Title: Chat Friends
It was yet another weary morning. Three months since her breakup, she was still in a pitiable state. Lack of sleep and healthy diet had started to show on her otherwise pretty face.
He did not have anyone else in his life. Then why did he leave her? What was the cause of that 1.00 am call that said, “It’s all over!” She kept thinking about it again and again. It made her cry, it made her feel horrible. That was Sara’s story.
Her parents were trying hard to make her feel good. They were worried about her growing age and declining health. They wanted to see her happily married and settled.
The phone rang. It was Nina aunty on the line. Nina aunty, Sara’s mother’s sister was really concerned about her. That’s a different story she thought it was her birthright to make Sara understand how much she had hurt her family and brought disgrace to them. This time though her phone call was not to torture Sara’s lamenting soul with another lecture on morality but to convey of a good proposal for Sara.
Sara’s mother waxed eloquent on how much Nina aunty cared about her family especially Sara once she was done with the call? Why not, after all this time Nina aunty had come up with a proposal from London about this extremely well educated and charming boy Sushant. Sushant was an eligible bachelor. He was well settled working for a investment bank in London.
There was no further discussion. Sushant could not afford to come down to India to meet Sara, however he liked her picture. The few times he chatted with her made him confident to proceed with Sara. Sara’s education background and reference from relatives further strengthened his agreement. Sara had no say. She wanted to escape her past, anyhow. She did not care how Sushant looked like or what he did. The marriage was fixed for a date six months later when Sushant could take a leave and come to India.
Sara’s parents forced her to chat with Sushant so that they could know each other more. She added him to his chat contacts and they decided to meet at 11.00 pm everyday.
Their conversations were simple. They spoke about what he did in the day and where he went. She spoke little, mostly answering questions asked by him. One day while chatting with Sushant, she received another friend request from a id justurfriend.
For some reason, she felt like accepting the request and she did. justurfriend popped a hi which she ignored. She ignored all his messages later. She was not interesting in talking to anyone, not even Sushant. Slowly he started realising that Sara is not interested and he also stopped coming online everyday. Occasionally they would meet, exchange cordial hellos and leave. But justurfriend came everyday. Everyday he would leave a beautiful message for her. Sometimes it was a good night message, sometimes a e-card to tell her how pretty she is, sometimes a smiley hug, But always something to make her smile.
One day, when Sushant wasn’t online, she finally replied a hello. When she asked him what he wanted, he said he wanted her to be happy. She was surprised how he knows about her unhappy state of mind. Justurfriend replied that he happened to see her status on a social networking site which said, “Why cant life be fair to me”. He said that after going through a bad phase in his life, he had taken to bring about some happiness to all who needed it. He let open his life to her, how he had been badly shaken after he lost his mother, his job and girlfriend all one after the other and how he decided to be happy under all circumstances.
When Sara read this, she also opened up to him, telling her about the boy she loved and her story. He read all that but never offered any solutions. He just let her speak. Often he broke the topic and made Sara to have a conversation on her career, her education, her friends, and her social life that all made her happy. He made her speak about her success.. Often she would start brilliantly ending in why he did this to me. Slowly, after almost 3 months, Sara’s conversations started taking a happier direction.
She no longer spoke about her past, instead started talking about her dreams. They shared their dreams, their future. They started talking about all the good things in life. And Sara never had an unhappy moment again. She longed to meet him on the chat.
Sara asked him his real name. He said his name was Arpit and he was working as a software engineer in Bangalore though he is from Mumbai. Sara felt attracted to him. She started liking him. She started dreaming about him, fantasizing about him wondering how he must be looking, how tall he must be. How would it be to be in his arms. On the other hand Sara’s communications with Sushant had almost died with only his weekend phone calls to her parents.
One night she logged in and could not find Arpit online. This has never happened before. Arpit came online everyday at the same time. It happened the next day too. They hadn’t exchanged numbers ever. There was no way she could contact him. She was feeling miserable. She wanted to talk to Arpit. She wanted to tell him how much she liked him. Just when she was thinking all this, Sushant logged in to say hi. She blocked him. She did not want Sushant, she wanted Arpit. Sara was upset, angry at her life. She did not know why life doesn’t give her ever what she wanted.
Arpit logged in finally. He asked her, “Eh, so you blocked me?” Sara was surprised, “You? Did I? I can never do that”. Arpit sent a smiley emoticon and typed,” Don’t you realise it’s me Sara?” Sara was confused, but slowly she realised that Arpit was no one else other than Sushant.
He came to know about Sara’s past through a common friend and wanted to be her confidant before the marriage itself. He wanted to win over her love and trust. He knew she would not talk to him under social pressure hence he formed this new id and started communicating to her.
Sara could not believe her luck. She was not breaking her engagement and yet she was getting married to the guy she wanted to. Her respect for Sushant reached dizzying heights and she longed to meet him,
Now they met online everyday and blossomed their love. The distance didn’t matter. They were going to be together for a lifetime. Three months later, when they met at the airport, Sara ran into his arms, even it meant hours of lecturing from Nina aunty. She couldn’t be happier. She found a best friend and a life partner in the same guy. They had a beautiful married life ever after.
The End.