SR FF - Love Happens - Part 1

Dr. Shekhar Modi is Dr. Shashank Gupta's closest childhood friend. Dr. Shekhar Modi is settled in the US. He has two sons (twins), Siddhant and Armaan ' Armaan being older to Siddhant by a couple of minutes and a daughter ' Suvarna. The Modis and Guptas are really close family friends and used to be neighbours before Shekhar Modi left for the US, around 15 years ago.

Present day character profile :

Riddhima Gupta : Age 24, nature wise serious but at heart, she is a hopeless romantic which she hides from everyone. Spectacled, nerdy, geeky kind of look but none of that hides the fact that she is actually really beautiful. Extremely hardworking, dedicated, sincere and loyal ' At times exceedingly boring, according to her sister.

Shilpa Gupta : Age 23, a walking talking tornado ' full of energy, a chatter box, hopeless romantic too but the difference being she has no problem announcing it to the world. Smart and intelligent but believes that life is not meant just for work, life is meant for dreams and earnestly believes that dreams do come true.

Siddhant Modi : Age 25, nature wise friendly, slightly reserved but that does not stop him from enjoying life in his own way. Extremely intelligent, smart and mature. Dedicated, hardworking and dependable. Loves his family and dotes over his sister and twin brother like anything, though he never lets them know that he does.

Armaan Modi : Age 25, prankster, flirt, party animal and the life of every party that he goes to. For Armaan, life is one huge party / prank.

Suvarna Modi : Age 23, Apple of the eye of her brothers. Sweet, caring and sensitive, she loves her brothers more than anything in this world.

Scene : Gupta house at night. A slight breeze parts the curtains on a window and we see Riddhima sitting at her desk writing something. The door slams open and Shilpa rushes in.

Shilpa : Di!! Apne suna???

Riddhima stops what she is writing and looks up.

Riddhima : Kya hua Shilpa?

Shilpa : Di!!! Shekhar uncle ke bete aa rahe hain..

Riddhima smiles slightly.

Riddhima : Tho?

Shilpa : Tho???!! Di wo yahan Mumbai aa rahe hain.. Sanjeevani join karne.. Apne internship ka second year wo yahin karenge..

Riddhima : Good..

Riddhima goes back to her writing.

Shilpa : Good?!! Kya Di. Maine aapko ithni exciting khabar di aur aap ho ki yeh diary leke baith gayi.. Kya likhthi rehthi hain aap isme har waqt?

Riddhima : Kuch nahi..

Ridhdima continues writing.

Shilpa gets irritated and then a mischievous grin spreads across her face. She quickly snatches away the diary from Riddhima and runs away. Riddhima chases her.

Riddhima : Shilpa dekh.. meri diary wapas de..

The sisters run out into the living room where Shashank and Padma are watching TV. They circle the couch where both of them are sitting.

Padma : Arey arey arey.. Yeh kya kar rahi ho? Riddhima!! Shilpa!! Ithni badi ho gayi ho dono lekin abhi bhi bachpana nahi gaya..

Riddhima : Dekho na Maa Shilpa meri diary nahi de rahi..

Padma : Shilpa, Riddhima ki diary wapas karo..

Shilpa : Nahi Maa, ithne saalon mein pehli baar tho yeh mere haath laga hai, aaj tho mujhe jaanna hi hai ki isme aakhir kya likhthi rehthi hain di..

Riddhima : Shilpa dekh mujhe gussa math dila.. Meri diary wapas kar..

Shilpa : Na na na na naaa'

Shilpa runs off and Riddhima chases her again..

Padma : Uffo!! Yeh ladkiyan bhi na.. Inki harkathein dekhke koi kahega bhala ki yeh doctors hain. Bachpana tho abhi thak nahi gaya..

Shashank : Ab Shilpa ki baath tho tumne sahi ki.. Abhi bhi usme kaafi bachpana hai.. lekin Riddhima kaafi samajhdaar hai.. She has been doing great so far in her internship. I see a very promising future for her.

Padma : Aur Shilpa?

