Swalpa Adjust maadi

Love stories are becoming more and more complicated. Gone are the days of Yash Chopra romance. That's why his last movie was a disaster. Because people don't have such love stories now. I still remember watching DDLJ for the first time. Dancing in the rain, or holding an umbrella with my girl were moments of absolute bliss, worth to be fantasised. Now love is in the malls, in a cinemax or a Baskin Robbins. Gone are the days of paani puri and coconut water. Life and love runs on a card, not the visiting one but the credit one. That's the need of the hour. I realised that although late. But its never too late. What has not changed though are loyality, trust and transparency. They still remain to have utmost importance. I still believe that lies are the root cause of failure in relationships. Never compromise your relationship for a cup of coffee at CCD. This is just the beginning of the ending if you do. Grow up guys, there's neither a perfect person nor a perfect relationship. Swalpa adjust maadi!!

I had broke up quite recently, in other words my gf had dumped me. I was busy searching for a new one on Facebook. Sending random requests to xyz girls became regular activity, and finally Mr Zuckerberg had to say "Do you know this person?" Leading to blocking any new friend addings for a week. All this while, amongst all the hundreds of profiles I went through, there was one which was different. I went through her pictures, she was pretty. I felt as if I was connected to her, but strangely didn't have the courage to send her the request. What if she declined? She became a bookmark on my Firefox. I was real low those days due to my breakup, but her profile kept me happy. Days turned into months, and finally thought to take the next step and sent her message with much deliberation. Bingo! She replied. We started chatting casually. I was getting happier. My room mate noticed the change in me and while I went cooking, keeping the chat active, he sent my number to her. Returning from the kitchen, I realised and started shouting at him. "I think its time to take to the next level buddy" was his reply. I apologized and let her know. We chatted for 2 long years but never asked for her number again. Then one fine day I got a text msg " Got your number from fb your fb buddy". I immediately called, it was her! Gradually we started calling each other, non stop text msging. It went on and on and on. It was new years eve, every friend of mine had a resolution, not to smoke for one, reduce drinking for another. I thought, let me take the step.it's do or die, our friendship was at stake. I texted her letting her know my feelings and immediately threw my phone on the bed and went out. When I returned,I saw her return msg "Are you drunk?" We never discussed about it again. We chatted and called, shared our daily lives and time flew. And then one fine day after a very long time she texted "I think I am in love with you". Patience and perseverance worked!!

For the one who's miles away
You are the reason for my smiles
Love you with all my heart
I promise we will never part
The feeling is never gonna change
My love for you does not have any range
With time and tides, we will withstand every storm
You are the love that I had always hoped for
The dream that I was chasing all this while
You are the wish, I had never expected to come true
You are the blessing in my anguish
I am so blessed to have someone like you
It makes me love you even more
every day, every second, every moment
Thank you for all the happiness!! 

By Parthajyoti Dutta

What is real Love?

Of late I have been searching around for a simple answer to this simpler question. Google it and you will find some of the most unrealistic and impractical answers. The delightful couples holding their hands and candidly chuckling. The pink cheeks and the non stop chit chat to which the guy is totally engrossed on to. Is he pretending to listen to or is he actually listening? The guy being totally lost in her eyes.

There are the breed of couples found to be displaying affection publicly at most popular lover points. And then are the mature breed, having serious talks of life at a nearby CCD.

Looking at them makes me wonder, what is the mysterious power which binds them together?
Is this what is termed as "Ishqwala love"?

I don't think so. The "Ishqwala love" owes a lot nowadays to credit and debit cards. Eternal, unconditional love is directly or indirectly connected with the number of roses exchanged or the cups of coffee sipped together at the pricey CCD or Barista.

And this situation changes as time passes by, with responsibilities which keep doubling every passing year. So was it fake initially or have we changed?? The dream like state does change at some point of time eventually.

Then what is real love?

It was when your best buddy at school used to preserve the next seat for you. It was when your brother Kept your secrets so that you are not beaten by dad. It was when your mom used to call up your classmates, if you are late while returning from school.

