The Quarantine Diaries : Happy Birthday Payal!!!

Finally I started writing again… almost after a year and half. This time it’s not our anniversary... It's Payal’s birthday. First of all… “Happy birthday Payal!!!”😃

Now… For those of you who have a lovely wife like mine, you’ll likely appreciate this blog.  It’s about compassion, caring & love… about sympathy, empathy and sensitivity.  It’s a glimpse into how wonderful a wife can be when the chips are down💑. When the entire world is closed out. When her husband is home quarantine with herself😷...

OR IS IT???

First of all, I have decided, I am not going to complain anything about my wife on her birthday. Actually of late, there has been nothing to complain about her except she is too organized or she treat me like I don’t know anything or she don’t let me watch series/movies late at night or she don’t let me read book at odd times etc… etc... All in all, lately I have nothing much to complain about.😶

So where I was… Ya… Payal has been really splendid in these home quarantine days.👍 Mainly when I am busy working. Of course when I am into back to back calls, I get the comments like… “Do you guys really work or just talk over call?”, “Is it the work that you do? Just taking to people?”, “I thought you are software engineer… you sure you are not doing some call center job?”, “You spend more than half of your 8 hours day on calls, talking noisily and making awful jokes and then laughing at them... Have you lost your mind?🙃”. But when the day is really hectic, I get awesome treatment like having food time to time. She will even ask what I want to have in lunch or dinner and my opinion actually matters at this point of time (otherwise most of the times my wife asks me what I want for dinner and then tells me I am wrong.).

Payal really appreciate my work and whenever I am busy coding or in some calls, she makes sure, I don’t get disturbed. I really want to thank her for that. Of course sometimes she complains that I says things like, “let’s circle back on that”, “I will get back to you”, “let me check”, “I’ll ping you” all day long and she gets so irritated that she wants to throw the water bottle at me😡. I hope she won’t put the poster stating “Husband on Sale” outside our house. (coz if no one takes me (and I am sure of that), then I will have to listen to more horrible things.)

Payal has been really supportive now a days. When we moved to US, we had many plans that got ruined due to the COVID outbreak but she hasn’t complained ever. In the circumstances when I brawls about this situations she always shows me the positive side of it. That is great strength for me. Ya sometimes she nags that I need to grow up and stop being kid. I still don’t know why she says so but I mostly ignore as most of the times when she is complaining such things, I would be watching "The Simpsons" or reading "Wimpy kid’s diary."😜

Payal is a great cook. Though many a times she has been underestimated about her cooking skills, I would like to proudly say that “Payal, you are an awesome cook and there is no doubt about it”😋. The way she prepares the food and the way she garnishes it after food is prepared, really requires great patience. Of course I should not dare to ask ‘how much more time till the food and her photography is done’. I have recently learnt a trick to know whether Payal is angry with me or not. I figure that out with her answers. Payal: “Do you want something to eat?” Me: “What are the choices?” Payal: “Yes or No” (If she is angry).

My wife and I play this fun game during quarantine, it’s called “Why are you doing it this way?” Most of the times there is no winner. Sometimes when the discussion becomes heated arguments, Payal wins. Quarantine days have become the days to learn how I can avoid house hold chores without my wife knowing it. I have learnt few tricks. Sometimes I muse… “What kind of person you are when you have to use your wife’s empty cereal bowl because there is a condition that if you are using new bowl, you have to wash it by yourself!” Now-a-days I am keeping the count of number of times I did laundry or any chore. It mostly helps me when we are fighting… just to be on safer side😉. Mostly Payal is cool and she don’t fight quite often. (Not more than 5-6 times a week)

OK… So Payal just called me two times and warned me that if I don’t get off my laptop and help with the laundry, she will slam my head on the keyboard😨. I don’t think she really mean it but don’t want to take any risk. Let me conclude the blog with some birthday wishes…

It would sound cliché but there is no exaggeration in saying that I am truly a lucky and blessed man to have Payal in my life. My greatest happiness are when I have chance to talk about her (and those talks are not complains about her). She is the greatest gift to me😇.

