Valentine’s is not just about love – it is about love, the joy of love and the pain of love…

“…yeah, I’ll pick you up… yes, sharp 7 o’clock, Kree… and be clear to your office, I want to be with you on Valentine’s… no, no meeting. Just be clear. Ok? Hehe… bye baby!”

And thus ended Sougat’s conversation of an hour or so of office hours.

“I think the Airtel guys made the local free calls for guys like you. What a waste! These guys provide free service. You keep talking all the garbage in the world on office hours… time when you are supposed to get creative inputs for the company. Low productivity, manpower wastage, low GDP and all that,” Amrit said in one breath, coming over from the adjacent cubicle, “So what was it about?”

“Nothing. They have some meeting on the 14th – 14th of all days and her boss wants her in office.”

“So?”

“So? You aren’t in love so you won’t get it!”

“I know. Every damn guy who thinks he is in love speaks mysteriously as if you’ve got some salvation. But listen, that’s something I wanted to talk to you about. You know very well that I am a columnist in this e-zine called zine-five-dot-com, don’t you?” Amrit said, trying to look important.

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Of course Sougat did. Indeed, everyone in his project group did. Amrit has always wanted to be a writer. Unfortunately, none of the magazines or publishers ever cared to get him published. Such is his zeal to be read that he would do all kinds of favours to his colleagues just to make them read his stories and blogs. A few e-zines, however, have been kind enough to upload his pieces now and then.

“Yeah I do”

“They are coming out with a Valentine’s Day special. The editors themselves asked me for a story.”

“Ok.”

“Unfortunately I know nothing about love and all that. So can you tell me… I mean you have experienced it,” Amrit said, placing sarcastic significance to the ‘experienced’ word.

“But you must have thought of some theme. Right?”

“Yes,” Amrit brightened up. He always did when someone became interested in (or feigned to take interest in) his ideas. “You see, it is about a break-up. A break-up just a day before Valentine’s…”

“What a sadist you are!”

“No, no. There is a concept here. I want to catch the feelings a girl goes through on being ditched all of a sudden. The concept is that Valentine’s is not just about love – it is about love, the joy of love and the pain of love.”

“Who told you so?” Sougat asked, curiously.

“Well, it is about interpretation isn’t it?”

“Well then dude, I got no idea. Never had to experience it.”

”But you can imagine ditching Kritika. And after all the mysterious stuff you say happens to love birds, I guess you can understand her feelings on being ditched.”

Sougat made a grimace. “Look Amrit. Love is not your cup of tea. So just stay away from it.”

“Fine. What about break-ups?”

“Look. There shouldn’t be any space between a couple. If there is any space at all other people start becoming significant. Slowly the space increases and at one point both know that it is not working out. You ditch someone when he is not just committed to you or you feel that you have been trapped or because you come to know that someone is not true to you…”

Amrit seemed to lose interest. “What is that? Wow! She’s hot” Amrit said, pointing to some pics on Sougat’s computer.

“Don’t know. Came as a forward. Obscene stuff. I was about to delete it when Kree called.”

“Delete it? Man you’re such a drag” Amrit said, scrolling the mouse to see the other pics “Just forward it to our group.”

“Are you crazy? Kree doesn’t like these cheap acts”

“Yeah, so? She is not in our group. Just forward it… ok let me forward it”

“Fine. Do it soon. I’m getting a coffee, do it soon” Sougat said picking his coffee mug.

***

Kritika had plans for Valentine’s. And now that good Mr. D had agreed to let her off, she would make it special. After attending to a colleague’s problems she came back to her workstation. On opening her mailbox she found a mail from Sougat. He never did that before. She clicked on the mail and found a very, very short note:

Kritika,I am sorry. Listen, you are great but I got some problems. Maybe I never told you about Jugnu. There are some things that happen so suddenly, things are not in your control. Listen, I care for you but…but I think it is good for us to part ways…

Sougat

***

Kritika was all alone in her apartment. Lights closed, phone ringing, the only other sound was her crying. She didn’t even feel like seeing who was calling. She just felt like a living dead body. Her colleague, S, had offered to stay with her that day but she had declined. She just wanted some time with herself.

What went wrong?It seemed so too perfect to her. Why… why this sudden…

Jugnu… yes he had told about his college crush. What does she have to do with this?

At long last, she picked her phone. She looked at the caller. It was Sougat. She disconnected the call. Another call came. It was from an anonymous number. She picked it.

“Hello.”

“Kree! It’s me Sougat. What’s the matter? Why didn’t you pick up?”

“What’s the matter? You’re asking me?” Kritika said, in between her sobs.

“Hey, are you crying?”

“What am I supposed to do? I am not a guy like you. You didn’t even have the sense to tell me face to face. Email! You send me an email?” she said, getting a little aggressive.

“What? You also got the mail? Oh… I didn’t mean to… I had forwarded it to…”

“You forwarded the mail? To whom?” she practically shouted through her cellphone.

“To my college friends’ group. I don’t understand how you…”

“You’re such a bastard… how could I make a mistake in knowing you”

She disconnected and switched her phone off.

The bell rang.

“Leave,” she tried to say between her sobs.

The bell rang again.

