Turning Point...

So. This is a chain love story as a part of CBC (Chennai Bloggers Club) chain story relay. In this we write a love story as this month is for love. 20 Bloggers will write one chapter to make a beautiful love story :)  How do you know it will be a beautiful story? Think no more- especially today :) Because Love stories are always beautiful!

The story starts with episode 1 and then flows here. What happens next is captured in this episode, after which Vid Dev (a Chennaiite who blogs at 'The Pensieve') came up with this amazing twist here. So what happens next :D

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She had a zillion things to keep her busy all noon- visiting the temple, visiting grandparents for the final round of blessings, packing, weighing, re-packing, attending endless calls..and all along, she was conscious of his stubborn, nagging presence on the back of her mind. Try as she might, she was not able to wipe his boyish grin or his plucky flirting off her mind. In one such unguarded moment, her mother caught her smiling to herself and raised her eyebrows, giving her a pointed look. Ahalya blushed once again and busied herself with other things.

She barely got a wink of sleep all day- but she was set.

She was a bundle of emotions. She was so tired, she couldn’t even dream of sleep. She couldn’t remember when she had been this excited last. But in the middle of all these happy memories, there was a twinge of regret. She barely knew him, she reasoned with herself, trying to see the futility of the situation. He was bold and funny and made her laugh..he looked cute, ofcourse, and was chivalrous and said all the right things..she sighed. ‘Khaash’ she smilingly whispered, a dialogue from her favourite SRK move, ‘Khaash’, as she started replying to the farewell SMSes one by one.

He was gazing into his system. The shift had barely started, but was getting on his nerves. The only privilege it offered was no manager breathing down his neck; and Facebook. It was a slow evening and he was blank. Mid-week was always slow. His team mate was playing some music on his phone, as Guru leaned back on his chair with his feet propped up on the table, trying to get some eye-shut. ‘Lays, dude?’ offered the music playing teamie. Guru grabbed a handful. He was munching it slowly, and looking at a spot on top of his monitor, when a new notification made his phone buzz. Lazily he keyed in the code to unlock his phone to see “Ahalya Ramanathan has accepted your friend request. Write on Ahalya’s wall.’

Whoa!

For a moment he wondered if it was the emptiness of the floor playing a trick on him. He blinked hard and looked again. No, it did not vanish. The text was there for all to see. He smiled his lazy smile, but this time, it reached his eyes. The clock just struck eight, and suppressing the urge to go check her photos out first, he clicked on the message trail and said, ‘Friends- AT LAST  A more worthy gift I could not have asked for on Valentine’s! Happy Valentines Day!’ He re-read it, wondering if it was a bit over the top. Hell, he had nothing to lose! He hit send. He was sure he wouldn't get a reply for that any time soon, so he went to check her timeline at once. 

Her latest status said, ‘Bye-bye to everybody and everything that I have known all my life, till this moment..Sweden beckons!’ some hundred people had liked it. He immediately looked into the comments to see if it offered some hint about her flight’s departure time. As luck would have it, some nosy aunt had asked a LOT of questions that Ahalya HAD to answer. Guru reasoned that it might be some friend’s mother or some overly interested relative. He really did not care. He got what he wanted. 1.45 am, Lufthansa.

Suddenly, something turned inside him. He had never really been too impulsive about things that were normally considered serious. And he knew that his next action would take ‘serious’ to a whole new dimension. Still, it was her ‘You are the Sapient, figure it out’ taunt that rung in his ears, making him stop thinking and actually DO something. ‘Dude, emergency..just today man, cover up okay? Here’s my ID..swipe out when you leave, okay? Call me, okay?’ and before the team mate could swallow his mouthful of potato fries, Guru had dashed out.

He rushed to the ATM to draw some cash, and was trying to figure out a way to get to the airport when he heard a familiar voice go ‘Ena Saar, all okay a?’ Guru found himself experiencing that familiar prickle on the back of his neck, as yet another knot untangled itself. He was not a big believer of God, but this was what, divine intervention? ‘Chitappa! Kelambunga, airport polam!’ he said, bouncing into the cab, coaxing and bribing the cab driver, joking along the way, all the while haunted by those familiar eyes.

He got off at the international departure, and suddenly felt foolish. He waved his friend a good bye and stood there not knowing what to do. Quick arithmetic said that she had to be here in the next couple of hours, to board an international flight by 1.45 am. Well, he reasoned, now that he was here, he might as well make the most of it. He sauntered to the kiosk and bought himself a coffee, his eyes never leaving the terminal. He started coming up with answers he might have to cough up -if at all he got a chance to get to her through the swarm of her relatives. 

He checked his watch. 9 PM. Oh the mosquitoes..He walked. He tried to apply mathematical formulas and queuing theory to the people waiting for tickets- and realized he had forgotten almost all the theory of it. People still stood in queues for tickets! He counted the number of dustbins in the airport and vowed to write to some newspaper’s editorial about the same. 

He looked at his watch again. 10 PM. He was wondering if he would ever get a chance to talk to her when she came..she would be in a terrible rush. He walked up to a guard to check if the Lufthansa flight was on time at all. It was. The mosquitoes were killing him now. He went ahead and bought himself a visitors pass and strolled into the lounge and sat down with an audible sigh. He was looking at the passengers walking in, for some sign of her. Her gait was etched in his mind. He bought himself some dinner and waited some more...

He looked at his watch. 11 PM. Had he missed her? Maybe she had finished her formalities and was sitting inside, blissfully unaware of his presence, waiting for her flight. ‘This part of my life is called- being stupid’ he murmured as he mock punched a pillar. He couldn’t go back to work now. He couldn’t go home either. He decided to stay put for two more hours and then head straight back home, vowing never to do such ‘romeo activities’ as his dad would term it, ever again.

He sat down on the couch, and decided to sleep for a while. 12 PM. One more hour. He made himself comfortable, and shut his eyes. He had no idea how much time had elapsed..but something jerked him awake. The time-1.30 AM.

“This is the last and final boarding call for Miss Ahalya Ramanathan, passenger of Lufthansa Airlines, bound for Stockholm, scheduled take off time 1.45 AM, IST”

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Love's in the air :) 

To be continued by Senthil Kumar Ct who blogs here.

Cheers :)