Still, I love you!!! (Part I)

'Congratulations! Welcome on board. See you in Bangalore for training' was the sentence that changed my life. I was selected by the COMPANY through campus placements and I had to travel to Bangalore for training. After reaching Bangalore, I hired a cab at the railway station and started for my destination. All through the way to the hotel I made myself ready for the new challenge with some motivational thoughts, remembering my struggle to reach this position and my dream to get BIG. I checked into the hotel, got into the formal attire and reached the seminar hall. Only few people were present in the hall by the time I reached and I told myself "For once, its a good start. You reached on time dude!!!". By 10 AM the hall is almost filled with the candidates (my gonna be colleagues) to be TRAINED. A panel of executives from various verticals of the COMPANY entered the hall and started the inaugural speech. After some bla bla bla, the session ended and we were asked to complete our joining formalities. A person went to the stage and asked if everyone have their health tests done. Almost everybody have had their health tests done and are carrying the reports with them (we were asked to get the tests done before we reach for training). Then came the real query "Is there anyone who did not get the tests done?", for which I saw a few raised hands, mine included. There were quite a few of us who need to get the tests done and we were sent to Appollo for the tests. There were two cabs arranged for the transport and I got into the second one which started around 30 mins after the first one left. We reached the hospital and there came the moment of my life.

It was there, I first saw Seema.  As I entered the corridor, I saw a cute girl talking to her friend. The moment I saw her, I think I fell for her. I could hear my heart beat pretty heavily, blood rushing from my feet to the heart, ears went deaf and the tongue dumb. In the meantime my crooked brain was busy calculating few things - She is a few inches shorter than me, height is OK! She is fair, colour OK! She moves good among people, well educated I guess! She is 'very well' dressed!!  "aah stop that crap you idiot!!! You dint even know who she is and what the hell are you dreaming about? height and weight?" questioned the evil part of me. Ya right! I had to listen to the evil side and started on the purpose I came to the hospital. The tests were done and I was asked to wait in room no 6. There you go! she is in the room. I then saw many familiar faces. Oh ya, they were with me in the cab! my gonna be colleagues! btw what is she doing in that room? my mind still din come to normal senses. It was the room where only the employees of the COMPANY were asked to wait. An unknown ecstasy has hit me and I got lost in the moment that made me realize that SHE IS ONE OF THOSE 'GONNA BE COLLEAGUES'.

"Hey dude! done with all the tests?" asked Arun, my best friend. 'Hmmm' I nodded to confirm. We then completed the rest of the formalities and left for the hotel. I did not talk to her that evening. Well, I had a reason for that - She was talking to other guys - jealous I was and of course an idiot.

The training period was scheduled for just a month, at the end of which we would be given the details of our postings and the projects. The first half of the training period went very slow with all those boring technical stuff but the later half was fun with few competitions and team building games. We were a group of 30 odd employees and this 30 days got us very close. We had several late night parties in the hotel and used to go clubbing on weekends. It was more fun than training. Well, getting back on the actual track, I did not interact with her much in the first half of the training period, thanks to the stupid jealousy. But all of a sudden, the teams got shuffled and we both were in the same team for the competitions and the games. We got to know each other a little better this time.

One pleasant evening, we were returning to our rooms from the seminar hall after the session and to my surprise it was only two of us walking in the corridor (all the others went on a city trip). It was then I spoke to her for a longer duration. Actually it was my heart that was speaking. Though that was the first time I somehow felt as if we were known to each other for years. I shared many of my hidden emotions with her - problems back home all along my childhood, my struggle to get into one of the best management institutes of the country, etc etc. I knew it was a boring start but couldn't help much. "Did I bore you?" I asked her with a low voice. "Not at all. In fact it felt great to know those things about you" she replied with her lovely voice which spelled a special kind of magic on me.

Days were passing pretty fast and the team got closer with each passing day. There were more parties, more movies, more dining outs, more leg-pulling and more fun. Meanwhile, Seema and I were getting to know more of each other and we became very good friends. And finally the day has come, the day when our training ended and we would be given the details of our posting locations. We all assembled in the seminar hall for the last session of our training and I was sitting beside Seema. A lady entered the hall, wished us all the success in our careers and started to read out the details in the alphabetical order. Slowly came the name I was eagerly waiting for, "Seema Agarwal - Chennai" announced the lady. Seema was relieved hearing the name Chennai as she wanted only and only Chennai (only God knows the reason). My preference was in the order of Hyderabad, Bangalore, Pune and then Chennai. But now my heart started to pray for the reverse to happen. Now I too wanted Chennai, for obvious reasons. The lady entered the names starting with alphabet V and I was anxious like a kid waiting for his slip test results. I looked at Seema, she was a bit anxious too. "Vikram Singh - Hyderabad" the lady read out my location details. I felt disappointed. My dream location appeared like hell to me. Seema looked a bit happy though, as we both got the locations we were wishing for. "Congrats dear!" she said with a cute smile on her beautiful face. It was then I saw something amazing! A disappointed face of her as she turned around! Yes, her disappointed face looked amazing to me, its because she was upset that I got a different location.

