Love Story

Once upon a time in the small town of Muzaffarnagar.
Manu never expected that one day his obsession for books would teach him so much in just one day.

12th April, 2009
"I am leaving this town on 12th April evening forever. My Father has decided to send me to Delhi for graduation. I didn't have the courage to tell you about all this personally since I know that I would never be able to conceal my emotions and I would end up hurting you in some way.

Before I leave this place, I want to let you know how important are you for me. There have been moments of fun, of joy and even of fights in between us and when I look back to those moments, I cherish every second that I spent with you. Your mere presence in my life has touched it to the core. You are the only person with whom I can share my feelings without any second thought. I don't know whether you have the same feelings for me or not, but before I leave this town, I must tell what you mean to me. People say that you hear bells ringing when you fall in love, but for me I can just hear one thing and that is my heart throbbing every time you are near me. I love you and will always love you come what may. Through this beautiful book 'Love Story', I wish to begin another beautiful love story.

I will be waiting for your reply till 12th. If you don't have feelings for me, then for my sake don't reply to this letter. It is always better to be hopeful for something rather than being heart-broken for life. I promise that I will never bother you again.

Always yours,
Kiran
6th April"

16 years old Manu was startled. This letter fell out of his newly purchased second-hand Eric Segal's 'Love Story' while he was juggling the book in air.

He turned the first page of the book, the name was Samridhi Kakkar, City College dated 8th April '09. Eyes were stirred with amazement - just seven days old book found in a second-hand bookstall. He felt responsible for something - The Chosen One for helping in the initiation of someone's beautiful love story.

"This Samridhi must haven't skimmed through the book, the letter in particular. I must try to reach out to her and hand this to her. It is a matter of love, after all. And I 'definitely' know what love means!" He thought.

At the college
The next five hours were difficult time for Manu. He straightaway went to the City College which was closed, 12th April being a Sunday. However, the office was open and there was just one staff who was too preoccupied in making a syrup out of the betel leaves in his mouth.

Manu enquired, "Bhaiya, can you give me the address of someone named Samridhi Kakkar in your institute."

The staff spat making a red heart-shape on the stained yellow wall and rebuked, "How could I give somebody's residential address to any stranger? Kuch chai paani, kuch bhi nahin, aa jaate hain log."

Manu, took out 20 rupees note from his pocket and handed to the guy. "Bhaiya it's important. Please hurry up." Manu said in quite a disgusted tone.

The staff slid the note in his shirt pocket and began to search through the register cursorily.

"What name did you say? Kakkar?" The staff asked in a garbled tone balancing a tablespoonful of the red syrup in his mouth. He was adept in this task of balancing.

"Yes, please hurry." Manu said, he wanted to finish off this responsibility as quickly as possible.

"If you are in so much haste, then do it yourself." The staff chided gulping another triangle of betel in his blood-red mouth.

Manu went towards the register, searched frantically and two minutes later he had a piece of paper adorned with the address - "Samridhi Kakkar, Sahni's girl's hostel, Cavalry lane."

He rushed to the place as quickly as he could.

At the Hostel's reception
"Can you call Samridhi Kakkar?" Manu asked.
"Samridhi, Room no. A-16, please come to reception." The guard announced.

Exactly 3 minutes, 34 seconds later
A good looking young girl of the age-group of 19-21 came to the reception.

"Hi, I am Manu Ujjwal. I purchased this book today at the Nalanda Bookstores. It bears your name." Manu went forward and said.

"Hi. Yeah, I sold that book a couple of days ago, even without reading it. So what brings you here?" Samridhi said, quite courteously.

"Why did you sell it? I heard it's a good book." Manu said, ignoring Samridhi's last question completely. He was still unable to initiate a talk about the letter.

"The start of the book - it was like 'What can you say about a twenty-five-year-old girl who died. That she was beautiful and brilliant.' I hate sad love stories." She said quite glibly.

"Where did you get this book from?" Manu asked.

"A friend of mine gifted it to me. Why are you asking me so many questions?"

"I found this in your book. I am sorry that I read it, it is quite personal." Manu said handing over the letter - the love letter to Samridhi.

