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HOROSCOPPED
Prologue:
I slowly opened my eyes. I could not see anything clearly, all I could see was a few people standing around me and I was on a bed. A guy wearing a white overcoat patted on my shoulders and said,” Don’t worry, you are fine now”. What the…? What did he mean by that? As if I am not alright.
“ What the heck happened to you man????”, somebody asked me, in fact somebody shouted at me. That really helped me to wake up completely. Everything became clear to me now. Yeah, I am in a hospital and the doctor was consoling me. I saw the glucose bottle hung near to me. And the guy who was shouting at me was none other than my colleague in Infosys, my close friend, Prasanth. But again, the same doubt rang in my mind..What the….? Why am I in a hospital? What happened to me?
“Tell me yaar, what happened to you???”, Prasanth was shaking my arm now. I looked at him thinking,”I am also trying to figure out the same thing man.
“Let him relax. Give him some air and time to think. Prasanth, come to my cabin. I will tell about the medicines that you are required to buy”, the doctor said to Prasanth. He smiled at me and left the room.
I was still confused. I tried to remember what might have happened to me last night. Why the heck am I lying on this hospital bed along with a glucose stand by my side!!! I looked at a calendar on the wall. The date showed 8th November, 2013. What is so special of that date, damnit. I looked away and was still thinking and then it struck me. I looked back at the calendar again and looked at the previous date. 9th November !!! A date I will never forget in my life. A date that changed my life. A date that brought me into this hospital bed. Now everything was clear. I know what happened last night. Everything came dawning on to me now. My mind travelled 8 years back…..
“ Pass !! Paasss!!! Pass the ball idiot!!!”, I was shouting to Anup who was running with the football. I was left unmarked at the right wing and I was almost certain to score a goal if I get the ball. But he kept on running with ball, dribbling and was not giving the pass. And finally he lost the ball. Damn, that was a goal if he had passed, I thought. I turned back and jogged back to my playing position and then I saw a group of girls walking along the road to our school building. ‘Who are they?’, I thought as it has been almost two weeks after the school had re-opened. The road was very close to our football ground and I could clearly see that there were five of them. I asked Sanjay, my team-mate(obviously class-mate) about them and he said they might be the new admissions and could have come to see the campus. I watched them. Yeah, they seem to be the new admissions to the XIth standard, except one. I saw a little girl in golden yellow churidar who was surprisingly short. ‘ May be an eighth standard admission’, I thought.
“Vishal, take the passsss!!!!! “, Anup’s shout woke me up from my thoughts and I ran with the ball forward. I went past two defenders and directed the ball to the right corner of the goal and hell yeah, I scored ! GOAL! My team-mates were ecstatic and cheers and roars were all around. The group of the five new girls turned their heads hearing the big buzz. That was the first time I met with the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen.
Next day, when I entered the class, I was surprised to see the little girl sitting on the very first bench. This girl in XIth standard? In disbelief I walked to my place, obviously the last bench.
I never was close with any girl in my school and did not mind to know the names of the new comers of our class.
“ Hey, It’s been almost two weeks. You are not going to talk to them?”, Rimi asked me.
“ Why should I??? If they want let them come and talk to me and my friends.”, yeah, that was me. It’s not because of my arrogant attitude, but just because I was shy in talking to girls. But the girls in my class thought that I am a guy with attitude. By the way, I came to know her name…Revati.
She was very active in the class and she and her group became the pets of the teachers very quickly. She became the topper of the class exams after exams. The geek-guy, Jagan, became close friends with her. Obviously, geeks find friends amongst geeks only. We always used to tease Jagan along with her name. And he liked it…Idiot!
Two years passed. Obviously , she became the school topper in Class XIIth Board Exams. I did not even say ‘congrats’. Why should I? I am not even close to her. Not even a distant friend.
I joined an Engineering College. Time passed. I was the same guy as ever. No friends from the female species. I was the ‘silent-guy’ in the college and the ‘violent-guy’ in the hostel. It was great time in the hostel with a new bunch of friends. Watching movies, playing football, boozing almost every week , playing cards every night and the only thing we kept aside was the text-book kit, which was unopened.
Days passed by. One day, I got the mobile number of Revati from one of my school friends. I just saved the number and forgot it. But I got forwards from her on a regular basis and I thought It’s not good to be not responding. I also started sending forwards to her and slowly we became friends.
One night, I was playing cards and simultaneously I was chatting with Revati on my cell phone. I asked her:
“ How is Jagan? How is everything going? ;-) “
No reply .
I re-sent the message.
No reply again.
