him after the tragic incident for few months and even tried to talk to him for second marriage, but he refused. His heart was full with memories of Maria. He could not thought of second marriage. He had sent his parents back to the native place as he wanted to stay alone for sometime. Aniket had stopped looking at the calendar. He simply didn’t want to keep track with the days as it would remind him, how long he was living without Maria. On a wet evening of July, after coming back from office, he sat in front of the TV with his drinks. He was casually surfing the channels when the TV screen went blank once again. As he was drunk, he kept on looking at the TV and a hazy picture started to appear. He could see that it was heavily raining and there was a car which met with an accident. The car was badly damaged and the driver’s hand was hanging out side the window as the blood coming from the body was diluting with the rain water on the road. After a while, the TV was back to the normal condition.
Aniket was thinking about the picture as it has appeared after a long time. He was trying to find out the inherent meaning of it. After almost an hour, suddenly he woke up and drank a glass of water; then he took the keys of his car and went down stairs.

Aniket had forgotten to switch of the TV, it kept on running and running…..

The Singapore ConneXion

Hey folks, yet another regular story from my side on the same plot – boy meets girl! The only new thing is that, this time the girl has narrated the story. And of course, no intimate details here between the girl and the boy. This story is global and suitable for everyone out there. Hopefully nobody will ask about my intentions this time!

Let’s begin…

Nikita was coming out of the boss's cabin. She came to my cubicle and said “Boss is calling you”. It was not new to me any more. I had been working with that account in the organization for the last two years and very much familiar with the whole account and the projects running there. That was not a big account and twenty odd people used to work there. There were other two senior guys in the team but our new boss always used to call me to get updates. He had joined just last month only. There were some male bosses in the world, who just couldn't lose a chance to talk to woman employees (I didn’t know if he wanted more than that!) for any purpose. My senior male colleagues already started to envy me as they thought I was using my feminine qualities to go up fast with the corporate ladder which surely I was not. It was okay with me as long as there was no indecency from the boss’s part. After all who didn’t want to get promoted?

“Hi Payal, please have a seat” said boss without looking at me as I entered his cabin. He was typing something with the keypad.
“How is your work load next week?” he asked after few seconds.
“It is routine work sir; I have to make a project status report for last month and then we have a conference call with the client, scheduled on Wednesday …”
“Would you like to go to Singapore?” he asked before I finish describing my work schedule for the next week.
I love surprises but didn’t expected that from boss. Our client was based in Freemont, California in USA and visiting that place might look feasible, but Singapore was surely not in the cards.
“Yes, why not?” I replied in anticipation of more inputs from him.

“Good, one of the leading semiconductor companies will be launching their new product line very soon. They have arranged a seminar in this connection in Singapore where all other major embedded product companies from all over Asia will be participating. I want you to go to Singapore and attend the seminar. We are already using their chips in some of our projects. I think this is a good opportunity for us to get know about their new portfolio of chips in details, which would be very useful in our future projects. What do you say?” he asked.
“Certainly sir. It will also enable us to offer better solutions to our clients using cutting edge technology” I replied as I thought that I was becoming little bit more proficient in using the technical jargon words while communicating with the boss. If you could speak in their language, interaction with managers didn’t seem difficult.

The seminar was scheduled next week for three days – Wednesday to Friday. I had to leave on Tuesday night. I was more than happy to go to Singapore, not because it’s my first visit their, but I had a chance of meeting someone special in that place. My parents were over actively searching for a guy for me. Although I didn’t take part in that exercise but didn’t wanted ruin their enthusiasm either, after all I was 28 and some day I had to settle down. It was my fault that I didn’t able to find a match for myself in these long 28 years, especially in the last 6 years since I stated my corporate journey. I was not alone, many girls (and also boys) of my age didn’t find suitable match themselves, our life had became so fast, and hardly there is any time left for romance. I got regular updates of this problem from any newspaper Sunday supplements.

