I still remember those days when I went to my aunt’s for holidays. How can I forget those days? Those days…those moments are the most precious and memorable parts of my life.
I went there for studies but never realized when I forgot about my goal of studies and got stuck in the path of love. It was new place for me, new people; new things came into my life; it seemed that I was standing in a totally different phase of life. I never spent a single day without my mum but now I was staying without her.
Deepika became my friend in my class and in few days we became best friends, we started to share our secrets with each other, whenever we both had any problem we used to share with each other and find a solution every time together. One day she told me that she had a crush on a boy from last year but she never got the courage to tell him about her feelings that I liked him. It was shocking when I came to know that the boy was living in the house just across the street of hers. We were sitting on the side of the lake and thinking what we can do. After that we decided that I will tell his crush that my friend has feelings for him, but later it all went wrong.
“What is his name Deepika?” I said loudly.
“Gautama….Gautama Sharma,” she said.
“Okay, now I am going, I am getting late. And don’t worry I will bring a good news for you later today,” I smiled and waved my hand.
I got his address and went to Shaba’s house. I rang the doorbell and an old lady came outside. “Hello……. Who is this?” She said.
“Hi! Can I meet with Shaba? I am his friend from college”.
“Oh… Sure, he is sleeping, you can wait in lobby and I will let him know that you are here to meet him”.
“Thank you,” I smiled.
“While I am gone, would you like something to drink, water, juice or tea,” Shaba’s mom asked.
“No thank you, I’m good,” I replied.
I was waiting in the lobby for Shaba; it was a gorgeous house with awesome choice of colours. It felt really peaceful just by sitting there. The room was furnished with antique furniture; different kind of pictures hung on the walls. Shaba came. We shook hands and sat together.
“I didn’t recognise you.”
“Oh …I know you don’t know me; actually, I’m Deepika’s friend. She lived just across the street from your house.”
“Ohhhh…. Okay.”
“I just came here to tell you something very important. It is about Deepika. She has some feelings for you from last year but, she didn’t know how to tell you about it as she is a very shy girl. She told me the main reason for her to come to college every day is just to have a glance of you. She doesn’t feel good if she did not see you a single day.”
He was surprised that time and just looked toward my face to hear what I was saying. I was little bit nervous; even I was praying to God, “Please save me; please don’t make him yell at me.”
“Ok… I will think about this. Before you leave can I know your name please?”
“Yeah sure… my name is Joy.”
“Nice to meet you, Joy. See you soon.”
After few days me and Deepika were together going for classes and we saw Shaba on the way. I thought he was just going to work as he was well dressed. He came toward Deepika and they both started to talk; I saw Deepika was feeling shy as her body was shivering and, I could tell that she was really nervous as she kept on squishing my hand really hard. They both exchange their numbers. Deepika was very happy; it was difficult for her to control her happiness; she was dancing on the road. It seemed like she didn’t care about the world; she didn’t care about anyone; only thing she remembered was her talking with her crush. We were done with our class and it was getting darker now. When we got home, Deepika got his call and she went outside to talk with Shaba. I was watching a movie. After half an hour, she came back in the room and I noticed her face was a little upset. So, I wondered, what’s going on in her mind, what he might have said to her. I asked her a few times but she didn’t utter a single word and started to cry. She was crying continuously and said, he doesn’t like me, he likes you instead and the only reason he exchanged numbers was to talk to you. I was completely shocked.
Time went by, Deepika and I were really upset, but she told me that I can talk with Shaba because he is such a nice person. “You should move your relationship with him,” she said, “it’s hard to find a boy likes him, he is a well settled person. He will love you, he approached you himself, Joy. Take your time and think about him. Don’t worry about me. I am fine. There would be someone else for me who will love me.” Then, we went to bed. Next day I kept on thinking about what Deepika said, and putting a thought on it I finallymadea decision to meet Shaba.
I called him and told that I wanted to meet him. We decided a place for us to meet. He was well dressed; he wore a white shirt with black pants and a tie. He was looking superb. We sat together in the café and had some coffee, we almost spent two hours in the café and I didn’t realize that it was already dark. As the time passed, we become friends, then best friends, and then we started spending most of our time in talking with each other on phone. It was the first time that I fell in love with someone. I was feeling special; it never happened with me before, I never experienced these kinds of feelings for anyone else. I wanted to feel those moments and wanted to make those memories permanent, for lifetime.
Shaba and I started dating each other. I was overjoyed. This was something totally different from the usual happening in my life. Shaba had a charming personality, which attracted me toward him. We spent almost every moment of every day with each other, even in the nights we used to talk on the phone all the time. We liked each other’s company. Day by day I was falling more in love with Shaba. I was quite happy. I felt blessed. He did everything for me: if I needed him anytime, he was always there to support me. Shaba was so good to me, always showering me with affection, pampering me, bring gifts for me. He loved everything about me, the way I talk, dressed, even my laughed. I seemed to connect with him on so many different levels. Once, he drove ninety miles to drop me at my parent’s house, because my grandfather was sick for a few days and he wanted to meet me. That day I realised I had fallen in love with him and no one else would love me as much as he does.
