Truth or Dare?

At 11 AM, while in midst of household chores, the door bell rang. She expected a delivery boy standing with a smile on his face and a bouquet of red roses in one hand and probably a gift in another. This is what happened every year during the Valentine's day. She opened the door; and it certainly was a delivery boy with a smile on his face, a bouquet of red roses in one hand and a small gift wrapped packet in another. She couldn't help but smile at her own timed guess.


After 6 years of marriage and a 3 and half yr old son, her husband still sent her roses. Each year, without forgetting. Valentine's day, her birthday and their wedding anniversary... there were flowers and gift for each of these occasions. Often the celebrations wouldn't just stop there. This was always followed by a dinner and movie date too. For the 'nth time she blessed her stars to have such a wonderful, loving husband for life.


As she trimmed the stems of the flowers to arrange them in a porcelain vase(which was again a gift from him), her mind went back to the time when she was newly married. It was an arranged marriage. The horoscopes were matched, there were initial background checks, photographs were exchanged and finally a date was set for them to meet and "see" each other. When she saw him for the first time, there were no dramatic violins playing, nor were there any electric currents. He was good to talk to and seemed fairly decent. Assent from both the parties had set the ball rolling. Within no time they were engaged to be married.


The marriage ceremony that followed shortly, sailed smoothly with practically zero hitches. Before she knew it, she was trying to adjust herself to the new environment, new life and a new person she was to call her husband. It was an uphill task at first, but given the calm and adjusting nature of her husband, she was set into a comfortable routine.


All her relatives vouched for their "fairy tale" marriage. Some would say "A match made in heaven"... some would say "Your parents arranged a perfect love marriage for you." and still others would exclaim "You couldn't have asked for anything better!!!"


Her marriage was not that picture perfect, as others saw it. They had their own little ups and downs. She fought with him when he forgot to water their plants; he raised a hell when she misplaced his office I-card. She found it irritating when he invited a host of his friends at the 11th hour; he plugged in ear plugs when she started practicing her carnatic music. Though when last year their kid suffered from Measles; teary-eyed, both of them were up whole night to tend to their little life. Such was their household - Perfect with mini imperfections.


She sighed, realising the fact that she was leading a fulfilling life. However this realisation, always brought in a feeling of guilt with it. Did she actually deserve such happiness? Was this all an illusion created by her? Was she living under the pretext that she was happy, and that she is building a happy life for herself, her husband and her kid?


Her mind reeled back to the time when she was learning carnatic music during her college years. Her Guru was none other than her neighbour who was around the same age as she. He insisted she thought of him as a friend and not call him "Guruji". Chemical engineer by profession; pursuing carnatic music was more of a hobby to him. She respected him. She worshipped him. His hunger for knowledge and her thirst for music found a perfect rhythm. Feelings towards him started blossoming in her young heart. Soon she nurtured a special place in her life for him. She never thought it was necessary to express her feelings to him. Why should she? She knew he could see her devotion towards him. She convinced herself that he too felt the same. She saw her enriched life before her... her boundless dreams were getting closer to fulfillment.


One such day when they met, he broke the news to her. He was going abroad. That was only what she heard. "My college friend is planning to set up a venture there. We had talked about this long ago... things have started shaping up now... ... He wants me to join him there now... .... .... This is a life time opportunity for me.... " - all this fell on her deaf ears. All she heard was "I am going abroad." He hadn't said what she yearned to hear. As if to underline her cringing feelings he said "Be sure you get married next year and not before that. How will I come? I cannot travel back within a year, right? By the way, your husband is going to be one lucky guy!"


And, the door bell rang again, announcing the arrival of her son from kindergarten. Her reverie continued in spite of the noisy chatter of the kid. She never mentioned having feelings for her music teacher to her husband. She never thought it was necessary. What would she say? After all, she had never confessed her feelings to her teacher. He had never acknowledged them either. It wasn't obsessive love. Then what was it?


Emotions surged within her. Was she doing the right thing by not letting her husband know about this phase of her life? Would this compound truth rip out their love, trust and respect? Would he shrug it off? Laugh it off? or will it haunt him for the rest of his life? Was that phase really "love" or was it infatuation? Her music teacher, her friend, was he just like a supportive elder brother? Had she misread his intentions? Was she betraying her husband? Was she masking herself... or at least a part of herself? What would happen to her 6 year old marriage? Should she tell him the truth? Or should she dare conceal it?