Anyway, what I wanted to mention here that, my parents had short listed one boy (read candidate!) who also had similar problem like me, not finding a match for him in the first 30 years of life. He looked really cute in the photograph he sent across us and I re-verified with my parents that this was his most recent photo as he even looked younger than I. Frankly speaking; I was also impressed and wanted to go forward this time.

I started to speak to Ajay over the phone one month back and our daily conversation time increased to hours from minutes within 15 days. He was a well mannered, sober, good looking boy, working in one of the worlds leading investment banking firm at Singapore. He had all the qualities that a girl like me looks for. We were close to finalize our engagement date. My parents also liked it as they had finally convinced me for settle down.

At this point of time I got this unexpected offer to visit Singapore. I was very much excited and took no time to accept the offer.

Changi International Airport, Singapore.
Tuesday evening:

I had just reached the airport and was waiting for luggage as the conveyor belt was not started yet. Lot of people was standing around it to collect their luggage. As it started rolling, I looked for my one. The suitcases were started to coming and I could see few of the names written on the baggage tags. As I was waiting for my baggage, I read a familiar name on one of the baggage tags. To be precise ‘Sugata Chatterjee’ was written on the tag and surprisingly the man beside me picked up that one. The surname was a Bengali one and name was even more familiar to me. I looked at the man but only managed to see a part of his face as he was looking to other side, probably looking for another luggage. “Height is matching and so the skin color, only the hair style has changed” I told myself these words.
I got my sole luggage and took out the trolley from the side of conveyor belt. I just wanted to see the face of the man as he was still waiting for another luggage.
“And yes, matched! There he is” I told myself as I had just found out ‘Saggy’ at an alien place.
I just could not hold up my excitement and went straight to him and asked “Excuse me, are you Sugata Chatterjee of KGEC, 2002 batch ECE?”
He turned to me and said “Yes, you guessed it right, but how do you know me?”
Now that’s strange. You were meeting with an old college pal after five long years at a foreign place, and you already recognized him but he couldn’t; five year was not even a decade. But it was not all his fault. I had shred 10 kilo in the last 5 year and was much slimmer than I was 5 years earlier. Though I could not compete with Shilpa Shetty with my figure, but certainly deserve second glance from the boys. Also I had changed my hairstyle and hair color which certainly added to the confusion in his mind.
“Do you remember any girl called Payal, in your college, 2002 batch, and ECE department?” I asked.
There were multiple folds on his fore head as he tried to recall me and said “Payal…yes, but wait… are you Payal? No way, it’s not possible!” and strangely looked at me.
I started laughing and said “Hey man just look at my face, I guess I look like same as Payal five years ago”.
“Yes, it is matching, but I can’t believe, you have changed so much in just five years and please forgive me for the comment, you are looking damn gorgeous” he replied with a smile “can’t believe, we are meeting after five years and that’s also in Singapore”.
He had not changed a bit in last five years as he called me “damn gorgeous”, always speak right from the heart!
“Anyway nice to meet you and what are you doing here?” I asked as I forwarded my hand towards him for a handshake.
“Don’t be so formal, I am here to take part in a seminar of our company” he said while handshaking with me.
“Now please don’t tell me that the seminar venue is Hotel Continental” I said.
“Yes, you guessed it right, but how do you know it?” he asked with a question mark on his face.
“Because I am also participating there” I replied.
“That’s great, but you will be on the other side of the dais as I am the part of the delegation conducting this seminar, we are releasing our next generation of chips in very short time and hence we like to introduce them before hand to our customers. I will have one session each day for the next three days” he said.
“Very good, but let me ask you one question, have you shifted to Bangalore? Because as far as I could remember, you were working in Mumbai, then how did you land here from the flight from Bangalore?” I asked.
“Seems that you have very good knowledge of my whereabouts; I am now working in Pune at the chip designer’s subsidiary. I went to Bangalore to visit our headquarters to prepare for the seminar, any more questions?” Saggy replied with a smile.
“Yes, the last one, where are you staying here?”
“Hotel Hyatt, I guess they have sent somebody to receive me from the airport” he said as we were getting out of the airport and he found the person who was already waiting with a car to take him to the hotel.
“Ok, see you tomorrow” he said to me before boarding the car. I took a cab to reach my hotel.

