Kanpur-Gandhinagar-Bangalore-Calcutta

Few years back (Vadodra, Gujarat):

Hey Akshay! Look, my school, my mom shouted in joy. It was weird to see her clapping her hands like a small girl. For a 6 year old, mom is the most powerful person. She is the one who controls your destiny- from what you eat to what you wear to what you get beaten with. Seeing her acting like that confused me.
Come on ma! What a big deal! Just a building. That too in such a bad shape. Who likes the school anyway?
Mom mellowed down her excitement, but still stared at her school, seemingly lost in her thoughts and watched her school left behind as we drove through.
Hey why do you hate your school so much?
Ma! What is there to like about a school? Homework, Exercise, Wake up early, Dress, Punishment, Bullies- who in the world can love his school?
You'll realize some day.

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25 years later (Pune, Maharashtra):
(Life had moved on. I was working in a software firm. Married, settled. Ma was no more. But I knew she was still looking after me.)

Angel! Come on. Get ready for school. It's 8 a.m. already
Come on dad! Please let me sleep. I'm not going school today.
Angel, subah subah punishment chahiye kya? Chalo ready ho! Dress nikal di hai. And breakfast mein cornflakes khayenge. Jaldi!

I turned on the news. The headline said- "Today President will visit JK school in Kanpur and address students."
Angel angel! Come here. My school. See!
I was jumping with joy seeing my school in news footage.
Dad! She said, rubbing her eyes and looking confused - It's just a small building. What's the big deal?
I looked up facing the sky and said with a faint smile- You'll realize some day

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(Too much of a mushy story. Thought of deleting it, but then I'll post it anyways since I get very few opportunities to update this space now.)

"Excuse me? Is this the Strategic Inputs team?"
I stared at her. She was beautiful. She look lost. The blue butterfly clip on her head was shaking ferociously- as she was trying to look in all directions, trying to find her newly allotted team.

"Yes.There is the manager. You can talk to him"

I saw her going to the manager. They were talking and I saw two completely contradictory persons in same frame. Yin and Yang , Devil and the Angel.

"Guys she is Nikita. She will join our team. Let me introduce you to them".
Somehow the manager failed to introduce me. It was pretty obvious too. I was junior most member of the team. Pretty much non existent. I cursed my small town upbringing. I sulked in the corner of my team's cubicle and got back to coding. World was pretty small for me.

"Hey can you help me out. I need to attend a party today and I'll be really late."
I thought to myself-"Dude she is way out of league. You are just going to make a mockery of yourself. Don't harbor any feelings for her".
I helped her out and saw her leave. It felt magical talking to her. I shrugged myself to not to think any further and got back to work.

Life went on. I saw her little disturbed at times but I didn't ask her. It was none of my business.

"Oye kal kyon nahin aaya! Atleast inform to kar diya karo agar nahin aa rahe ho to!" I was shocked. I don't think anybody else from my team would have even noticed that I was absent yesterday. "Yaar thoda tabiyat kharab thi. Office ka khana " "Koi nahin. Kaam khatam kar lo. We'll go to McD for lunch".

"Hey! Why you did not came to office yesterday. I wanted the part of code you were working on", shouted my manager. Sigh!

Gradually we became close friends. I really loved her company. If you wanna label that as love,I really don't know and it didn't matter. All I know was we had good time.

A year passed.

"Hey I want to tell you something. Let's go for a tea". I wondered what it is. My codes were not running and the devil would be hunting me down soon. "I got an offer from ZS. I am quitting. Next week would be my last. I'm so excited. They even doubled my pay". I was shocked. All I could say is "Awesome! Let's have a party".

The week passed by. I felt helpless. Should I disclose my feelings? But she is just a good friend. She obviously had no regrets. The final day came. We had cake cutting ceremony, she got her relieving letter. Everybody said goodbyes. I came down to see her off. "Good Bye. It was nice to spend some time with you. Best of luck", I said.

She wanted to say something but then stopped and left. I would like to believe there was a tear in the corner of her eye. I came to my team cubicle, sat in the corner and started coding again.

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Fictional story inspired from life of one of my very close friend.

She had a weird smile. A kind of smile that made her mysterious- layers of confusion, sadness and complexities wrapped neatly under that smile. Facing the world bravely, taking people head on- never letting anyone realize that she could be scared. Being the coolest girl in her neighborhood, very few people could have imagined that she might feel desperately homesick at times.

Daddy's little girl- as she was.
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Her experiences made me feel - maybe all love stories are not meant to end on a happy note. Or maybe the good ending in some love stories is saying goodbye forever. She had a very normal life- working seriously in office, partying with friends, handling weird followers, talking while eating, fiddling with her cell phone- typical girly habits. But behind that normal life was exceptional courage to make life normal, definite determination to end her relationship, for which she had already sacrificed a lot.

Daddy's little girl- as she was
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There was something that set her apart. Initially, I was quite intrigued - despite being so common what made her so uncommon. Slowly I realized it was the way she handled all her problems with dignity. World was falling apart and she was standing unfluttered in the middle of chaos peacefully. She was lonely and confused. Times had changed and even she had changed a lot. Staying away from home for the first time- she had a major overhaul. She loved this makeover- infact was enjoying it. She was more confident, suave and trendy. But on rare occasions, the little girl inside her- her true self would again dominate.

And then,once again, she would become the
Daddy's little girl- as she was
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[This post is dedicated to my little sister. I wish her all the best in life.
And as she says- sometimes bloggers tend to make things dramatic so that people read. IMHO this is not a dramatic representation of hers(though I am not aware of what exactly is going on in her life, hence this post is just my perception)]