Those three days

Those three days(Shashank Shrivastava) Those three days

Love sometimes is very complicated, sometimes very simple. For me it’s both. Now as I'm in love it’s quite simple for me, but it never was until I actually proposed to her. That period of time I can never forget for the rest of my live. The time when love happened for the first time. The time when her fragrance scented my whole life. The time that not only changed my life but also my point of view about the world.

I would like to share my story with you. It’s about the most interesting time of a mechanical engineering student. About how I met someone. About how I became what I am today. This short story is about how I came to know about love. And mostly this story is about those three days that changed my life forever.

The boy
My name is Atharv shrivastava. I have no shame to say that I am a very straight forward kind of person. I never actually believed in love. But as they say if you don’t believe in god doesn’t mean it’s not there. I also came to know about the same fact.
When I saw people with their partners I always thought they are trying to cheat each other. All the love stuff is just a lie. I thought how could people talk on a phone for the whole night. I thought how could a lover say all that nonsense crap shown on the TV, and all those filmy dialogs.
I always was happy with all I got in my life. I never felt that my life could be better than what it is today. I was in BE 6th semester Mechanical engineering. I was an average student. I was fun loving, joyful happy all the time. I thought there is nothing better I can get in my life.

The girl
It was a wedding when my elder cousin mayank introduced me to a girl, “Aahna saxena”. I knew what my cousin was up for. It’s quite obvious why elder brothers introduce the little ones to a girl. But I was not interested in the love stuff so I thought I could just talk and walk. Then we started.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Atharv, and you?” I replied.
“I am Aahna” she said.
She was calling me “aap” and I said no need to say that yar you can call me ‘tum’. And she smiled that was the time when I actually looked at her beautiful smile. We talked for long while, in fact in the whole wedding all we were doing was listening to each other. She was much more interesting than I thought. I couldn’t just talk and walk as I thought. In fact we exchanged our numbers.

The next day she returned to Jabalpur. Now she was gone but I started to think about her. 5 ft 3 just 3 inches smaller than me. Fair girl with a round face. She told me that some time ago she was quite fat but she didn’t look it at that time. I had never met a girl like her. she was too fun loving and sporty. She could laugh even at her problems. This thing is really rare in girls.
When she reached home we started talking every day. And that every day became twice and thrice a day. Pretty soon I started to know more and more about her. And I didn’t even knew when actually this love thing got started with me.

I don’t believe it
We started sharing views, I thought this could be the time we’d fight for the first time, because I had a point of view that never matched with anyone. But her views just got deep into my heart. Never in life before had I respected someone’s views that much. She had a bunch of qualities in her, but the thing I liked the most was her polite nature. She told me that she used to go to orphanage. I had already seen people giving lecture about helping the orphans but never actually saw someone doing it with full heart. When she was talking about them I felt that she was feeling sad for them. Like she was just about to cry by feeling their pain. I never told her but that thing touched me a lot. She loved to talk a lot. That was her favorite time pass.
Most of our views were similar but the thing we didn’t agree on was about love. I once said that I don’t believe on love at first sight. She said that when it’s meant to be then why can’t it happen at the very first sight. But I said that you need some time to understand someone. You can’t just fall in love like that. She said love doesn’t care about time. I simply said I don’t believe it.
But eventually I realized that I was doing the same thing. In just one and a half months I began to fall in love with her. But I didn’t say it right then as I was waiting for the exams. the time of exams had come really near. I had no other choice but to wait. I made plans about how I will propose to her after exams. But I never knew that destiny had other plans for me. Because those three life changing days were about to come during the exams.


