h2>Dating : Love or not, I’m your past
“Get up Ravi, god damn it! Get up!!!!”
Ravi was lying on the floor, thick red blood all dried up. Nisha was shaking his immobile body with utmost power. He has been dead for hours. And no one knew. Nisha was furiously running around the huge hall murmuring his name. She panickingly called his parents & the police. Threw her mobile on the floor and again runs towards Ravi, who is long gone. Not knowing what to do, she screamed his name on top of her voice. Her heart was not beating, it was running a marathon.
Ravi was a depressed soul, as described by everyone who knew him. He was as tall as a pine tree, always wore a white shirt and navy blue trousers. He loved his sonata wristwatch gifted by his only love; his grandmom. Long nose, thick black eyes, oval face with a narrow smile made him look stern.
One day he met Nisha, peachy complexion, round face with dimples which made her smile vibrant. Their meeting was arranged by their parents and within no time they got hitched. It was a happy marriage. That is what everyone felt at least. On a cold winter night of 1997, after two years of a happy relationship, Nisha gave birth to an angel. Ravi took that little bundle of joy into his arms and with teary eyes uttered a strange name, Cristina!
Nisha and Ravi’s parents were spellbound. Nisha was open-minded and did not mind naming their creation associated with any religion. She just thought Ravi liked that name and never gave it a thought.
On Cristina’s seventh birthday. The whole house was decorated with colorful ribbons & helium balloons. The house smelled like butterscotch cake, baked specially by her Grandmom. Cristina’s friends were present with all kinds of gifts. Amidst all that she ran into the house to call her dad only to find her mom screaming and dad lying in blood. She was perplexed by the cinematic scene.
Hours, days, weeks, years passed, Cristina has become a woman. She lost her mom at a tender age. After Ravi’s death, Nisha just could not live. It is Cristina’s day today, she will be a graduate. She was impatiently searching for her mom’s graduation day picture so as to replicate by taking a similar picture. There she stumbles upon an old, half-burnt diary. She opens the thick cover and says,
“OMG!!!! WTF!!!! It is dad’s picture”.
“But how in the seven hells he is smiling in this picture”.
“I never saw him smiling in any of the albums with mom”.
“AAAAHHHH, he looks so handsome”.
It was indeed Ravi’s handwritten diary, which was intentionally burnt but saved by someone, who might want it to be saved.
Cristina started reading her dad’s memory.
“It was in the middle of spring, I first saw her. It was love at first sight and fall at second. First time I met her in the woods when we went camping from school. The second time, I locked my eyes when the wind was blowing and she was holding her violet satin skirt in the middle of a harsh windy day. The third time she came to me with an ice cream cone when I was sitting on a sea shore immersed in my deep thoughts. She called my name, out of nowhere and it was all I could hear. The waves in her hair, the calmness in her eyes, made me dive in her soul and peek into her heart. Although I was just looking at her with my bare eyes, I could feel her magical love rays striking me..She was in a hurry, I insisted her to meet me at my friend’s coffee bar the next day. Her parents were strict, she somehow managed to jump through her window and came to meet me. I asked Santosh to click a picture of us and………..
“Oh shit!!!!!!”, exclaimed Cristina taking a deep breath. “The page is missing, what could have happened after that. Who is that person in the diary with my dad? Mom would have been very upset if she knew all this”, she spoke to herself. Sitting there in complete shock Cristina again took a look at the last name “Santosh”. “Is that uncle Santosh, dad’s best friend? I should go and talk to him right now”, decided Cristina.
With wide blue eyes, pointing towards the 3rd page of the diary, Cristina asked Santosh, “uncle, do you know who this person is, mentioned in dad’s diary?” Santosh was flabbergasted by the question. He never expected Cristina would one day come and ask about his childhood friend’s girlfriend. Santosh admitted knowing the mysterious person. Santosh explained, “Ravi was on cloud nine and always greeted me with a smile after he met her. He was never the same. I could see a completely changed Ravi.” Cristina was almost in tears and asked, “Then what happened, why did they break up?” Santosh with a heavy heart said, ”she left! She left without uttering a word to him! She ditched him! That’s what I know”.
Cristina left for home sobbing. On one hand she was sad for her dad’s love story and on the other hand, she thought, at least he met her mom and so she was born. She couldn’t sleep that night and again took that diary out and started reading.
“Let’s go for a movie, I asked. She said “No”. She is a shy person. Never comes to any party nor meets any of my friends. But that’s okay, I love her and she loves me.” Ravi wrote on the 50th page. “I have told mom about how deep our love is and she’s more than happy. I have promised mom that I will arrange a meeting with my love tomorrow. Let us see how she reacts!!!”
The diary’s pages were burnt after that. “Oh ********!, Why god why, She ran towards her grandmom’s room at 12 0’clock in the night and started banging the door. Granny was in utter shock. Cristina asked as to what happened that day and granny also told her the unbelievable truth.
“Ravi was very excited that day and made all the arrangements. I and your granddad were waiting to welcome her, but she never appeared. That day I saw Ravi breaking into pieces. He waited for her for hours together but she did not even inform what happened. She left him without a word. He shattered”, grandma with her red, angry face, explained it to Cristina.
Cristina went into her room, crying like a baby. That night was the longest in her life. For a moment every thought disappeared from her mind and only one string struck her, “If someone wanted to burn this memory, who saved it”, she gasped.
“Oh my my! Is this the same diary which mom mentioned on her last day. So it was mom, who saved it. It means she knew everything. Oh god, how did she endure the devastating pain? How could she just hide the pain under her smile alwaysssssss.. Oh God give me answers!”, cried Cristina.
The Next day uncle Santosh gave her a picture of her dad wrapping his arms around nothing! As if he’s holding someone invisible to our eyes. Cristina with a question mark on her face asked uncle Santosh, “Why are you playing games with me, uncle?”. Santosh with a gloomy face spoke, “this is the last picture Ravi couriered me before slitting his wrist”. Everything stopped breathing. In complete silence, Cristina’s tear fell on the frame.
She turned the picture frame and saw a name engraved on it
CRISTINA
The love of my life
September 1994
Yes! You might be right,what do you think? Was she imaginary or for real?
