Chapter 5 Her Vivacity

Meant to be…The real love story of the unreal 21st century!
By, Veera.
Chapter 5  Her Vivacity

 

Sridev ‘s narrative

I was extremely awed by her attitude. She seemed to be that girl who would never give in. But, I was a tough guy too and she didn’t have an idea. I was waiting for a chance. I wanted to go rouge with her, just to show off though. After, we were discussing about the colleges we wanted to join post the high school graduation. I knew that joining any college would not work unless you score 197 + cut off , which was in my case never even possible not even in my wildest WILDEST dreams. Forget college, I did not even know what I wanted to study but all I had in my mind was, my ownself posing for the Forbes magazine 20 years from now for the Best photographer’s campaign. Born and brought up not in a high class family, I was still worried about the future, about my part of contribution to my parents and Arathana, my sister. I wished that I could become a millionaire within a span of  3 min like the song from Suryavamsam or that TAMIL Padam. But it was not possible. Exams were nearing, tusions were tiring, classes were boring and all those Mid-term tests, Unit tests and Cycle tests were driving me crazy. I could not wait anymore to complete the exams and leave the mad-house. The fact why I was scared about the college was that, I knew that my parents had an idea of shiffting to my hometown, Trichy after my graduation but my uncle wanted me to study in Bangalore. You might understand now why I was perplexed. In Banglore, I thought I might get a good exposure since I really wanted to achieve great hights in photography. I did not know if I could reach that but, I definitly knew that Shaina was going to learn her lesson that day. My instinct said that. 

Shaina’s narrative

Me, Sara and Sona were having a FUN night. We hit the scary house, which left us horror-struck , I intended to try my hand at snow bowling but ended up regretting the whole experience since I couldn’t even lift the ball. We ate a lot in the McDonald’s and finally ended our supper with the ice cream. We girls had a habit. No matter how less we have had or high we have tucked in, we all 3 share the bill which helped a lot with maintanence of the pocket money! We finally bought the ice cream and the cridit for getting 3 vanilla-chocochips ice creams in that suffocating crowd, was given to the great Sara. We sat on the steps of Brooks, enjoying the ice cream whilst checking out guys which was decent in our terms and being in love was a betrayal to the parents and a deadly sin. I remember breaking up many of my friends who were committed. Me, Sara and Sona were dead against love and couples. Whenever we saw a couple in a road or a shopping mall, we three would just shout at them saying,

‘We hate couples’.

We all three were extremely naughty kids but the best part was, no one caught could us commiting it. To the family and our parents we were the SATI SAVATRI types. But only we knew how evil we could be. It was almost half past seven which was only half an hour before our curfew and so we rushed to take back our vehicles. I had been driving since my 5th grade and Sona also drives two wheeler while Sara didn’t. We used to mock Sara for not knowing to drive any automoblie and not even cycle! I was mocking sara that her scooty would not start as usual and we all burst into laughter. When we 3 finally pushed the vehicles out of the parking lot, we could not control our laughter, Sara started her scooty and it started with the first try and now it was my turn and when I casually clicked the self-start….it didn’t get ignited ! I was shocked and the girls could not control their laughter. We were doing as much as we could and as much as we knew to start the scooty but nothing worked. A minute after, Sara’s parents called to make her reach home soon. Then I asked Sona to drop Sara and I promised the girls that I’d be okay and that I’d manage. But I was horrified inside. I tried kick-starting it but I couldn’t just make it. It was 8 PM already and I was worried about the fact how I was going to make it home all by myself that too at that time, which was almost way past my curfew. I thought about seeking help but I was so scared to ask for help because I knew none of the men who passed by me. I looked at the rear mirror and thought to myself how stupid I had been to let those creeps go away, whilst I was standing there helpless. I was just berating myself for being helpless. Suddenly, I saw another face in the rear mirror. He might help me with this, my brain had an assumption that my help has arrived. It’s none other than Sridev. He was also pushing his bike towards the gate from the parking lot.  I was staring at his bike, Yamaha RX100 for a second; and I realised that I needed help. I knew that he wouldn’t help me easily because we had a huge attitude clash on the same day. I was like

” Anna I nee..”

right to his face but he just went past me. I didn’t know why I didn’t know how, the moment he went past, ignoring me; a tear rolled down my cheek with my head facing the ground. I thought that, I was extremely devastated at that moment.

 

Sridev’s narrative

Me and my friends finally decided to reach home and we were about to reach the gate from the parking lot. I saw her standing with her scooty, had trouble starting it probably. I could see the panic and extreme fright in her eyes. I guess she was helpless, she was taping her feet to the ground, biting the nails. When she saw me, she had a sense of repose in her face, it was like as though she has been finally out of some kind of hysteria. But, my ego did not let me help her. When she literally approached me for succour, I just turned away and moved past her. I had felt extremely shoddy about myself then. I was still pushing my bike, nearing the gate I saw her face in the rear mirror. The moment I saw the tears from her eyes, my heart felt heavy, with a heavyness in my all 4 chambers, my eyes were filled with tears too.

“Seeing her in pain,
          my eyes became teary.

Is this the agony of love?
          It is making me weary.

None can escape- the game of cupid.

One who wishes to skip it,
           must be a stupid.

Because only love,
          can make you feel splendid”

I could not take the fact that she cried because of me. I left my bike casted aside and quickly went to her, she was weeping; I asked her what the issue was. She replied in a delicate voice that the self start didn’t work. Cautiously hiding my tears, I asked her where the choke was and she pointed to the choke with the hand, that still had the tears on it. What she pointed to was the charger point and not the choke. And I couldn’t have guessed better than then, how much of an absolute dumbass she was. A minute after, she stopped weeping since she was relieved and so was I! I kicked the kicker but it didn’t start, twice , thrice, 7 th time it didn’t start. I was nearing my ego-hurting phase then because, if I did not start this thing right away, I would have felt like an absolute idiot for being a loser. 10th time, I hit the kicker with my absolute potential and it got ignited! I was happy and she was happy too. I gave the scooty to her and walked past now, with a sense of gratification. When I was about to go, I went to her again asking if she can go alone because it was 8.30 pm already. She said that she will manage but she didn’t say that wholeheartedly. I thought she might hesitate to ask a boy to help her get home safely, afterall we were still strangers to eachother. I left her and walked away only because her apartment was 10 mins away from this place yet, I was scared inside if she would reach home safely. And so, I followed her throughout the way but I tried as much as to make sure she didn’t know. She had the worst driving skills, she might have hit a car, skidded with a bike and hit a poor old granny who was having her daily walk in the pavement. Phew ! Finally she reached her house which was near the May flower apartment. She went in, parked the scooty and closed the gate and she left, switching ‘on’ the compound wall light. I was feeling content and when I turned my bike, I looked at there mirror to adjust my hair. Suddenly I saw her face in the mirror, she came out of the house and smiled at me shouting,

“Thank you Sri”

with a huge smile plastered to her face. I smiled at her too and went away. I didn’t know how she figured me following her. Anyways I was then happy knowing that I was the reason for her smile.

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