Heart Crossings (Part 3)

(Continued....)

"What is the name of this relationship? Am I in love with him? Is he my friend? Was he someone I had a good time with? What Krittika? What?" Krittika was thinking as tears were welling up in her eyes. She had to meet Ashish for lunch the next day. Krittika spent the whole day trying to think of something to say to Ashish, so that he could get a hint of how much she loved him. She was there at the restaurant on time, because for once, she wanted to show him that he was her priority, nothing else. Half an hour passed, she had texted him, but there was no reply. She called him, he wasn't taking her calls. By then an hour had passed. "Hi Neha, this is Krittika, is Ashish with you?" "Hey Kittu... no he isn't with me, I'll find out ok?" Neha said. "Hey Kittu, figures that junkie Pavithra disappeared and Ashu's helping her parents look for her. Don't know why he keeps meeting that girl so many times, all these junkies are goddamn losers man! I think Ashu's wasting his time on her! You can tell her no... Hello? Kittu? Kittu are you there?" Neha was yelling. "Yeah Neha thanks," said Krittika distraught. It was as if something in her had died. Ashu, the guy she had loved more than her life, the guy she held no secrets from had kept his life a secret from her. It was as if she didn't even know him anymore. "Was she in love with a lie? A person who had no value for her feelings? Obviously, Kittu, how dumb of you. Why are you expecting so much from a person who had not even committed to you. He doesn't care to even properly say good bye, he doesn't deserve you" she thought as she cried herself to sleep.

The condition with Ashish was more or less the same, though he had volunteered to search for Pavithra, all his thoughts were centered on Krittika. He knew he had broke her heart. But he knew he could make ammends and then tell her that he loved her. Little did he know fate had other plans. As he was thinking about Kittu he recieved a call from the police officer. "We found the dead body of Pavithra near the diary farm forest stretch please bring a family member to identify her body." Ashish couldn't believe it. Pavithra, who he thought was his sister , who he wanted to lead a normal life was dead. He was shocked and unnerved, this was a girl on whom life had played a cruel joke on. She had not even seen one tenth of her life. Ashish didn't even know that a month had passed; He had been very busy consoling Pavithra's parents, performing her last rites, he had just started a campaign to root out drug abuse. He knew every passing day was increasing the distance between him and Kittu and pretty soon it would be too late but he was distraught when the realisation hit him that even Kittu hadn't tried to call him since the day Pavithra went missing.

A week had passed and Ashish was travelling to another part of town for an anti-drug campaign. Thats when he saw her. "Hey Kittu.... " he called out. She looked at him, without any trace of recognition and Ashish immediately knew that things were way past irreconcible between them."Ashish," she said. "How is Pavithra? How are you two doing? Did she kick the addiction? Oooh.. I'm sorry how can she, when she has you to bail her out. You guys make a great pair I'm sure", she said, stressing on each word carefully. Ashish felt as though somebody had stabbed him. Was this the girl he had loved? He knew he had hurt her, but she thought he and Pavithra... The thought itself was boiling his blood. "Krittika!" He yelled. "Why? Getting angry 'cos I'm talking the truth?" it was as if she was challenging him. He felt as if he was going to hit her, if she would stand infront of him any longer. "I don't have to explain myself to you Krittika. You of all people should understand me. But you didn't. Anyways, I guess we bumped into each other because we had something left between us. That day, I called you to meet because I wanted to break up. Our roads are different. They would never meet. If it were that day, I would have thought twice to say that. But today, I really have to thank you. You made it so easy for me. Its over Krittika." He said. Krittika nodded her head. "You are welcome" she said looking out of the moving train's window so that she could hide her streaming tears from him.

(Continued part 4....)

Heart Crossings (Part 2)

Continued from part 1

As he led the way, he asked again"so do you work in the store?" "Yeah, in weekends... I love playing with the kids who come in and well I get a staff discount in most of the other stores, so its a convenient arrangement" she said, laughing. He noticed that she had a very earthy laugh and said,"actually, I wanted to apologise, I really didn't let you face your fear". Her lips quivered as she nodded her head,"it wasn't you, Ashish, if I wanted to conquer my fear I would have even if you had said something, I guess I wasn't ready and my outburst was just a manifestation of my unwillingness to accept it." He looked at her in wonder, it had been quite sometime since he had met a girl who spoke like that. "So what do you do other than organising blood donation camps?" she asked, sounding inquisitive and conscious that he was looking at her. "I am an engineering student, final year, carefree and wild as you can see,"he said pointing at his hair which was growing wildly all over and they started laughing. It seemed as if things were very natural and by the end of their respective espresso and cappuccino he looked into her eyes and she blushed. "Listen, I know you have a shift tomorrow, but if you're free tomorrow, I really would like you to come to this show we organised for an orphanage, call me incase you want to come and I'll pick you up. " he said as he gave her a smile. "I'll see if I can come", she said mentally going through her closet to pick an outfit.

Two months later Ashish and Krittika were dating and it seemed to each of them that they had come a long way since their first meeting. Ashish realised Kittu, as he called her was an earthy, intelligent,a sweet girl who was strangely vulnerable under that fiesty, brave and rude façade. Krittika thought Ashu was emotional, focused and sensible. But what she loved in him the most was the fact that he would stand up to his principles no matter what. It was a beautiful August afternoon when Krittika got a call ”hey Kittu, umm I need your help, I’m at the police station can you, come here asap? ” Ashish said. Fearing the worst Krittika went, to find him sitting next to a girl”hey Kittu, this is Pavithra, she’s 17 and is a junkie, they arrested her, I just bailed her out, but she’s not in her senses yet, so can you keep her at your place till tomorrow?” he said. Krittika didn’t want to argue in the police station, so the next day, after they had found Pavithra’s parents and sent her home with them, Krittika said”You know Ashish, I think you shouldn’t have bailed her out. I think she should’ve been in jail, she would know.” Ashish looked at her strangely,”she’s young Kittu, she doesn’t know, its her first time, now that she’s got help she won’t do it again. Life always gives you a second chance. If you didn’t give me a second chance we wouldn’t be talking this way.” Krittika didn’t say anything else but she didn’t like what Ashish had done.

