The Other Side

It was morning. He could barely open his eyes. He looked for her. He couldn't find her. She finally entered the room, dressed like sunshine. Her lips, scarlet and her skin, ivory. She sat in front of the mirror and started doing her hair. He could see her face reflecting in the mirror. He smiled. Just looking at her made him ecstatic. She saw him through the mirror, staring at her. She blushed like red roses. 

 

They lived in a small wood house, located in the middle of nowhere; surrounded by never-ending greenery and barely-there roads. An old bike stood outside their happy little haven.
He wrote under an alias. She made greeting cards. And they both created music.
It had been over six years, that they had been like that. They had no one, but each other. And they felt self-sufficient.


She used to cook bad-to-moderate meals. He would teach her to cook, or sometimes he just made the whole thing. She did surprise him with delicious treats every once in a while, to win his heart; as if she would lose him otherwise.
He would go through a block in his writing and get frustrated. She would ease him down. He would get inspired by her endless love and faith in him, and write again.
They would watch intelligent movies together, sometimes chick-flicks on her pursuance; and dance on old romantic songs.
When he would get mad at her, she would just kiss him and make him smile with her quirkiness .
When she would get mad at him, he'd give her his puppy-face look, and would make her forget why she was angry in the first place.
He cracked jokes that only she would laugh at. And she made pasta that only he could gorge on.

 

They wrote love ballads. Romance and the sound of music came naturally to them. He would play his guitar and she, her piano. And they would sing together.They played at local bars and restaurants every weekend.He loved her for the good man that she had turned him into. She loved him because he had created her, given her a purpose to breathe.


She turned around and asked him, "What is it?"

He said, "Nothing. I am just trying to make you nervous", and winked at her.
She rolled her eyes and said. "Like that's possible!" , still smiling.
He got up, and started walking towards her. Her heart started beating faster than ever.
He came close to her, bent down and kissed her forehead.
She smiled and said, "Okay, fine. You still do make me nervous. Every time that you look at me. How do you do that? How does it...."
"Shhhh...", he interrupted her, pressing his finger gently against her lips. He held her face in his hands and said, "I love you, sugar.You make me so happy."
She blushed again, got up and clung onto his broad shoulders and said, "Love you too, my love, my life." She blushed.
He held her tight from the small of her back.

 

The world didn't matter then. It didn't matter to them anyway.


Suddenly she released her arms from around him, placed her hand on his chest and pushed him away. She then, pursed her lips, enticing him to come close to her, with her index finger.
He charged towards her, to kiss her. But she dodged him and ran out of the room.
He followed her. She ran outside the house, into the open.She kept running away from him.  Her long dress flew through the tall grass fields, she looked back at him, every now and then and chuckled.

 

He was laughing too and he kept on chasing her, till he finally caught her by her waist. She struggled to free herself and both of them tripped.

 

As they lay on the green grass, trying to catch their breath again, he asked her, "What was all this for?"
She coyly replied, "If you could make me nervous after all these years, I could make you chase after me too, you can't have me that easy. Just wanted you to know that." She giggled and said this to him with so much pride as if she had proven the existence of gravitational force to the world.
He burst into laughter and said, "You are silly, you know that."
"I know", she answered in the most melodious tone ever. "Now how about a ride back home, honey?"
He got up and imitated Edward from the movie Twilight,  "You better hold on tight, spider monkey." , asking her to hop on his back.
She laughed and said, "You just have to spoil the moment, don't you?"

 

He winked again. She pulled his cheeks and kissed him.
"Yes!Finally!", he rejoiced like a little kid, after a long beautiful kiss. She giggled.

 .

She then climbed onto his back and they walked towards their love nest; laughing and singing all the way back.

_____

It was morning. He could barely open his eyes. He was smiling now. He looked for her. He couldn't find her. He got up and looked out the window.

 

All he could see was the hustle-bustle of the city. Busy roads and tall buildings. Cars honking and people yelling.


She came in, holding delicious breakfast in her hands with beautiful aromatic coffee and greeted him a good morning. He reverted back to her.
She said to him, " We need to go to the doctor today. The appointment is within an hour."
He eyed towards her belly bump and asked her, "How is he doing in there?"
"He is okay. He is breathing", she replied and left the room.

He ate his breakfast, drank the coffee and went for a shower. He came out and opened his closet, picked up his clothes and got ready. He was about to shut the closet, but then, he didn't. Instead, he hid between its doors and accessed his safe and took out an old worn-out wallet from it.

He opened it and saw his sunshine looking right at him, through that wallet.

He smiled. He crossed over to the other side again, to be with her.
                                                                         ________

She came back into the room and asked, "Ready to go ahead?"
His thoughts were disrupted. He came back from the other side, all alone; once again.
He reverted instantly, "No!" , and then corrected himself, "I mean...Yes. I'm almost done."
She said, with a little confusion, "Oookay. I'll wait for you in the car."He kept the wallet inside, locked the safe and shut the doors.

He then, looked into the mirror.

NOTHING.

He sighed. 

                                     

                                           "When I sleep, sometimes I still think we speak"

Photo Courtesy: Favim

Yaa Toh Yeh Dosti Gehri Hain Yaa Yeh Photo 3D Hain!

Still from the movie Dil Chahta Hai, photo uploaded via Google Image Search

Ever wondered why, when you have a beautiful friendship going on with a person of the opposite sex, you eventually fall for that person? And then people around you; they rant the age-old dialogue,"Kaha tha na, ek ladka aur ek ladki kabhi dost nahi ho sakte!" The one line that you ridiculed yourself, is now, the story of your life.

