The template of this love story is the same, with a difference. Here; the girl fell for the guy first, changed herself to suit his description, bore over his tantrums, and in the end does not want to leave him while he gives threats of leaving her over every silly misunderstanding.

What I didn’t (and don’t) understand is this. A beautiful, intelligent, multi-lingual, frank, outspoken girl will never hear a word of abuse directed over her even from her best-est friend. But, suddenly, as if something strange happens. She gives a guy permission to thrash her in front of the whole world. Love, they say. She gives him her social networking sites’ passwords. Trust, they say. She gives him right over her body, which seldom any one will ever have. Surrender, they say. She tells him her deepest, and darkest secrets. Truthfulness, they say.

One day, like always, she gets an SMS. “You go with any guy you like. I won’t stop you”, it said. She didn’t sleep that night, ceaselessly prayed that it better be a vividly bad dream — that she wake up from it and find her dominoes standing. It was not a dream. She then started praying that everything be rendered fine, somehow.

What is that experienced above by the girl? Love, she claims. I am skeptical. Given, I’ve never experienced love. But, all that she experienced does not fall in my definition of love. Given, I’m being selective here — I didn’t count the blissful times she had. But, whatever bliss your partner stands for, he/she shouldn’t do what shouldn’t be done ever. We’ve all watched/read “Gone Girl”.

Enter, a guy (let’s call him “A”) who like(d) that girl and conveyed that to her when it was already too late. He did it so that he’ll not die of regret — that he didn’t speak his heart out. Suddenly, the girl’s guy threatens her with a break-up, and she tells A. A is in a troublesome situation. Should he give her reasons to stick through it? That way he would be turning a blind eye to everything her guy did to him.

Should he guide her to break-up? That way he might be misconstrued in facilitating the break-up, so that he can come in her life. Talk of snap decisions.

No. I’m not being feminist here. I’m an equalist and an objectivist. Whoever emotionally harasses/tortures anybody, I am not with that individual. Never. But, life puts us in precarious situations sometimes where you tend to be tempted. Should A have opened his arms wide-open for her, fully aware that he is not sure about it all? Live in the present, they say. But, that does not mean playing with the emotions of a girl/boy, and just leaving her/him once it’s time — especially when you know that your life can take you anywhere, anytime and that you may not get to see her again! I really don’t want to be “Daisy” of “The Great Gatsby”.

The other day she pinged “He came down and understood me. I’ll never give him a chance to doubt me again. I’ll be his perfect girl.”

That..er. .was. .um. .strange. Maybe I jumped the gun a little. What’s the use of being a rational creature, when you can’t see both sides of the coin? I just described one side of it in all its intricacy, leaving the other.

I thought, “What about he being her perfect man?”. It struck me then. “Love” may come as a perfect form of devotion, where there are no expectations from the other. What one does in ‘love’ is perfect themselves up, rise above and make it their mission to make ‘it’ work. In this pursuit, they implicitly trust (one may not even know that they do) that their partner is doing the same thing. Because that is love.

She told that she will be his perfect girl. She never thought of being perfect for anyone. She was proud of herself, her ways. But, for this one guy among billions, she is ready to morph into something she isn’t. She listens to his ‘itinerary of love’ and takes cues on what constitutes his kind of girl. She strives hard. Maybe she likes to hum along a song, but he doesn’t. He has still not expressed it to her, but she understood it already. So, she stops humming — she stops that one activity which connects her with the song. Why? To be that perfect girl. Is she expecting anything in return? No. She’s not even sure whether he’s noticing the subtle changes in her. Why, then? To give her best to a relationship. To make it work. Simple enough?

For my good part of life, I’ve followed this dictum — Expectations hurt — and I had to find it in the least expected of places. All this while, I thought (and still think) of love as some kind of barter relationship where one gets something from the other. I didn’t consider such cases where love may be too true to be mentioned. You suddenly tend to forget all that you did for your partner. You can count it all in front of your close ones (when in distress), but won’t be able to do so in front of that one man for whom you did it!

I now see everything in a new light. Maybe the partner is after all a different person to everybody (in order to please them all) but is ‘his true self’ to that one girl (who he loves). Maybe he wants her to know of his real self, his inner self. We’ve all had that chameleon moment once in life, where we act ‘good’ or ‘ultra-decent’ in front of select few because we have a hidden agenda to fulfill. But with his girl around, he suddenly feels betraying himself if he is not his real self with her — no matter how rude he is. I do this with parents, to their utter disapproval. Maybe he does not know that he is doing it at all! Love is blind, they say.