Again wish you a very Happy Birthday Payal. Love you!!!💓

Time we lost our little Angel: That horrible Thursday

All of our happiness was seized from us on that horrible Thursday…

I still remember that night... Night of 20^th June 2018. I was going back to home from office. Payal called me at our usual calling time. Ya. By that time, she had moved to Surat for the final delivery days. We had normal discussion and then there was that uncanny sentence.

“I am feeling less of movement of our baby today.” Payal told.

“May be because, it is not getting proper space.” I replied. Hating even to articulate the possibility of anything bad, at this point of time in pregnancy.

“Ya. Anyways I am going for routine checkup to my midwife tomorrow. Will tell her to check properly.”

And then we just went on with our usual talk, pushing the otherwise thoughts away, taking comfort in the absence of scarlet. Undeniably I remained in the fog of fear unspoken. And I think Payal as well. I still remember me reassuring myself as I was getting out of cab. At that point of time I rationalize that it must have been last pregnancy days’ effect or so… that is making all those non-movement feeling.

At around 12 midnight, two people at different geographical location… me and my wife… Both still unaware, started facing their most precious loss.

My wife saw small blood spot over her cloths and she updated her parents. They did not wait until the next day when my wife would see her midwife and that Doppler would run over her belly. My wife reached hospital within few minutes. As per our Indian standards, the hospital nurses tried to convince my wife that everything must be fine so go home. Actually they wanted to say… “Don’t bother us at 12 midnight. Go to sleep and let us as well sleep”

Somehow My wife and her parents requested and convinced the nurse to check once. No one could have anticipated but after checking for a minute or so nurse was clear that there was some problem. And then there was totally unaware Payal, three nurses and our midwife, everyone into shock!!! They were checking Payal again and again. They just tried on an on with different Doppler to cross verify whether there is any issue with the sonography machine. She did not have any complications since she had conceived. Pregnancy was definitely healthy. Unfortunately, that awful moment came in that dark sonography room when sonographer told… “There is no heartbeat”.

In an hour… clothed in pink gown, they wheeled Payal to the operation theater. All our parents were just praying for our best. Not sure how my delicate wife bore the moment where she almost knew that worst could happen. I can’t be more proud of her and her strength that day.

“I made sure, I don’t look around in case I made eye contact with someone who’s tender gaze might trigger the tears” Payal told me after few days.

On the other Geo location… I was in deep sleep, totally unware of these ill-fated happenings.

In the operation theater, Payal was told, there is only 1% chance of survival of our baby. Still my wife was positive that there is the chance. She was asked whether she want to wait for Normal delivery or she is okay with C-Section. I don’t know why or how can they ask patient in preference to go on with the best option available for patient? Tough as always… Payal decided to go for C-Section.

They fumbled with needles and veins and few routine tests and checked Payal’s name and DoB and had her verify signatures on consent forms. Payal had just kept mum, praying for some miracle. Then with an injection she was in deep sleep, and as was I. Together Unknown. Unknown about the death of our child… our dream… Unknown about the life that we once knew.

I got a call at 4 AM from my mom.

“We have brought Payal to hospital” Mom told.

“Oh cool. Is she good?” I asked, expecting it is the day when we will have our little one.

“Not really. Your uncle has gone to blood bank as she has rare blood group.” She replied.

“Why blood? Payal is okay, isn’t she?” I asked, bit skeptical.

“Ya ya… Don’t bother. Can you reach Surat immediately?” She asked.

“Okay. Please don’t hide anything. Please tell me.” I was now more unconvinced.

“Yes Dear. Payal is good. We’ll call you back. Just come back soon.” And my mother dropped.

Not sure how much dejected I was but there were many bad thoughts roaming into my mind. I was praying for Payal. I was not able to think, what should I do. I booked the earliest ticket available for Surat and tried to call my father, my uncle and Payal’s parents on and on. I was getting only one reply. Payal is good. I asked Payal’s father to let me talk to her. He told he will as soon as Payal is out of operation theater. I was sure, there is something that I am not aware of.

