Chapter II: The Click
Ahana
Ahana
It was my 24th birthday.
My birthdays are not those happening ones. I have my small little world with
whom I spend that day. Sometimes I don’t even get to spend it with them and I
end up spending alone. My best friend Greeshma had come home that day to make
it special. “Happy Birthday Ahana, my princess”, she shouted loud entering my
home. She hugged me tight. She was one of the only few best friends I have. I
am very selective about letting people into my Life. But once I let them in, I
love them so much that the relationship does not require any special efforts
once again. We both together decorated my room, lit candles all over the place
and I cut a small cupcake that she had brought for me. This was my way of
celebrating a birthday.
Once she left in the evening, I
went to the terrace. The sky also seemed to be lit with the twinkling stars
celebrating my birthday. It was a lovely evening. Sitting on the terrace floor,
I started listening to my favourite playlist on my headphones. I was just
thinking. I feel so comfortable in my own skin. I feel good being with myself.
Sometimes I do feel lonely but then I always have Greesh as my 3 AM call. But
it is not that I tell her everything. Deep inside me lies a small island where
I treasure all my secrets. I keep visiting the island once in a while all
alone. I am neither an introvert nor an extrovert. I am a mixture of both, an
ambivert. Just when I was listening to a song which was my childhood memory, I
started thinking about my school days. Ooty, residential school, missing
family, Sunday holy mass, unexpected rain, loneliness and Vihaan- every memory
flashed in my head for a moment. He caught my attention in those flashes.
Vihaan- the name still gives
me such a pleasant feeling just like his soft eyes does. He was my childhood
buddy. When I met him for the first time on the Day 1 of Standard IV, there was
something in his eyes that actually caught my attention. I smiled at him and he
looked away. I went upto him and spoke to him when he was crying alone sitting
in a corner. Maybe if I had not done that day, I would have missed such a
wonderful friend. 3 years with him was such a blessing. We used to talk, talk
and only talk. Whenever I had anything to share or whenever I missed my family,
he was always there with me. I used to feel so protected when he was around. He
was my best friend. He had become my habit, a routine and such an integral part
of my life. The moments we spent and the fun we had was something I still
treasure and go back thinking about. I think till date, those 3 years were the
best years of my life.
I thought things will be the
same and we have a lot of time to spend until the day I got to know that dad
has got transferred to Manipur and he needs to relocate there. There was an
issue of law and order in Manipur then and dad had to immediately relocate in 2
days. We started packing and arranging all the household items to move. The
fact that I cannot go back to my school and talk to Vihaan was hurting me more.
I tried calling him on his landline number but there was no response as his
family had planned for a pilgrimage that week. I tried several times until I
was convinced that there will not be any answer from the other side. His
landline number was written in our phone diary which was always placed next to
the telephone. But while shifting, we lost that diary and I curse my memory
that I could not have the number by heart.
After coming to Manipur, I
have cried so many times thinking about what all happened. I could not bid him
a proper goodbye. I missed Vihaan in my new school. There was no one who could
get so close to me like him in the new school. I was hoping that somehow I will
get his call one day even after knowing that there was no means of him getting
my contact details. I started missing his presence all day. I was worried as to
how will he clear his mathematics examinations. Standard VII was literally a hell. I was back
to square one. Days and months passed and nothing changed. When I finally met
Greeshma in Standard VIII, things improved a bit. But somehow Vihaan still
crossed my mind always. He became an incomplete piece of my story puzzle.
I came back to the present
when the playlist ended. 12 years have gone by. So many things have changed. My
life has changed. I am not the same girl I used to be in the boarding school. I
have grown. I now work as a Junior Research Fellow as a part of my PhD in a
leading research lab in Ahmedabad. My stories remain with myself with no
listening ears. Instead I write study reports based on my analysis on autistic
children after the tests. After being in Imphal(Manipur) for 8 years, we moved
to Ahmedabad 4 years back. During my college, I made a few very good friends.
