You HAD got the mails

A chilled winter evening in Bangalore, Madhvi was sitting in Chaibar spending time with her favorite pals- books. However Madhvi was very shy yet a straight-forward girl but she had big dreams like any other girl to touch the sky, at least to go overseas and make name, fame and money – the three most wanted in today’s generation. A calm girl with no attitude but a fear to mingle with people; probably that’s the reason why she had hardly any friends after staying for so many years in this multi-ethnic city. Books and music drive her crazy. Her endless passion for flowers always adds color and fragrance to her beautiful world.

The city was famous for its open-mindedness and cosmopolitan culture, the city that made people stay here forever who visit it once. Madhvi‘s family was not an exception to this. They were Maharastrians from Mumbai. After spending nearly twelve years in Bangalore, she was not completely touched by the glamour of the city. The distance had kept her away from the typical Mumbaiya style, yet she loved those first ten years of her life in Mumbai where she had lots of friends. She still cherished those days when she used to go for bicycling on the sea-beach, go to the club to learn swimming and tennis. But she had to leave all her friends when her family shifted to Bangalore. That is one of the reasons why she could not be a part of this cosmopolitan city after so many years. But there was nothing much that she could do about it other than making friendship with books, music and flower to hold back her interest to finally go back to Mumbai. After she completed engineering, she joined a software company and then she realized at least a part of her dreams started coming true when she flew abroad. In the meanwhile she had started exchanging mails with a guy whom she had never met- an email friend, whose name was Aman. The shy girl never wanted to make friendship with someone she had never met but as they exchanged emails, they got to know each other better. The became close friends when Madhvi came to know that this guy was from her favorite place where she’d spent her whole childhood; where she had spent the best days of her life whether it’s the school, the sea-beach, the tennis club or the swimming pool. They became close when she flew abroad and started missing this email friend more than anyone else. She started missing the way he used to bring her up when she was down; she started missing the way he used to give her Gyaan when she had confined herself from meeting people and making new friends. The dimension of the relationship changed for her when she kept missing him more and more day by day after she came back home. But providence had decided something else for them. When Madhvi came back, Aman had to go to London. The desperation to meet Aman was touching the sky and Madhvi was getting confined in her own thoughts. She had her own perceptions and had developed an image of Aman who used to understand her best even without speaking a word to her. In one of her mails she had dedicated the most favorite Ronan Keating number, “you say it best when you say nothing at all” to him which added a nice grin to his face as incidentally it is Aman’s favorite song too.

Time flew and they were still at the same place, just the emotion was going deeper and deeper. Aman was also going through the same phase of emotion where he used to think about Madhvi all day and night. He also felt that Madhvi became indispensable in his life even if he had never seen her. Aman use to feel that Madhvi was the most sensible and steadfast girl who would always stand by him. Every morning he used to get an email from Madhvi when he opened his computer and that’s how he used to start his day.
Being two people from the same industry whre technology was everything, they had neither heard each other nor did they have seen each other. They had decided to meet when Aman would come back. But this time also something else was destined for them. Madhvi’s father fell sick. Before Aman and Madhvi could decide something, Madhvi had to get married to Ashish.

Madhavi went through hell when she got married. She was so confused with her ownself- about the love that she had for Aman, about the warmth that she had felt only with Aman and the trust that she had in Aman’s virtual presence. She was confused thinking if she could make justice to Ashish whom she had never loved; what would happen to Aman for whom she had poured all her emotions. Finally she wrote about her marriage to Aman and in return she came to know about Aman’s marriage with someone else. But probably that’s destiny and she had no other go other than accepting life the way it had come.

Fortunately or unfortunately Madhvi started staying in the same city where she had dreamt to live with Aman, where she had spent her childhood, but now the same city was not making any difference other than moistening her eyes. With the passing days she was getting more confused about accepting Ashish in the true sense. She was not sure if could spare that place in her heart for Ashish what she had given to Aman. How long this marriage would last if it’s not poured with emotion; was it worth loving someone for the rest of her life whom she had never met, was it worth cheating her own emotions- she was just getting drowned with all these emotions. Finally she went ahead and told Ashish that she might not be able to love him ever because she had Aman’s strong presence in her heart and mind. Ashish was a good and caring person with a passion to make everyone smile in his surrounding. He also confessed to Madhvi that he had a strong relationship in the past which would have always an upper hand over his presence and future. Hearing this Madhvi was happy but gradually she didn’t like the presence of his past everywhere even if she had her own. The sweetness of the friendship among them gradually disappeared with the complication of each other’s life. It was nearly two years after her marriage but things were not moving. They were at the same point from where they had stared rather there was bitterness added to that relationship.

One morning Ashish told to Madhvi that he would go to Delhi for two days for some official work. Madhvi went to the airport to see him off. They looked at each other for a moment hoping for things to get better and at least wanted to land up on a platform of stable friendship. Madhvi also wished the same this time. After Ashish reached Delhi he called up Madhvi to tell her for the first time that he was missing her. Madhvi was not sure how to reply and just asked him to take care. The next evening Ashish’s flight landed in Mumbai and it was his Wedding Anniversary. He picked up a bunch of yellow roses to present them to her to start up a new friendship. But this time also something else was decided for him. His car bumped on to a bus and it was too late by the time someone took him to the hospital. That was the biggest shock to Madhvi when she saw Ashish’ s body on her wedding anniversary even if that marriage didn’t have any meaning in her life. It was not possible for her to stop her tears from rolling down over her cheeks for this friend who was a part of her life for the last two years. Her parents had come and decided to bring her back to Bangalore but she was not sure what she wanted to do. It was a Sunday morning and she was missing Ashish in every corner of her house. She just went near his almirah to arrange it, the way she used to do it over every weekend. But this time she wanted to arrange it completely so she took the locker key and opened it. She was stunned and scandalized, she was surprised and she was afraid that she was not dreaming. She took that file out from the locker, she could not stop crying and then screaming when she saw the copies of emails from Naina, the girl-friend of Ashish whom he had never met, a shy and straight-forward girl who was from Bangalore, who used to mail him every morning to make his day, who used to bring him up whenever he felt low and lastly who had dedicated the song “you say it best when you say nothing at all” to him, to Aman. Her heart broke into two hemispheres to know that Ashish was nobody else other than Aman whom she had loved so much that she could never love Ashish. And Naina was no one else but she, who had used this name to go away from the shyness that Madhvi had. Madhvi closed her eyes and she could visualize Ashish at Aman’s place now in all the mails that she had got from Aman and she could visualize Aman with everything that had happened in the last two years after her marriage with Ashish. She said “Aman you had got the mails!”
She gave a smile and fell down right there on the floor to be with Aman forever.