Love Awakened

Rajeev: Neeru had been my best friend for the last two years. When she joined my group two years back, I did not like her much. But as the time passed by, both of us became good friends. She was a lean and tall attractive girl, with an evergreen smile on her face. With whatever charm she arrive in morning, she would leave the office with the same enthusiasm in the evening as well. Everybody in the office was little envy of her, as we have to honestly accept, she did change the work attitude in our group. After she joined, we started learning little customer orientation. As far as our friendship concerned, I like to share everything with her. In fact she played a major role in making me join the distance education program towards my masters.

Neeru: Rajeev was a funny guy to watch. He was little smart and intelligent when compared to all others in the office. But he was not really aware of his talent. One has to boost him up to bring his real potential out. In the initial days of my joining the group, he didn’t help me quite. But, later I understood that to be his shyness rather than dislike. I took little liberty and used to attack him quite often, to make him straight. Later he became quite a good friend of mine. I believe, we both were good friends. Other colleagues often comment that we both were in love with each other, but neither of us took it serious anytime.

“Hey Rajeev! What happened yesterday?” Neeru barged into Rajeev’s office. As soon as Rajeev saw her coming in, he tried to get up and acted as if he was about to escape her attack. Laughing at his feats, Neeru held him by shoulders and pushed him back into his chair. “You think, you can escape from me that easily?” she pretended little anger. “No” Rajeev hissed and laughed.

“Do you think I have guts to escape from you?” he raised his eyebrows.

“Come on! I am watching you from morning. Are you not trying to elude me?”

“No way! You know I am too busy with the work” he giggled.

“Ok! Let us argue over this later. Now, tell me what happened yesterday?”

He broke his lips indicating ‘Negative sign’. “Again?” she almost shouted. He put his finger cross the mouth, signing her to slow down in pitch.

“Yes. I didn’t like the girl” he quipped and sat calmly. “In the photograph she was looking different and in real, quite different.”

“That’s it. You want to marry Urmila. Am I right?” Neeru clapped her hands in excitement. She had the habit of teasing him for being a fan of Urmila.

Rajeev glanced at his watch and said, “I got to go for a meeting now. We will meet at lunch.” He got up from his seat. “Ok! See you at lunch time then” Neeru also left for her seat.

Rajeev was planning to get married and looking out for a good girl. He always wanted to marry a girl of his dreams. Neeru often makes fun of his taste, by telling him that he might not get married in the lifetime.

***

“I am going to my native village tonight” Rajeev told Neeru across the table, while they were having lunch. “What for?” she asked.

“My parents saw two alliances. Anyway they wanted me to visit my native place once” he tried to explain, “It’s been almost four months since I went to my village.”

“So, what’s going to happen this time” she started smiling.

“You don’t have anything else to do other than pulling my leg” he tried to show his anger.

“Ok Ok! No more teasing, I wish you all the best this time” she tried to calm him down.

Vivek, their colleague, entered the restaurant just then. Noticing Rajeev and Neeru, he walked down to their table. “May I join you guys?” he requested. Rajeev pulled out a chair for him. Neeru asked, “Hey Vivek, didn’t find you in your seat in the morning, think you are quite busy?”

“As a matter of fact, I was. There were some important papers which had to be sent out immediately.”

“But how come you are here now, you always get your lunch from home, isn’t it?” Rajeev said.

“Everybody in the office was wondering where the two love birds had vanished. So, they sent me to find them and so here I am.” Vivek laughed.

Noticing anger on Neeru’s face, he added “Just kidding. I did not bring my lunch box today.”

“Oh God! Is that what everybody think about us in office?” Rajeev cursed in despair.

“You guys! Please calm down. Nothing of that sort really happened. I added it just for fun” Vivek offered excuses.

That day before leaving to home, Neeru dropped into Rajeev’s office and wished him luck for the upcoming venture. Rajeev laughed at her wishes saying he might not like these alliances as well. She warned him for being skeptical even before knowing about the alliances. She gave some tips to him about what to ask the girl on his first personal interview and requested him to bring the photographs of the girls, if he happened to like them.

***

At his village, Rajeev’s mother was showing him the photographs of the girls. She was explaining him their family details and how those families were distantly related to them. Somehow he did not like both the photographs and he said he needed some more time to decide upon the matter. His mother was little upset with him, as this was not the first time he was doing that. She told him that the girls really look different from the photographs and in fact they would look even better in real. Rajeev slowly got up and walked out of the house without saying anything at all.

Outside, his younger cousins were playing cricket. He greeted them with smile. They invited him to play, but he refused. He watched them for sometime. His grandfather came and stood beside him and started telling more details about the two alliances. Rajeev casually asked him couple of questions, for he did not want to hurt the old man. After some time, he decided to take a walk down to the fields to get away from the tensions.

He walked to the village tank and sat on a rock bench facing the waters. Most of the tank was filled with lotus leaves and flowers. Here and there he saw other weeds intertwined with the flowers. At the farther end of the tank, he saw couple of boys swimming in merry.

He sat there for an hour or so. He remembered all the old memories like what all he did around that tank in his childhood. He had grown up in that village till he was ten. After that he went to the town for high school and he used to visit the village only for the summer holidays. Now, only very few friends of his were left in the village.

He peered into the water down below and saw couple of small fishes playing. The sunshine was falling on them and they were glowing like gems in the water. The green leaves and the lotus flowers surrounding them reflected the glare on them and the whole picture was so beautiful to watch. He watched it for a long time.

Then suddenly he remembered Neeru. He remembered her wishes and worried what excuses he had got to offer her. She might scold him if he reject these two alliances also. But what to do, somehow things were not favorable to him. He felt he missed Neeru very much to share his feelings now. He wished she was around to share his feelings.

As he was thinking, he felt how much he had got addicted to her. He loved to share each and everything with her and how he wanted her opinion in every decision he would make. He felt that it was very strange. And he was not thinking ‘that feeling’ to be ‘love’.

He felt he had been cheating himself all the time. For long, he was very much in love with her and he never accepted that. Must have been the same with her as well. All the while, they had been in love with each other and they were escaping to accept the reality. Despite many comments from his colleagues, he always tried to push the idea from his mind. This must have been the strong reason behind his rejections of all the marriage alliances. He cursed himself for being so blind.

At once, the world appeared to be very beautiful to Rajeev. He felt as if he got enlightened. The truth, which was hiding in his own heart just, got revealed to him. He felt very happy and his heart was content and his vagrant mind settled down. He thanked God for making him realize what he was really missing. He sighed and looked at the tank, the flowers and the fishes looked more beautiful than earlier.

He discovered the love of his life, which was there with him all the way. In his walk, there was that confidence, which was bestowed upon the earth by the mountains, asserting their love for the world by their very existence from eons.

-Amita Raj

*************************