It was as if they were perfect for each other, complementing and contrasting each other. Their friends always felt that they were in love and that they made a great couple. It was the final year of college and Krittika wanted to go abroad for her higher tudies. She wanted to go abroad and see the world, enjoy life. Ashish had other plans. He was a true patriot and decided he would join the airforce. Though both of them had known their future plans, they had decided not to talk about it till something materialized. Krittika was about to call Ashish when he had called himself.”Kittu! Know what? I got accepted into the airforce! I’m so happy! Its my dream come true!” Kittu was silent for a minute before she said “Congratulations, Ashish, I got accepted by University of Berkley. I have to join in another two months.” Ashish couldn’t believe what he had just heard. He knew this had to happen, but he wasn’t ready to digest the fact that it had happened so soon. He knew he loved Krittika, but he didn’t know if she had loved him. He loved his country and he was not ready to forfeit his chance to get into the airforce. But Kittu, he wanted her to stay back, with him all his life. Yet, he couldn’t because he didn’t know if that was what she wanted, if asking her would be unfair, not wanting her to pursue her dreams, when he didn’t want to leave his dream for her. So he said”I guess, we have to talk about that Kittu.” She knew what it meant, that it was over. But there was a tiny ray of hope in her, that Ashish would finally realize that she loved him and ask her to stay back with him and tell her that both of them would live their life together forever….(To be continued….)

P.S. This story i dedicated to P.... For continually inspiring me to write and driving me to experiment! Yeay P! You rock!

Heart Crossings(Part 1)

They were sitting in the train, the announcement of an arriving station ocassionally breaking the prevailing silence. She was looking at him, her eyes filled with a million questions, her heart wishing he would ask her to stay. He was staring out of the window at the empty barren landscape, knowing that what he had done was irreversible, he had just let her go. The announcement of her station had been made, she stood up, straightening her coat as she said,"well then this is goodbye I guess, Ashu ..." lingering on every word,tears welling up, in anticipation of something she knew would never come. "Yeah, I guess," he said, wanting to hold on to her forever, realising he was killing a part of himself in the process of letting go.

Ashish and Krittika had first met at a blood donation camp, which Ashish and his friends were organising. Krittika had come to donate blood, just to prove a point to Sanjay, her brother that she could stand up to her principles, even though she was mortally scared of injections and needles. She had walked up to Ashish at the registration and said"Hey, I'd like to donate blood, can I have a form please?" Ashish gave her a form without even looking up and said,"fill it, go to the doc and then take a token if she says your ok." Krittika nodded and went about with the formalities. As soon as she was deemed fit, she was escorted to the assistant who would draw her blood, tears welling up at the sight of a huge needle. Ashish was making his rounds, distributing an energy drinks as he stopped near Krittika. the girl was already crying. "Silly girl, she's going to chicken out," he thought as he said,"hey its ok, you don't have to do it, if you don't want to." Krittika, by now was frantic and panic striken"Uhh, no my brother, he said I couldn't do it, I just want to prove I'm not a coward." Ashish started laughing, which had obviously offended Krittika enough to make her stop crying. "Why the hell do you guys find it funny? Being scared is a perfectly natural condition. Its that I'm scared of smaller, things and, you guys being the alpha males are fearless right? You find it amusing that someone actually has the audacity to get rid of their fears, specially if its a girl. You need us lesser mortals and our fear to torment, right?" she said, stopping her outburst finally to catch her breath, when she realised in horror that everybody was looking at her in stunned silence. "I uh... I'm sorry" she said, in embarrasment as she started running. Ashish, still stunned was looking at the direction where she took off, as Neha came and asked him, "what was that all about?" he shrugged his shouulders in reply.

Two months later, Ashish still wondered about that girl in the blood donation camp. It was Neha's birthday the next day and all of them had planned a surprise party. He had gone to the mall to buy her a gift, when he saw her, at the counter of a shop that sold kids accesories and clothes, playing with a baby. On impulse, he waled into the shop and said"Excuse me, do you have anything for alpha males who need lesser mortals to torment?" She looked at him, her eyes wide and thought for a while before she said"Look I already said I'm sorry, I didn't have to say that. That was the needle-phobic me speaking." "Do you work here?" he said, looking around. "I don't think I have to answer that" she said putting on a straight face. "Come on, lets not get onto a bad start! I'm Ashish by the way.""Krittika"."Nice name, Krittika. By the way, let me buy you a coffee and you can curse this alpha male all you want for not letting you get over your fear ", he said looking at her. She was looking at with a raised eyebrow and said"I don't think so". "Owwwh come on, its just coffee, in the same mall, just 10 minutes, so I can apologise properly, you can chuck the coffee on me if you think I'm an asshole," he said earnestly. She wanted to smile, but didn't want him to know that she was intrested,"Ok, but just 10 minutes". She said as she asked someone to cover for her. (To be continued....)

P.S. This is my first attempt at fiction, so please don't mind if its too long....