‘Love conquers all’ is such a familiar aphorism. The books we read while growing up or the movies that we watch all preach the same.But how!!?? Boy meets girl, girl meets boy; fall incredibly in love; parents don’t consent so they elope and live happily ever after! Cut to reality and it isn't vaguely as simple as it sounds! I too fell in love with Rohit and this is my story of achieving the impossible- ‘The Happily Ever After’. This is the story of Rohit and Anita.
The clock struck 12! It was the 2nd of March finally! Yes we had completed one year of marriage. It has also been the 6th year of our togetherness.We began as classmates, became friends, fell in love and are now married toeach other. The past six years have been nothing short of a roller coaster ride. But this one year mark as a married couple was quite a feat for us. We had battled for two long years to be married and we cherished every moment of this past year.
As a couple Rohit and I are very unusual, some might say dull but we prefer the former. We had our own sweet ways of enjoying special occasions. We were never really the partying kind. For us the best way to celebrate was to stay at home and enjoy each other’s company with a glass of wine, some finger chips while watching re-runs of our favorite sitcoms. For our anniversary too we had decided that we would have ‘our kind’of celebration and wouldn't splurge unnecessarily on gifts after all we were saving up for buying our own apartment.
Little did I know what Rohit had planned for! We were watching the antics of Sheldon of Big Bang Theory when Rohit suddenly stopped the player. He looked at me and out of nowhere took out a beautiful diamond ring!
‘Happy Anniversary Honey. Do you like it?’ Rohit smiled. I was speechless. I had absolutely no idea that he would spring up this surprise! Usually I knew him so well that even when he thought of giving me a gift I would get a hunch. But this time I had no clue. When he bought me the Iphone last year I knew he wasup to something just from his behavior. But I must say this time he just caught me off guard. I was totally flabbergasted! I was so happy after all my hubby had given me a wonderful present and that too a diamond ring!
‘I love you Hon. I love it. I simply love it!! ’
‘Hope you like it. If you don’t we could always get it exchanged’ Rohit said almost nervous as a baby.
‘It’s perfect. Infact it’s more than just perfect’
‘Are you sure??’
‘Oh Yes...But when did you get this?’
‘On Saturday when I took the car out for servicing’ Rohit grinned. This was the first time he had managed to completely surprise me.
‘Ohh that’s why you were late! You told me you walked home all the way and that’s why you were late!! You naughty you!!’saying that I hugged him tight and we drifted off to sleep in each other’sarms.
When I look back now it seems so surreal. When we started off we weren’t sure where we would end up. It was one hell of a ride to finally reach the point where we aretoday!
Rohit and I met while in college. We were both students of Electronics & Communication in an Engineering College. Rohit was from Uttar Pradesh while Iwas from Shillong. He was a Western UP lad while I was the demure Bengali girl from the Northeast. There was no connection; no common thread that could bind us together. Little did we know then that it is here that we were about to meet our future life partners!
Our holidays had started and we were going home for two months after the sixth semester exams were over. I had booked tickets in the Rajdhani from Lucknow to Guwahati.
‘The train is late again Sur!!!’ I said annoyed at the very much predictable delay. Sur was one of my very good friends in college.
‘The train is late by four hours!’ I frowned as I heard the announcement. It was the month of June and it was gallingly hot in Lucknow. We were stuck in the station for God knows how long!
‘What do we do Anita?’ What could we do?Every year it is the same story. Our trains are always late sometimes by an entire day. Indian Railways that way is always predictable; we too always knew it could never be on time!’
Suddenly my mobile beeped with a sms. It was Rohit. We had been touch via sms for the past couple of months.
‘Hey wat’s up?’
‘My train is l8 L.wat r u up2?’
‘M showing the boy’s hostel 2 some final yrma’am’s. Orders from their sir’s ;) ‘. Usually at the end of final year,every girl would pay a secret visit to the boy’s hostel. It was one of the‘must do’ things of college life. It was always arranged by their boyfriends and their special juniors would do the showing around. This year Rohit was the‘guide’ to few of his seniors’ girlfriends.
‘Wow nxt yr will u tk me along?’
‘Ofcousre y not? It’s a deal Anita!’
‘Wen r u goin home Rohit?’
‘I’ll b goin in a few days.’
‘I’m goin 2 miss chatting wid u J’
‘Hey me too.’
The wait for the train now seemed so interesting. We continued some more. Somehow I loved this sms-conversation we were having. One thing led to another and the sms' continued. We exchanged the numbers we would be using during the semester break. We decided to keep in touch. For some strange reason I was really happy having decided to be in touch with Rohit over the vacations.
Suddenly though Rohit called me up. I didn’t know but I felt so panicky to talk to him at that moment. All of a sudden the hustle and bustle of the station, the noise and the constant announcements seemed to die down. I could just hear my heart pounding.But why? He was just calling me, what was the big deal? It’s not the first time that we were going to talk over the phone. Why was I acting so weird? The phone kept ringing so I picked up and for no obvious reasons pretended that his voicewas not audible. Something happened; something changed at that moment onwards.I was happy he called; I was equally nervous though to speak to him over the phone.
Uh oh what just happened? Why did I do that? Well I am like that sometimes. Yes strange is the word! Meanwhile my phone beeped again.
‘Hey I just called u up so tht v could speak over d phone till ur train arrived’.
‘Ya sorry I couldn’t hear u.Thnx though J’.
I always found Rohit different from the rest of the guys in our batch, infact the entire college for that matter. He was tall and handsome; broad shouldered and had this uncanny mischievous charm around him. He had the aura of a good-bad boy around him and I kind of liked that. Girls like bad boys after all! I liked talking to him and my face would light up when we would meet in any social gathering. Perhaps I had a crush on him and that’s why I chickened out at the thought of talking to him over the phone.
Finally the train arrived and I left for the vacation that would forever change the course of our lives. We were in touch for the entire duration of the holidays, talking for hours while growing fond of each other at the same time. We don't know when the fondness transformed to love but it did and here we are today; happily married to each other!
Even today at times when we think about that day Rohit and I thank the Indian Railways for being so pathetically late. If it wasn’t for that then we wouldn't have spent hours sms-ing each other and we wouldn't have exchanged our numbers which finally ledto the beginning of our relationship.
Love happens when you least expect it and changes your life forever!
‘My debt to you, Belovèd,
Is one I cannot pay
In any coin of any realm
On any reckoning day.’~Jessie B.Rittenhouse
PS:To the wonderful people who take time to read my posts just wanted to say Thank You Guys. I see that many of my friends have felt that this is my story :) but actually Rohit and Anita are fictional characters with certain similarities in their story to mine with my husband :)... Hope you enjoyed the story!
PS:All Pictures used in the blog posts are sourced from the internet.