Shashank : Shilpa ka kaam maine abhi dekha kahan hai.. Her marks are good and feedback from her professors are good too.. Bass thodi si maturity or responsibility aa jaaye usme.. Aur waise Dr. Shashank Gupta ki betiyan hain.. They can be nothing but the best.

Padma smiles.

Shashank : Waise Padma, tumne Shekhar ke wahan saari thayyariyaan tho karva di na? Bachche kal aa rahe hain..

Padma : Haan ji.. Ramu kaka se kehke poore ghar ki saaf safayi karva di hai.. Kithne saal ho gaye na bachchon ko dekhe hue.. Waise flight kab hai unki?

PART 2

Riddhima : Shilpa dekh, tujhe meri kasam hai, tu meri diary nahi padhegi..

Shilpa : This is not fair di!! Main aapki diary kyun nahi padh sakthi?

Riddhima : Kyunki main keh rahi hoon iss liye..

Riddhima snatches the diary from Shilpa.

Shilpa : Achcha main nahi padh sakthi lekin aap mujhe batha tho sakthe ho na ki isme likha kya hai?

Riddhima : Kuch nahi..

Shilpa : Pls Di..

Riddhima : Maine kaha na kuch nahi..

Shilpa : Theek hai aap rakho apne top secret secrets apne paas, main bhi ab se apni koi baath aapko nahi bathaoongi..

Riddhima smiles. She knew Shilpa too well to know that it would be impossible for Shilpa to hide anything at all.. Shilpa was like an open book, everyone knew everything about her.. From her latest crush on her Radiology professor to the guy in her class who had the misfortune of proposing her.. She had taken him on one shopping spree with her and the guy had run for his life.. The last Riddhima had heard, the guy had transferred out of the college.. Each time the two of them had a fight, Shilpa always swore that she would never confide in Riddhima ever again and as soon as the next 'happening' thing happened in Shilpa's life, she forgot all about her promise and filled in Riddhima on every single little detail. That was part of her nature too. She never left out even the tiniest of details. If she went for a movie, she came back and told Riddhima the whole story of the movie and took a good 5 hours to do so. Why? Because, though the actual movie was just for 2.5 hours, Shilpa had to explain in detail even the settings and so her narration would last twice as long as the movie. So when Shilpa swore now that she wouldn't tell Riddhima any of her secrets, Riddhima just smiled and did not respond.

Shilpa : Waise di socho kithna exciting hoga na jab Armaan aur Sid phir se yahan rehne aayenge?

Riddhima smiles.

Shilpa : Zara socho, hum sab chhup chhupke terrace pe mil sakthe hain.. Maine tho yahan se koodke unke terrace pe jaane ki practice bhi kar li hai..

Riddhima : Kya?

Shilpa : Haan!!! Aap bhi try karo na di, bahut maza aayega..

Riddhima : Bilkul nahi..

Shilpa : Arey chalo na di.. pls pls pls pls pls pls pls pls..

Shilps goes on and on and on saying pls and Riddhima relents.

Riddhima : Theek hai, lekin sirf ek baar..

Riddhima and Shilpa manage to jump over to the terrace of the Modi house.

Shilpa : Kithna exciting hai na Di..

Riddhima : Tum ithni excited kyun ho rahi ho?

Shilpa : Aap excited nahi ho? Zara socho, bachpan ke dosth.. pandrah saal baad mil rahe hain.. Kya patha dono Shah Rukh aur Shahid jaise dikhthe hon aur hume love at first sight ho jaaye?

Riddhima : Tu bhi na Shilpa.. Ab chal wapas chalthe hain..

Shilpa : Di aap bhi na, ithne unromantic ho..

They jump across to their house and head to their room. Riddhima locks away her diary and both of them go to bed. Sleep eludes Riddhima and she tosses around in her bed. Finally, she gets up and goes out to the window and looks at the bright full moon. She basks in the moonlight, hugs herself against the slight breeze and closes her eyes.

Very softly, a name escapes her lips..

Riddhima : Armaan..