In these little things love was and always will be. Because, if it dies, it wasn't really love.

~~~ By Parthajyoti Dutta

The Bluetooth Story

The Sun rays gleamed into my room surpassing the curtains and were falling straight on my eyes. It was disturbing and I had to eventually wake up. It was a Sunday morning. I had so many things to do on a Sunday. Shopping, aimlessly roaming around the city and having all kinds of junk food. I was never used to all of these. Sleeping was my favorite time pass once. But things had changed after she came into my life. She loved going for bike rides, window shopping all around and then ultimately settling for a pair of 100 bucks slippers from the roadside stalls. I hated junk food, but in these 2 years I had so much of pani pooris and roasted corns, that I eventually started liking them. With these thoughts, I turned around to wake her up and was startled to see a pillow instead of her. Her favorite pink pillow which had a “Winnie the pooh” on it. Reality woke me up. She was gone and was no more a part of my life. It was more than a month since she left my place. But I still felt that she was all around me. She had moved on with her life, seeking better opportunities. In harsher words, she dumped me. She dumped me for a bald guy with a Hyundai Verna and that is all I knew about her present. She had changed her number. She had blocked me on facebook. Still sometimes I used to type her name on the search bar, getting no results, wishing someday she would unblock me. But it never happened. I hated mornings, at least in my dreams, she was all around me. With these thoughts, I got up from the bed. Anyways I won’t be able to sleep now, I got to have a cup of tea now. An old friend of mine used to say “World is full of fishes. Keep hopes alive and you will have a big catch soon”. So, I could not waste my day lying on bed. I had to go on a fishing trip. So, I had to get prepared. I went to the fridge, which also had also seen some changes lately. It used to be full of ice creams and chocolates which got replaced by half a dozen beer bottles even in the veggie drawer. There was a pack of Good life milk, still unopened. It was from the last trip of our shopping. Thank God atleast I could have my tea at home rather than going to the bakery. I went to the kitchen and started preparing tea. Then I saw our big coffee mug, it had a picture of her and me from one of our trips. This was getting intolerable. Even though she left me, she was all around me. I had to get rid of these stuffs and move on. So the very next day, I decided to dump all of them. There were a lot of things. The coffee mug, a few pictures, few of her college notes, her pen stand and a lot more and yes the “Winnie the pooh” pillow. I got all of them inside a big plastic bag and threw it from my window. It was much of a relief now. Everything related to her was out of my house. I desperately needed some fresh air now. So, I went out and stood there in the balcony, glancing around. Then I spotted a cute girl in the adjacent building. It was an office. Was she new? I had never seen her; maybe I was too busy with my girl. Slowly, it became a regular habit, about me going out to the balcony, trying to trace her. The only thing dividing us was the big window pane. Many a times I did not find her on her desk and had to come back to my room, feeling low. Sometimes I came back excited when she used to notice me peeping at her. This went for weeks. I had to take the next step. From her looks, I could make out that she was from the North East. I had to communicate to her that I too belonged from one of the seven sister states. How could I let her know? So, one day while I went out to see her, I decided to wrap our Assamese “gamocha “around my neck. This was to signal her that I am from Assam, probably we belonged from the same state or even if not, from the North East definitely. She looked at me and passed me a short smile. Wow, assignment completed.

Now on, every time I used to go out to the balcony, she used to pass a smile at me and it made me happy, very happy. It went on for nearly a week. But, then I had to take the next step. I was thinking what could be done. How could I communicate with her? This was a big step, just like Neil Armstrong stepping on the Moon for the first time, “That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” and may be for me it would state as “That's one small step for me, one giant leap for my future generations”. I was getting crazy for her. Suddenly an idea struck upon my mind. I went out to the balcony, and started fondling with my phone. She looked at me and picked up her phone. I turned on my Bluetooth, and started scanning devices around me and whoopee, device found NOKIA ASHA. Yes, it was the same phone on her hand. She understood my