No, not this time, she thought, today is just too perfect.


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Placing yourself in her shoes, what would you do?

Valentine capers

Strange things happen to me. So make it a habit to read it here every now n then. And what happened yesterday, left me with mixed feelings; I was scared, amused, bewildered, irritated and amazed all the the same time.

I received a call on my cell from an unknown number. When I picked it, it was a female voice, but I couldn't make out whatever she said due to a lot of commotion from the other end. I cut the call, expecting the caller to get back to me; if it was all that important. And call she did, again, only to give in to network congestion. Since, I could no longer stand the suspense, I decided to send an sms which went like :

"May I know who this is?"

To which I get a reply saying :

"Happy Valentine day! Your best friend"

Wondering if this might be a prankster friend of mine I wrote back :

"I hope this best friend of mine has a name?"

Reply was :

"I hope this best friend of mine has a name. My name is Anuj."

Now, I know no Anuj, whether from school/ college/ friends/ enemies/ bloggers/ students; none at all. Thus I politely sent him :

"Then I guess you have got the wrong person. I do not know anyone by that name."

Thinking that was the end of the issue, I go back to my job, which was watching TV. But this guy had better plan. He followed it by another one :

"ISS ZAMANE SE BOHOT ALAG HO AAP,
WO KHUSHKISMAT HAI JISKE NASEEB MAIN HO AAP,
HUMARE LIYE WO WAQT HI HASIN HAI,
JAB HUME YAAD KARKE MUSKURA LETE HO AAP!"

and that doesn't just end there. Even before I reply to this or think of ignoring it totally, this comes :

"Subah ka har pal zindagi de aapko,
Din ka har lamha khushi de aapko,
jahaan ghum ki hawa chuu ke bhi naa guzare,
Khuda woh jannat si zamin de aapko."

By this time I was beginning to feel the anger in me. I called this Anuj fellow.

Me : who is this?

Male Voice : *lots of commotion again with female voices at the background* Anuj *buzz* *buzz* ....Annuujj...

Me : whom do you want to speak? *decible rising*

Male Voice : *buzz* *buzz* *commotion* ...... *beep* *beep*

Call phir se cut! But this guy had all the nerve to send me THIS :

"you dont no who i am but i know who you are so please frindsheep with me please replay me."

Ok four things here - A. he had the guts to continue smsing me. B. He was clearly trying his luck, marring a chance and testing my patience. C. he had written this w/o comma, fullstop and horrible spelling mistakes. D. I really thought it could have been Rachana at this point when I saw "frindsheep" spelling; coz thats how we make kachra of the word "fraandsheip" and secondly, I had done this crank sms business to her some time back. So I was wondering if she was seeking a revenge.

Coming back...
Apparently, I don't NO him. But he knows me. And he's my best friend. I'm not sure about this logic, but according to him it is correct. I am really clueless on "how to FRINDSHEEP with anyone" and lastly, I do not know " how to REPLAY guys"!!!!!!!!

Note : I swear on myself, I'm not making it all up. I showed these messages to Tejaswini, my friend, and she choked on laughter in midst of a busy road. Tj, please comment to verify what I said.

For all the reasons mentioned above, I was seething with rage. I had better things to do than chase away this romantically inclined, demented, retard at 10 at night! Finally I said this to him via sms :

"Now listen here. This is the first and the last time that I'm warning you to stop troubling me. If not, be prepared to face the music. And this, you better not take it lightly."

Romeo was adamant, I got a call yet again and I took this one too preparing a huge verbal battle :

Me : WHO IS THIS?

Surprisingly a female voice : I'm sorry. (in marathi)

Me : But who is this? and whom do you want to talk to?

Female voice : I'm sorry to disturb you.

Me : Who is speaking?

Female voice : Anuj here.

Me : *flabbergasted* !!!!! Why did you call?

Female Voice : To say sorry.

Me : and the messages?

Female Voice : I said I'm sorry. Why can't you forgive me?

Why can't you forgive me; she asks!!! I just cut it once again not wanting to take this any further.

As I said, I was amused, amazed, confused, irritated all at the same time when this drama unfolded yesterday. I'm sure it was some Juliet deprived, chance maroing Romeo who, god knows, was expecting what when he sent me smses.

It was just too irresistible not to put it on my blog. As for Anuj fellow, whoever you are, male or female, wherever you are; I made you infamous!