By – Rabin Prasad Kalita
Bhairabi came into Jeet’s love life in an off white suit with pinpricking sparkly blacks around. She disappeared from his life, draped with a pair of beautiful flowery silk bridal wear with someone. How come such a benign relationship can be so worst irrevocably that which breaks someone’s true love into pieces?
Both met virtually through Facebook started from a mere friend request and then gained the mileage of sheer friendship through unhindered chats.
They met each other physically for the first time in a literary festival held near to her home. Fortuitously, they sat in the same row just a seat gape in between. Her glowing fleshy appearance was vivid through a pair of drooping braid waved over the sides of her temple to the chin. Her beauty attracted the attention of many present there. Seeing her so near, it seemed he had seen her somewhere before. It didn’t take long to be acquainted with her and then exchanged their friendly grins at each other.
“Do you mind, if I come close to your seat”, Jeet asked her amicably.
“Oh sure”, she replied graciously nodding a little.
Both never thought of meeting that way. They had succinct talks in a short time as they knew each other virtually before. Being her home in close proximity, she requested Jeet to visit her home for a cup of tea at the end of the proceedings. He couldn’t refuse her sweet bait.
Staying in a hostel, she was appearing in her last semester of B. Tech then. Back home at about four hundred kilometers away, her elderly mom along with her younger brother was residing. Bhairabi lost her Dad in a road accident when she was only ten. After her dad’s early demise, her mom somehow took care of them with the meager family pension. Mom had to face many hurdles while raising them up. This was one of the reasons, which pulled Jeet fetching her near.
Jeet wanted to be an entrepreneur instead of searching for a job; he longed to be a job generator. Hence, on completion of his MBA in marketing, started his own small business of a coaching institute for competitive entrance exams. It was specially designed for engineering aspiring students. He chalked out a great growth with confidence sticking into it.
By then, Bhairavi completed her graduation and got admitted into M Tech to continue her study. Slowly, their association soared up further. Started feeling his presence as her strength and considered Jeet as one of her own. They didn’t know when their simple friendship turned into a deep affection.
In order to talk freely, more often, she would call him up there in the institute one or two days in advance to accompany her while coming home on holidays. That way they could spend some fun time together and could taste some happy bites outside.
Sharing a single headphone, relishing the same song together, they didn’t know how the four hundred kilometers long-distance became so short.
Once at her university tinsel town, both went to a pizza hut for some refreshment. While pizzas served on the table, she too took out a small pack of dish into his surprise which she prepared herself for her love.
Paying highest respect to her feelings he said, “Bhairabi, we shall enjoy it somewhere later, but for now please put the lid on quickly, and keep the box where it was.” He thought it was not wise to have homemade food there.
“Let the people think the way they want, and by eating here which Mahabharata we are going to defile?” She said with her soaking eye.
It made him think, wasn’t that a true love’? His void heart got pumped up with myriad happiness.
Till then, their relationship was not concealed for anyone right from her roommates to the neighbors’. He dared to walk her home majestically as if he was one of their family members.
Despite all this at his reach, he felt fishy somewhere, which made him worried at times. Something was popping in his mind that made him baffled. During conversation, he heard her mom saying many times about a prerequisite condition of their marriage. The condition was to Jeet must fetch a government job at least, so as to be rest assured to have Bhairabi as his life partner. That sounded absurd in his ears and was pricking somewhere in his spirit.
By the time, Bhairavi was preparing for the National Eligibility Test (NET). Concurrently, along with towering education her expectation also started growing. She too insisted him to chase for a higher-level job to secure his life.
But, Jeet had no interest in all that. He planned to build up his career and enjoy stretching his own venture. There was no such demand or pre-condition set by her earlier which was painted later. As she was pursuing higher education, accordingly her anticipation also went higher to have a man of her choice.
Moreover, she too knew that finding a job of that standard was not possible all of a sudden. Maybe it was her pre-conceived plan to get herself out of Jeet’s life!
Bhairavi was privileged enough to fetch a contractual teacher’s job in the Institute through an open appointment drive shortly she completed her NET. Eventually, she joined as an assistant professor on an ad-hoc basis. Jeet was happy to see her becoming a teacher. To see Bharavi in that height, Jeet’s austerity did not go in vain.
With time, he sensed that the frequency of their telephonic chats was getting reduced. As the days were passing on, she was trying keeping distance from him in all sorts of communications. Therefore, the state of his mind forced him to assume a vague picture over their long association.
The feelings of love are so passionate that it feels like, it will last forever. But, it didn’t happen. Her enviable position had changed the perspective to see her life. Bit by bit, she was trying to keep herself away from him.
No one can turn down luck, it happens on its way. Within a few days of her joining as a teacher, Joy came to her clutch who happened to be a permanent teacher of the same institution. Both were not limited to a mere love only, even a step ahead. The final date of solemnizing nuptial loop was fixed in hurry as was informed by her room-mate Ajanta. She made someone else of her own in the blink of an eye, left Jeet like a peels on her way.
Bhairabi pretended to be extremely disappointed that her marriage was fixed as told by her mother. Accordingly, she disseminated the drama to Jeet over the phone, before it reaches him by any other sources. It was nothing but her damage control move to console him. That gave him a metal taste on his teeth and tongue forever.
“Was she happy with her decision or have you seen any change on her feelings?” Dismayed Jeet dialed Ajanta covertly, to know the truth.
“Yes, she was quite excited about her wedding bells and had no sign of showing the pain of separation”, Ajanta replied sadly from the other end.
Oh my goodness! “Was it a true love for which she cried once for fear of getting neglected; was it a true love for which she felt protected owing to my presence?” Jeet muttered all this questioning her treachery.
He could not imagine that the one who loved him more than he did can shove away, in a wink. He was coerced to think this way that her adore was like “I love you” written on a paper, read and crushed, and then thrown into the trash bin.
Emotions shared with him once, became a part of someone else then. He couldn’t even consider it an unpleasant dream that which ended along with waking up.
Laying on his bed back at home he helplessly imagined all those marriage proceedings of his happy girlfriend. He would have been pleased to be a bonded labour on her big day if he was invited. But she didn’t do that. His friends got mystified to see him so composed.
It was like changing of his colorful spring of love to the summer all of a sudden. His hope and trust buried deep into the anguish. It left cracked his wisdom of true love into pieces. He was suffering from a trust deficit. If, he could go back to the day when they met each other, today his option was to make a U-turn and walk away.