Day 1
The signal
Exams are not a good time to fall in love with someone. But as Aahna said, love doesn’t know about all the efforts of instine that he did to describe time and space, love can happen anytime anywhere. I had never seen someone else coming closer to me so fast. Now I knew why they say 'falling in love'. This love has got the same feeling as we get while falling. The same feeling in the stomach. The same anxiety that something wrong will happen.
It was 13th May, I had an exam tomorrow. On 9:30 morning I was trying to memorize stuff by writing it on a piece of paper. Just then my friend Amit got into the room. he looked at the paper and shouted
“What the hell are you doing?”
The sentence “What the hell are you doing” was not so strange at exam times but Amit’s amazed face and the pitch of the shout made me surprise.
“What? I'm just memorizing stuff” I said.
“Atharv, you should look at your copy once” amit said laughing slowly.
“Atharv loves Aahna” was written all over the page. Amit was laughing as I was feeling shy upon my idiotic deed.
“You really are gone buddy” said amit looking at me with the face showing sympathy. I never told him but I hated that look. But I knew he is just teasing me.
“I was just checking my handwriting.” what a pathetic excuse I made at that time.
“Stop lying man. You were calling her name in sleep last night.”
I couldn’t reply to that but just smiled.
“Has she ever given you a signal?” asked amit as he went back to his room.
Forgetting about the entire exam thing I got into a deep thought ‘what actually could be a signal from a girl’. Her laughter or her interest in talking to me for so long. I remember she once said that she would love that if she gets a partner as understanding as me. She had said I love you several times, but right after that she laughs aloud showing that it was just a joke. I just got confused that all of it was just a coincidence or she actually was giving me signals. If I was the same Atharv as I used to be before, I would have thought that it was just a coincidence there was nothing cheesy about this. But only for her I was not that pessimistic Atharv. I really convinced myself that she was giving me signals.
But at that very moment I realized that I had never given her any signal from my side. But I never gave it much importance because I thought I will directly propose to her and surprise her just tomorrow. I forgot about the exams and decided to propose right at next day. It got 1:30 and I was thinking the same stuff where I should have been reading. Just then came her call. I picked it at the very first ring and said “h h hii”.
“h h hello” she said making fun of my response.
“Oooooo woo actually I was just about to call you and your call came just at the moment surprising me” I said laughing.
“ya-ya you were about to call me, nice sense of hummer you have. Let me guess you were doing something and I disturbed you right. Were you thinking about something?”
I thought, is she a mind reader or what. She just guesses right all the time. Maybe she would already have guessed that I love her.
“So what were you doing except thinking about me”. I said in a cheesy tone.
“I was not thinking about you but my dream boy.”
Man those words broke my heart like a glass. What was I thinking, I could never be her special one. After all what am I in front of her, just a skinny geek. Suddenly at that very moment my mind got full of anxiety.
“I am just kidding, yar. I was trying to read, I have an exam tomorrow.”
Woooooh what a relief she gave me. One moment ago I had a semi heart attack and now all my hopes were alive again. And then after we talked for about 2 hours. But for the first time I wasn’t actually listening to her because I was lost in her thoughts only. And that was the thing about her; she could talk for hours without me even participating.

When she hung up. I started thinking about how to propose to her? It feels very ridiculous that she lives so far away, and I can’t even ask her for coffee and hold her hands while proposing to her. But at last I thought, no matter that I am not close to her hands, I will just propose to her on the phone itself. I also didn’t have any other option.
I can’t explain how I got to sleep that night. The feeling of excitement was prevailing my sleep at that night. But still I went to bed because I could no more ignore the fact that I had an exam tomorrow at 10.

