My love story

Episode-2 Happiness 😊

After three weeks I was in my office. I was looking at those pictures. Those who were drawn by the MP during the reunion. He emailed us and when I was looking through my inbox on Yahoo I noticed something was going on in the top left corner.

That matrimony site Shaadi. Com's advertisement in which a smiling beautiful girl was looking for a suitable groom for herself.

I remembered a conversation I had with friends. I clicked on the link in the advertisement which took me to his website. I pressed the search option and within no time the result was in front of me. There were many girls to choose from. Some of them were looking very beautiful and I wanted to check them all. But before I could see the sixth girl's profile, I got a message that I should register myself with the website, because without that I can't see more profiles. The trailer was over and to watch the full movie you had to register yourself first.

'I didn't have much work that day so I thought I should create my profile on that website.' This is what I say to Happy, Amardeep and MP. While the matter was its opposite. Those pretty faces on the website made me take out time for her from my busy schedule when I had to assign a project to a person the very next day.

Somebody has rightly said, three things- money, women and... (I often forget about the third thing)... can make anything possible in the world.

Eventually, my profile appeared on the website. I put up a nice photograph of myself and clicked away all the barriers that would ask the girl looking for me to hide my whereabouts. I also did not forget to mention that I have been to America and Europe in connection with my work. After about an hour I was fully equipped to see those lovely faces. I selected the option of all Punjabi girls on the website and clicked on the 'Search' button.

The results that came out of my search were in hundreds. That was very encouraging! But I could only see profiles of around 50 of them before my eyes got tired. Still, there were some of those fifty girls with whom I wanted to make contact. But before I could do that, a heart-wrenching incident happened. I had to pay the website to talk to those lovely faces. There ain't no such thing as a free lunch. Oops!

The only feature that was free was that I could go to their profile page and show my interest in them with the push of a button. It would go to his inbox as a message from me. But even if she showed interest in me, I would get her email only until I paid her. I checked how much money they were asking for it.

3000 rupees for taking a year-long plan! 'No way,' I told myself. I will pay only if I get positive response from those beauties. Until then, whenever I feel like going to the website, go to a girl's profile and press the button to express my interest in her.

This was the beginning of my experience with Shaadi.com. I did this at the cost of handling my project, which I almost ruined.

Apart from Happy, Amardeep and MP, no one knew about my profile on that site, not even my parents. Because to tell them that I am thinking of getting married was to put my hand in the hornet's nest. As soon as he came to know, he started taking information from his acquaintances all over the world – and oh my God! How irritated I was with all this! Over the next few days, I received a response to my proposals. Every time I opened my inbox, there was a strange kind of buzz. But most of them don't last long. The best among them declined my offer. Rather it should be said that most of them did not pay any attention to me. Only a handful took up my offer but unfortunately they didn't look that good. Ahh! This website is of no use. I told myself . It's like I'm James Bond and all the girls in the world will fall for me as soon as I make contact.

And thus marriage. Com went from top to bottom in my priority. Time passed and I would visit the site once every two or three weeks, hitting the interest button on girls who matched my profile, but I didn't expect much. Some girls rejected me, some I rejected. Some wanted to talk to me further, but their education was not particularly good. Some called my cell; I sent SMS to some. Two-one of them wanted me to come abroad but I was not ready; I could not convince some others that India is a better place to live.

Once when I was in the US for office work for a few days, I had to buy the annual plan for that site because a girl was desperate to chat with me. Oops! Any one of the three things (money, women... and the last one I often forget) can make anything possible in the world, the other thing was making me do it too. The irony is that the girl for whom I had put 3000 rupees, she never talked to me. My interest in the website continued to wane.

And then, one evening I got an SMS on my cell phone S came.

'Hi, I'm glad. I got your message on my other cell can you please call me. ,

This is dated July 20, 2006, 18:58:19. My cell phone inbox still shows the day and time.

I was on a conference call with a client in the US when I received this SMS. I immediately remembered that it was the name of the profile I had consented to a week ago, along with a mobile number and email. I SMS in response:

'I am talking on the conference at the moment. I will call you in the next half an hour.'

Next minute another message flashed on my cell.

'I also just finished the conference call just a few minutes ago. You finish yours and I'll wait till then."

When1 I finished my conversation on the phone, I dialed her number, but before that I took a quick look at her profile.