Oops..did I ask anything wrong? I was about to send a ‘sorry for asking’ message. But then my message tone beeped. She said :
“ Please don’t ask about him. I don’t like that”
I replied:
“why? What happened? “
“ Nothing, I don’t like you people teasing me with him. There is nothing like what you guys think”
Then, the unthinkable happened. I typed in:
“ Oh, so have I got a chance ? ;-)”
I don’t know from where I got the courage to ask that. It was like someone made me type those words. Obviously, that someone was God.
I was expecting an angry message in reply. A message that shouts at me. But what came was:
“ What? Are you serious?”
Now, I decided to play the game.
“Yeah”
“Please stop making fun of me”
“No, I am serious, believe”
“ how can I trust you? I know you are playing jokes”
“ I am serious. If you can, believe me”
I had my plans . If she says no, I will say that the whole thing was a prank. Otherwise…no, that wont happen. No girl will like me.
I even thought the other way round. She might be playing the same game. She, with her friends, might be trying to make an ass out of me. A message beep brought me back from my thoughts.
“ Call me”, she replied.
What???? I have never talked to a girl in phone. I became nervous. Why is she asking me to call? To laugh at me with her friends? No, I wont stand that. I am not calling.
Another message came:
“ Call me , NOW!”
I did not. I did not have the courage to call her. That too, in the night. No, no chance.
Two minutes passed. My phone rang. The display showed : Revati calling.
Omg!! What should I do now?? I thought of the evil laughs of a group of girls. No No No…I am not taking the call. The call ended unattended.
Again!!! The phone rang again. She was calling me again!! No, I am not taking. But, as if someone was controlling me, my fingers pressed the ‘attend’ button.
“H…e..Hello?”, I said. Nervous.
“ Hello? Vishal?”, her voice.
“Eh? Er..Yeah”, my voice. Again nervous.
“ I am at my home. Cant speak for long. Now tell me. Are you serious about what you said through message?”, she asked.
“ Er…Yeah…Yeah”, I said. No, I am not serious. But why the hell I am saying ‘Yes’ !!
“ Oh..ok..I will tell you in two days. I have to think. Ok? “, she said.
“ohhK…”, what else could I have said!
She hung up. I could not control my happiness. But I did not burst out my emotions. I could not sleep that night, thinking all about what could be her answer when she calls in two days. It was the cricket world cup season. As India was piling up runs on the board, my heart was padding up for an important game of my life: I may get bowled out or I can hit a six of my lifetime!
Since I did not sleep the whole night, I bunked the next day classes and slept merrily in my hostel room. In the evening, I got ready for my usual football match and as I was leaving to the ground, my phone rang. It was her, Revati. I thought for a moment and took the call.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Vishal?”
“Yeah, Hi”
“ Hi, I thought about the thing you asked me. And I called you….”
“But you told me that you will call me tomorrow only na?”, I interfered.
“Yeah, but I did not want to stretch this more. That’s why I called you today itself.”, she said.
“ Oh, Ok, ….so…” I wanted to ask it, but I could not.
“ So…If you are not lying, and if you are looking for a life-long relationship , then ….”, she stopped.
“Then?????” I became anxious.
“Then… I am ready”, she replied.
“Oh thnx” I said blankly. Yeah, that dumb was my reply. Normally guys would jump in joy when a girl accepts his proposal. But I did not even move. But, hell yeah, I was very happy.
“What??? Thanks?” , she asked,perplexed.
“I mean..yeah,,,for accepting my request…I am really happy…” I said
I could hear her smile.
“Hey, I am going to play…catch you later…”, I loved football more at that time. And I made it clear by saying like that.
“Do you really want to go?? I mean..can we talk a bit?”, she asked
I thought for a moment and replied, “ Ohk,.sure”
A girl can change your priorities so fast. And from that moment I loved her more than football.
“Tell me about you…your family and everything”, she said.
I told her about my father, mom, brother and all details about my family.
I stopped talking. Silence for a few seconds.
“ Don’t you want to know anything about me?”, she asked.
Yeah, I want to. But I was wondering how to ask you, honey!!
“ Yeah, ofcourse”, I replied
She also repeated the same exercise I went through but not as boring as I did. She had a gift talking in such luring manner. I could sit with her for hours and will never get bored of her chats.
“We will call once in a week, ok?” she asked
“ Ok..fine” , I replied, eventhough I wanted more of the talks.
But that condition lasted only for that first week. We called everyday. Talked for hours. Became very close…closer than anyone would think. Yeah, I started to come out of lie. Now I love her more than anything. As she had said, I am ready for a life-long relationship with her.