Day 2
All confusion worst combination
Now a day’s everything is coming in combo packs, soap free with deo, tattoo with bubblegum. I also had a combination those days, exams free with love. I barely slept last night. Since the morning I was feeling very sleepy. But I couldn’t sleep then. I thought about Aahna for all of the previous day and I had to study hard. It was already 8, exam was at 10. I read the stuff till 9:10 and then came her call. It was a very big moment for me because I knew I had to propose to her right now, I just couldn’t wait any further.
“Hiiiii good morning” she said in a sleepy voice.
The first thing that came into my mind was that she is also having an exam on 10 and she is still asleep.
“Good morning” I said. “still feeling sleepy?”
“Ya, just woke up” she replied yawning.
I thought, it’s not a good time to propose to someone. Let me just not give her a heart attack and do my thing any other time. But just then she again started talking nonstop. I thought, man this girl can talk at any time, she is just awoke and she has started the train.
I decided that when she can do talking right after waking up then why can’t she take the load of a proposal.
“hey if we will go on talking then we will forget to wish each other luck. Let’s wish first and then talk for a while.” I said.
“ok, all the best” she said in a hurry and just got ready to hear me saying the same. The best thing was that she was not in a hurry because of the exam but because she wanted to start talking right after that.
“Ya ok I LOVE YOU” I said clearly. I said it slow and clear because I didn’t want her to make me repeat it. I didn’t have the guts to do that.
But Aahna was Aahna. She was so desperate to start talking again that she didn’t even listen to the sentence, and just started to talk right after I said that.
“Ya I was saying I didn’t………” and suddenly she stopped talking and went silent. For the first time in all these months I heard her silent. I waited for 9-10 sec. but she didn’t speak. Anxiety filled my heart totally. O god what have I said! She would never like to talk to me again, I lost not only the girl I love but a very good friend of mine as well. Why is she not speaking, what is she thinking. Is she thinking that this was the only guy I thought will never get me into a trouble but like all the rest he also had done the same cheap thing. I thought I myself said that I don’t think that love can happen in such a short period of time. And now I have shown how hopeless i am by proposing to her in just 2 months. Now what will I do, how will I get her trust back, and will I ever get that same position back in her life? In those 9 sec. I thought all these heartbreaking things. I didn’t know what to do so I just laughed like she used to do after saying something cheesy.
Slowly she also started to laugh a little and said,
“Atharv, you had my heart bumping. I thought it will just blast off. I never thought you will propose to me like that.”
“So how did you think I would propose you” I asked just to check her answer.
“I never thought that you will do this. I was too surprised that I couldn’t say anything” she said.
What! she didn’t say anything because she was surprised. Oooooooo I am such a big fool, why did I ever have to laugh. I should have waited. I was now crying on my laughter.
“So what were you about to say?” I asked.
“Why will I tell you that? After all you didn’t actually propose me.”
Both of us laughed for some time and then we hung up.
I decided the first plan was good, I will propose to her after the completion of exams, which meant 7 days later.

I got ready and left the room in a hurry. It was already 9:30 and I had to pick up a friend of mine for the exam. I picked her up but didn’t say anything because I was lost in aahna’s thoughts. We got to the exam hall without saying a word to each other. She went for her class, I was standing on the parking singing some old love songs, rubbing my head and doing all the things that a stupid Hindi movie hero does. I got into the class just 5 min before the time.

Everyone was looking at the invigilator mam. Because she was the bomb of that college. But I was busy thinking about Aahna. I remember she came to distribute paper but I didn’t see her. I just started with the exam paper. First and second questions got well but the third question made me fall in her thoughts again. I remember when I was reading the same question at home; I was talking to Aahna at the same time. I just started thinking what were we talking about, and my hands started writing automatically. I think my hands still remembered that I was in an exam hall. When that question was done and I was also done thinking about her I looked at the sheet. Not a single word I found that was written by me. I thought that goddess saraswati herself had written all that stuff. I repeated the same procedure for the rest of the questions until 65% of the question paper completed. But then all the questions seemed non familiar to me. I didn’t know what to do so I just left all those remaining questions and left the examination hall. If the same would have happened to me some months ago I would have cried like a baby. Or at least I would feel sad at this. But at that time I was feeling good because now I could go home fast and talk to her again. At that day I realized something... that exams + love is the worst combination in the whole world. On the way back to home I still was thinking about her and was not paying attention either to the road or to my friend sitting behind me. I avoided 3 road accidents on the way. My friend shouted on me for at least 20 min. for this.

After 1:30 pm we started talking again. After sometime she reminded me that tomorrow was the birthday of my cousin mayank (who introduced us for the first time). We started talking about the plans to wish him. I said let’s make him bakra.
“Let’s call him at midnight and say that we are committed now. We will say that I proposed you this morning and you said yes.”
“Hmmmmm that’s a really great idea. But when will we tell him the truth?” She asked, her pitch was very low while asking this.
“Just at the time when he will be about to hang up the phone” I replied in an exited manner.
“Fine then we will talk at night, I have some work to do.” She said right after I finished.
“Ok babiiiiiiiiiiii”
And she hung-up. And I started to plan for the night to make my brother bakra.