I decided to leave for Hyderabad on the same day. We reached the station at 5:30 in the evening. A few friends came down to give me a send off with Seema being the only girl who came down. The train reached the station at 5:45, 15 mins before the scheduled departure. I started the bye-bye session by hugging all my friends and wishing them all the best. I was talking to everyone but her, fearing that I may get emotional. "Dude this is too much!" She said with a lovely smile thinking I forgot her. I went to her, smiled, shook her hand and said "Bye bye ra, be in touch". I felt I was about to burst into tears and walked away swiftly from her towards the train. "Miss you!!!" I heard her saying aloud from behind. I did not reply to that. Actually, I was not in position to speak a single word. I went blank for few minutes. I waved them all goodbye standing at the door as the train moved.

I reached Hyderabad the next morning and joined the Gachibowli office. The projects were being assigned to all the new joiners in a phase wise manner. I got the chance right away and was given the project in telecom vertical. I was pretty happy with the project I got. A week after joining the office, I called Seema and that call set off phase-2 of my story.

I was calling her after a gap of 10 days. I was so eager to hear that lovely voice of hers. "Hello CR! wassup?" I heard that mesmerizing voice and went mad in happiness. "Am good, how you doing?" I asked. We then had a good talk catching up on several things that happened in these 10 days. We spoke for around an hour that day. I thanked Graham Bell for inventing the phone, it was the only medium of contact between us. We used to talk quite frequently and I was becoming impatient day by day that I am away from her. Suddenly after so many days it struck my dumb mind that Chennai is only a night's journey from Hyderabad. Pretty lazy mind. I started off the very next weekend for Chennai. I got into the train and called Seema. "WTF!!! are you serious you are reaching Chennai tomorrow morning?" she screamed in excitement. "Yep" I replied pleasantly controlling my own excitement. "Would you be there at the station to receive me?" I asked. "Definitely yaar" I got the answer I wanted. By the time I reached Chennai, it was raining a bit. As soon as the train entered the station, I ran to the door and my eyes started searching for her in all directions. I got down the train and searched for her all along the platform but couldn't find her. I was pretty disappointed and gave her a call only to know that she is on her way to the station. In a short while, I met her outside the station. She took me around Chennai taking me to all the places to visit. In the evening we went to her apartment where she is staying with one of her colleagues. "Is it ok if I come to a girls' apartment?" I thought to myself and asked the same to Seema. "Don't be stupid. You can come happily. And to make you feel even comfortable, my roommate is out-of-station." She replied.

We entered her apartment at 7:15 in the evening. Immediately she went inside asking me to make myself comfortable and that she will be back in a few minutes. I settled in the living room in front of the TV and started watching cricket. It was an interesting match of cricket, India Vs South Africa with Sachin and Sehwag at the crease. I was completely involved in watching the match and dint care much about anything else. Suddenly I heard her say "interesting match, ha?" which brought me back into this world. I turned around to see her standing right behind me. She got herself into her night wear holding two glasses and a bottle of scotch. Looking her like that made me ask myself only one question again and again - "how can one be so beautiful?" We then had the drinks and the scotch started working on us. We started talking about every irrelevant and stupid topic in this world, we laughed a lot with our silly jokes and we spoke few emotional stuff - about our pasts, families, etc. Suddenly, we fell silent for few minutes and I could hear the rain outside. My heart started inclining towards romantic side of me and I could feel the heat of the moment. "Dude, I think you better realize that your are just a good friend to her and shut your senseless thoughts" reminded the evil side of me. In fact all these days, whenever I felt that am developing feelings for her the evil side of me kept warning me of the practical issues. I used to check myself many many times if am actually in love with her. I couldn't get the answer. But at that moment I just lost and even the evil side could not curb the feelings. I realized that this was the only day in the recent past when I am so happy. I could feel the amazing chemistry between us and felt like grabbing her into my arms. That was the moment I got my answer - I am actually in love with her and that she is the one for me. "I think its time for you to leave" she said as if she read all the thoughts going on in my mind. I gave her a surprised look to which she responded softly "actually you can stay here for the night but you know....(silence)...." I got the meaning and said "Thats not an issue. I can understand" and started to leave. "Where are you gonna stay?" She asked. "I'll go to my friends place in Anna Salai" I replied. She came out along with me and wished me goodbye with a warm hug.

That day changed my life drastically. I just had the best feeling of my life - love. I was imagining my beautiful future with her but at that moment, I could not foresee that god had different plans for me.

Still a long way to go...