Seminar hall, Hotel Continental
Wednesday morning:

We were busy at the seminar and I only manage to catch him at the first tea break. I didn’t know anybody there as I was participating alone from my company and was feeling lonely at the break. He had come with a team and was busy in chatting with them.
I found him at the corner of the hall and went straight to him.
“Hey Saggy” I called him.
“Hi Payal, good morning, how are you finding the seminar?” he asked.
“Ya… it’s very good and informative also”
“Ok, come with me, I will introduce you with my colleagues” he said as we were approaching the group next to him.
After the introduction formalities were over, I requested him to join me at lunch as I didn’t know any known person here. Girls just can’t want to be alone.
He agreed.

In the first two days, we spoke about our college days and friends and their whereabouts. Five year was long time and discussing about it for two days is certainly not enough to cover the entire 2002 batch of our friends.
At the lunch of the final day, I told him about Ajay.
“Oh really! Congrats” he said in his first reaction.
“So when actually you will be tying the knot?” Saggy asked while putting salt in the soup.
“Date is not finalized, hopefully we will be zeroed on it very soon, and what about you man, what’s your plan?” I asked in anticipation.
“Not planned yet, I need to grow up more; no girl will risk their life by marrying me” Saggy replied in very sober voice.
“How long will you take to grow up?” I asked and started laughing at him.
“Why are you laughing? I didn’t crack a joke yet” he replied.
“I just recalled one incident at our college, you remember how you pushed Suman and wanted to dance with me at the college fest in our third year, you were not too much drunk I knew”
“How can I forget the slap that followed, I had already said sorry to you by then, but you didn’t take back your slap, it still pinch me” he said while resting his face on his left palm “You still remember Suman?”.
Suddenly there was a silence. This question remembered me about the bitter past and he knew that. This time also I wanted to slap him for this absurd question (read joke!), but I had no authority this time I guess. I actually wanted to slap Suman, hundred times.
“Ok jokes apart, why don’t you join us at dinner, today, hope that you will going back tomorrow only, I have already told Ajay about you and he also want to meet you” I said to ease the tension.
“Why are you inviting trouble between two love birds?” Saggy asked in reply.
“Would you please stop talking this nonsense and join us tonight for dinner?” I said in very low but firm voice.
“I am afraid, I don’t want to be slapped again, I will come” he replied as we started laughing.

We met at a local restaurant at evening. Ajay had already selected the venue. I introduced Ajay and Saggy with each other. We were talking about the just concluded seminar where Saggy presented three impressive sessions. Then we talked about our experiences in corporate life and our future plans etc.
“Why don’t you tell me some interesting stories of your college life, since both of you are from same college” Ajay said impulsively.
I and Saggy looked at each other; we just wanted to ask who will start.
“I guess Payal will describe better than me, and also girls are just love to talk” Saggy suggested.
Both of them looked at me.
“Ok, I will start, but this is totally my version of the experience though Saggy might not agree on some point” I said.

Flashback to College:

“Well… let me start from the beginning, the first semester.” I started with this. “It was our first day at college. I just reached in time. It took few minutes to find our class room as I was not familiar with the college building topography. The room was full of students and quite obviously, I knew none of them. The first two rows of the hall were unofficially reserved for the girls. But I didn’t like the idea as I was from a coeducation school and was quite comfortable in sitting beside boys. So I decided to skip those first two rows and went to the rear side of the hall and finally sat on the bench at the second last row, window side. The row was not full yet, and suddenly most of the boys find it interesting as I was the only girl who chooses to sit outside those two first rows. After I finally settled there few more boys came, but none of them had the courage to sit beside a girl on the very first day of the college. They skipped my bench and sat on the other seats. Our principal had just come in at exact 10 a.m. She was a lady. She welcomed the new batch to the institute and then started all those formalities like welcome speech from the principle and head of the department (aka HOD), formal introduction of each student to the batch etc.
Saggy had came exactly 20 minutes late on that day. He entered the class room when our HoD had just finished his speech and the formal introduction of the students was about to start. The principal ma’am and HoD gave him a strange look, but spared him of any disciplinary action as it was just the first day of the college. HoD just made a remark that he expected high degree discipline in the campus in future. All the college authorities were very particular about it, which we found quite disturbing and annoying in the coming days.

