“Listen anvesha, for Gods’ sake listen to me…” I cried while the door to the adjacent room was banged closed by Anvesha while leaving. I just stood there for a second and then fell down on the bed, numb in thought of how bad things have become. Constant fights are now dominated my life, after Anvesha had decided to shift base to Bangalore from Jamshedpur to keep a “check” on me.
I had been in the advertising field since graduating from one of the top advertising colleges, two years back. A job in advertising is what I had my eyes set on. The creative bug had hit me from the school days, days from when being constantly involved in almost every co-curricular activity and winning all of them had just started. Tagged as one of the brightest and most famous few from the school, back in those days, life’s one of the best phases was being enjoyed.
This was the time when Anvesha was about to enter into my life. A new face gleamed into the folds of Crescent School. Smart, hot and chirpy, was what she could be described as. From the very first day that she had entered school, she was the topic that was being discussed everywhere.
Being the dude that I was. It didn’t take much to impress her with my smooth ways. What started off with the school canteen sandwiches, moved onto the movies at Payal cinema every weekend, and then with more “value addition” to the whole game, with each passing day.
Anvesha and Sameer had remained inseparable ever since.
Although, many didn’t liked her because of the attitude that she carried around, but being with the most popular guy in school has its own perks. No one says anything to you directly, but bitches behind your back at every opportunity.
Time passed. From school to college. We were now separated by distance, while I came to study in Bangalore, Anvesha started out with her Engineering in Jamshedpur.
Long distance Relationship or LSD as they call it was what we were now a part of. After the initial hiccups and problems associated with it, things started to settle down. But being in a field of advertising and in constant involvement with the opposite sex, it was a life made tough. No, not in terms of resisting that urge, but with the possessiveness of Anvesha not letting me breathe.
But with “years of togetherness” being the bonding thread that kept me going, I somehow adjusted.
The car stopped!!
And I was made to come out of my reveries, only to realize what had happened. A road jam, was what awaited the three of us. An accident had taken place down the road. Coming out of the car, we came to know that it would take hours to get the accident site cleared. Nothing could happen unless police came and made things easy for us.
There was another passage that was available, but the road looked deserted. Anup was constantly pushing to not waste the time and explore this available option. He was too eager to explore Goa!!
Karan and I looked at each other and then the traffic that awaited us.
It was time to travel the road not taken.
It had already started getting dark and the journey to Goa had just started. With around 20 minutes into the dark wild, or the “road” that we took, we had already got scared. Not because of the dark but because of Anup. He was scared like anything and was cursing us for not waiting for the traffic to get cleared, and after we reminded him that it was his idea in the first place he blamed us for listening to him. Batao!!!
Time didn’t just ticked its’ way out, but moving at a snails’ pace on the bumpy road.
Up and down we went.
It was that time during our college “study tour”, where we went to Ooty. Loads of fun was on the cards, or so I thought, problems greeted me along with it.
It was December and the weather over there was terribly cold. Due to some lapse from the management’s side, many of us had to share rooms. Somehow I and Karan were made to stay in the girls’ room. One of them happened to be Sakshi, karans’ girlfriend. As the night went on, they just went more and more “romantic”. I on the other hand just slept my way through, only to be woken up by a call from Anvesha. When I somehow described the situation, she actually cut the call after a while blaming me for intentionally being part of this “arrangement”.
This was not the first time that this had happened, but numerous occasions where I was blamed for being “involved” with other girls.
Boom!!
The car had hit something. Karan, looked shit scared!!
Anup, was not willing to go out and check. Even I was scared but looking at these two scared faces, opened the door and went to check it out. Only to find that we had almost crushed a dog’s leg. It was just a small puppy, with the kind of scream that would melt away even stones. We couldn’t hear the sound of the puppy due to the music being played inside; I called up Karan who looked relieved to see that it was not any human soul. But still, looking at the puppy that it was, completely drenched in the mud and screaming for help, we decided to take it up and get to some Vet if we found any. Karan, on the other hand, whose car it was just couldn’t believe that we were actually willing to do that, while Anup had already wrapped him in his towel and taken him inside. The puppy smelled like anything, of the mud that he had covered his body with, Anup cleaned his wound up and applied whatever first aid which was there in the car.
Strange as it may sound, but after entering the car, we just couldn’t smell anything bad. When we were thinking as to what was the reason, Karan pointed out the Ambi Pur on the dashboard. I had no knowledge of what it was, and later when I checked it out accidently on their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/AmbiPurIndia, that I came to know about this.
With Anups’ comic gems being rolled out, and the night passed effortlessly, we drove towards the highway, on our way to Goa, we searched addresses of some veterinary docs on the way and after having located one ended up treating Shaggy. Yes, the puppy now had a name. Thanks to Anup. But after having been with the dog and developing a strange affection, we just didn’t leave him there, but took him to our Road trip.
I was constantly getting calls from Anvesha and after some 2-3 “missed” calls from her, decided to pick it up. I told her of how a trip to Goa was planned and now I was on way to one. Having listened to it, she sounded as if I had done some sort of a crime. Of having gone ahead with the trip after fighting with her, and instead of consoling her, was on my way to enjoy in Goa!! The call was again cut.
After having known me for years, throughout my school and college life, Anup and Karan understood as to why it was all taking a toll on me. This was actually one of the reasons that this trip was planned for me to wind out all of these issues and get back to the Sameer that I was.
They didn’t start out with any sort of sentimental dialogues, just simply asked me about the matter and after having described the whole situation as it stood now. They asked, “Are you happy?”
I had no answer. I didn’t want to answer in the negative to that. The years of effort put in the relationship would have no meaning then.
They didn’t wait for an answer either, as they knew what it would be. They told me to cut out the thing that has kept me restless and just let it all go.
I don’t know what actually happened. But it was all making sense now, as if I needed someone to tell me that the present me, who would be coochy-cooing to his girlfriend without wanting to, of listening to the over-possessive avatar of her, which never made sense before. I was lost in the midst of all of it.
It was Dawn.
We had stopped the car to take a leak and experience the rising sun. The three of us leaking it out, down the hill. And the sun rising. Just imagine.
The two of them had already gone inside the car, but I was just staring at the rising sun. Thinking, will this dawn result in a new morning?
There was determination and when I looked at the two idiots shouting at me to hurry up; I just had a smile on my face. A smile that wasn’t stuck on some “years” of bondage.
I sat there looking out of the window, letting the wind rush through my face, flashing a sense of comfort along with it.
It was already Goa!!
We didn’t went to any hotel, parked our car just outside the beach. I ran myself down and just went in deep Arabian sea, and as they said, Let it all go.