Being loved by someone makes you feel special.....while loving someone deeply gives you courage. Courage to stand against all odds....to sacrifice... to love selflessly, and not to complain loosing it, no matter how desperately you want it back.
This is what Aayush was trying to tell himself while still struggling to catch sleep after a tiring day at office. He thought - why he simply can’t rub off all the memories like equations in school board. Why these unsolved questions of life hurt more than teacher’s punishment. And why he can’t forget this as a bad chapter he could not understood. Go to sleep buddy, you have office in the morning. But he lost in memory lane again.
After passing out from engineering college, Aayush got himself totally engrossed in the new job. His life was mechanical; slog in office till late, come back home at night, check mail and sleep – same routine life everyday. He has minimum social interaction now. When friends complain, he would say sorry and hang up. Mom will call sometime and ask about how he is and whether he is eating well or not. Over several weeks he has lost sleep and was having irregular diet. It was when his colleagues started asking if he is not well he realized that he was getting dark circles.
Everyday night, waiting for the sleep goddess, he thinks of college days and tries to delete few sad memories. But tonight, her call after a long time made him restless. He couldn’t sleep at all. Memories of his last day of college came alive. He still remembers when he had asked Ruchi to meet him at college canteen. His batch was celebrating their last lunch and gossip session of college life. While girls were busy filling book, boys were writing (and few colouring) on each other’s shirt. Finally he waved past them and ran out of canteen to meet Ruchi who had just reached there.
He was surprised that Ruchi was wearing suit that day. He always liked her in traditional Indian formals while she liked casual attires. He smiled as he knew it was one last favour and sped up to catch up with her as they move towards bakery. Aayush had to always order ice-creams as Ruchi wanted to have more than one flavour. Though he was not an ice-cream fan, but knowing that she would anyway snatch his also, he happily orders one of her favourite. Today, surprisingly she didn’t order anything and asked Aayush to decide. Aayush ordered one big Sunday with three different flavour and two spoons. They sat down and looked around. It was weird that they couldn’t start a conversation for initial few mins and were just blankly staring the table. Aayush desperately wanted her to say something today he thought ‘common please speak up’. Ruchi looked up in and pushed the ice-cream towards him.
Aayush had already tried to convince her many times. Aayush had decided to not to bring the topic again and was trying to be at his humours best, especially after seeing her sad mood. Suddenly, he saw tears rolling down her eyes. At first he tried to avoid them but she wouldn’t stop. She was not even crying but tears wouldn’t simply stop. Aayush tried to console her but broke out himself after few minutes. Aayush knew she wanted to say a lot of thing but she won’t. The talkative Auyush himself wasn’table to utter a single word. They were all tears and holding each other’s hand for next few mins. It was one of those moments when they both were silent yet talking, through their weeping eyes.
