OF SOMETHING CALLED LOVE ….
The love story of a Brahmin boy …. It’s complicated.
PROLOGUE
She stared at me as if I was an enemy . But I knew it was my last chance. Even under such strenuous circumstance I could not help but notice how beautiful she looked in formals. I had never seen her in formals. Strange… …I always thought girls looked best in sarees . But boy o boy!!! Was she looking great in formals? I wanted to ponder over her beauty for a little longer, when suddenly she shouted , “ Prakarsh … my interview starts in ten minutes . What are you doing here. ?”
I knew it had to be done today . For many years I had kept my mouth shut , looking for the right chance . I did not know if this was the right chance but I knew it had to be now.
“ I just want to say …”
“yes……. ?”
“That I love you.”
For a moment, everything froze . I could see some boys staring at me and talking in hushed voices . Just a few meters away from her stood a man who was talking with a group of overzealous students. But my eyes were just looking at her .
“You came all the way to say this? ”
I did not know what to say. For me it was not just ‘this’. It meant my life to me.
“ It is too late Prakarsh . I … I love someone already.”
And then I could hear no more ………………..
Chapter 1:
TO HACK OR NOT TO HACK.
Sushovan Roy was the placement co –ordinator of the Indian Institute of Welfare and Management in Kolkata . He and his team had a huge responsibility of getting all of us placed . But today as he stood with me at the entrance of the Wipro building in Sector V , Saltlake , he had a bigger responsibility on his XXL shoulders . He looked at me in a way he always did when I forced him to do a thing against his wish . “ Aap na legend hai legend .” Then he sniggered like a monkey .
I looked at him with venomous eyes . “Aapka love life settle ho gaya hai na ? Ab please mere pe concentrate kijiye .”
“Is it necessary to do this ? You can just send him a friend request on FB or Gtalk .”
“As if I didn’t try . That goat didn’t accept my request .”
Sushovan was in no mood to relent .
“ Send him a request from a fake girl account . Use a sexy profile pic .” He winked and then he sniggered again .
I took out a piece of paper from my bag and thrust it right infront of his face .
“ Wow , wow … you have made 27 fake ids . Let me see …. sexysarina@gmail.com , eroticreshma @yahoo.com . You know not for nothing are you the events coord of our batch . You have got one heck of imagination .”
I smiled at him impishly . “ You didn’t look at the 26th one .”
“ boobs4u@hotmail.com.... Wow… my god .. this is great… boobs … and hotmail .. wow . Tiwari ji Aap legend hai . “
And then he started laughing like a monkey. In geography I had once read that our ancestors were monkeys. As I saw him laughing, I was convinced there was some substance to that assertion.
“When will he come?”, I asked looking at my watch .
“ Just a second . He is coming in ten minutes . But seriously Prakarsh do you think you need to hack that guy’s account for this .”
Somehow the question troubled me. Grandfather always said that you become a Brahmin by your actions first and then by your birth. I knew what I was about to do would not qualify as Brahminical among the God community .
“I gulped some of the carbondioxide polluted Sector V air and replied .
“ Yes I think that is the only way I can know if they are a couple .”
“ Why don’t you hack into her account ? I mean if you can give me her family names and some of her favourite words even I can run a VB or a Unix script . “
“Please .. don’t you have any ethics ? Hack into some girls account .”
“Yaa right .” He didn’t say more . He knew he had done enough to take myself onto a guilt trip .
I wanted tell him that I knew it was wrong, I wanted to tell him that a part of my heart did not want to do it . But I knew I would never have peace if I did not know if Rishika had a boy friend .Rishika Bhardwaj …. The girl I loved ………………………………
I had first noticed Rishika when she laughed very loudly . She was sitting on the third bench of the third row two blocks away from me . That’s when I first noticed her . Boy o boy was she pretty ? She was the most popular girl of her batch no doubt . A large part of the reason was obviously her looks . She looked like an angel . Black eyes , a smile you could kill for , teeths so white , you knew that she was born to star in some tooth paste commercial , and hair … uff that hair … She had this habit of tying her hair in a bun after the recess . I don’t know why she did it . She looked good either ways . I remember how I would quickly finish my lunch and then stealthily look at her and wait for the ritual to start . And then she , almost nonchalantly would take out her red clutcher ,twist her hair in some strange fashion and then put the clutcher on them … Boy o boy .. God had spend some time making her .
O… I almost forgot . I did not introduce to you the protagonist of this story … me . That’s the advantage of telling your own story . You can become a hero almost without any objection .I am Prakarsh Tiwari . I graduated into a C.B.S.E board school after passing my matriculation because there were no good schools in our area . So I got myself admitted to Kendriya Vidyalaya , Ichapur . Cool school , cool campus and yes …. Rishika .
Sushovan looked at his watch once again . And then I saw him smiling . A lanky guy , wearing shades and a Wipro tag that was vacillating almost as if to draw attention to itself . Harsh Seksraia , Senior Systems engineer , Wipro .
He gave Sushovan a piece of paper . “ Kya boss yeh hacking ka dhandha kabse shuru kar diye .”
Sushovan replied , “ Its for him . Nothing illegal , so don’t worry .”
