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The date was 17th June 2014. Two major things happened with my love life that day. One, we completed a whopping three years of our relationship. Second, our relationship got a few extra words to precede it. On that day, after a train left the railway station, our story became a long distance relationship.

Her family was relocating to Rajasthan and they were taking away the jewel of my eyes with them.
Okay! It pained me. The fact that she was going away hurt me a lot. And the biggest doubt I had in mind was the uncertainty about the future of us. Would we survive? Amidst the doubt and the pain, I didn't even plan a proper anniversary gift for her. At nine in the morning, I drove to the railway station with just a rose in my hand.

As I parked my car in the station's parking space, I saw her walking inside the platform building. Like always, she looked absolutely amazing. I had the urge to run towards her, hug her and bid her a proper goodbye. But she was with her family and they didn't know anything about us.

'Dad will kill you if he comes to knows about us,' My girl had once warned me. Did I tell you that we are from different communities? She is a Marwari and I am an Assamese. In India, this is a big matter and I am sure her dad would kill me just for this reason.

I stayed inside the car and kept watching her. Feeling helpless, I switched on the hazard lights. The parking space was just in front of the entrance and I hoped she would notice my car. And she did. She turned back and her gaze stopped right at my car. I am sure I saw her lips curving into a smile.

But she went inside with her parents. I came out of my car and ran towards the station. I stopped at the entrance. Something told me that she would come back out and jump on me.

The jump part didn't happened, but she did come out. I was in smiles as she descended the stairs of the station building.

'Hie,' I greeted her.

'Let's go to the car.' She said. 'My parents can see us here,'

We went to the car. I opened the passenger side door for her and she sat down inside. I quickly moved to the other side and sat on the driver's seat. The memory of us going on long drives instantly hit me. We wouldn't be going on drives from now on.

'Where is my gift?' She asked me.

I got the rose from the back seat and handed it over to her. 'Sorry! That's all I could get.' I said.
'The rose is great, I can easily hide this.' She smiled. 'Love you,'

'Love you too,' I managed to say. It was starting to hurt now. I could see her leaving me after a few minutes.

'What's the matter, Shona?'

'Don't go.' I said. 'I can't live without you.'

'Stupid,' The beautiful smile in her face was still there. 'I am just changing my address. I am not leaving you. Listen to .....'

She couldn't complete her sentence as her phone rang up. It was her father and he wanted her to immediately summon near him. She dropped the call and made a face. 'I have to go,' she said. Yeah!
She didn't even complete her last soothing speech.

'I will give you something. Will you keep it safe until we meet again?' She asked.

'Sure,' I replied.

What she did next deleted all my sorrow. She moved her right hand to her chest, made a gesture as if she grabbed something and then she moved her hand towards me and acted as if she dropped something in my shirt pocket.

'That's my heart,' She said. 'Keep it safe.'

I smiled. The pain somehow went missing. This simple gesture from her was a promise that we would survive. That we would stay together forever. That she would always stay mine.

When she saw me smiling she moved her head towards me. I thought she was going to kiss me and therefore I bent nearer to her. She saw what I was doing and playfully slapped me and turned my face, until her lips were near my ears.

'This is not the end. This is a new beginning' She whispered and in blazing fast speed she was out of the car. I stayed inside. Frozen by her love and words.

I saw her walking towards the station. Her hair swayed with the wind. Her duppatta danced with her hair. Mid way, she looked back and waved at me. I waved back. And soon, she was out of my sight and inside the station.

I didn't even cry, like I initially thought I would. I was in fact smiling. She wasn't going away from me, I understood. She was only changing her address. And like she said, it was a new beginning. Not the end. I could look up to the future and see us together until death.

Inseparable

'Everything will be all right,' I told myself as my put the gear in reverse and pulled my car out of the parking lot. 'Love you forever dear,'

P.S - Till date, we are on. We survived.
__________
This post is a part of Look Up Stories written for Housing.com.
Image sourced from here.