The principal asked him to introduce himself to the batch to start the introduction session. He was a smart guy and did that job quite comfortably. Then he came straight to the second last row of the hall and sat beside me even without asking. I thought he was just a little over smart. This was our first day at college.

From day two onwards, I shifted few rows towards the front of the class and sat along with another girl, Deepa. She seemed to be quite calm in nature and was also very intelligent which all the batch came to knew only after the six month, when the first semester’s results were out. She was the topper of the class. As the days were passing by, we settled down in the new environment and started to feel the heat of the engineering course. Everybody was busy with assignments, quizzes and short projects within few weeks.

The first mid semester exam was scheduled in three months time after our course started. It was the first exam in engineering college for all of us. The whole batch performed averagely except in one paper, mechanical science. In that paper, most of the students, I would say 95% of the batch, performed poorly. The class just somehow managed to clear the paper and few could not, but to the class’s surprise, Saggy had scored 90 in that paper. This reason was enough for all the students (and also the faculty) to take a note of him. It was not that he had scored very well in other courses and even scored poorly in one of them, but it was the mechanical science paper which actually introduced him to the class and the teachers.

Anyway, let’s fast forward to the second semester when we actually came to know each other very well. It was the first day of the applied physics lab and I was late on that day. In the previous semester, all the lab groups had four students each and I was part of an all girls group along with Deepa. But in the applied physics lab, each team size was three. Since the teams formed in the very first day of the course and we had to register it, I was left out of my team as I was late and the other three girls decided to form a team excluding I. Actually one of us had to separate and in this case it was I. When I came to the lab, I found that Jayanta was also searching for a team mate. The lab instructor called us and asks to form a group. I had no choice but to register with the group. I didn’t know Jayanta very well at that tome. But the surprise of the day was still left as Saggy arrived almost an hour late for the lab and we had to accommodate him in our group as we had one more slot in it.

At first there were some misunderstanding among us regarding the lab assignments, but slowly we fit into our job. He was a nice guy but also a little careless. We had frequent fights as he liked to complete his part of project report at the very last minute. After few assignments, we agreed upon a compromising formula. At the start of a new assignment, we divided the work between us and each of us was responsible for our respective part of the project report. It really helped us a lot as we could conclude the assignments in real short time. Earlier we tried to do everything on our own which leads to chaos. Now everyone had a focus and knew about their scope of work, things completed faster. The idea was Saggy’s and I must confess that till now, I apply this in my work. He knew all possible tricks which made his work lighter. It was a smooth journey with him in the second semester.

Now came to the real story barring which none of the campus story would finish! I knew Saggy will still deny the fact, but as the semester progresses, he developed a crush on me. It added the much required spice in my campus life. I knew about it but wasn’t serious about it at all. It was all fun with him during the second semester.”

I stopped for a glass of water.
“What about the remaining years in college?” asked Ajay.
“Can I interrupt here?” said Saggy after so long time.
“Sure, I do want to know your version of the campus life.” Ajay replied.
“Actually after the first year, I had another crush on a new girl who had come in the next batch. I really had no time for Payal then.” said Saggy.
“Sorry Saggy, you don’t have to put any excuse, better luck next time!” I smiled as I knew that Saggy wants to divert the topic of discussion, rather I would say topic of Suman which I really didn’t want to put in front of Ajay at this point of time. It was a darkest part of my life which I surely want to forget.

