The W Files.

It has been a while that I have actually written something here.
Mostly because I have turned into a lazy lump (except when I jump into the swimming pool; then I swim as though all the alligators in the world are chasing after me). Teehee.

Ever since I plunged into the dating stint, I have been muddled with this question from everyone around- "When are you marrying?" Suffices to say that I have been rolling my eyes at that question for a long time, evading it, brushing it aside and changing the topic to food.

--

Not until R proposed a few weeks ago. R and I have been seeing each other since a while.
Errr...
Should I mumble the "meeting" story here? Oh well, what's there to lose?

R and I met in 2008, at a common friend's birthday party held at Bangalore. I was on vacation from Mumbai then, and took a train from Kochi to Bangalore, because Bangalore weather was enticing enough. Duh!

I was sipping some berry punch at a quite spot in the hall of the Sankey Tank apartment when this tall dude walked in. We were introduced and began to chat. Unlike popular thoughts, no, we didn't hit it off in the beginning itself. He was from Faridabad he said; typical Haryanvi, I thought.

He spoke a lot, and generally didn't like him much. We moved on. A year later, I met him at Ahmedabad unexpectedly while I was shopping at Law garden for Navratri bling. I was bargaining at a stall and I hear this strong "Hai" behind me. He took me by surprise. And again, we casually spoke.

Howareyouhere?whatareyoudoinghere?
Iamfineandyou?

Since I was wandering alone that day and so was he, he asked me if I had visited Manekchowk for the yummiest food. I told him that I had heard of it but never got a chance to go and so he offered to take me there. Great offer, I thought in my mind.
My brain whizzed with many questions simultaneously at that point.

1) I do not know this guy much, what if he is a psycho?
2) He is talking about food. How bad could a man be if he is offering to take you to Manekchowk?

Food won. Eventually.

He took me in an auto to the best Halwa Puri wala at Manekchowk and we gobbled food like starved turkies. We stall-hopped; from jalebis to amazing cheese idlis, it was like food gods blessed us for real. We spoke randomly and ate as though there was no tomorrow. He told me that he was a malayali who was born and brought-up at Faridabad. I told him about my home and little silent life.

We spoke and ate, and it turned from 5:30 pm to 10:30 pm.

He dropped me back to where I was staying and took my number.
That was the only beginning I remember.
It was followed by coquettish conversations and coy smiles.

But, I also remember a "brief" END. Which was not so brief.
It was so because after 2 years of sort of dating, from 2008 to 2010, I got an internship at Kochi and not Bangalore. Or rather, I decided to be at Kochi and not Bangalore for my internship despite me getting offers in Bangalore.

I chose Kochi because I missed my home and familiarity so bad. I thought that with my salary a month I can buy my grandparents some treats and pizzas, help my home; and I just generally wanted to be with them. But that decision broke R and I apart. It broke our hearts and relation to bits.

After the internship, I dreaded to get back to Bangalore. Which explains why I jumped at the offer I got from Chennai. From August 2012 to March 2013, I was at Chennai, trying to balance my wits.

In early February 2013, I decided to move on and start afresh in Bangalore once and for all. I am glad I decided so.
So, yet again, I met R at Costa Coffee at Brigade Road in April 2013 just "as friends". We decided to keep off for a bit, and focus on our lives. He was kind of seeing someone who I knew and although that hurt me to bits, I was happy too; happy that he was happy.

The truth is that I never got fully over him. Neither did he. We shook hands and bid goodbye, tearing apart our hugging hearts. We made sure that we tugged hard at our leaping minds because we had our respective egos to please.
I just didn't want to date anyone and wanted to be at peace, relax for a bit, travel,watch movies when he called me one day in a cold late October 2013.

"G, I want to talk to you. Can we meet?"
I ask him what was this catch up for. "Haven't we moved on?"

"I request you to make it, because I have to do it some day and it better be today".

I am someone who hates being pressured and coerced into doing something. Although so, I obliged because yes, I wanted to meet him desperately too!
Shh, don't tell him.

So we meet at Costa that evening, where he tells me that he is going to the US for 2 months for work. I felt really bad when I heard that because in all honestly, the knowledge of his presence had kept me sane all that while, although we never spoke in months. His regular FB posts made sure that I get him somehow and made me feel loved by someone other than family.

I said good luck to him. And then he told me the words that I wanted to hear for so long.
"Do you want to try this for one more time?"
Straight-faces turned into teary smiles and we ended up sharing more than hearts that evening.

He left for the US and the two months tried us in all possible ways. We argued and we fought over phone, late night calls and beautiful surprises came to us in multitudes.

Just that this time, we held each other in our heart walls. In early December he came back to Bangalore.
We met for coffee. I'll never forget that day when he took me home to his apartment where he couldn't let me go, held me closer to him than before, as we conversed, hugged, held each other for hours, like there was no tomorrow.
We began living in by the end of 2014, hiding that trivial fact from our families. We told our curious neighbors that we were married although neither of us ever harbored any notion of that sort. Or atleast I thought so.

Until R proposed. A sentence it was. Sweet and simple but made me the cherubic young lady I was, when I fell in love.
"G, I am thinking of getting married, and I know for sure that you'd be the best mother to my kids".

He told me one day while we were on a brunch date.
"Are you sure?" I asked him.

He brought his chair closer and told me that I was his best friend.
That was enough for me. Enough for my heart to pour out the love.

Getting married is a big responsibility. I cannot wait to start a life with my handsome bestie- Not Living in, but Married.
Now please don't ask us when we're making babies.


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