Greesh and Sitara were always there as my best buddies from the beginning. But
whenever I spoke to a guy friend, my thoughts would automatically go back to
Vihaan. It was so involuntary. Even now, whenever I hear this name, I would
pause for a second to check who it is. Everything had changed but this boy was
still there somewhere in the back of my mind occupying an irreplaceable chair
when I do not even know if he remembers me.
4
Months later:
My phone beeps with a Facebook
notification. It was a friend request. I do not accept any requests if I do not
know the person. I already have 150+ friend requests which are left unconfirmed.
I checked the request and it was from a person named ‘Vihaan’. Never had I
received a request from that name. My excitement knew no bounds. On visiting his profile, I saw his profile picture and
unfortunately it was just a random stupid quote. I wanted to go down to check
his schooling details and during that time by mistake I clicked on ‘Confirm’
button. I regretted clicking it without even knowing if it was him. I went down
to check for schooling details and for my bad luck; he had not mentioned those
details. I did not want to unfriend him after accepting the request. It was 1
AM then. Just when I was about to turn off my data and go back to sleep in that
disappointment, I got a text from him saying “Hi”.
A girl accepts a friend
request and she will be flooded with messages. This was not new to me. I do not
even reply back to such messages. But this name was special. I could not resist
myself from waving back a Hi. He immediately sent, “Hello Ahana, saw your
profile. Are you from Eeksha Residential School, Ooty?”. My heart started
pounding hard now. “Yes”, I replied back without even taking time. “Year of
completing Standard VII? Is it 2006?”, he sent back. Now reading this message,
I knew he was Vihaan. My happiness knew no limits. I found him, or rather he
had found me back. “Yes 2006. Vihaaaaaan...!!”, I typed and sent it to him. I
wanted to dance. I want to scream in happiness. I was getting goosebumps in the
excitement. I am talking to Vihaan again after 12 years.
Vihaan: Ahana!! How are you?
Ahana: I don’t know what to
tell. Vihaan, we are talking after 12 years. 12 years means 144 months. Imagine
we are talking to each other AGAIN... I am so happppppy
Vihaan: I am very happy too. I
don’t know what to say as well.
Ahana: I don’t want to say
anything. I just want to cry and vent out all my emotions.
I cried and as I did,
my tears only showed me how much I had missed him for so long. A best friend, a
companion, a habit, a routine and he was everything.
Ahana: Vihaan, you have no
idea how much I missed you this long. I have missed every moment we spent
together those 3 years. If I tell this to anybody, they will just think it is
some friendship which has happened in childhood and that is bound to happen.
But I remember everything about those 3 years. I met you at a time when I had
nobody with me. Just when we were so happy in our small little world, we
parted. I am so happy I met you again.
Vihaan: Hey, I think the
feeling is so mutual. I can never forget our time spent. I keep going back to
the same moments as little Vihaan to meet little Ahana again. It took me an
year to come out of your sudden disappearance and get back to normalcy. Now
that we are back, I think I will definitely need time for it to sync in. I am
so glad to have found you again. Where are you now? What are you upto?
Ahana: I work as a Junior
Research Fellow in a research lab as a part of my PhD. We are now settled in
Ahmedabad. I work with autistic children and study their behavioural patterns
as part of my thesis. What do you do? Where are you?
Vihaan: I am a certified
counsellor. After my graduation on psychology, I took this up. I meet a lot of
people from different backgrounds and having different problems. I reconcile
and help them meet ends. It gives me a lot of satisfaction.
Ahana: That’s great Vihaan. Something
that you are born to do: touch lives
Vihaan: Thanks yaar. Now tell
me why did you leave me without even informing me once?
I told him everything that
happened and he understood my position. For a moment, wherever he was and
whatever the distance maybe, it seemed so minuscule because we were again
connected by texts. We chatted till 7 AM that night. We chatted about
everything that happened in those 12 years. I felt so connected with him again.
There was something very deep about the bondage I shared with this guy. There
was no denial that it was something beyond friendship. It was much more... How beautiful it would be if I
could spend my entire life with him...
But wait!! What if he has someone already in his life?
- Naveen S N
*Chapter III as a Special Episode this Valentines Day Feb 14th 2017 at 2 PM*
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