My biggest mistake in life:

I met Suman in the college. He was a tall guy, was one of the brightest students of our batch and had a charismatic personality. These qualities made him very popular in the girls group. He was very helpful also. I could remember how he helped me solve the assignments and understand the courses in the second semester. That was just the beginning, and after few months, life was incomplete without him. We used to spend long hours after the classes, in the library or in any corner of the campus. I was actually felt like a winner after “winning” him, as there were others girls who tried lot to catch the attention of him. It’s a good feeling when you try hard for a reason and “achieve” it at last. I was born competitive and never loose an inch of land without careworn (I was wrong then. Winning is not everything in life…).

I was really fell for him and started to plan our life ahead without knowing how unkind the reality was. Since girls were tends to mature much faster, its easier for us to asses the future. But I was proved wrong.

How could I forget the Darjeeling tour, for which I had lied to my parents for the first time in life. They trusted me as our batch was about to go for an industrial visit in Hyderabad (in the final year of our engineering program), but I and Suman had other plans. We straight away went to Darjeeling and later joined the batch at Hyderabad. Those were the most inseparable memories, specially the time we spent together at the hills.

After that I was preparing about our marriage as that could be the only possible event in our life when we got our first jobs after completing engineering. But God had other plans for me. Suman got job in one of the top software firm in USA. It’s not that he didn’t get into any Indian MNC, but I guess he was more ambitious. He left the country and also probably me for the job. We did keep in touch, but it was “out of sight, out of mind” kind of situation. Our conversation and chats were started to shrink very fast. After few months it was like a formality only. Time hammered the last nail to my little hopes when I got the news of his marriage in USA. I didn’t believe it first, but would that change the fact? He even didn’t bother to tell me the news.

Anyway life is like that only. I was very much shocked but not devastated. Somehow I anticipated that well ahead of the day when I got the news. It was official; Suman was out of my world (I guess I had no other option!).

Back to the evening:

Actually I wanted to thank Saggy. He knew all the incidents and more importantly knew where to stop. Surely he saved me from an imminent embarrassment. Though I was planning to reveal all my past to Ajay at a suitable time, somehow I had a feeling of loosing him when he came to know about it, and I wanted to stop that at any cost.
After the incident, I totally got into the shell and was not prepared for any relationship. Also I want to confess that sometimes Saggy’s story had come to my mind quite a few times in the past years, but it was too late to consider him I guess. I wished I could return to college once more! But there was a reason to cheer as I could share a dream with Ajay now.

“Hello, where are you lost?” asked Ajay while moving his fingers in front of my face.
“Just lost in past.” I replied as I looked into Saggy’s eye.
He was looking very serious I guessed I never saw him in that mode before. God knew, he might have guessed what was going in my head.
“What time you will be leaving tomorrow?” I asked as we were leaving the hotel.
“2.30 p.m. Singapore airlines” he replied.
“Oh, that’s great. We can still meet once tomorrow. My flight is at 3 o’clock” I replied as we were boarding the taxi. Ajay accompanied me up to the hotel.

Changi International Airport, Singapore.
Saturday evening:

I reached in time to the airport and proceed for luggage scanning. The attendant guy was placing the stickers on the baggage as I was looking for Saggy casually. I guessed that as in college, he would still come at last minute for check-in and was rushing to the departure gate. But I was wrong this time. He was just sitting behind me and yes, still waiting for check-in.
“Are you mad? Your flight is about to leave in 5 minutes. What are you doing here?” I asked wonderingly.
“Actually I rescheduled my flight” he replied calmly.
“What! But why?” I asked in surprise.
“Actually I want to change my direction.”
Now that was really silly. But the silliest was still to come across.
“Actually I am going to Bangalore with you” he continued.
“I am privileged. But may I know what the matter is?” I replied as I guessed he may have some work left in his company in Bangalore.
“You slowly come to know my friend” he answered.
I was quite enjoying our conversation as it remembered me the college days. Saggy had the reputation of not asking his queries at one go in the lectures and we always made a fun of it.
We boarded the aircraft after half an hour. We reserved two consecutive seats for us while collecting our boarding passes. The plane was not full and the third seat in our row was empty.
As the plane was moving from tarmac to the runway, I asked “Can you now please tell me why you are going to Bangalore?”
“Wait, I will tell you once the plane is in the air.”
I had no other option to wait. These are the things you really enjoy when you reunite with one or more old pals. It seemed that the college life is not finished as yet. You might be a corporate citizen, but the old friendship remains same.
After the plane reached required altitude, he started saying…