As we were studying in different colleges, we saw seldom but still we could feel that the bond between us was getting stronger everyday. Once she had said that she loves me more than her parents. I was happy but advised her that is not the right way. I was becoming more than a mere lover for her. I played a great role in making her love her parents more than what she did before meeting me. We had fights ending with kisses, kisses ending in fights and even fights and kisses together.
She never expressed her care for me and I sometimes failed to understand her silent care. But somehow she had the magic in her to bring the mood between us to happy times. Her smile, her giggles, her anger, her stares, her tears everything had a magic..a magic that made me more and more fall into her…and I prayed always to God that please let me fall more and more into her so that I should never get out. And God listened.
My Mom and my bro knew about this relationship and even my Dad knew( he did not know that I knew that he knew). No one opposed. Everyone loved her also. Mom was so much as excited as I was. My bro started plans of teasing us in future when she comes to my home. Four years passed and she told about me at her home. Again, God was with us. No one opposed. In the meantime, she got placed in some software company and I was trying to crack CAT. Her parents wanted to make sure that this relation should be said and made done.
On 3rd November, 2010, my Dad and my Mom visited them and handed over my horoscope as they were so orthodox about these religious beliefs. Yeah, everything was fine till then.
November 9th, 2011, 12:30 a.m. It was raining heavily outside…thunder struck everywhere…wind was blowing fiercely and no power at home. I was sleeping near to my brother and my phone rang. It was her. I picked up and I could here her crying.
“Hey, what happened?”, I asked. Worried.
She kept on crying.
“TELL!”, I asked
“Our thing….vishal….our thing…wont work out…..it wont work out Vishal….” , she was crying while she was telling this.
I almost dropped my phone. But I still thought this could be another prank from her.
“Tell me what exactly happened”, I asked
“Our…our horoscopes did not match…this will not happen..It’s over”
This time my phone dropped off from my hand. I picked it up and I could not tell anything.
I could feel tears down my cheeks. Oh God, I am crying. I stared out into the rain and was crying like hell. I could hear my girl crying on the other side of the phone. I could not stand that.
“I will call you back. Please don’t cry”, I told her
“Don’t know what to do now….what we will do, Vishal?” , she asked
I don’t know, Revu.
“ I will…I will call u back”
“Ok”
I hung up the phone and dug my face on to the pillow and cried like anything. I went downstairs and called Mom, hugged her and cried a lot. I told her everything. What can she do…I cried..cried…cried…could not call her…
Some people are that. They believe marriages are done between horoscopes, not between individuals. Even if two hearts love each other, it doesn’t matter, the stars in the sky decide their fate. And among 600 billion people around the world, only Indians’ fate is decided by the stars.
Days passed. She tried not to call me or message me. Yeah, she had reasons. Her parents stood by her till the last moment. Now she cant blame them. I cant blame her. I cant tell her to love someone whom she knew only for 4 years more than her parents who had loved her for 23 years. I could hear her voice only if I call her at least 20 times, that too once in a month. Yeah, she was going away from me…knowingly…and I know it hurts for her and me. I pushed my days by blaming God , falling into smoking and drinking.
I joined for my MBA course and I always kept myself busy so that I should not get time to think of her. But I forgot that God once granted me my wish that I should never get out of her. I lost my old charm, lost my enthusiasm, lost interest in doing anything, lost focus, felt like I lost everything. As time passed, I got placed in Infosys and I knew someday I will have to see her hand held by some idiot. I will have to see her living with that idiot. An idiot I always wanted to be.
9th November, 2013. The day I feared the most had arrived. Surprisingly, my girl, oh sorry, Revati is getting married on the same day we parted. I went to my apartments and drunk like hell. Drunk till night. Wanted to sleep off forever. I did not want to wake up the next morning. Till that day, at least I believed that she was mine. But from tomorrow, she is not. I drunk , drunk till darkness crawled into my eyes.
Epilogue:
“Hey, what happened to you , man?”, Prasanth asked as he came in with the medicines. That brought me back to reality. I looked at him for a few seconds.
“Tell me what happened”, he asked again
“ When you are just one step away from getting a thing that you wanted the most in life, you loved the most in life, and then God adds a fucking cruel twist and robs that away from you, what will you feel?”, I asked.
“What? Well, I will feel devastated”, he replied.
“ Exactly. What if that thing was your life? And since God robbed that thing which was your life, what is the option left with you?”
“Vishal….?”, Prasanth, looking terrified.
“ Exactly”, I said looking away from him