'I'm not sure I understand,' I said quietly. 'But in the hobby section of your profile it is written that you play the tabla. And your interest in classical music was the only thing that set you apart from others and that's why I thought I should talk to you.' He cleared.

So it was Tabla because of which a girl talked to a boy! It was impossible to understand that girl but I felt like hugging my father and thanking him for forcing me to learn Tabla.

'After four years, I also got a degree from Prayag University. And we're both in the IT field,' he pointed out a few more similarities between us.

Oh yes! You work in an IT company in Noida, if I'm not mistaken?" I asked, knowing that I was not wrong. And how could I have forgotten when his profile was right in front of me?

‘Yes I work?….Well tell me, my friends say that people working in Infosys are very educated and have good ranks. Is it true?"

'Are you expecting me to say 'no' to that?"

She began to laugh .

It was my first conversation with a girl whom I had not seen yet. During that conversation we caught up on many things: what new movies we saw, about our good friends, about his family, about our respective college days, about music and interests, and more. about the regions.

'Does your family also live in Bhubaneshwar?'

'No, I am from Burla, a small town near Sambalpur. Mom and Dad live there. My brother and I live in Bhubaneshwar and both work in Infosys. We live in a rented flat with two other roommates. We visit my parents every other week. Burla is just one night's distance from Bhubaneswar.

We talked for about an hour. I could feel my cellphone burning near my ear and the phone's battery was on its dead end. And yet I wanted to keep talking to him, I had to say, 'Listen! My battery is about to die. But I hope we will keep talking further.

"Your battery?" she said laughing

'I mean my mobile.' I started laughing too.

'I was just joking. I think we will talk again.' Suddenly he added, 'But before hanging up, you have something nice to say.'

a good thing? Now from where on this earth can I find a good thing to say. But the day before I had seen a movie, thank god I repeated a line from the same. Bismil's message is that tomorrow we will loot the Lahore-bound train at Kakori, and buy weapons with that money. ,

Then, I took a deep breath and waited.....and she burst out laughing.

I still think that was a fine line. But I don't know what she laughed at. Well, I also joined in laughing with him, so that he doesn't think I am stupid or have less sense of humour.

'Ok. Now I hear the last beep-beep from the phone. This is good. It means we will talk again...' she said and somewhere her words touched my heart. Her innocence and the way she spoke to me with a chirping voice left an indelible impression on my mind.

'See you.' I said before hanging up.

That night, as I lay in bed, I remembered that conversation over and over again. And kept thinking that if I had been a little more jovial, I might have impressed her more. Or was the conversation just as it should have been? And was she also sitting somewhere in her room at this time? Thinking about that conversation.

I don't know why but I felt like calling him again and again and it was difficult to stop this urge. But I had to restrain myself as I didn't want to spoil things, that too in the very beginning by being the guy who bothers her at 11.30 at night. 'No', I said aloud to myself, switched off the light and went to bed.

Alone in the room, I was smiling, not talking to anyone, and all kinds of emotions were going through my mind. I slept only because somehow that night would pass and a new day would come so that I could hear her beautiful voice again.

Next day I kept waiting for his call. Although we had not decided that she would call me, I still had a feeling inside that she would call. By 10 o'clock in the office, I was getting restless. I wanted to hear his voice but at the same time wanted him to call me.

Happy gave me the key to success with girls: don't let them feel like you're crazy about them; Give them some time and they will come to you.

At 11am I thought Happy was being an i***t and went ahead and SMSed him 'good morning', even though it was a bit late, but when I didn't get any reply to my SMS I started wondering who the real i***t was ...

That day I was not able to understand whether I should listen to my heart or my mind? Both were pushing me in each other's direction. My mind was saying to my ego, 'Who does she think she is? Dil was telling me and I dialed his number.

'Hey, hi! How are you?" Khushi said picking up the phone.

The person who sent you good morning also wants the same answer. I'm fine ."

'I was about to answer him on my way to office. ,

'You mean you're still at home?'

"Yes. Basically we work afternoon shift so that we can keep pace with our clients in Australia. Hey, my taxi is waiting outside,' she said running off and waved goodbye to her mother. I heard the door closing and him saying hi to his teammates in the cab. When she sat inside, our conversation resumed.

"So how are you?" I asked.

'Ami di was here this morning,' he said. I remembered that he had taken some names during the previous conversation, but I could not remember who they were.

‘Ami di…’ I whispered and remembered the name.