“Payal, please don’t over react after hearing what I am going to say. Actually I had a wild idea last night after coming back to the hotel. I always wanted to do something crazy in life, but never able do that till now. I just want to ask you a question, will you marry me? Now please don’t say no right now, at least in the flight. You can give your opinion once we land at Bangalore. Whatever your response will be, I just wanted to say it to in college itself, but destiny has other plans for me. That’s why I thought it will be a last chance for me and hence I rescheduled my flight. It may be looked silly to you, but I am saying these words from my heart.”

He stopped after saying all these words at a one go.
Now that’s really crazy. I had no words to say. He was there with me in college for four years, after that though we had moved to our respective careers, we always had each others contact details at least. It took him 9 years and a maiden flight with me to propose. That’s amazing! This description only suits Saggy.

The present
00:24 hrs on the table clock:

I have asked him to wait for few days for my reply, I am a girl after all and can’t straight away accept his proposal without make him apprehensive. Nine days has past since then and I am writing down this story in my personal bog.
What should I do now? There are basically two big questions, Should I dump Ajay and go with Saggy? And what should I say to Ajay?
Or, just say no to Saggy? Anyways, he is surely going to get a girl in rest of his life.

Dear readers, your opinions needed…

First Crush

It was a hectic day at office. I did not sleep properly the previous night. I was feeling very exhausted and as the bus started, I was at semi sleepy state.

Suddenly my phone rang in some unusual way. I woke up and just remembered that I have changed the ring tones the same day only. It was a SMS from an unknown number from my native city, Kolkata. I opened the message; it was "miss u; Anjali".

I was very much surprised. Suddenly hundreds of thoughts started to coming to my mind, I was totally clueless. All my tiredness went away. There were so many questions to answer for.....should I reply? How was she? Have somebody came into her life...

It was spring of 1997. I was in school, studying in 9th standard. Our school was not co-ed one but for boys only. Those days are worth to remember. My friend circle was not wide. Our group consist 7-8 boys. But we were involved a lot in various activities. While few boys loved to do all the home work and attend all the lectures, others are totally interested to bunk classes. I somehow maintained a balance between those extremities.

One day, I was returning from school with my friends. A rickshaw was coming from the opposite direction. When it was passing by, I saw a girl in school uniform seated on it. It was not a special event to remember. We met lot of people everyday in our daily life, but hardly remembered any. That day, I did not know that this incident was going to change my life.

Within a week, it became regular affair to see the girl on my way back to home form school. Whenever I entered that stretch of the road, I expected to see her. If someday I did not see her while returning from school, I waited for the next day. But these feelings faded out as soon as I left the road.

Another year passed by as I was preparing for the first board exam of my life. I liked the science subjects very much and got enough marks for securing a science seat in senior secondary class at my school. The senior secondary section of our school was co-ed. This reason was enough for exiting us. We were eagerly waiting for the classes to start.

It was the first day of the senior secondary session of our school. I reached school 15 minutes before the scheduled time. I was surprised to see that girl in our class room. The first hour was for introduction. Within 20 minutes, each of us had finished our introduction, and most importantly, I came to know her name, Anjali.

I did not have enough courage to talk to her on that day. I was yet to come out of that unusual state. Within a week, she joined all the coaching classes that I had already joined. Slowly we came to know each other and our friendship started. She was moved to the city after her father got transferred, one year back.