Almost three months passed and it was time for me to head back to my town. I was doing the studies of nursing in my home town. We both were really upset because it was the first time when we were separated from each other and had no clue when we will meet again. He didn’t come to see me off or to even say a goodbye at the time I was about to leave. That whole day he spent inside the room and didn’t eat anything. I did call him a number of times but he didn’t answered or returned any of my calls. I was little bit worried but I thought I should go, it was not easy for me either but I have to go.
In the evening I reached home. I was feeling alone and it felt like I wanted to go back. It seemed like I left a part of my body somewhere. My parents were very happy after all, they were seeing me after such a long time. Everyone in the family was asking about the experience in new city, my friends came at home to meet me. At night when I was about to go to bed, I called Shaba but he was still very disturb. I tried to change his mood, along with the time he got better and we both started to survive without each other.
As the time passed, I got busy with my college schedule so much that I hardly had any time to talk with Shaba. Most of the time, I talked with him at night. My parents were really conservative; they never allowed me to go outside with friends at late night. It was fifteen days now that we are apart from each other; it was the longest time I spent separated from Shaba since I met him. Shaba wanted to meet me but I was helpless as it was impossible for me to leave the town. After some time, Shaba also got busy in his work life, he was a model and he started to spend most of the time on work. Whenever I did call him, every time his assistant used to pick up the phone and said the same thing every time, “Shaba is busy.”
Here my parents started to talk about my marriage but I didn’t want to marry with anyone else except Shaba. On the other hand I didn’t even have the courage to tell my parents that I am in a relationship with someone because they will never understand that I am in love with someone, although they will say that how dare you to think about this. So I was truly scared. I kept on calling Shaba and one day he finally attended my call.
“Shaba? You finally got my call. I want to say something”.
“How are you.Joy? I am sorry; I was really busy in my work. That’s why I didn’t get time to call you back. But finally I heard your voice after such a long time”.
“Oh yeah… do you know Shaba? I am really worried my parents are looking for a boy for me. They want to fix my marriage as soon as possible. I don’t want to marry with anyone else. Please… please talk with your parents and come at my home to talk with my parents please.”
“Yeah baby… doesn’t be anxious I will do something.”
We did talk for ten minutes and while I was on phone, my mom came into my room and I got nervous. “Did mom listen to our conversation while I was on call? No…no it couldn’t be,” I thought. She seemed very happy, my mom told that they have already chosen a partner for me who is the son of my father’s friend, he is from Australia. I could see it from my mother’s eyes how happy she was. She told me that I will be very happy after marrying their choice, I will live a life that she never had, and she said all this to me very quietly. I was wondering why nobody from my family asked me a single time that is there anyone in my life or do I like someone? They just fixed the marriage because they think that the boy they chose would be perfect for me. I have already given my soul to Shaba so I can’t move on with anyone else even if he was wealthier than Shaba.
I still loved him. I felt isolated. I wish that time could be change and my parents would understand that I love Sabah more than anyone; I want to spend my life with Shaba, he is the only person who could give me all the happiness I wanted. He is the person who I felt the connection with; he was my real soul mate.
No one listened to me; they didn’t even care to ask me once whether I am happy from the decision of my marriage. My parents started preparations for the rituals needed to be done before marriage. I was devastated by the idea of getting married to someone else and being separated from Shaba. I kept on calling Shaba but he never answered my call after I told him about the marriage. I thought he ditched me. I cried my heart out. I knew now there is nothing that can bring me and Shaba together but still with the hope to listen his voice one last time I kept on calling him in every chance I get. One fine day someone picked up the call. I was so happy I started shouting, crying, yelling at him for not picking up any of my calls but then suddenly I heard a voice. It was not of Shaba. I asked who it was. Then I came to know that it was Shaba’s dad. He told me to never call him again. I was dumbstruck by listening to his dad on phone. Then I thought of calling Deepika to ask what might have happened there. She didn’t pick up any of my calls, either. The next day I got a call back from Deepika and I told her the whole story what happened until now and asked if she knows anything about the reason of Shaba’s father to pick up the call. Then she told me that the day I called Shaba and asked him to talk with his parents to come and talk with hers, he opened the secrecy of their relationship to his parents with the idea of getting any help. But it turned out that his parents were also too orthodox. His dad shouted at him for doing such a low level thing and fixed his marriage with some other girl without even asking him. That night I cried again but it was for the last time.
I was both sad and happy, sad because I would never see the love of my life again and happy that the guy I loved didn’t betray me. He tried until the very last moment to be with me. Then I decided that from now on, I would not shed any more tears. I would continue to live the life my parents wanted for me without any argument and I will keep Shaba in my heart as the most loveable moment and a special dream of my life. Not every love story has a happy ending.