signal. Also I understood that day that girls were not so dumb after all, like most guys would think. Now, I had to pass on a message. I hurriedly ran inside, turned on my laptop and opened Adobe Photoshop and edited a picture of mine with my phone number and saying “Call me, maybe” reminding of the famous song by Carly Rae Jepsen and transferred the picture to my phone. I went out and sent her the picture. It got delivered and I saw her picking up the phone. Task was completed successfully. I came back in, I was feeling a bit scared now. There were a few tense moments. I was getting anxious thinking “What would happen now? Would she respond?” And then my phone beeped. It was a text message. “Hi, I am Tina.” I felt out of the world. Happiness unlimited. I started texting her and she kept on replying me and it went on and on and on…..

And then…… I will tell the rest of the story some other day, right now getting late for my first date with Tina and I know girls hate waiting, especially on the first date itself. Everyone gets a girl through facebook, I got mine through Bluetooth. I am thankful to God for ending my sorrows and even more thankful to Graham Bell for inventing the phone. So, friends if somebody dumped you, don’t you worry, as my dear old friend said “World is full of fishes. Keep hopes alive and you will have a big catch soon”. Bye and enjoy your weekend!

A fictional write up by Parthajyoti Dutta

I woke up in the morning. It was one of those days, when you tend to wake up without an alarm clock. Finally my girlfriend was landing in Bangalore. I had to pick her from airport. I was so excited with the prospect of meeting her. We had never met and after months of phone talks, I was finally getting to see her. So many things to share. Was getting ready to pick her, suddenly there was a beep on the phone. I ran to get the phone. It was an SMS, not from her but from my EX.

What made her SMS me after so many months? What made her message me just today? All these questions sprung up on my mind before I opened the message.

"I did a big mistake. I am aimless without any goal in life. God will never forgive me for what I did to you. This is why I am not able to be happy".

I now had a mixed feeling. On one point I was feeling sad. I always knew he's gonna dump you. But on your equation between love and money, you chose money. I tried to explain in so many ways. But his sweet talks won over me.
And on the other hand I was happy, she got what she deserved. She deserved this for playing with my heart, my feelings which she had crushed.

Then I reminded myself, I was never happy with her. I was just compromising everything with her. She rarely cared for my likes and dislikes. And I simply did not have enough funds to keep her happy.
Shopping at Shopper's stop and Barbeques at Barbeque Nation were turning out to be too costly affair for me to continue.

I was thinking if I should reply her, or just ignore and delete off the text. My happy morning suddenly turned to a rather confused morning.

It made me restless.
Finally after much deliberation, I replied "Thank you for your mistake, at least I have an aim now. Don't worry, just sit back and relax, God won't harm you. God simply does not have time for b***es like you."

I went ahead and enjoyed the rest of the day.

A year had passed by, I was busy with my small business of my internet cafe. I had also set up a small coaching center at my home. I used to take tuitions for school kids. I was earning reasonably well. My parents were forcing me to get married. Mom used to show me pictures of girls. Majority of them were pretty. But my heart still yearned for her. It has been more than a year. Her voice used to strike me in my dreams. Even though I hated her, at some corner of my heart, deep inside, a feeling for her still existed. I have spent 2 years of my life with her. Even though she was never committed with me, I was, at every moment spent in those 2 years.

I still remember the day she received the friend request from that guy. It was a Sunday afternoon. She had come to my place for lunch. She was facebooking on my computer and had asked me if she could accept it, and I agreed. I had never thought that the same guy will be the reason for our break up, else would have never allowed at the first place. Sometimes I used to repent for my decision. But, how could I ever think of her leaving me for a bald guy in his late thirties, just because him being richer and sweet talks. He was working as a Software Developer and used to earn thrice as much as me. I had never thought that he could take away my girl.

