Strange ways of Cupid

“Hey Tania, so you still remember me?” he said, smiling his usual lopsided smile.

In their heart of hearts they knew that they could have never forgotten each other. And Arjun had proved to be a true friend to Tania and stood by her when even some of her so-called friends had deserted her.

“What are you doing in a bookshop on Valentine’s Day?” asked Tania.

“Celebrating with you, my friend,” he replied innocently.

It was an awkward answer but the look in his eyes stopped her from asking more. Spending February 14 all alone in a bookshop was certainly not Arjun’s idea of celebrating. She remembered how excited he had been exactly six years ago, while preparing for a surprise party for Ritu, the girl of his dreams. It had been a cute party with a huge heart-shaped cake, romantic music and the hall done up with balloons, transparent lamps… all heart-shaped. All the couples had dressed up as some famous pair like Romeo-Juliet, Laila-Manju, though Tania had been the odd one out as her boyfriend Nikhil was `too busy’ as usual.

She suddenly woke from her reverie, realising that Arjun was gazing at her strangely. He just smiled at her, wondering how this scatter-brained girl had changed into an elegant young lady. But the lonely, dreamy look in her eyes had not changed. For an odd moment he was infuriated at Nikhil and hated him for having treated such a sweet girl so badly.

He knew how much Tania had adored and admired Nikhil and how many times he had reminded him how lucky he was to have such a sincere girlfriend. But Nikhil would just laugh and brush it off as a joke.

Arjun was brought into the present with Tania’s lively chatter.

“What are you doing in this part of the country?” she was asking him, “I heard that your parents had shifted to Delhi.”

“I’m a fighter pilot,” he replied.

“Wow, a Sukhoi pilot!” she exclaimed, her big baby eyes round with wonder.

He had seen that look on her face so many times when their college had won any tournament and Nikhil, the captain was declared the architect of their victory.

“What you’re doing Tania, is equally amazing,” Arjun said sincerely, looking around the big, well-stocked bookshop, “owning and managing this is not easy.”

“Well, it’s a wonderful feeling to be independent. And `Phrase & Prose’ is a dream come true,” she gushed.

“Yeah! Some dreams materialise while some just vapourise,” murmured Arjun.

“Hey Tan, isn’t it almost closing time? If you’ve got no probs then then let’s go over to that ice-cream parlour there and catch up over Chocolate Sundaes”.

But the parlour turned out to be jam-packed with couples `catching up’ over cups of ice-cream. So they continued walking and turned into a peaceful avenue and talked about everything under the sun. It was just like college days.

He had always enjoyed her company. It was a pleasant surprise and coincidence that they had met each other and that too on V-day.

After some time Tania asked a little hesitantly, “How’s Ritu?”

“Oh, she married some tycoon last year,” Arjun replied slowly.

The words hit her like thunder. Ritu and Arjun looked cute together and had seemed to be so much in love.

“It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t want to marry a pilot ‘cos it’s too risky,” he said, his voice quivering slightly.

Tania recognised the pain on Arjun’s face – the same pain that she herself had gone through years ago when Nikhil had dumped her for another girl. Arjun had tried to tell her about Nikhil’s double-timing game but she had dismissed the whole thing as a silly rumour.

Once again, the anguish welled up inside her and tears rolled down her cheeks. Arjun took her into his arms and held her tightly, wondering for the first time, why they had searched for love in people who had only hurt them. All they had to do was find the true love in each other’s lonely hearts!