Then I called our My Cord representative. Just to make sure, they are ready for the delivery and the cord preservation. It was then that I come to know, our baby was no more.

“Has the baby got heartbeats again…?” She asked.

“Mmm… Let… Me… check…. But you please… be available…” I fumbled. And dropped.

And then I knew it. I was blank. Alone in my house, I didn’t know what should I do and what not. I closed my eyes and let the tears wash my breaking heart. I told myself that I have to be strong. I didn’t know what was the situation of Payal. It was after around 3 hours that I could talk to Payal. My wife was serene. Our little angle was no longer in this world. I always wanted to have a baby girl. Our sweet fight was flashing in my memory over my entire journey back to Surat.

“We’ll have a girl. Her looks should be similar to yours… And the nature must not.” I used to tease Payal.

“Let’s see. If it would be other way round, you are finished… man… so be careful.” She used to reply.

“Han!!! We’ll make a gang… and then annoy you.” I used to snap back.

After 10 hours, I was back to Surat, directly to the hospital. Payal was lying in the room. She hadn’t cried at all. She was just longing for me. She was Alone… tired… sad and very, very… empty. And then she cried… We cried. Cried like anything.  

At some point you begin to wonder, if there are any tears left. But it doesn’t take long to realize there are more. Always more. More and hard and fast and hot... The moment arises when you think, maybe you’d caught your breath enough to grasp at some composure for a tiny, brief pause. But composure is for motivational speeches… job interviews or thoughtful clash resolution. It’s not for parents standing face-to-face with the death of their child.

We’ll never know exactly how long she was there, but not there. It was only a week back that my wife saw her heart beating strong on that precious black screen. It was a day or two back that I saw her movements over my wife’s belly on video call.  And then it was the time when she was no more.

No matter what... Our little Angel will always be missed!!!

Time we lost our little Angel: An awesome Inception

And we touch four years’ mark of our marriage!!! Silly how it seems to have flown by, but also how I certainly can’t recollect what life was like without Payal in it. Maybe I just prefer to remember life more clearly since Payal joined in!

Now… I could share tons of wedding photos or go on with oodles of incidents since we got married. Of course we are still as crazy as we were since we got married. But this time I am going to share the most personal thing to me... The most personal thing to us… May be the roughest time of our life.  

It hurts… They took her from us. We had never anticipated, but it happened. Her body remained, nonetheless her heart stood still, silent. We had to bury our dreams, our expectations, our ideas… We had to accept that God have better plans for us. Whatever it may be… eventually it hurts. It really does…

Where to start? Where does one start when one begun to share about the toughest moment of one’s life?

It was more than a year back. November 2017 I guess… Yes, those were the Diwali days when we come to know that we are expecting. It was such an awesome moment. We were literally on cloud 9. Normally I am on the receiving end of my wife’s short temper. I thought she will now be calm and compose… I was wrong… As the days passed, that vicious hormonal side effect of pregnancy started smacking me via my wife’s mind. Ya it was that cunning and atrocious… “Mr. Mood swings…”

I still remember one such moment when I asked for a glass of warm milk in the night. She nearly lost her mind in no time. “Are you kidding me? You should be bringing milk for me.” And then she literally stormed off. So… just to give a little background… prior to pregnancy she used to bring milk for me every night. That was the thing between us and I thought it is still an agreement. Unfortunately, the agreement un-agreed that day and you won’t believe but I still shake asking for a glass of milk ever since.

I am always an easy target but one day she confronted a D-Mart employee because they rearranged the store and she couldn’t find candles or something. I saw real fear in his eyes.

Mr. Mood Swings has another face as well. Excessive emotional streak. In the initial days of her pregnancy, Payal was getting so emotive that she used to cry on anything. Some days EVERY food available to her, sounded absolutely revolting. All she wanted was some junk which I had banned those days (I had to face many repercussions of banning junk in my house.) One fine day she didn’t eat for like hours and cried because she was hungry. We prepared Palak Paneer, after her final consent. After 2 hours of hard work, she started feeling nausea on seeing the spinach gravy. Not sure what we ended up eating but surely on those days we had a grown woman, crying over food.