“Leave,” this time she shouted but the bell kept ringing. The consistent ringing irritated her. Somehow she managed to get out of bed and peep through the door. It was Amrit.

Amrit was a good friend. But then, he was Sougat’s close friend and she was a friend to her through Sougat. Amrit is one of those guys who would enlighten you with his pranks and jokes. Today she didn’t need him here. She wanted to be alone. But then, he could tell her more about this Jugnu business. Damn that girl, whoever she is. Kritika was sure she could never make herself talk to Sougat again.

She decided to open the door.

“What?” she asked.

“I just got to know. I am really sorry for you,” Amrit said, trying to sound sad. He looked at her at long as if trying to take an image of her.

“Can I come in?”

“No. Listen I want to have some time alone”

Amrit came in and made her sit on the sofa.

“Listen. You must have heard about Sigmund Freud. He had said that you feel better if you share your feelings with someone. Catharsis, emotional outburst he had called it,” Amrit said “Now, I am here because I want to help you. This crying won’t help you”

Kritika looked at him, uncertain.

“What is there to say? You know me. You know him. I can’t say I know him better than you, not anymore”

“Just tell me how you feel,” Amrit said, a sense of curiosity obvious in his tone. Kritika, however, didn’t notice it, given the severe emotional stress she was going through.

After a moment’s silence, Kritika said “How I feel? How do you think a girl feels on being ditched a day before Valentine’s? That too, we were doing great. I…” she broke and started sobbing loudly.

Amrit wasn’t exactly experienced in consoling anyone. So he just slapped her on the back and said “It’s ok. Tell me all that you want to…”

“I had plans, plans for future. There never seemed to be anything wrong. I never hid anything from him and he also… No. of course he hid that thing about Jugnu. Who exactly is she? He had told me that they were just friends in college and he had a crush or something.”

“Yeah, but you never know the way love works. The dynamics of love and the heart are a mystery to those who’ve never been in love,” Amrit said. He meant himself when he said that but Kritika thought otherwise and started crying loudly again.

“Hey… hey. Just tell me about the inner anguish you are going through”

At this moment, Sougat came in. The door was open, so he just barged into the living room. In any case, he had a copy of the key. On seeing him, Amrit became worried.

“Hi. I was just about to leave,” Amrit said and got up when Kritika stopped him. She was in no mood to talk to Sougat alone.

“Amrit, tell him I am in no mood to listen to his apologies”

“Hey Kree, what’s wrong? Why are you crying?” Sougat asked, and turning to Amrit, “What are you doing here?”

“I was just about to go. I think I’d better leave” Amrit said, making a motion to leave.

“You are not going anywhere. Tell him I can manage myself and I don’t want to meet him again,” Kritika told Amrit.

Shocked, Sougat said “Is it about the mail?”

“Yes,” Kritika said turning towards him, her voice now hoarse.

“So why are you getting so hyperactive? I didn’t even go through the obscene stuff before…”

“Hyperactive? You send a pathetically small break-up mail and ask me why I am hyperactive? Just get out!”

“Break-up? What break-up? What mail are you talking about?”

Both looked at each other, quite uncertain. Sougat bewildered, Kritika confused.

“You didn’t send that mail?” asked Kritika

“No… I had forwarded a mail of some model to a friends’ group at Amrit’s insistence… wait Amrit had forwarded it”

Amrit was at the entrance when Sougat looked at him sharply. “Hey, wait. What are you doing here?”

“He had come to… console me?” Kritika said, more like asking a question than maing a statement.

“Yeah. Listen I must go” Amrit said and was about to leave when Sougat caught his hand.

“Wait. Console her? How did you get to know about this mail I hadn’t written?”

“Yes. How?” Kritika asked him.

“Ah… well” Amrit mumbled “Kritika, you know I am a columnist on this e-zine zine-five-dot-com, don’t you?”

“Yeah…”

“So I was planning to write about a break-up and… and you know I was experimenting with some new styles of writing and I wanted some reality, something about how a girl feels on being ditched and you are my only good friend who could have helped and I knew you would be glad to help and I knew you won’t mind and I know neither you nor Sougat mind this,” Amrit said, all in one breath.

There was a moment of silence, wherein Amrit seriously believed that all tempers had cooled.

“You seriously want to know how a girl feels on being ditched?” Sougat asked at long last.

“Yeah.”

“Then let me show you,” Sougat said and dived for him. He missed. Amrit rushed out, Sougat chasing him.

Kritika laughed out at the scene, then at the prank, then at how foolish she had been. Human behaviour isn’t all that unpredictable. She should have known it wasn’t Sougat. .

***

“This Valentine’s has been the best I’ve had” Kritika observed. She and Sougat were sitting hand in hand on the steps leading to an old monument, far from the madding crowd.

“Shall I take it as a compliment” Sougat said flirtingly.

“No. Rather it’s a compliment for Amrit”

“What?”

“Valentine’s Day is about love, the joy of love and the pain of love. The joy of love is always mine, for you are mine. Yesterday I experienced the pain.”

Sougat stared at her.

“Really? And who told you Valentine’s Day is about the joy and the pain of love.”

“It is subject to interpretation!”

“Hmm. Looks like Amrit has some hope as a writer…”

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