A few days later, we had a major fight regarding some issue. We did not even talk for a few days. But me being weak hearted, could not stay away from her for long. I apologized and tried to sort out things. Even though we patched up, things had changed in these few days. She had started talking with him for hours. Once I remember taking her out for dinner and dropping her at her PG after dinner. I was happy. Once I reached my room, tried her number and it was busy for nearly an hour.

I SMSed her “ Who are you speaking with for an hour?”

I did not get any response. It was midnight and I slept off. When I got up in the morning, I saw an SMS from her “ Sorry, I was speaking to a friend.” It was 2.15 AM, the message timing.

Gradually it became a regular affair. Her phone being busy at night times. Sometime it was her uncle, sometimes her cousin, and sometimes her friend from Delhi. She could even concoct the conversations. I always had a feeling that she was lying. But whenever I questioned her too much on this issue, she used to shout at me telling that I am selfish and that is why I don’t have friends to talk to.

Whenever she was with me, I used to notice her phone ringing at times. She used to ignore the calls. It was always from someone named “Shahil”. On questioning her, she told me that it was her schoolmate staying in Assam. I secretly checked her cell once and got to know it was a Bangalore Vodafone number. There are lots of applications to track numbers, which she was unaware of. Finally with lots of fights, she agreed that it was the bald guy itself. I tried to convince her in all always, but failed. When my temper rose to the highest level, I broke her sim card, thinking that to be the solution. The very next day, I got her a new connection. But that did not stop her from contacting the bald guy.

A few days later, she had plans to go home, to Assam. However she was short of money. She had asked me for it, however I was myself dependent on my parents to book my flight tickets. Bald guy came running for rescue and this became the biggest reason for their friendship.
Everytime I used to tell her about breaking her friendship with bald guy, she used to tell me about how he had arrived for her help where I could not. She used to tell me that he’s the person she trusts the most in Bangalore. I used to feel helpless. She used to regularly talk with bald guy for hours and hours, till her battery dries out. I used to wonder, what interesting topic he used to discuss about, a guy from his late thirties. I often asked her. She used to assure me that he had a girlfriend in Delhi and I should not feel insecure about him. But, how could I possibly? She used to talk with him late nights for hours and expected me to believe that he had a gf. Later I came to know that he had an ex-gf in Delhi, who was in a relationship with some other guy at that time. He still had feelings for her. 

After my accident, my gf who had already broken up with me became closer with Mr. bald guy. They used to often meet up for dinner, movies etc, going to places where I could never afford to take her. But things changed as soon as he knew of me leaving Bangalore, bald guy decided to leave too, to Delhi, stating that he had patched up with his ex gf. A month later, he left Bangalore, leaving behind my girl, whom he had never given any promise or commitment. I was shocked on hearing this. He had screwed up our relationship and lives of 2 persons, me and my girl.

But, more was to follow. Later I got to know that, he had went to Delhi to save his girl. His girl was getting married to some guy from Delhi and he was going to stop that. With his sweet talk, with which he had influenced my girl, same way he did to his ex gf. His ex gf was forced to desert her fiance and came running for him. So, another relationship was broken for the bald guy. 

Few months later, he deserted the girl stating that he was not in a position to accept her as she was in a relationship with someone else for 2 years. I was stoned when I heard it. One guy had affected the lives of 4 people and broken 2 relationships. God knows how many more are to follow or how many were affected because of the bald guy earlier.

I will forever remember the words from the bald guy, the only time we ever talked:
“Relationship and Friendship are 2 different things. I never interfered in your relationship and so you should not interfere in our friendship”. He never wanted my girl to leave me and go for him. He never wanted to commit to anyone. He just wanted to satisfy his selfish needs with the power of his money.

An advice for girls, don’t try to find perfection in your guys, because perfect guys don’t exist in reality. In search of perfection, don’t screw up your relationship and end up with psychos like the Bald guy in this story. You will be left with nothing. Meanwhile he may be still in hunt mode and you may be his next target. Stay safe.

(This is a story of fiction. All characters and descriptions in this story are fictional.)
~By Parthajyoti