One thing Payal must have enjoyed those days was, having an officially hired full time servant, that too without any salary (of course I am taking about myself). Trust me… It is really grim to be the only one who is able to bend over in the house. It will take its toll on you. (and floor cleaning indeed sucks.). I would like to give an advice here: Never take away pregnant woman’s ice cream or muffin or donut. She will punch you. In the throat… and you can just be like ‘I am Sorry!!!’ I had a personal experience here and in that particular case, I was allowed in the master after almost two nights in guest room. I was allowed my own pillow after a week or so… 

I am sure, change in mind is quite a human nature. But there must be some logical "Change in Mind" vs "Time" graph. What I experienced was height.

11 : 02 AM: "Best Husband in the world"

11 : 08 AM: "Why the fu*k did I marry you"

11 : 12 AM: "Worst Husband"

11 : 20 AM: "You are the Best"

Scientifically another change apart from Mood Swings that woman develops during pregnancy is their sniffing power. I had to face its consequences many times last year. Even after many hours and breath fresher, Payal could smell whatever I ate at office and don’t you dare to lie otherwise swing in her mood will kill you.

Don’t know how she managed to do it but quite often I used to get messages from Payal while I am eating Nachos or Tacos at office, “Are you having Nachos? Beware of getting inside home if you aren’t bringing me any home.” As usual, I avoided the message first time. “Where is my food?” she asked. The edge of her voice made it clear that death was imminent. NOT HER!!!

So the days went on with the most bizarre things such as keeping AC on, even though it is 11 degrees in Pune or going to provision store at 10 PM, just to buy some muffins or the weirdest cravings of my wife. She reached to her third trimester and had already gone Surat.

Slowly and steadily, we reached the last months of pregnancy. Anyone pregnant or had been so, can relate to our feeling on how the last month would be. We were just waiting, every second day for the final contractions. Every few days my wife used to feel those false contractions and our midwife was like… “Too many days pending dear… Enjoy!!!”

Unfortunately, we could not!!! Ya we could not Enjoy anymore!!! All of our happiness was seized from us on that horrible Thursday…

To Be Cont...

Three years of togetherness… Because, There is no other option…

I saw an internet meme sometime back that said "Thanks to Disney, I have the most beautiful women... Animals don't help me clean... If Cinderella’s shoe fits perfectly, then why did it fall off?... Blah blah." The Cinderella shoe thing was funny, but the whole beautiful princess thing got me thinking... You know what? I pretty much married the princess. Ya it is true that Being married is like being in a battlefield. You have to always prepare yourself for the war. But on the other hand I always feel that my wife is about the closest thing to perfect (for me) that exists ♥. This post is a big shout out to her, as we celebrate our 3rd anniversary, which is in fact today!!!

I am bit crazy about how quickly it’s gone by but am mainly impressed with how our love has evolved since February 5, 2015.

Now, I have made immense mistakes in my life. Of course everyone has some sort… However, the one thing I did NOT mess up with, made zero mistakes about, did such a kick a$$ job I even impressed myself with? Picking my life partner.

OK… above is the max blameless stuff that I can write about my wife. Of course I had to copy something from internet. I am not that good at praising Payal.

Coming to my actual experiences now… Firstly about sleeping… When It comes to my wife the main thing comes in my mind is her sleep. Of course I let her sleep in both days of the weekend because I know that what I feel like with 6 hours of sleep, she feels like with 9 hours. She is a sleeper. I can’t blame her for that. Of course it all about her genes .

I can proudly say that I have the calm, affable demeanor that is able to extinguish all the fires she lights with her "fiery" personality. When she tells me she needs to spend too much money on household stuff, I just smile and say, "Sure babe. Get it. It's ok." (@Payal : Okay… Not all the times but you can’t at least deny that (most of the times) I am as good to you in buying essential (unwanted according to me) household things as I am with me in buying electronic gadgets.)

