ENDLESS FOREVER

 She was caroling and shy of turning seventeen in a couple of months. She was not an archetypal nineties teenager, conformative. She was a mutineer, sailing away from the world into hers. She was untamed, arrogant, hot-headed – she was entitled, she was a genius, talented! A long way from humbling experiences yet to come.

All her cousins were aiding each other with the henna that night. She was sitting in one corner, on a staircase of 4 stairs, clothed in a black top with white, little flowers and the top tucked into her pink shorts. Drawing some random leaves on her right hand with the henna, she felt a shadow looming towards her.

She turns to her right, thinking about this thirty years later and laughing to herself that he did not know how to begin a tête-à-tête. She was swagger enough to disregard his presence without realizing her world was going to turn upside down in less than two days.

Come next day, there were various ceremonies for the wedding, but she is there only for her best friend, her cousin’s younger sister. She is clothed in a humble “salwar-kameez”, her hair tied up in a half ponytail, posing in front of everyone’s cameras, seeking as much attention as possible. She has no recollection of any other event of the day until the night. The night was filled with music and dancing. She unreservedly got drawn towards him; he lit up the room with music and bad jokes, really bad jokes; she would not have laughed at his jokes on any other day, still shutting her eyes to what she was feeling for him.

The wedding day was rained on. People spent the whole day draining the water from the courtyard while the wedding couple was busy getting married and the rest, celebrating their union ship.

He was there.

She was noticing him all along and smiling to herself, mocking herself for feeling what she was. She was logical, she was the genius in school and at home, she was the wise one, and she had a bright future – how could she even allow herself to sweep away! But here she is - in love!

He left without saying goodbye. She did not know if she will see him again but set her heart to.

A few weeks later, her mother finds a bunch of pink, floral, scented envelopes inside her books – there were hundreds.

She had poured her heart out in those letters; she loved him endlessly forever.

She had dismayed her parents, unaccepting of her feelings but they knew too she was not going to stop!

They did think it was avoidable since she would not see him anymore; she has a whole life ahead of her – she chose love.

Two years later, they meet again at another wedding, and she knows, she knows this was an endless forever. She knows he feels the same way, perhaps he was crazier for her than she was for him.

Three days go by in the blink of an eye, and he leaves again – without saying goodbye.

A few more weeks and it is the summer holidays. She is hanging out with her best friend, her cousin.  Indian teenage girls have a peculiar chuckle. The girls giggled their way out of the house and saw the mailman, clutched the postcard off him addressed to her mother, started reading it together, and turned it over.

It says he is getting engaged.

This is her first step into the real world. He left again without saying goodbye and this time, endless forever.