“What have you decided? Are you coming or not?”
“How many times should I tell you?”
“Why? Why Meera? Why?”
After a deep silence she replied, “You know well the reason. I just can’t handle the situation”.
“I will be always with you as your shadow. You won’t feel discomfort. Then why can’t you attend the function? Now it has been a Jupiter year old.”
“Yes, you are right Abhi. Now it is 12 years old and we two are living in different situations leading peaceful family lives. Yet I can’t even imagine a situation to face him after a long time”.
“Look Meera. It’s not Hari the only person who attends the function. All our friends are coming together and how will it look like if we go back to our old campus days when we used to have a lot of fun. Don’t you want to experience those moments and memories again in our life?”
“Yes, I truly want. Yet I can’t Abhi. Try to understand me. I am not sure enough how I will face him after such a long time. Perhaps I may not feel something. Perhaps my mind may still exist in frozen state. Perhaps I may outburst and let my feelings out, those feelings that I had hidden from him till now.”
“Look Meera, no need to feel nervous. Just go and talk to him as you used to do while we were at college. Just talk to him for 5 minutes and mingle with our gang as usual. Nothing will happen.”
Meera’s mind got buried in thoughts and she forgot to respond to Abhilasha’s suggestion. Her mind went back to those old college days when she was worried always due to the untold feelings she used to carry about her classmate Hari. After a few moments, she kept her mobile close to her ears and replied, “I still remember Abhi, our farewell celebrations. One day before was my birthday. He forgot to give me a ring and at morning of the function, I quarreled with him for a while purposefully finding a reason. Even after asking him repeatedly several times, he was not able to recollect that one day before it was my birthday. Once I told him, his face became gloomy. Whole throughout the day he didn’t even talk to me. Before noon, I sat near him for almost two hours to talk with him for a while. He always finds new excuses to keep distance from me. But I was 100% sure that day he won’t repeat it at least at the last moment of our parting. He sat sandwiched in between me and Kavya. Yet they both didn’t notice me and after one and a half hour, I stood up and went to Ullas to have a chat with him. After a while I came and sat beside you. Do you remember? That time, you were in deep stress with exactly the same feeling I had and we both couldn’t share our feelings or worries for a while.”
“Yes, I do remember Meera. Time has gone past forward and everything around us is really new. “
“Seeing his distress face, when I gave him some extra sweets in the afternoon before we left, Ullas was standing near him. To my surprise, his face was also as gloomy similar to Hari and I tried to please him too, with a few sweets and a lot of ‘cracking’ laughs as I used to do always. I talked as much as I can so without any break so that my heart won’t leave out my truth if I give it a little space. I was ‘terribly’ successful too! Then do you remember what happened next?”
“Yes, you asked me to go. I went out of the function with broken heart”.
“Then I told him farewell forever and walked gently out of the class. That time, a few words were pouring through my mind as tears and non-stopping rains.
My dreams don’t lie in your eyes……
My words won’t reach your ears……
My arms even stretched won’t reach you…….
Because I am dumb and you are blind!
I just turned back to have a quick glance for the last time. He was standing as a statue and his still position in deep thoughts told it all. He didn’t see me and slowly I walked the steps. What a heart breaking parting! Now it has been 12 years without any contact and now also my heart beats fast if I think about those past days. It’s not possible for me Abhi, I really feel so”.
Stop! Stop! Stop! I am not taking you people to the dead end of an old love story of a Black and White movie or a love story that was published in a magazine a few decades back. Now, technology has gone fast forward. Those days have gone when lovers or friends used to wait for a phone ring or a letter impatiently for weeks or months. Now it is hi-tech era – an era where communication is being given much preference. SMS, chats, twitter, face book, mobile calls etc ……. Have you ever thought that modern technology never allows old relations to sleep forever. One day or another, it brings lost people together. After all, earth is round and world is shrinking every day, right?
Such campus love stories normally happen before 15 or 20 years ago when computers and internet were not easily accessible. If Meera and Hari exist in the present era of college days their love story will never end this way. Though as friends they would surely chat through fb, twitter or mails or would have send sms once in a while. Virtually, the relationship is not ending with the last day of college life. Just it has taken another phase though by virtual means. Through this article, I would like to take this interesting concept a little forward.
