Episode I

Here it begins!

14^th of July, 2008

10 AM. A lazy yawn to start the day and an important one. Of course it was my daily routine to wake up ‘so early’. Wait a second! Don’t get mistaken. I’m not the kind of guy who always spends his priceless time in the chemical locha of his own brain, dream that is. It is just that, after four and half months of kathor parishram in an Aashram situated at some far off desert in some unreachable corner of India, called BITS-Pilani, anyone certainly earns the right to sleep for 10-12 hours a day. So here I was. Not completing my quota of 10 hours, as I was unable to sleep at all, till the sun rose. Let’s wait for some time to answer ‘why’.

Without wasting any more time on the bed, I turned on the screen of my desktop with toothbrush in my mouth and coffee mug in the left hand. Opened my gmail account and attached the doc file and moved the cursor to the send button. Isn’t it July? & isn’t I’m supposed to sweat in this humid and hot weather? Instead, why am I feeling shivers down my spine and standing like a dumb, struck by lightning?

Well, I should give my brain some rest after such a long night, I thought. Turning off the screen again, I washed my face. Kept drinking my strong and extremely sweet coffee, my specialty, as coffee was my closest and most honest friend these days. Ahh! Believe me, the fresh smell of coffee well stirred in cold milk with lot of sugar and a pinch of cocoa and a tablespoon of bournvita, is much better and a lot more addictive than any and every form of alcohol. So, after finishing a liter of coffee I had to stop as my mom would have thrown me out of the house if I would have continued.

So, let’s get back to the main story now. With my ‘ignited mind’, I turned on the computer screen again, not sure whether to click or not. Everything was in place, as I planned. It was like, NASA was about to launch the Apollo and when the countdown reached zero, they decided to have a debate on whether to proceed with the mission or not.

By this time, those of you intelligent readers, whoever is smitten by the love bug in your life ever, will show me some sympathy, as you must have passed through this phase once in your lifetime. After all, it was the moment to show a little courage and to

proceed with the most important decision of my life. But, the good and evil voices in my head were shouting like the lawyers in the court and me being the judge. The problem was, it was not a movie to check out the climax to find out who the good guy is and who’s the bad one.

“Mihir, the lunch is ready”, the voice came like the bell announcing recess and I grabbed the opportunity to take a break. Turning off the screen again, I rushed to the dining room.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Start of the Beginning!

A little while ago

Let’s go back a little, to start from the beginning. For last couple of months, I was planning to tell this amazing and beautiful creature, that I have feelings for her and I loved this angel more than anything else. My angel, who is perfect combination of beauty and brains. And yet being one of the most humble soul I could ever find. Her beautiful long dark hair, fair and flawless skin, big brown eyes, a little pinkish and a little red, babylike cheeks, slightly greenish shade under the eyes and yes, an everlasting smile……. Tanvi! Just like, if my dream girl came out of my mind and was standing before me.

I have no idea where to start from. But, I do remember perfectly when I first saw her. August of 2005. I was just shifted to Pune for education purpose. 11^th class. And though the attendance over here was (unofficially) not at all compulsory, all the students, including me who has quite good reputation as a bunker, were full of enthu to attend the first few lectures of our ‘college life’. I was obviously sitting at the back of the class, 6^th bench from back, to be specific, in the class of 120 students. And as soon as teacher arrived we started our business, which was certainly not taking notes or anything. Sanmit, who as well shifted to Pune a few days back, started to share his knowledge and to fill empty vessel of my mind with some general knowledge. In simple language, he was telling me names and details about the girls in our class. Very common scene in a classroom.

Though showing him as if I’m not interested, I was listening to him eagerly because I knew he had some information that interests me. After listening to him for more than 300 seconds, I couldn’t handle more and I asked him, “What do you know about that girl?”, pointing towards a beautiful, fair girl in a dark pink top, long hair arranged neatly with the help of a bow, sitting on the second bench. Sincerely and innocently listening to the prof (which hardly anyone does these days) with notebook open on the bench and pen in the hand with the back of it being used as a chewing gum.

Sanmit gave me a long surprised stare, at this sudden question, as I was suddenly showing him interest in his GK, that is girls knowledge.

“Yessss! I was right.”, suddenly he said.

Looking at my puzzled look, he answered, “What the hell do you think of me? Did you feel that we won’t notice anything? You’re staring at that girl from the moment she has come and I was just waiting for this question. Now you see how important this GK is?”

“Naa yaar, nothing like that. It’s just that she is cute. So, I asked”, pathetic try to defend.

“Ya, ya, ya. Save it. That’s Tanvi Nehwal.”, he announced the name of my dreamgirl.

And this is how Koi mil gaya. Then thanks to technology and the representative of the technology – Google, for arranging our first meet. I mean, I found her on Google Orkut.

Well, if I remember correctly and if my sources are trustworthy enough, our start didn’t go very smoothly, as she thought I’m one of those hopeless college studs who was stalking her. And I can’t blame her for that as I really did all those stupid things we see in movies. Who says that movies are not realistic? Because in my personal opinion, they are, and sometimes real life stories are much more dramatic than movies.

Let’s say, my first impression was not so good. We had a common friend, Akshata. Once Tanvi, Akshata and a couple of more friends were together and going somewhere, Akshata called me and when I saw Tanvi with her I just kept mumbling something, walking backwards in front of her, looking at Tanvi when talking to Akshata. Ahh! That was embarrassing.

In another incident, when I was in queue just behind her and someone was calling me, I kept looking at her until she looked back at me. Used to wait at the canteen after practicals hoping she’d come. Hush! Can you blame her for not having a good impression of me? Because, many such incidents can be recalled.

Anyway, without getting into any more details, just know that, our friendship moved forward through the modern stages of friendship, which are, Orkut -> email -> messenger -> gtalk -> SMS -> calls.

But, let’s stop talking about her, at this stage only. Coz if I start to tell you guys all about this angel and incidents related to her, the length of the story will get doubled for sure.

So, even if I was thinking about how to say, what to say for last couple of months… The story started well before that. To be precise, for last two and half year I was crazy for this girl. Yet, never found the right moment to tell her. I’m surprised at how my adventure freak heart becomes a ‘bhigi billi’ in front of this girl. Guys, if you think I’m a looser because of this, then just think of your days and you will see yourself in this position. And those of you who keep telling yourselves, ‘I love my freedom. Who the hell wants to experience that pain and all’, wait for the cupid to find you.

So, where did the story of this ‘how to tell Tanvi’ question start? For this, we have to find answer to a very ‘not related’ question. That question will be, ‘What BITS has given me, which I can say, has changed my life?’

The answer is very straightforward. No guys, we’re not in the same college. But, well, we could have been & then everything would have been a lot easier. Long story. Let’s keep it in the store for now. First let me explain the most important experience in my BITSian life that surely has some part to play in changing my life.

TO BE CONTINUED . . .