True Love

Another Write India story with the prompt given highlighted in Bold below.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/writeindia/authors/authorstorysubmission/46355452.cms#passage
Prompt given by Preethi Shenoy

She willed herself to not check her phone to see if he had replied. It had been about three days now. She hated that she was constantly checking his 'last seen at' status and yes, he had logged in just five minutes ago. Yet she couldn't stop herself. This sinking feeling to find absolutely no communication from him was becoming unbearable, almost torturous.

And then, just as she sat down in her chair, her phone vibrated. With her heart thudding in her ear, she unlocked her phone and stared at the screen. Finally! It was his message.

But when she opened it and read it, she nearly stopped breathing. She didn't know if he was joking or not. What was this?

She looked at the watch he had gifted her this Valentine’s Day. The beautiful pink watch in the shape of heart had a beautiful girl in her white wedding gown and a handsome guy in his neatly ironed brown suit with a red tie, for the minute and hours’ hand. Every one hour in a day, the two would be on top of each other and exchange their love for each other. How cute, she thought and once again felt proud of the romantic thoughts of him and kissed at the treasured gift of hers and felt safest when it was tied around her wrist. But when again the message flashed in her mind, she began pondering over it and thought if she had she been too stubborn this time. Should she have been little bit more flexible, she wondered.

They had earlier also had many arguments, but their mutual love for one another had always won over their arguments. Her thoughts went back to the days when they practiced the whole day in the music club of their college. She was the college troupe’s lead female singer and he the drummer. Music brought them together. They spoke to each other about music for long hours. They were seen all over the college campus talking about the Raga’s Thalas, Keerthanas and the musicians. Gossip mongers were doing the rounds, scribbling on the bathrooms about the affair between the two, when there was actually nothing of that sort in their minds. Without their knowledge slowly as the days passed, the topics crossed the border line and started becoming more personal. College cultural events always laid special milestones in their life. While planning for college cultural events, invariably there used to be heated exchange on song, singer and band selection, song sequencing and he always after many rounds of war of words, not only agreed to her suggestions, but also persuaded others to fall in line. This was what made her fall in love with him. She feels happy even now, when she remembers the day, she herself wrote in the college canteen walls - her name followed by his name Gita Raghav. Also it was one of the college cultural events day, when he had proposed to her and she gave her consent.

The final year college cultural meet was the place where her parents met his family and mutually agreed to get them both married. The day is green in her memories, when the whole college was gossiping about this meeting. Really she was far ahead of her times, she thought now with pride.

She remembered the days when they started applying for jobs with a greater aim of settling down with each other at the earliest as this was one of the conditions laid down by the parents. She wanted to settle down in Chennai, as she was born and brought up there, while he wanted to move to Bangalore. Again the heated discussions on where to settle down. Fortunately she got a great offer with a big MNC in Chennai, but as luck would have it, he got a job with a company in Bangalore. Finally it was he who forgo the offer to find an alternative in Chennai and shifted to Chennai to pursue her dreams. Once they were settled in jobs, a small wedding ceremony was organized, which united them and opened them the doors to start and live the life they wanted to live. The journey had been beautiful since then. He treated her like a princesses always and still treats her so. But why this reply, was what worried her.

They lived a cherished life in Singara Chennai. Both of them took a joint loan and purchased a small flat and named it TARA, which was a combination of GiTA and RAghav. She cursed herself now for being so career oriented all through and wondered why she was so hard in pursuing her professional dreams. She re-winded the days when she would endlessly sit to pursue higher studies to quickly reach her way to glory, while he would assist with the house work, take the kids to the park nearby for a play and attend to his call of duty as well. A well rounded person, truly who nicely balanced all the roles he was assigned by the Almighty. 

There were always fights over who would prepare the breakfast, lunch, dinner, who would attend the parent-teachers meeting, who would baby sit, who would do the grocery shopping and all the time, she managed to win the fight. There were times she wanted to evade these and there were times, she wanted to do these chores, in either case she won, or rather, he lost for her. But why this message now. She was almost in tears, as the message lingered in her mind again and again.

Though she was a working women and a strong personality, she always looked up-to him for guidance and never went anywhere without him. She was poor in sense of direction and always lost her way, when she attempted alone anywhere. He also felt satisfied to accompany his darling anywhere anytime and never felt it like a task that needed to be completed. He was secretly yearning for any situation just to be with her and spend time with her. She was his lucky charm and left all decisions to her. Even very small decisions on where to purchase rice, or which cake to select for birth day party or what to order when they go to a restaurant, everything was decided by her and there was a happy consent from him. He had so much in love with her, that he would even wear, eat and do what was decided by her for him. The dress he wears, the car he drives, the paper he reads, the cellphone he uses, is chosen by her. Something hurt him deeply when she didn’t make a choice for him and the same feeling of hurt, was what she felt, when he chose something for himself. Really the two were a romantic couple who got on like house on fire.

