

Shiladitya sat utterly dejected at his failed affair with Rubina. Those 30 days were great
Shiladitya sat utterly dejected at his failed affair with Rubina. Those 30 days were great, he thought, though in the end it was a nightmare… He had never imagined that Rubina would blackmail him–those allegations stirred his innerself. What had become to the world, you could not even believe someone you loved!
Melancholic feelings enveloped his mind. His great expectations from the relationship with Rubina had come to a cropper–marriage, kids and what not he had been planning. Afterall, everything was a mirage!
The sunrays hastened into Shiladitya’s room.
Switching on a light music, Shiladitya tried to somehow forget Rubina. He tried to think something different. It was already 2 a.m., but sleep continued to elude him…
How could he get rid of Rubina from his mind? Sluggishly, he moved towards his computer. He wanted to browse the net –wanted to roam in the infinity! Probably, it was the only medicine by which he could forget the turmoil, it was a day when Rubina and he parted swearing never to see each other again.
Shiladitya got the connection to the net immediately. What would he browse? He knew not. Without realising what he was typing, his fingers typed, ‘Ahalya Patil’ in the search engine.
Even before he could come to terms with what he was doing, the search engine showed, “Found one web page for Ahalya Patil.” The web address was that of some medical college in the USA. From the listing of the students of the college he found out the e-mail address of Ahalya.
Was she the same Ahalya Patil who was his girl-friend in the schooldays? It had been years since he had last seen her. She was his first love but Destiny separated them. After school, they never met again. While she went to the USA, he remained in India. Now he had made his mark as an architect.
Would he ever meet Ahalya again? With Rubina out of his life, Ahalya was irreplaceable, he thought. Definitely, he had never met a better girl than her as schooldays revereberated in his mind. Those were the days he could never forget in his life–how he wished Ahalya was with him, not in the mental realm but in the true physical realm. Despite all the urges, he was confident that Ahalya was now married and having kids. But yet, he was after all a human and had weaknesses, as he many times thought, “What would be life if Ahalya were his wife?”
The lovely face of Ahalya kept floating in front of his eyes. She was so near him, he could not even remember the girl called Rubina–who was she afterall…
Shiladitya at that very moment e-mailed to Ahalya. He got a reply the very next day. It was the same Ahalya. What she wrote was incredible. Though the passion and desperate wish of Ahalya being his was definitely in his heart, in reality, he had never imagined that she would remember him.
How wonderful it was to read Ahalya’s loving mails? She still loved him. She was not yet married; probably she too was waiting for him. The ways of Destiny are mysterious–once it separated them and again decided to bring them together!
Shiladitya wanted Ahalya to come back to India. He influenced her saying as a doctor, India needed her more than the USA. She could not turn down her beau’s wish. Afterall India was her motherland and she wanted to dedicate herself in service of the vast multitude of people who could not get proper health care. She wound up her work in the US, she would marry her childhood friend in proper Indian tradition. Had she ever imagined in her schooldays that the little boy in her class, Shiladitya would grow up to become her husband?
The sunrays hastened into Shiladitya’s room.
For a moment, he was flummoxed as to whether he was in his room or in the marriage pandal putting ‘sindoor’ in Ahalya’s forehead.
The net connection had apparently got disconnected as he, in exasperation, saw the monitor, “Found one web page for Ahalya Patil.”
This short story was first published in Meghdutam.com (between 1999 to 2002).
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