Day 3
Who would have thought that
New dawn, new day, new life. 12 at night, the date was changed, it was 15th May. The birthday of my cousin. I should be excited to wish him, but all I was excited for was to talk to Aahna again. Never before i had talked to her so late at night. I had already made plans to tease my cousin. I called Aahna.
“hey are you ready to wish him and make him bakra” I said.
“ya it will be fun, he always makes fun of me by taking your name. he says that you talk to him for so long, you seriously are in love with him. It’s time we enjoy teasing him.” She replied in an exciting manner.
So it was all set. I called my brother at 12:30. I made the call then because I thought everybody else would already have wished him. He picked the call in 5-6 rings. And the train started.
“Hello” mayank said in a formal manner. It was amazing that he said that. He always says “ha be bol” usually. Maybe he said that because it was his birthday.
“Hello bhaiya” Aahna and I said together.
“Very very happy birthday” we continued.
“Thank you thank you. What’s the matter, both of you called together? Something cheesy?” he asked.
“You know all the things yar. So Aahna you will tell him or should I?” I asked Aahna.
“I am feeling shy, you go on tell it”. What an actor she was. I couldn’t believe that she was so real.
“Bhaiya, yesterday morning I proposed to her and she said yes. We are committed now.” I said making my voice as excited as I could.
“Ok you guys are faster than I thought. Propose in just 2 months. That’s a good birthday present.” He said.
“See how much we care for you” I said teasing him. But he was a player, we thought we will tease mayank by saying romantic stuff to each other but he was the one teasing us by making as much fun as he could make.
“Ok now my two tanha friends are no more alone. What a pair a lallu and a gadhu.” He said. I felt a bit frustrated because I was handling him alone all this time, meantime Aahna just went silent.
Mayank said “why are you so silent my tanha bahjiya”. Ya tanha bhajiya he used to call Aahna like that. I thought that he also noted that Aahna is silent. Both of us were amazed that why the super talking never stopping girl is silent.
“What would I say? I am just feeling very shy to say anything,” She said.
Ooooohhhhooooo what an acting, what a dialog she gave, no one could guess that she was just joking.
“You are feeling shy.” Even mayank got amazed.
Then my cousin started giving gyan over the love stuff as he is used to. That’s the most ridiculous thing about him. He would never stop giving idiotic philosophies over love. And after all that he said, ooooo god what a crap it really was.
“See now that you are in love don’t tell it in your home. They will be angry about it.” He said.
I thought, “why in the world I would not tell it to my mom when I will really propose her. I have got the most understanding mom in the whole world. She herself had given me the permission to make a girlfriend. And I told her about Aahna, that I talk to her. And she her too.”
“see both of you know that there is no love in the world, you know each other, you feel good with each other, so you are now together, take it like that and you will be happy” he talked the shit again.
I didn’t say anything as it was his birthday and the real proposal thing was still to happen after exams. But I was feeling that where did he get all that crap from. I thought “I don’t know why you think that there is nothing like love in this world. Maybe you have never been in love with anyone." Just then I remembered that a girl broke his heart and he became like this since then. Ok now I knew why he was saying all that. "What else to expect from a diljala aashiq.”
He was just not giving up the whole lecture that seemed as pathetic as his sleepy voice. But just then I realized that it is a really good opportunity to say all the things that I wanted to say. If she would feel bad about this I will say that I was just acting.
I said, “bhaiya today I was I a super hurry for the exams, I proposed her but didn’t say what I wanted to say to her.”
“So what are you waiting for, just go on.” He replied as expected.
I started, “Aahna, sorry for not saying how much I love you. When I first heard you your voice got deep into my heart. When you behave like a child I feel that wish I was near you so I could just kiss your cheeks. I know that I don’t call you much, it’s you who call me all the time, but that doesn’t mean that I am not thinking about you. All the time I wait for your call. I feel good when you talk. I feel real sad when you say that everything just goes wrong with me. I wish I was there in Jabalpur when I proposed to you so that I could just look into your eyes as you look in mine.”
Oooooo I said everything I wanted to say and then I was waiting for her response but the one responding was mayank.