“It took me three days to come up with the script . Its not a very strong one .. par luck accha raha toh kaam ho jaaega.” Then he stared at me . IT professionals have this talent of recognizing a person who doesn’t belong to their fraternity .
“ Hi , I am Prakarsh .”
He returned a feeble smile and disappeared . Sushovan put the paper in his bag.
“ I will run the script on Friday . Till then please don’t disturb me . “, he said .
I returned to the institute . I was the senior events coordinator of our batch and hence was really gearing up my team for the forth coming event of our Bschool , INSIGHT, a corporate panel discussion . I entered the events room . The junior events team were busy calling corporates for the event . Shreya Dasgupta , the junior events co ordinator looked at me and said , “ Prakarsh , Mr. Sinha of IBM is not coming . He has some work .”
I was not listening to her . Sushovan’s words were still ringing in my ear . Was I going too far ……
Rishika was a FaceBook maniac . Into her final year of post graduation in BHU ,Benaras, yet she managed to find time to grow wheat in her Farmville and kill goons in Mafia Wars. It was on her wall that I first saw the profile picture of Hitesh Shukla , the boy who’s account I was about to hack .
Initially I thought they were just friends . But then when I found out that he too lived in Benaras , I wondered what this was all about . “Loved watching the movie with you .” “ You looked fab in the black suit. “ “The treat is on me . Any day for a beauty like you .” Those were just some of the few lines that this guy had conjured up on her FACEBOOK wall . Lines that I hoped one day I would have the courage to write . As days passed I had become obsessed with this guy . I just had to know who the hell he was . I could have just asked Rishika , but then I never talked personal stuff with her .Moreover a part of heart shuddered thinking that she would say , “He is my boy friend .” Days turned into weeks , and weeks into months , until one day I decided to send this guy a friend request . He rejected it . What an ass …. I then made a fake id , Elizabeth , put a profile picture of a very scantily clad Pamela Anderson , just about covering her bare essentials , and then send him a friend request with a very sensuous message . “ Want to be friends with you hottie .” It was only later that my friend Preety , told me that cheesy words like these don’t work on any body .
And then I took a grave decision . I would hack his gmail account. …..
I knew Sushovan would not say no to anything that I asked him to do . Before joining MBA, he had been a tester at Wipro and knew a lot of hackers . “ Please please please … kuch kar dijiye na .” I begged . He asked his friend Harsh to work on it . It was then that I knew hacking someone’s account wasn’t that easy . it required a lot of VB and Unix knowledge .
“ Prakarsh .” , Shreya , the junior events coordinator continued , “ Mr .Sinha is busy . What do we do next.”
“Tell Shahid to update the database . We will talk tomorrow.”…. I returned home.
In college you always end up making groups . I too had a group , Badmassh Company . Five of us , Preety , Vibha , Ankita , Nitu and me were very close . I didn’t tell either of them about this plan ., because I knew they would chide me for this . Infact I purposely stayed away from them the whole week .On Friday night Sushovan , messaged me ,
“ THE SCRIPT WORKED, He he I have his password . em mailing it to you . J”
I quickly got out of bed and opened my laptop . I signed into my Gtalk . Vibha was still online . I don’t know what came to my mind , I pinged her.
ME: hey are u there?
VIBHA: Hmm . Bolo kya baat hai
And then I told her everything that I was about to do . For a moment I thought I had got disconnected because she was not say anything .Then she pinged me back.
VIBHA : Can I tell you something ?
Me: Anything .
VIBHA : I know you dnt want to do this .
Me : ?????
VIBHA : Prakarsh , sometimes in true love you have to let it go , and hope that it come back .
Me : I didn’t get you .
VIBHA: JJ Ask your heart . I think it did . Gotta sleep . Take Care . And yes Prakarsh remember what you told me once ..
Me: ????
VIBHA : True love can never be dishonest . …if you love someone truly it will always come back to you.
Me : When did …
VIBHA :J J
And then she signed out .
I opened my inbox .Suhovan’s mail had arrived . What prompted me to do it , I cannot say .But I hit the delete button and the mail was gone …. I could not sleep that night . I had a task to do .
Next day I went to a telephone booth . I called up a number that I had picked up from a person’s FB account.
“ Hello , Am I talking to Hitesh ?”
“Yes , may I know who is this .”
“ I am sorry for everything……”
And then I hung up .
Next day as I entered the class, all four people , Preety , Vibha , Ankita , and Nitu stared at me . I guess Vibha must have told them what I was about to do . I looked at Vibha and just shook my head . All of them smiled .
That night , as I was about to sign out of gtalk when suddenly Rishika pinged me.
RISHIKA: Hi . L
Me : Hello .Why sad ?
RISHIKA : My cousin is leaving for Ohio today . Hitesh was the only one I knew here .
Me : Hitesh …? You never said you had a cousin .
RISHIKA : you never asked . :P Btw em coming to Kolkata this Sunday . Lets meet up . Loads to talk about.
…….
As I put my pillow under my head that night , I remembered Vibha’s words ‘ if you love someone truly it will always come back to you .
That night I learned a very important lesson . If you love someone truly , you just have to let it go ……..
Part 2 … next week