'I have three sisters and one brother. Misha Di is the eldest and lives in Ludhiana. They have a very cute child, Dan, who is studying in nursery. Ami Di is the second sister and she is also married. She lives in Noida which is an hour away from our house. She works in a BPO. My brother Deepu, two years younger than me, works in an MNC in Assam, he has oil etc business. Neeru is the youngest, my dear little sister.' She told me about her siblings without complaining or questioning how I had forgotten about them so quickly.

He continued, 'And apart from these, mom and dad are with us. And in your family, you have your mom and dad, and your younger brother, Tinku, is also a software engineer in Infosys, and his office is also in the same building, the difference is that his is on the first floor and yours is on the second. Fine?"

It was like a silent slap on my memory. He remembered everything about my family. I could only say this after listening, yes... 10 out of 10 and would have laughed. But I laughed alone. 'So I was saying that Ami di had come in the morning. She came to Faridabad after doing her night shift, she comes once or twice a week.

This call of his was only for his entire family. I came to know about two more people - Devinder Jiju, husband of Meeshadi, and Pushkar, husband of Ami di. Pushkar and Ami Di worked in the same company and both fell in love, which did not go down well with Khushi's sister. The difficulties he had to face were no different from any Mumbai cinema. Pushkar was a Hindu while Ami Di belonged to a Sikh family. Pushkar was not averse to alcohol and meat and fish, whereas in Khushi's family, these were strictly forbidden. Still, as we have seen in those films, love wins in the end. And in this case also the same happened. The new generation in Khushi's family convinced their father to agree to the marriage.

During the same phone call, Khushi also told that she leaves office at 9.30 in the night and reaches home at 11. Which means she stays awake for a long time and I can call her even late at night in the same condition as I felt last night.

That's how we started talking to each other on phone, texting each other, even saying good night to each other before sleeping at night. But during our initial conversation we didn't talk about the topic on which our conversation started marriage.

But he also started it when one day I sent my photo album. I had photographed him with my friends in Belgium.

'I saw at the bottom of a photo,'Drinking red wine with friends,' she said. 'Oh yes, it was a fun evening in Belgium. ,

'So you drink?'

'Ahh...but sometimes, sometimes in two-three months and sometimes in six months. I only drink when I'm with friends and when they ask for a drink,' I replied casually.

'I don't know how you feel about this, but I always wanted my life partner to stay away from all these things.

And I asked myself, 'So is she saying that she intends to see someone else?' I didn't understand anything. But one thing is for sure that finally we started talking about marriage.

He continued, 'Look, every man has his own likes and dislikes. When we talk about marriage it is about respecting each other's feelings; It's a relationship of trust, some agreements, and a lot more. And if you are going to be my life partner, then I tell you one thing very strongly, leave alcohol.'

Before both of us he said that if you are going to be my life partner. And the words in her voice sounded so different, so magical.

And of course, it was the effect of his words that struck my consciousness and I said, 'That's the promise of a good man. If you are going to be my life partner, I will not drink alcohol unless you allow it. And I am saying this from the heart. I did not stop there, but continued, 'I can do this because I am not addicted to alcohol, but I also believe that if someone drinks alcohol once in a hundred days, I do not mind him, that too Just to support friends. Even then, I never drank so much that I lost my senses. Still, if this thing causes any problem between me and my life partner, I will happily leave it.'

'And promises are made to be kept...' she said, and perhaps she smiled.

'Of course,' the gentleman in me was still talking. 'But the day you will know me completely - after six months or ten or maybe a year later, or maybe even more days. Then if you feel that drinking alcohol in my case is not a bad thing then you will have to allow me to drink alcohol with my friends. But let me say one thing again that I will not put any pressure on you to say so.'

This was another point in our story and from then on he started talking to me more and more. I started liking it too because it was what she was liking. The second of three things (money, women and the third thing I still can't remember) is the thing that can get anything done in the world. What is she making me do? I didn't know it then, I don't know it now. Only one thing was troubling me, what would I say to Happy and MP when we meet next? We'll sit together with red wine 'Guys, please excuse me because I've stopped drinking, because I made a promise to a girl I've only talked to over the phone for the past week. Yes, only one week. Just a week against the many years we've had together."

I didn't know then whether that promise was good or bad for me. But the good thing was that we had built trust and understanding among ourselves. And this was only the beginning. It was hard, but something inside me wanted him more, much more... forever.