Well, this happens partially, because that person probably is The One for you; but besides the obvious reason, it is because of those bastards lurking around you, called your "Friends". Even if you aren't feeling anything for that close friend of yours, they'll tease you so much, that at the end of the day, you will find yourself feeling a little bit more than just friendship. And then, you fall in love. In short, DEEP SHIT!


Nonetheless, that's the kind of deep shit, where only your friends stick with you. This is just one of the many endless things, that exemplify the meaning of true friendship. I just mentioned one, that is more commonplace.

They usually are an unusual species, you know, your friends. The one with the weird piggy giggle, or the one with the scary staring eyes; the one with the foul-mouth, or the one with the explicit dressing; the one with a fat ass or the one with a flat bod; the one who is obsessed with cleanliness or the one who takes pleasure in vandalism;  the one with a saint heart or the one with the evil brain! You love them for what they are, just the way they are. I know I became friends with a few probably because of their eccentricity. Normalcy is mundane, and sort of boring, don't you think?

They will always be with you. Trust me, true friends always will be; even when you are making out with someone. Just when you think you are alone, there they will be, eavesdropping with their jaws-dropping!
Whether you need them to help you stand up straight when you have gone all bottoms-up at a party, or whether you need them to tell you that you look your best, even when you are looking like a complete doofus; they will be there to do that for you.

The times, when you are all set, to go do the most craziest, stupidest, and are possibly going to make the biggest mistake of your life, your dear friend will stop you at once from taking a step further; only to tell you, "Hang on, I'm coming with you."They do this, not because they support your actions. Of course they don't. They have a head of their own. They do it, to support YOU after you are done with those actions. You are going to need them when you fall flat on your face, aren't you? And they know that so well. You won't admit it, ever, and they will never ask you to say it out loud either. Come on, do you remember telling your best of friends these three words-"I Need You!"? No! I don't. Because I never had to tell them. That's the best part, isn't it?

In school, during early teens, it was the constant aforementioned teasing. Your friends would say, "You like him na?", and you'd have denied it firmly saying, "No!! He is like my brother!!!", like it's a taboo to feel something for someone. You probably might have tied a rakhi to the poor chap to prove your friends wrong.

That, and then the "Kitna hua?" during the exams. I remember exchanging these two words with my pals, till the end of post-graduation! Geek-ish I know, but you probably have been doing something stupider all this while too, I'm sure!

And then, the bitching-behind-one's-back made a grand entry, followed by "crocodile tears" and fake apologies.
Whatever it was, at the end of the day, or if you were slow, probably by the end of your school time, you must have realized who are fit to be your friends. The rest? Well, they are probably going to be someone else's friends. The fact is, whatever you are, good-bad, kind-snobby, smart-stupid, boring-funny, rich-poor, etc.; you do need friends around to bring out your true character and paint your life with colors, that you'd never think of associating yourself with. They bring out both-the angel and the devil in you, and you know, it'd be so boring to live being just one of them.

I probably remember spending time with my friends, gossiping the most.With both-girls and boys! Yes, guys love gossip too, in fact a wee-bit more than girls. Hard to believe, but it's true. Next to impossible, to have it admitted by guys, but it's the truth. Boys would generally talk about the chicks that they "dig" and ask us the "Dos and Don'ts" to get them. And we loved being their relationship advisers. I know I could start legal practice in therapy, thanks to them.

And for us girls, it was fashion that held just too much importance. And how can I forget! The intolerant whining about our looks! We still do that. And will continue to do so, till we become old and unable to get up from bed and look at ourselves in the mirror.

It was college, career, competition, crushes and clothes before; birthday surprises and New-Years' eve parties; road trips and sleepovers, coffees shops and night clubs, fluttering hearts and massive nervous breakdowns, big dreams and constant failures, cheating in exams and crashing private parties, ruthless schemes and honest confessions. Give us the most trivial reason, and we'd be all set to celebrate!

We were all so full of it; trying out everything nice and vice that came across us. And our defense for that??- "Life me har cheez ek baar try toh karni hi chahiye!" This line has now been accentuated by yet another cult-film Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Kudos to both Farhan and Zoya Akhtar for portraying friendship the way it really exists in real life. You know you've been there, done that after watching some of the scenes in their movies.Yes, I remember my friends and I, looking at each other and bursting into guffaws for no bloody reason. Aaah...there's your moment!

Now, it's more about responsibilities, jobs, businesses; it's all about "who's-marrying-who?" or the "sooooo-not-my-type" prospective grooms and brides that we are made to meet by our parents or the ones who get lucky in love, talk about having a beautiful future together with their soul mates! But yes, gossip, confusions about The One, clothes (at least for us girls) and the very basic "hanging-out" still very much rule. Times have changed, but our interests sure haven't. And I hope they don't.

My friends, they have made my life wonderful. They are my only link to my school and college life. I connect to my past through them. They have brought out the other side in me that I never knew. Life would have been utterly boring without them. They brought out the craziness hidden somewhere inside of me. They have also been my rock, like these big-strong pillars of emotional support. And I may never find a way to thank them for being there for me. The least I can do for them is to stick with them for the rest of my life, because I think I'm quite an amazing friend too.

As for the ones, whom you have lost touch with, it's probably fate or may be it was because you were too lazy an ass to pick up the phone and call them up. But you know that you will always remember the wonderful times that you'd have spent together with them. It's anyway, hard to forget the times when your stomach must have literally hurt because of incessant laughing.
I have been there too. And I swear I'm trying to improve my "perfection" too.




Dedicated to all, who have the capability to make others smile. You are the most amazing friends.
As they say, the one who can make you smile, is truly your friend.
And to all my friends, thank you. I could not have asked for more.