“I would have felt the same for namita; she would have never left me.”
I thought “now you know that love is not crap my brother, it’s all crap in your mind itself.”
And then Aahna said “I just don’t know what to say, it’s just that I love you so much.” She said nothing more than that. Her voice was too heavy while saying this. I felt that she was about to cry. Is this acting, I mean why would she cry during acting? What was going on?
We talked for sometime more and then mayank said I gotta go. I said “hey let's tell him the truth then.”
“No no. aaa bhaiya happy birthday.” Said Aahna.
“Ok now you will hide your stuff from me.” said mayank, the fake love guru.
I handled the situation and said “no no what is to hide. Actually bhaiya I was the one told her to wish you with me otherwise she wasn’t about to call you at night. This is the thing.”
“I liked the respectful way you talked to me today Aahna.” Said mayank.
“Bhaiya may the god’s will be with me so that I can talk in the same manner ever since now.” She said. Her voice almost crying.
I thought, that just can’t be acting it was hell real. Now that is called a real signal.
Mayank just laughed slowly and then he left the conference. I thought what to say now. I waited for 1 or 2 min. she also was just silent. All this time I thought what has happened to her why is she not talking. She should just laugh at all the joke thing.
“Hello are you there?” I checked.
“Ya ya I am here” she whispered.
“Why didn’t you tell him the truth at last” I was eager to know why she made me stop to say the truth.
“I don’t know. He was too happy about us. I just couldn’t say it.” She replied. Now I definitely knew what was in her mind. But after all she was a girl I couldn’t predict her even though the things were so clear. But still I gathered my guts to say,
“I also couldn’t say the truth because I don’t actually know what the real truth is.” I said without actually knowing what does it mean. I just said it because I wanted to.
“Me too” the all time talking champ aahna was making it short and sweet for the first time in her life.
“Aahna, I want to say something. If it wasn’t the exams I would have told you.” I said.
“Forget about the exams Atharv” she replied.
“Our studies may get spoiled.” I said.
“I’ll take care of my study, you do the same. Just say it.” She said. Her voice was so heavy that if I won’t propose her now she would cry aloud.
“Aahna when we were talking to mayank bhaiya I was not acting at all. Everything I said was real.” I said
“Me too” she said.
“I really adore and respect you a lot” I said.
“Me too” she said. I thought she might be feeling that why am I taking so long to say it.
“Aahna neither I have said it to someone else, nor do I know how to say it but I seriously love u a lot.” I said. She again gave me the same silence that she gave me yesterday morning.
But now I knew she is silent because she is happy and she couldn’t say anything. Again in this silence time my heart was beating like a time bomb. It was just about to explode. I could feel my heart hitting my ribcage as hard as it could. It soon started to pain in my chest and could no more wait.
“Come on Aahna, I am on my knees waiting for your answer.” I said.
“I love you too.” Finally those three words came out of her mouth. I wish I would have switched on the voice recorder because she said it in such a funny manner that I could never forget. She said it hard and rough like she was throwing a stone. But later she explained that at that time she couldn’t utter a word, yet she had to say that, so it sounded rough.


Something I want to say
Now we are in love since a long time. Both of our families know about all this. We are very happy with each other. Yes we fight a lot but hey fights are the best form of love. I fight with her because I know that she will say sorry, she feels the same. Something I realized after proposing to her is that mutual understanding is as important as love for the survival of a good relationship. Love has taught me too many things about life, about managing time, about importance to someone and much more. My point of view has really changed now, I am no more the same straight forward Atharv. Now I feel jealous when someone looks at her, and I like when she feels the same jealousy. Now I don’t think that all partners are trying to cheat each other, but I think that sometime ago I was cheating myself to be thinking all that crap. I will say that everybody should fall in love because “falling in love makes your heart rise like sun and fly like a bird”. Now that I myself have experienced it I can say it’s the most beautiful feeling in the world. Before love I thought that there was nothing better I can get from life, but now everyday I think that what better will life give me tomorrow?