Chapter 2
"Yeh lijiye paise, main sara samaan bag mein bharta hoon, thik hai na?" Anuj asked the shopkeeper. He had been buying grocery at the shop on the instructions of his mother, when he saw her entering the temple on the opposite side. She looked tensed, disturbed.
'Anupamaa.....', he sighed,.... the love of his life... the queen of his dreams.... He loved her more than life itself. The intensity of his feelings sometimes scared even his own self. It was a heady, intoxicating feeling. It hadn't been slow and gradual for him - he had fallen hard for his Anu, fast and headfirst, when he saw her for the first time in the college. It was about three months ago. Taking a trip down the memory lane, his mind flew back to that day when he no longer remained the custodian of his own heart, for it now belonged to her and her alone.....
It had been the first week of their college. He stood in the corridor inspecting his timetable for the day. The gentle chiming of anklet bells reached his ears. Turning around to locate the source, he glimpsed her putting away her ghungroo in her bag. To say that he was spellbound would be the understatement of the highest degree. Beautiful hair cascading down in waves; doe-like, warm, innocent eyes; wearing the baby pink dress with a one side styled dupatta; she was truly ethereal, like an angel descended from heaven itself. Her beauty was in her simplicity. She had captivated him, held his attention. Ever since, his eyes had started seeking her out at every occassion. He had started seeing her everywhere, even the smallest of things reminded him of her.
Her kind and helpful nature, her compassion, her ability to empathize with others, all served to enchant him further. But the extent of the depth of his own feelings was unknown even to him - after all, this was an unventured territory. His own reactions, his inner turmoil, thus shook him to the core, when barely two-three weeks into the fresher year, a fellow batchmate proposed to Anu right in front of the main gate. A sudden, burning surge of jealousy he wasn't aware he was capable of, spread in him like a wildfire. At that moment he hated that boy on principle. A rather dark, predatory part in his personality that he hadn't even known to exist in him threatened to emerge. It was like a savage beast wanting to be unleashed. Fighting to attain an iron-tight control over himself, he carefully blanked out his expressions, in a bid for a facade of composed calmness and kept going about his own way. 'She is her own person, it is her life. She can say and do whatever she pleases - you have no right!' the logical, sensible part of him that sounded like his mother claimed, and he knew it to be absolutely correct. Yet the small but mad, possessive part refused to accept this, waging an internal battle against the logical part. His visage was morphed to be devoid of emotions but his eyes held an insane, feral glint that could easily frighten many. And then, just as Anu politely refused the boy, just like that, this dark, hidden facet of his personality shrank away, leaving nothing in its wake, as though it never existed. While he gave no outward reaction, the raging inferno in him was quenched, and sweet relief spread in him. That, precisely, was the moment when he realised that Anu was 'The One' for him. He was hopelessly in love with her and even if she refused him, there shall be no other, not now, not ever.
A snap of fingers right in his face brought him back from his thoughts. "Kahan khoye hai Shayar sahab? Nazarein kise dhoond rahi hain?" His friend Devesh Mehta, aka Bunty must have arrived when he was lost in his thoughts. "Kuch nahi, woh main bas...."
"Let mi guess, wahan andar woh hai na, woh teri wali? Anupamaa?"
"Haan yaar Bunty, kafi anxious lag rahi thi.... mujhe chintaa ho rahi hai, koi problem toh nahi hogi na? I just hope woh thik ho."
"Tension mat le, Kanhaji ke Mandir mein gayi hai. Dekh aa bhi gayi bahar....."
Seeing her calm, serene countenance, a contrast to what he had seen earlier, Anuj relaxed.
"Tu usse keh kyu nahi deta ki tujhe usse pyaar ha? Sab jaante hai yaar, tumhare parents, friends, batchmates, yahan tak ki hamare aage aur peeche ki teen-teen batches ko bhi pata hoga - sab jante hai, sivay anupamaa ke...."
"Abhi nahi...... Aur yeh kya baat kar raha hai tu?? Kuch bhi..."
"Sach mein. Anuj, mere bhai, jee todke marta hai tu uspe.... tu hamesha use hi dekhta rehta hai, us mein hi kho jata hai yaa phir shayari banata hai woh bhi har baar at least doh yaa teen. Doh diaries to teri us Anu pe hi likhi hui shayari se bhari hain, abhi tune third wali diary shuru ki hai, kisi aur ko nazar uthake dekhta bhi nahi, aur to aur....."
"Haan haan, thik hai bhai! Ab bas bhi karo... Accha chal aja mere saath, mere ghar chalte hain. Waise tu yahan kar kya raha tha?"
"Are paas mein kaam tha, chal batata hoon..." Bunty replied, as the duo headed home.
Tbc
Marathi TV
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