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Like every school in the world, my one too had three kinds of people in it. One, the toppers and nerds, the guys who permanently occupy the first benches. Second were the giants and the bullies, whose basic reason to go to school was to bully others. Third and last were the weaklings, these were the ones who acted as punch bag to the bullies.

And allow me to introduce myself as the president of the third kind. Claps claps!

But I fortunately didn't hold that position for long. This post is all about how I retired from coward-land. Once I was gifted an iron-man water flask by my mother's brother who brought it for me from Singapore. I was little and was very happy with my new possession. The very next day I went to school, with that flask hanging on my neck. I was smiling all morning. But the smile stayed only until the Tiffin break. Because it was when the bullies came and snatched away my new flask from me.

It was not the first time that they took something that was mine. From pencils, pen to food items, they had snatched a lot of things from me. And every time I had remained silent, for they had warned me that if I complain then they would break my nose. I was genuinely afraid of them. So I never told my parents or teachers about it. In home, if dad enquired about where my belonging were, I would lie to him that I lost them somewhere.

But this flask was too precious to me. I was angry. When I came home that day, I told my parents everything about how the bullies at school took away my new flask. My mom instantly became angry at them and promised me that she would accompany me to school the next day and retrieve my flask. But dad seemed angry at me.

'No, you will not go,' He told mom and turned to me. 'We cannot help you. You lost it, so you have to get it back yourself. Stop being a coward,'

I cried. 'But dad...?'

'And yes, you will not get a new flask until you get that one back.'

I was stunned with dad words. How could he do that? How could he expect his little son to fight some big guys? Later as the evening approached, my anger grew. I was angry at the bullies but I was more angry at dad.

Next day, I went to school with nothing hanging from my neck. I would get my flask back, I had determined. When I spotted them in the playground, I approached them.

'He...e...lo...lo' I said to them.

'Hello! Jay,' The biggest and the fattest bully, Raj smirked.

I grew weak at my knees. No way I could fight them. They would crush me. 'I want my flask,' I said

'What are you talking about? Which flask?'

'The one that you took yesterday,' I managed to say.

'Oh! That one. We threw it at the pond,' Raj replied and all of them laughed.

You lost it, so you have to get it back yourself. Stop being a coward. Dad words echoed in my mind

'Return me my flask,' I angrily said. 'Or I will complain it to the principal,'

All of them laughed loudly. Raj came forward and held me by my collar. The others cracked their knucles.

Stop being a coward! Dad shouted again

'Arrrggh!,' I kicked Raj at his groin with all my might. He let go of my collar and cupped his crotch with his hands and sat down on the ground.

It took exactly twenty five seconds for the others to realise what happen, and then turned at me with killer looks. I turned back and ran. They ran after me. It was the first time I realised the advantage of being skinny, I was way too fast for the fat pigs. I didn't stop until I reached the teachers common room door.

I looked back, they were some two meters away. But none of them had angry looks. Instead it looked
like their eyes were pleading me to not go inside. They didn't move and so didn't I. The moment was funny, because the bullies looked really afraid.

A few minutes later, Raj came towards us. In his hands was my iron-man flask. He approached me and I step a few steped closer to the door.

'Relax,' He said. 'Take your flask. Don't complain.'

I was surprised but I let him come near me. He handed over the flask to me and muttered a inaudible sorry inside his mouth.

When school was over, I went back home with my flask. Dad patted me on my back. 'See! You did it on your own,'

I was so angry at dad when he refused to help me. But I now think, it is because of him that I no longer belong to that third kind. If mom had accompanied me to school to get my flask back, I am sure I wouldn't have been writing this post. Instead I would have been hiding under the bed.
And I kept wondering about why Raj was so afraid of me complaining to the teachers. I later learned that a lot of students had complained before me and he was in the ultimate warning.

And then, I was smiling

_____________________

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