My First Love (Part 2)

Days passed by; My professional life turned into a rat race with no idea where I am heading to. For most of us office became our second home as we spend most our time there. Our colleagues become our family. I imagined drawing a family tree of a typical corporate team. You can relate if your team falls under this category. If you consider team as a family,

A Manager who resembles a strict or cool father

A Team leader who behaves like a mother who saves us most of the times from our manager for our silly errors and shows us the right path

One proactive team member who is like an elder son carrying the weight of the team because of his experience

Other teams are like neighbours with whom we exchange gossips within the company, many more who includes a hard working guy, a Shakuni, work escapist, a multi-tasker, a comedian, the deaf one with earphones all the time and last but not the least a bunch of new joiners who are like question banks just like few in our families. You all know who they are.

When my life was moving with no life in it, one guy entered my life like a lightning thunder. His name is “Ilyas”. Yes, with the same name of mine. He was a friend of my roommate, who came to Chennai for an audit work. He stayed with us for a couple of weeks, we become acquaintances. I saw him speaking on the phone for long hours and asked him about it. He replied that he was recently engaged and was getting married in the next month. I congratulated him and didn’t ask much details as he was not so close to me and it didn’t bother me much.

After a hectic day at work, I reached my room. My roommate was sleeping sound. I was so tired and wasn’t interested to cook. After some time, my friend woke up and we decided to order something. I asked my friend about Ilyas as he hasn’t reached room yet. He replied that he left as he had something urgent work at his office.  He added that he invited us for the wedding and will share the card with him soon. We ordered food and had our dinner.

Ilyas called my friend to invite us over the phone to his wedding, I spoke to him over the same call. We decided to go as it is on weekend and for bachelors it is great way to escape cooking on weekends. It was a 3-hr journey and by the time we reached there, we are so hungry. We just looked at the Mandap, the couple had not arrived yet. So, we decided to have food first and headed to the serving section. I took some fruits in my bowl and started eating. Live telecast of the marriage was shown in a projector beside me. As I started eating my friend called me to have a look at the projector screen as Ilyas arrived into mandap. I was watching the screen enjoying the taste of the fruits. Meanwhile I saw the bride coming in the wedding attire on screen with a group of people. I couldn’t take my eyes off; I couldn’t hear anything except my heartbeat. It was HER. “ISHITHA” after 3 years.

I lost grip and dropped the bowl from my hands. My friend tapped me, I became conscious and didn’t know what to reply. We moved aside and left from there. I told my friend that I will come back again. My friend asked me to come fast as we were supposed to wish the couple and leave from there. I was not sure how to react to what I just witnesses. I questioned my destiny, why did I meet Ilyas, if met, why we became friends, why should he invite me to his wedding, if invited why I attended it. I started walking fast as the tears started rolling out of my eyes. I didn’t want someone to see me in this state.

I walked into dark and took time to digest the things. My friend who was not aware of my past started calling asking me to come fast. I didn’t want to mess up. I washed my face and went back to him. We both started moving towards the couple to wish them. As we approached to wish, she recognised me and introduced to her husband. We were asked to pose for a picture, I asked my friend to come beside her and stood beside Ilyas. The couple were surprised knowing the facts that the I knew Ishita well before the wedding. I masked a smile on my face and left the stage after wishing them. As we already finished dinner, we decided to leave from there.

My friend drove the car and I sat inside the car quietly throughout the journey watching the moon passing through the dark clouds. I told my friend that I am suffering from migraine and he was quiet letting me in peace. I remember the day where I did ‘FLAMES’ and was happy seeing the result ‘Marriage’. On the day of my breakup, I felt it’s all fake and nothing. But today nothing has changed, the name was same, the result was same but what had changed is ‘just the person’. I repeat it’s ‘just the person’.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Thank you all for the support you all showered for the Part 1, your support has motivated to pen more parts to this story. Please share and follow the blog to get notified directly in your inbox for my latest posts. Next part in this series will be out at the earliest.

Wishing you all a happy and safe Diwali.

Appreciate the support from all of you.

Signing off,

Avinash Reddy.