I feel like I’ve solved a good part of a Rubik’s cube. There’s more to do, but most of it is taken care of. Maybe that’s why they say, “If you’ve not truly loved someone, you’ll never understand it”. Well, I just unraveled something. Thanks to that girl.

Nevertheless, sometimes I feel I’m doing the right thing. Being single. Such experiences make me re-think over the notions of marriage. I’m seriously considering the possibility of staying an unmarried celibate, than marrying somebody only to hurt them (if at all only once!) or making love to someone who I’m not gonna marry!

This may be posted for all to read, but it is really for a select few — to that girl, and possibly to the girl who may come into my life. Why am I writing for a future girl (in my life) when I’m so unsure about things? Who knows. . Life can take me for a ride, but my views will be the same — now that I know if it. And she is entitled to know my fears, and my perceptions. Call me paranoid, but I really can let myself be battered to death than hurt somebody who’ll leave her parents, friends, city, home, and her former self and past just to be with me.

Thank you — this blogpost might have been particularly tiring — for reading it through.

So, I asked her out for a date. Sounds abrupt and sudden? You’d better read the part-1 of the story.

Back. A rendezvous was set — Lighthouse. Yes, a lighthouse. Why that? Well, it so happened that back then it was newly opened to the public for a nominal fee, and I told her, “Wanna feel like on top of this city?”

She liked orange flowers. She specifically asked me to come with an orange flower. I searched for one, where I’d not have to pay for it. Miser? Yes. A mega-miser I am. A day before our proposed meeting, she pulled off from it. She had something urgent to do.

“:( 😦 😦 :(“, was my reply.

Months went by, days went by.

Suddenly, she pings.

“Ahem. Guess what is on 15th of this month?”

“Independence day?”

“No! My birthday!”

“Treat?”

“Come to Chepauk Medical College! I’ll be waaaaaiiiiiiting!”, she replied. I’d have come to Antarctica had she called me there.

This time I messed it. I had an engagement, so I told her this and wished her on fb.

“Why don’t you give me your cell no.? I’ll call up and we’ll fix a date! LOL”, I asked.

“Mommy beating if I number giving!”, was her reply. She is good at poetry and rhyming, isn’t she?

One day I come to know that she proposed to a guy and he said yes. They love each other, and are looking seriously at marriage — an inter-religion marriage.

“Will he tie you thali (sacred thread) or will he kiss you?”, I asked. I was heart-broken. I liked her.

Technically, she isn’t your beautiful dream-girl. Dark complexion and bunny teeth were the 2 attributes which defined her, and I’d fallen for that. I know why I like her. She makes me talk — nonsense or sense. She makes me happy — every ping is a small box of bliss for me. I’m sure if I’m ever under depression, her smiley will cheer me up.

After days of conversation, Christmas month came.

“Cake?”, I asked.

“I don’t make cake ROFL”

“Do I get anything? BTW, you do know I like(d) you right?”

“Yes and yes. But you guess what I’m thinking of gifting you.”

“Your cell no.?”

“No. But, here it is anyway. 0000000000”

“WTF! You gave your cell number to a guy you haven’t met? You trust me that much?”

“Ahem. One more choice left.”

“A golf ball?”

“A golf what?! Seriously?! I was planning to meet you and gift you a greeting card! You couldn’t guess that much?”

“You once remarked ‘hole in one’, so I thought of that. And ya, I did think of your meeting me. But, then I tried twice in it and it couldn’t happen.”

I don’t know what is surprising — she giving me her contact number despite she knowing that I like her and she knowing that I know that she is in a committed relationship, or she wanting to meet me for Christmas?

I respect her. Not because she gave in to my incessant asking of her cell no. But, simply because she trusts me. It is difficult to forge trust. I’ve seen better days forging trust, and she proved my every conception wrong. Trust, I think, is a trait which is all powerful. An old hindi axiom declares, “Trust is the giver of fruits, the world runs on trust”. Hardly an emotion or trait is as powerful as trust. You need corrupted excess of a trait to go against somebody’s trust.

Thanks to everything pertinent and inconsequential, I now understand the differences between my primal emotions. I have experienced what it is to ‘like’ someone, to be ‘infatuated’ with someone, to be ‘smitten’ by someone, to be ‘exploited’ by someone and to be ‘lustful’ for someone. It took me interactions with multiple view-worlds to understand this.

I am yet to experience love. Maybe, love is everywhere. I just need to attune myself to it.