A smile spreads across her lips as she looks over to the gate where they'd last met 15 years ago She still remembered that day. Armaan, Siddhant and Suvarna were leaving and Riddhima had felt as if her world as she knew it was coming to an end. She'd never known life without them. They went to school together and though they weren't in the same class, they always hung out together. Riddhima suppressed the urge to giggle. Hang out?.. How did 9-10 year olds hang out?.. It was just that whatever they did, they did together.. They went to the park together, they used to play together, study together, attend Annual day functions together and suddenly, they were gone.. And Riddhima had missed them dearly. So she had started writing letters to them. Initially her letters had been for both Armaan and Siddhant and a separate one for Suvarna but Armaan was the only one who had consistently replied to all her letters and over time, she started writing only to Armaan. They wrote to each other about anything and everything. Their likes, dislikes, what happened in their day to day life.. They realized that they had so much in common.. They both loved the colour blue, they loved to get drenched in the rain, they loved the same songs and books. Both of them had taken up medicine as their career path and discussed even professional matters with ease. As they grew, their friendship grew stronger and deeper and over time, it became something more than friendship, over time, Riddhima had fallen in love with him. She'd never told him, but she knew he could feel it and even with the miles separating them, she knew he felt the same too.

Riddhima quietly tip toed over to her desk, unlocked a drawer and from beneath her diary, took out a whole stack of letters. She'd locked them away, because this was something so special to her, she did not want to share them even with Shilpa. She loved Shilpa to death but this was one dream of hers, one love of hers that she did not want to share with anyone. She took out the first letter from the stack and replaced the rest. She took the letter to the window and started reading it.

Riddhima,

Mujhe tumse kuch kehna hai. Lekin samajh mein nahi aa raha kaise kahoon. Bahut dino se soch raha hoon ki kya kahoon, kaise kahoon aur abhi bhi samajh mein nahi aa raha. I need to confess something to you Riddhima but I can't do it through letters. I want to meet you, to hold you.. Bass.. bahut ho gaya Riddhima, main tumse milna chahtha hoon, bahut khwaab saja liye maine tumhare. Ab waqt aa gaya ki tum mere khwabon se khayalon se nikalkar meri hakeekath ban jao. Main aa raha hoon Riddhima.. Tumhare paas, tumse milne.. Tumse mujhe kuch confess karna hai.. And I hope you will understand, like you always do.. Hamare bachpan ki dosthi badal gayi hai Riddhima aur main jaantha hoon ki inn badalthe hue ehsaason ko tum bhi mehsoos kar sakthi ho.. Ab inn ehssason ko naam dene ke waqt aa gaya hai Riddhima..

Main aa raha hoon Riddhima..

Riddhima carefully folded the letter and hugged it. She'd known much before Shilpa had told her, that Armaan was coming. She hadn't known that Sid was coming with him and that they planned to finish their internship here, but she'd known he was coming and he was coming for her. Riddhma had given him her address at college initially and now, the address at Sanjeevani, so no one at home knew that she'd been in touch with Armaan all this while. He had rented a post box and all her letters had been addressed to that post box so she presumed no one in his family knew about them either.

Riddhima felt her heart beat quicken as excitement pulsed through her veins. Tomorrow, after 15 long years, tomorrow, finally, she was going to meet Armaan. God, for the first time, she started to feel nervous about her looks.. What if he thought she wasn't good looking? She wanted to look beautiful for him. How would he look? She closed her eyes and visualized a tall figure walking towards her through a mist but try as she might, she couldn't make out his face. Riddhima opened her eyes and let out a sigh. She put back the letter, locked her drawer, placed the key under her pillow and went to bed hugging her pillow. All night long, in her dreams, she heard a husky voice whisper to her "Main aa raha hoon Riddhima.. Inn ehsaason ko naam dene ka waqt aa gaya hai.. Main tumse milna chahtha hoon Riddhima.. I want to meet you, to hold you.. " Riddhima hugged her pillow tighter and gave in to her dreams of the shadowy figure walking towards her through a mist and carrying her away in his arms..