He is a fantastic person; humble, sarcastic, jovial, endearing person who could play excellent football as well. Most beloved among everybody around him… People used to say ‘nothing can go wrong with him, yet if it goes, he’ll get the best out of it and make things under his feet’…because he is supposed to be the Perfectionist!!
Aniruddha, or simply Ani, as we all call him, is single and always takes things like love, attraction, emotions in the most ironic way as he could. He has his own concepts of relationships which were very moral, logical, sort of ideal but only good on paper, speculative or simply ‘filmy’. He would argue you about one who’s drastically changed over a girl, one who’s ditching someone and going after another, wasting money for gals etc. Seeing you disagreed with your own views on love, relationships, used to give him a great pleasure and sense of moral victory.
But from few days back, he was being very averse from these kinds of discussions… he left hanging out with us, frequently, as he used to do. Ani started to leave from college very early; he suddenly found sitting for lectures very boring. Our surprise came to an end one day, when we caught Ani and Neha, our one fellow classmate, sitting in a nearby coffee shop. Next day, he told us, formally that he was going around with Neha and he liked her a lot. So, from then onwards, it was very common to see the changes like, being on phone for hours, bunking the college and finding him in that coffee shop, skipping our hang outs, etc. Their love story blossomed in a week, with lots of meetings in Barista, lots of hours on phone. He always used to tell us, ‘she’s so different than other girls’, ‘very caring n’ sweet’, ‘I’m very lucky to have Neha etc’. We didn’t find anything special in her, but the truth was, ‘Ani liked Neha’! A constant conflict between his two minds was making him nervous. He was the one who used to make fun of people in ‘Baseless, impractical, immature Relation’ and now he was passing through the same phase, Balancing between own inner image of himself and the one which he shaped before people, us.
One month later…………
“Please don’t go now… I want to talk a lot with you… wait for some more time!”
“Don’t talk with me… you can go and enjoy your football and your friends…I mean nothing to you anyways!” she said the last words so loudly that Ani felt very embarrassed. “I love you dear…But try n’ understand, we’ve our match tomorrow, we had to practice…….” Cutting his sentence she got up and said “give me a call at 12 exactly, not a single second late…bye…that’s your punishment…mind you, not a single second late.” Ani sat helplessly on the couple’s seat of coffee shop looking her go out so ruthlessly. He sat for few more minutes and left shop thinking of how weird one can act. Ani walked down the street thinking of that day when Neha came to him praising his football skills. “I loved your brilliant play today…you couldn’t manage to score a goal but still your game was excellent!!” The conversation started with this appreciation then turned into lots of chats, discussions, ended up with hours of ‘sweet nothings’ on phone. He thought he’s found the ultimate love he was searching for, in just few days. Now he was so poignant! How lucky he felt that day when she said ‘YES’…., Ani recollected his small period of romance with a solid kick on a dead cold drink can on footpath. It was certainly not going in the right way; the luck was certainly not on his side, one month of relation gave him very few happy days, he had to spin it off, get over the situation. After long rational, logical thinking, he came to a decision.
Ani suddenly got up at 11-50.remembering about the call. He thanked god for waking him up on time… Ani went to bathroom, splashed water on his face. He was very nervous…what will she say? This is not the first time but still…will it be alright in the end? I don’t want time-pass relation anymore; it has to be a serious one! She’s so sweet; it’s just that we would need time to get along…reminding him to be positive, he finally moved towards phone; Dialed the numbers…phone rang… “Hello”
“Happy birthday, Priya!” he whispered “Its exact 12’o clock, not a single second late”
“Thanks a lot!” she said “You are very punctual! I was expecting your call!”
“I know! So what is your answer? I’m waiting and dying to listen”
“The answer is what you expect dear…YES!!!”
“I knew it” he said “I love you!”
“I love you too!!”
So this was Ani…life asked him to move on and he did it with the smartest and practical way he could…the perfectionist!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
He followed a famous filmy dialogue,
“Never run after a bus, train and girl; because, if you miss one, you will get another in sometime!!” ;)