I feel as though my wife looks incredibly young and beautiful. I look pretty much the same except with less grey hairs . Of course many people have evil eye on her long brown hair, which is to blame.

That being said, we have our fair share of tough days and hard times. When I was suffering from leg injury, Payal was always besides me. She even left her job just to be with me and that was really poignant. I would never be able to do such a sacrifice. We were together 24*7 for almost 4-5 months and it was awesome. Ya at that time she used to keep on saying I need to grow up but It’s hard to reply when you are eating plenty of Gems/Marbles and reading Harry Potter all the time!!!

One day my wife told me we need to upgrade our garden. We’ll need an artificial lawn, a few plants and a coffee table for it. I told her (with actually tough tone) WE HAVE AN AWESOME GARDEN ALREADY. WE DON'T NEED TO HAVE ALL THESE THINGS IMMEDIATELY. You know… I am the man in the house. Long story short… We picked all the items mentioned above within next three days . Same thing happened when she wanted to have an ancient book shelf and the garden swing.

Of course there are many advantages of getting married. Before marriage I didn’t know Curtains need to be washed. I thought it is myth when someone say each person in house should have separate towel. I didn’t even know there was a wrong way to put the milk back in the fridge. Do you know there is something called Indoor Plants on this planet? and Oh ya... Sofas are just for guests?(Keep aside lying on it, I am not allowed to even seat on sofa...) I even knew about dishwasher just a few days back (Ya it is in my wife’s priority list now). But I am all enlighten now. Thanks to Payal…

All in all... Getting married is awesome!!! (at least when you are even ready to apologize for what you did in her dream the previous night). Jokes apart....We've been married for three years now; together for almost seven+. In less than eight years, we've moved more than 1400 miles, shifted homes three times and bought a "forever home". We didn't get married young, nor have we started family young. Far older than the average Gujju, in fact. I feel like "good things come to those who wait" was written after us.

Happy Anniversary... ☻

Everything is fine...

So finally I somehow managed to spare time from my so called busy routine… almost after a year. And guess what… I am going to complete one year of my Married life (really a life?) and it seems…

Nothing has changed since past one year… Mmm… something has changed in last one year… Otherwise everything is fine.

Yes… Now I am afraid of the words like “I am fine…”, “What would happened to me?” and “We need to talk…” …otherwise everything is fine.

The most dreaded scene in my life is “my silent wife”… otherwise everything is fine.

Night outs with friends, Play station talks, silly business ides and drinking programs all take a back seat to make way for cushions, cushion covers, “apna gar”, curtains, furniture that match curtains(yes there will be curtains), no visible wires in the drawing room and more home décor things than a small nation requires… otherwise everything is fine.

Ya… That T-shirt I loved since college, wear at all places from college to corporate to gym… has been the new “pochha” of my house, My English cotton boxer has been her sweeping equipment as it cleans the best and my wardrobe has been her final year project which she arranges every second day… otherwise everything is fine.

Not much… Just those full night parties with the last fellow to leave have been converted to "no late night" parties with sophisticated vodka and three course meal because she need to sleep… otherwise everything is fine.

To add… I got enlighten that sleeping in hardly ever is an option on weekends since we have a billion errands to run for the house… what else can be better than that?

One thing that I got to know after marriage is that even though my wife is physiotherapist, she is actually a psychologist...not only does she know when I’m being a jerk, but she knows exactly what type of jerk I’m being... otherwise everything is fine.

Now-a-days I follow the ritual of saying "sorry" if I am mistaken, apologize if I ain’t and (Pay attention…) articulating “it was not your mistake” if in case… (Rarely) she says “Sorry”… otherwise everything is fine.

I got to know that I cannot disagree with her. And Giving up is never an option while disagreeing… So ultimately I should say “You are indeed correct”… otherwise everything else is fine.