She was puzzled. She read through it, her eyes were wet and her voice broke. She wiped her tears, gathered herself and said, "Thank you so much. You don't know what it means to me. I love Kiran from the last two years but never could convey my feelings to him. I was afraid that he does not like me. But, you have saved me from a sin. Thank you, thank you brother."

Manu smiled. The 16 years old had found a sister in her.

At Kiran's Place
"Come with me, I want you to meet Kiran. You are a Messiah for us." Samridhi said and took Manu with her towards a house on the parallel road. Reaching the fences, she called, "Kiran" when a handsome young lad came out.

"Hi Sam, how are you?" He smiled towards both of them as he moved out of his portico.

Samridhi ran forward and hugged him tightly. Kiran was confused with this sudden public display of affection and something more.

"You dumbass, where are you going without me? And why the hell were you afraid of telling me personally. If it were not Manu, I would have lost you forever. Thank him."

"What the hell are you talking about? I am going, what non sense. And who is he? Stop kidding Sam. April fool's day has long been gone!" Kiran shrieked quite irritably and pushed her out of his hug-field. Manu was bewildered. His newly awaken sister-safeguarding feeling haunted his mind, yet he was too stunned to react to Kiran's creepy behaviour.

"You know everything." Samridhi was nonplussed with his annoyance.

"What thing? What are you talking about?" Kiran said.

"Thank you Kiran, you made me feel so special! I love you too." Samridhi said.

"I like you too but isn't it quite a bizarre way to propose? I would have loved if you did it in a much serene way. And what feeling special are you talking about?" Kiran was very badly confused.

Samridhi took out the letter from the book and handed it over to Kiran. Kiran's eyes rushed through the letter. His face was transformed into a living sweat source. He frantically pulled his cellphone out, and stared at the date - 12th April and time - 3.30 pm. His eyes were transfixed to the letter, which was all wet after having a bath of sweat and tears together.

The Long Run
Holding his tears as well as the letter he started running frantically. Sam and Manu were perplexed. They followed him like wild dogs after a piece of meat. After five minutes of marathon, Kiran neared a house where a short-and-cute girl with bags in her hand had just boarded a rickshaw. He ran towards the rickshaw and shouted, "Kiran!"

The girl turned back, her eyes filled with tears of joy and a zillion-dollars smile on her face clearly showing that she is happiest one out there in this world. The marathon runner reached his finished line when his sweaty T-shirt struck against his Kiran's bosom and he heaved a cry of joy and the other Kiran echoed.

Samridhi tear grands also became active, but with a gracious smile embellishing her beautiful face. She was feeling really happy for Kiran - both of them, and now she really felt that what it is to be in love.

5 Minutes Later
"Kiran? You both are Kiran?" Manu asked, with a childlike curiosity.

"Yes." The Kirans replied with a smile worth millions.

"Thank Manu. If you are together, then it's because of him." Sam said after wiping out every form of liquid from her face.

"Thank you. How did the book reach you?" The lady Kiran asked seeing Eric Segal's Love Story in Manu's hand .

"Let me explain", Lord Kiran began, "You gifted me this book with the letter inside and I passed it on to Samridhi the next day on her birthday without even opening it."

The lady Kiran was disappointed but the joy of togetherness overpowered the trifle disappointment.

"And then when I read the first line - 'What you can say about a twenty-five-year-old woman who died?' I got detested. I hate sad love stories. I sold it to a second hand bookstore without even knowing that there was something inside it." Samridhi continued the story.

"And that's when the Messiah came!" Manu laughed out.

All about love
And then there was lull. A two minutes long pause.

"Thank you Sam for being pleasant all throughout. I am sorry that I ran so suddenly without giving you any hint. I just could not wait after reading that letter. I hope you didn't mind how I behaved to you even though you liked me." Lord Kiran said graciously breaking the enigmatic silence.

"That's no problem. I cannot express how happy I am for you two. And regarding my liking for you, clearly, she loves you more than me." Samridhi said with a tearful smile. And all three of them hugged, finally squeezing the young Messiah between them.

"I hate sad love stories." Samridhi's often repeated phrase echoed in Manu's mind.

"Clearly, Samridhi loves Kiran more than anybody else." Manu realized. Manu now 'definitely' knew what love meant.

P.S. Love is not measured by what you can 'give' for its sake, it is what you can 'give up' for its sake - Harsh.