There was nothing which stopped their romantic journey. Kids, Career, Money, Relatives everything brought in more problems between them, but love prevailed. Both of them had great understanding for each other and were unstoppable in their pursuit for ultimate glory as far as love life was concerned. Each problem that came in the journey, helped them strengthen their love, prove others and to themselves how deeply in love they were with each other. But this message, was not what she expected from him. Has something gone wrong. She wondered again and again.

This was the first time, she was away from him and that too this far. There were many situations in their life journey, when they faced the question of relocating and staying apart from each other for a while. But they faced all such situations boldly and never parted from each other. Career progression, kids, fame, money, kids’ education nothing could part them, even for a small period. Now what was she doing? She feared the world might mistake, if she refused to come down. Since due to various financial reasons, he could not accompany him. But she only persuaded him also saying that she needs to come here for this short trip as otherwise the world would talk ill of them. But now she wondered, why was she here, when he was there? She cursed herself for taking this decision. She must not have left him alone. She must have been with him only, irrespective of what the world says. She cried loud and thought to herself what blunder she had committed. Will he never pardon her? Was he angry? Was he never going to talk to me? Million fearful thoughts ran on her mind. She tried calling his number, but failed from the day she landed here. No one was helping her to call, as probably they all thought things would slowly settle down. They didn’t want to aggravate this loneliness feeling by making them talk again and again. Perhaps they were all scared that, if both of them spoke, they would change their minds and come together again. Everyone is selfish and more interested in self.

Now that she read his message, she was desperate to call him, but call never went through. This WhatsApp seemed to be a one way channel and she never used it earlier. She never felt the need to know about all this, as for her she had taken for granted that she would be with him and he would anyway know all this.

In the meanwhile he was also crying to himself for having taken the decision to send her so far away, that too when he needed her the most. He purposefully did not reply to her message and that too after three days when decided to reply, gave her a harsh reply telling her just a single word NO. He cried to himself and was going through a pain as if some vital body part of his was cutout from his body. The togetherness that they were enjoying as a couple cannot be described by words.

She couldn’t take it anymore. Whatever the world thinks, she decided that she would act, as directed by her heart, her heart which was overflowing with love for him always. She opened the door and came out and told her daughter that she couldn’t do this and wanted to return back to India at once. She told her that she was happy to see her grandchild, but was somehow finding it difficult to stay back as promised for another six months to be with her and take care of the baby. He daughter was taken aback, as they had shelled huge bucks to bring her hear after having prolonged discussions with her and him, to help her out on this. But having seen her parents from the beginning, she was happily surprised when her mom, consented to come with her. She was always expecting the unexpected from her mom and this was yet another example, as was her consent to come with her.

She could hear her son-in-law talk cheaply about her sincere, mutual, affection for her husband. But she didn’t mind it and was only looking forward to fly back to India, as she only knew that a NO from him, meant as YES to her question on whether he was expecting her to return back to India in next flight. For a moment though the NO shocked her, she slowly realized what a balanced person he was. He was under tremendous pressure to keep her wife, daughter, son-in-law and the grandchild happy and the only was he could do it was to suffer all by himself. His noble sacrifice to send her with her daughter’s family and be alone, might not sound a big deal to many out there, who see this happening always. But for the kind of life they lived and the love they poured on each other and the affection that flowed between them, this was huge sacrifice. Her daughter understood this, admist the various mocks from her husband and his family, who failed to understand what true love is. But she knew that her Mom and her Dad lived a life which was beyond comparison with anyone and there could be no greater punishment that separating them in their old age, as they cannot live without each other.

She was thankful that god provided this opportunity to once again discover the love she shared with her husband. She was waiting for the flight to land and reach home. She had not told him, that she would be coming back. So she was waiting to see the surprise in his face while she would press the calling bell. She quickly collected the luggage and took the call taxi and hurried back home. It was early morning hours when she entered the apartment premises and found the lights of TARA where on. She thought to herself, how he might have felt lonely and didn’t get a sleep and was awake so early in the morning. When she pressed the calling bell, he opened the door with a hot cup of filter coffee, which she liked most and asked told her” Just now I checked that the flight is on time and that it landed safely. You must be tired, have your favorite filter coffee first”

Tears rolled out of her eyes and his too. Their each move was known to each other and while she flew back home after reading a NO reply, he was waiting for her to come back, after sending a NO answer to her question asking, if she needs to return back. This is true love, which is beyond words, beyond distance, beyond facial expressions, beyond anything else in the world. It flows between hearts of two people united by love and who live as a single soul.

They both hugged each other and did not bother on mocking world around them, who mocked at their love, saying both of them wanted to romance in this age, when they actually had to attend to the grandchildren. No stopping true LOVE.