Now I have to be ready to do those things that her dad use to do… be it house hold chores or any government work and ya I should always recall that her dad is great and I am hopeless/useless… otherwise everything is fine.

And most importantly… I have to always remember (Even though she reminds me every now and then) that she is independent and don’t dare to say I am also independent otherwise I have to skip my lunch or dinner or both which she prepare for herself, may eat in front of you… ignoring you… of course talking to her parents, friends and… smirking in-between…

Otherwise Everything is fine…

"Caution: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental."

L4 : Fascination : And the patience test

 

But the soon was not so sooner.

 

Actually the main reason for the extension of this nearby soon was Payal’s bad relationship with computer, mobile and the things related to them.(Still no improvement in the relationship) This ultimately ended up with the misconception about facebook’s idle/offline chat category, which used to be in its early days (Is it still there?). Payal used to think that staying offline will let me see her idle and I would ping her. On the other hand, just to hide my desperation I didn’t message her as she was offline on FB.

 

Apparently the story goes like this…

 

I was having a short vacation from the next day on, still I woke up too early (presumably 11 AM was too early for me as far as college days are concerned). The actual plan was to get up, take tea and start studies for campus placements which were going to be commenced in three four days. But as usual I by myself scrapped my study plans and opened www.facebook.com. (Ya placement study site was still open in the adjacent tab.. obviously in the hibernate state.)

 

“Payal will hopefully be online by now as it is her time to be back to hostel.” I thought while the facebook page was loading.

 

It was the day when even internet was too slow and I started digging into neighboring house which was playing the still "shhhhhhhhh" TV screen (excavating the neighboring house was my time pass activity from the day we shifted to the new apartment in Ahmedabad.). Many a times I wonder that with the age of digital set-top-boxes, nobody younger than 10 or so probably has ever seen the static "shhhhhhhhh" screen. Anyways while the FB page was loading and the “shhhhhhhhh” was going on I started my planning on what to talk, ask to Payal if she is online. (which I was so sure she would be.)

 

“Today I will definitely ask her phone number… Would she give it to me? Yeah surely... Why won’t she? Am I getting too distressed?”

 

“beep.”(You can assume anything from shit to ##@@. I won’t mind) I uttered as I got the surprise kick from my roommate Dens (we were following this ritual to wake up each other).

 

“Get up… rascal.” Dens voiced as he went nearby his so called folding bed.

 

“I already have… you stupid.” I replied back as the blue facebook screen popped up.

 

“Oh I didn’t realize.” Dens chuckled.

 

“F*** ##f.” I frowned diverting my mind not on notification bar but on the chat box.

 

There were around forty people online none of them named Payal Desai. I checked and rechecked and rechecked… but for the very first time my gut feeling was unfortunately wide of the mark. I was never desperate for anything be it the board results or the Dan Brown thriller. I was confused why was I getting this much frantic?

 

“Actually I had to start the campus studies, but instead of that I am doing some crap things with much desperation.” I thought.(OK... It was just an instant thought Payal, nothing serious. No kick to the curb this time.)

 

May be it was Stockholm syndrome (omg the traumatic bonding? That wasn’t expected) or may be the love at first chat (ogh!!… BTW it wasn’t the first chat with Payal) or maybe it was just that my intuition was challenged the first time. Whatever the reason might be… It was just unnerving… Unnerving, intimidating and upsetting the whole three days.  Until…

 

…Until Payal’s facebook wall spoke something the fourth day… A single word… Or can say the silver lining in the dark cloud. (Update on Payal’s facebook wall is as rare as the Bismuth Crystals or the Machu Picchu.).

 

BTW the three days gap was in fact just perfect as far as Barney Stinson’s logic is concerned. Confused? OK then read it one more time…

“Jesus waited three days to come back to life. It was perfect! Why?  