Days were passing by and we became good friends by then. But somewhere inside, I was feeling otherwise. I was very much impressed by her qualities. Her each action, every word had started to attract me towards her. I could not afford to miss a single lecture at school those days. Within a few months those feelings were consolidated.

We have many common friends as we were in same school. Sumit was one of them. He was one of my close friends. Those days, I used to spend 12-13 hours daily with my friends. Sumit knew my feelings towards Anjali and he helped me a lot in many occasions.

But I did not know whether she had similar feelings for me or she had some other plans. She was very brilliant student. She was one of the most sincere girls in the class. She was less talkative to boys and it was very difficult to approach her without proper preparation. I was clueless to understand whether she liked me or not.

But it became very difficult for me to suppress my feelings. Few weeks later, I decided to tell her the truth. I was not sure about the consequences, but I took the risk. I could not wait any more. One day on our way back to home, I proposed her. She was not surprised at my revelations and asked for some time to think. I was at heaven! I could not believe that she did not say "no" to me.

I thought our love story was just about to begin and started taking preparation for the same. But the following few days, she did not talk to me. I choose to be quiet and wanted to give her the required time, but internally, I was very much tempted to talk to her.

After 7-8 days, she called me after classes. I was very excited. But to my surprise, she politely refused to make any relationship with me as she accepted me as a friend. She had some ambitious plans for her future and wanted to pursue them. She thought our relationship might create hindrance to them. I was unable to understand her arguments.

I thought she did not like me but did not want to say so. I could not utter a single word while she was talking to me. I did not know how to react. All my dreams were shattered. It was such a feeling that I never experienced before. I quietly left for the home.

Next few days were like years. It was like end to my little world. I was in deep shock. Sumit was with me in those difficult days. He helped me a lot to come out of that situation. He wanted to spoke to her about our relationship, but she refused. I was giving condolence to myself that it was a one sided love affair and I could not expect any body to act as I wish. Suddenly I became more mature person, ready to take up the challenges of life.

Our senior secondary examination was knocking at the door. I was busy with the examination preparation. But somewhere inside, I was hurt. By that time, I have learnt to live with pain. Days were passing by and our examination was over. It had been around six months after the incident. We hardly talked in those months. I accepted the fact that I had to live without her and who knows, may be the almighty had some other plans!

Finally the D-day came. It was our last visit to school for collecting the certificates. She looked very calm on that day. It was the last time I saw her. I was about to join an engineering college in my city. Sumit was preparing for leaving for Bangalore. We were very excited about our college life. After joining college, I tried to keep contact with Sumit, but it was difficult as both of us had new friends. We were totally into a new environment. We just stayed in touch for the next four years.

The bus was about to reach its destination. It was around 9:15 PM. I decided to call back to the number. To my surprise, there were one man on the other end and I could not recognize the voice. It was Sumit. He had been in Kolkata then. "Oh! After such a long time "------- he started with. I was also exited. We were talking to each other after 6 long years.

We talked on every topic that we remembered. I completely forgot about the SMS. While our conversation was about to end, Sumit said he wanted to give me a surprise. I never guess on Sumit. Always my assumption failed in past. Suddenly a lady asked me over the phone ----"Hi Saikat, how are you?" I guessed right this time. She was Anjali.

We greeted each other. We talked for some time. I was wondering, but there were more surprises to come. Finally Sumit revealed that they were getting married and engagement was on the very next day. But to my surprise, I was indifferent to the news. My heart was beating at normal speed. I wished them best of luck. I was feeling happy for them. Nine years back, I surely did not know what love is, I supposed not to.

During these nine years, many things had happened to me. Still I am learning. But one of my feelings remained same. Nine years back, I wanted to make her happy. She chose a different way. After nine years, she was with another man. So what? She was happy and this reason was enough for me to become happy. Love cannot be conditional!

I already reached home by that time. I had to prepare the dinner. I prepared it very quick that night. I wanted to sleep early. I was very tired. I needed a long sleep. Next day, I wanted to go to office in fresh mind as I was about to start working on a new assignment.......