Monday, November 19, 2007

And she still smiles




He met Aarti for the first time during trek, both of them somehow forced into trekking. She was a simple, soft spoken girl who had only few friends. The thing that brought them close as friends was that they were partners in misery. I will tell you what their misery was.

They had never imagined that there are places with absolutely no communication with the outside world. But when they marched a little on their trek, they realized that they were completely cut off. The only thing left for them was to wait.

So they became friends in such a situation. He could never know whether she really liked him or it was just lack of other familiar faces but he became her confidante. They talked a lot, tried to keep each other happy and distracted from the fact that they were missing someone. While sharing their lives, he had come to know that Aarti was into a relationship.

The boy was from the same college and they had known each other for quite sometime. Initially they worked together in a firm and then both decided to enter the civil services. She succeeded but he failed.

There were other complications too. When Aarti told her parents about this, they were completely against it. The emotional blackmailing began and she was given the option of choosing either of them.

He discussed with Aarti for hours what she will do then and how they can still get their way. As an interested audience, he also discussed how they fell in love, how their relation was and how restless the boy must be now when she could not talk to him. In a weak moment, she confessed that she could not imagine her life without him.

He prayed for them and sincerely wished that their relation has a happy ending. Days passed and their trek became over. Their ‘Trek Friendship’ did not continue with the same enthusiasm and they went back to their original friends.

After nearly a month, he decided meet Aarti again. The truth was he missed a friend with whom he could share his life. He called her for a cup of coffee. She agreed but somehow he did not sense the same enthusiasm in her. They met and he eagerly told her everything that had happened in his life in last one month. And after that, she began.

She said that her relationship was over. Now she felt that theirs was an unequal relation which was destined to fail. When she herself had such doubts, she could not sacrifice the happiness of her parents. She gave a kind of philosophical talk. Among the vague words he could listen, there were that about how with time, many things change and people get mature.

He was completely lost and the only thing he remembered was that her face did not show even slight signs of strain while saying this.

She may be right, she may be wrong, but he only knew a girl who was madly in love. He thought about that boy, whose image he had formed after hearing so much about him and tried to feel his pain. That day he realized he was friends not with her, but with her relationship, and now when that was gone, he had one friend less.

After that whenever he saw her smiling, he wondered how just some time ago it was impossible for her to live without that boy!

9 comments:

Saagar said...

Thus end a lot of stories (love?), either because of insecurity or because of inferiority/superiority or due to lack of confidence in going against parents. She should have started the relationship if she knew she could convince her parents or she could go against them. If not, she should have never started one. Anyways, thats how the life is, and i don't understand how the same word maturity means differently to different people. All said and done, its her life and she has to decide..

Btw, what happened to your post "Sometimes!". ANy reason behind deleting it?

Just Simple said...

@saagar: I felt 'Sometimes' became too personal and somewhat melancholic, and I felt vulnerable by sharing such emotions.

And then I thought I was writing a blog, not a diary.

Anyways you read it :-)

Anonymous said...

:-))

Shailesh said...

@Anurag : I too wondered abt the deletion of post"Sometimes".

I was the first to comment on it, if u have hurt thru any of my comments, really feel sorry for it.

Nways another nice post.Sometimes relationships are too fragile to be swayed away by waves of emotion. I really wonder why parents cant acknowledge the feelings involved??????

Anonymous said...

Hi Anurag don't mind I am downloadinding this pic. It speaks volumes.One more ebbing relationship and we see life keeps on going.
Sree

Just Simple said...

@praveen: :-)

@shailesh: your comment was no way responsible for deletion, so dont worry :)

Anyways, in this story I feel that parents are not to be blamed. Ultimately it was the decision of the girl.

@sree: do it at your will. I too downloaded it from net :)

Anonymous said...

"swarth mai sab ko banaya hai yahn kartar ne"- mahadevi verma

Unknown said...

:(

Deepanjali B Sarkar said...

The post brought back a lot of bitter memories. There have been so many times when two people I have known so well, have decided to part, because of parental pressure (and it's always the girl who "ditches" her partner). It used to bother me greatly then, when I was just fresh out of college, and it still rankles, after a decade of marriage and a five year old kid! It bothers me because these girls I knew were all successful women, professionals, who needn't have given in to parental pressure. I am myself a pretty dutiful and loving daughter, but cannot imagined being emotionally blackmailed by my parents, and that too on such unprincipled grounds. I know "unprincipled" is a very strong word, but social snobbery really puts me off, especially when it comes to pressuring a girl to marry someone of her own status!