Virtual link ups – Good or bad?
Earlier students/lovers had to take a lot of risk to call someone from their land phones. When college is closed, bond of relationships slowly melt and only a few relationships stay green, particularly if untold promises are kept by both believing in love. Some told and untold promises fade away with time due to lack of communication and when life takes a new ‘U’ turn. But now things have changed a lot. Everyone has a mobile in his hand and he can communicate with any person of any corner of the world by spending a little money for sim card. Distance is also not much significant as it has been a decade ago. North America or Australia, South Africa or Great Britain, internet facilities make us virtually feel that he/she is very near to us and just a mouse click is needed to reach him.
Now students of campus and schools chat a lot through PC or communicate a lot through mobile phones. So, even at the time of parting, students used to exchange their numbers and hence, if the relation is not at all just an infatuation, it will take off smoothly. Presence of a person is not at all significant if love is real – It’s my personal opinion and I am sure, true lovers will always agree with me. Infatuations are just mere attractions that fade away in absence and even the modern technology measures of communication can’t keep them fresh too long, I personally believe so. True love will always stay in heart though near or far.
So, the question is – Are those virtual relationships good or bad? Can they harm both in future as it can’t end relations abruptly? It’s true, if both lovers are not in a mood to carry the relationship forward due to circumstances though they terribly love each other, such virtual relations and bonds can only harm each other. It’s better to give it an end knot than to drag it long giving worries and bruise wounds to both.
They can still communicate as friends
In many cases it’s commonly seen that when a relationship couldn’t be taken to next step, they end it up saying, “We are just friends now”. In many cases, personal conflicts and indifference in opinions can also make lovers think, “It is better we remain as friends forever than lovers”. Such things always happen in campuses nowadays. Even when a proposal is denied saying, ‘You are just my best friend’, such communications can help the relationships stay green though as mere friends. How much successful the relationship remains so in friendship mode, only the persons involved in it can tell. Perhaps time may give another end result too.
Technology gives new hopes of tomorrow
Many relations end with the end of campus life, school life or transfer because it makes both think that we have lost the person forever. It was the usual thought a few decades ago. But now, when two persons part, the first thing they do is to say to each other is ‘Now we shall chat frequently’. After all internet is too cheap nowadays! So, what can we understand from it?
Though we people blame a lot about technology telling that they kill the true relationships, it’s that technology that gives new flames and hopes to lost and unsuccessful relationships giving more time. That may be the reason why less tears are seen in campuses nowadays. Why? This virtual world has given a virtual feeling to people that relations are not going to end soon. Such untold promises are enough to console the loss of lost campuses, love and insecure feelings in true means.
Technically what happens to lovers after marriage?
I am not saying about the successful love story of lovers. I am thinking about those unsuccessful love stories. How many persons will still like to keep relationship with lovers after their marriage with someone else? Quite strange question! Right? If someone asks me the same question one decade ago, my answer would have been definitely, “They will surely stop communicating with each other as it brings pains to both. Also, fewer channels for communication” Is it true now also? I don’t think so. Technology always makes same people meet again and again. Even if the lovers are not communicating, definitely their friends do, and through other channels, they surely get updated with whatever news happened to the other person. Through chats with friends of a circle, everything remains there! Now communicating chains are also big. So, virtually the relationship has not ended completely, certain knots still exist though not annoying. Earlier absence of the person ends everything. But it’s not the case at present.
In many cases, it can also happen so – both remain as friends understanding the reality and they may communicate each other once in a while just to know about each other. E-mails and chats can do that job easy. Thinking about the good of their family and children, they had already accepted the truth. Yet let me conclude saying something. Now also there exists a group who believes in traditional love and they may stop the relationship abruptly thinking, even short communications may not end the relation completely and it may give more reasons to meet and chat again. Why to go behind shadows and false mirages? After all, how many incidents do we hear where lovers communicate even after their love failure and marriage with someone else? It depends merely on their personal beliefs and how deep they have taken things seriously. Yes, seasons may change, expressions of love may change. Yet a few still exist in this world whose minds are still old, as old as centuries and old Bronze Age!
NB: The short story used in this article is an extension of a chapter from my ‘yet to publish’ novel. Character names are also the same. The four line poem is also written by me.