If he had only waited one day, a lot of people wouldn’t have even heard he died. They’d be all, “Hey Jesus, what’s up?” and Jesus would probably be like, “What’s up? I died yesterday!” and they’d be all, “Uh, you look pretty alive to me, dude…”  

And then Jesus would have to explain how he was resurrected, and how it was a miracle, and the people’d be like “Uhh okay, whatever you say, bro…”  

And he’s not gonna come back on a Saturday. Everybody’s busy, doing chores, working the loom, trimming the beard,  

NO. He waited the perfect number of days, three.  

Plus it’s Sunday, so everyone’s in church already, and they’re all in there like “Oh no, Jesus is dead”, and then BAM! He bursts in the back door, runnin’ up the aisle, everyone’s totally psyched. (and FYI, that’s when he invented the high five.)  

That’s why we wait three days to call a woman, because that’s how long Jesus wants us to wait…. True story.”

So… On the perfect day with the grace of God the story resumed (now with much more thrust). The word was…

“Champagne!!”



PS: All writings categorized under ‘Notebook’ will be prefixed with L’number’ ex L1

L3 : Inception : It's never too late

 

 

…But it happened.

It all started with the last day of B.Tech Semester-7. Actually me falling in love (that too with a beautiful girl) is totally surprise story even for me. Don’t take it otherwise but I was one of those male chauvinist guys who use to think that 80% (Not all) of the attractive girls are bimbo (Ya… I still quite often muse on why some girls think acting dumb deliberately is cute?)

Anyways. Where was I? (This topic always diverts my mind). Ya… So… Annual exams of the 7^th sem had just concluded and me with my roommates had planned to grab Pizza at Ahmedabad’s so called renowned (actually cheap) Pizza café. I don’t remember the name of that café but for sure it was neither Pizza hut nor Dominos and pizza over there was cheaper and truly testier.  We relished an awesome dinner obviously after those seven haunting exam nights and went back to our apartment with the plan of net surfing, playing cards and ultimately not sleeping the whole night.

However, that day the universe had different plans for me. We went back to our apartment and out of the blue my roommates converted the apartment into game zone. Evidently “Rise of Nations” never fits my bill and I started facebooking which is one of the conjoint likes (Ya In spite of being poles apart, we have two common interests… net surfing and travelling) of both me and Payal. Most probably this was the day when the story commenced, when we were no longer the pink zoned friends, when I was not just the studious guy for her and she was no longer the shy girl(great misconception from my site as Payal was not at all shy…)  for me who used to sit on the first bench.

It had been three years from our high school days and we were not at all in contact with each other. Obviously the main reason was being those 90’s kids for whom carrying mobile phone in the school was crime (I was the offender, carrying the Nokia beast 3315 to school). And because of that after the result day of our 12^th grade we both were totally separated for three long years. No contact, no scraps, no texts nothing… until that fortunate day of winter 2010.  

The clocks were approaching 9:30, it was dark outside, the murky sizzling winter of Ahmedabad…

“Hello” I unexpectedly pinged Payal.

“Hi” She replied tediously… obviously discerning why I pinged her.

“Howz you?”  I asked her.

“Nice Pic” I again pinged the two common words which I pings every single girl I chat with, and as far as my experience is concerned, which every girl in the world likes and apparently takes seriously at any point of time.(Confession : Payal! You are the first and the last girl I told these two words earnestly) (Either I have to confess or this could be my last blog as blow of pressure cooker on head can lead me to anything from short term memory loss to brain hemorrhage)

“Fine. Thanks. What about you? Howz life?” Payal replied.

“Life is… ” And I went on.

We chatted the whole three to four hours about our school days, about our pink zoned friendship, about our studies, about our plans, about our families, about almost everything.  It was the moment when we started knowing each other more intensely, It was the moment when I actually thought we can be more than pink zoned friends, more than good friends, more than the chat buddies.

“All right then see you later…” I replied as Payal g2g.(Obviously I might have chatted the whole night if I couldn’t have found, from our conversation, that Payal was (as always) voraciously drowsy.)

“C U soon.” She bade good bye.
...But the soon was not so sooner.

PS: All writings categorized under ‘Notebook’ will be prefixed with L’number’ ex L1