Love Story-Made For Each Other -2

Surya was in a highly imaginative mood after he spoke with Naveena in the lunch hour. In the afternoon there is presentation for showing off the company norms, practices, work culture, hierarchical chart and all blah blahs. He decided to go to the last row of the seminar hall so as to get some nice sleep after the lunch. He expected that Veena will give him the company besides him and both will have a chat inside the seminar hall itself. But unfortunately she entered and sits in the first row. He is very much dejected on seeing this. He again recollected that, all the liked ones in his life are there only for a short period of time. He comforts himself that this relation is going to be like this only and this will never going to get closer. With the aching mind he tried to listen what is happening in the hall but his mind is diverted by the thoughts of Veena. At one stage, he becomes frustrated and asked to himself that he knows the girl only today and that too for not more that 4 hours and he exchanged only the general information with her. Then why the hell she is disturbing me a lot? Is this the people called the Love? Or is this the age to think like this always? He just wanted to be clear with his room mates with a conference call.

He planned to have the call with them during the break and the send the SMS to all of them. Only Vishal replied with okay. Surya knows that Arjun is sleeping and he can wake up at any time. He wants to talk to Vijay also as he is the one settled finally. He remembers that once all the four were good friends in the college days. Vijay got settled in the college days itself and Vishal after joining the company. Now a day’s he hardly speaks with the Vijay and Vishal. The two are busy in talking with their girl friends. Now, Arjun is the one who gives company many times to Surya. So he gave a missed call to Vijay and again sent an SMS for the call. At last he gets the acceptance reply exactly 10 minutes before the break.

Surya initiated the call and he explained everything to his room mates. All the three gave different conclusions. Vijay is for sure that Surya is in love and tell him to propose as soon as possible. Vishal is not fully accepting this as a love but he said this may be the starting point of love. Arjun is the one who is fully opposing the whole thing. After a series of debates, Arjun finally tell Surya, “Before concluding this as a love, at least try to make her as your friend as of now. And if you feel the same kind of affection towards her when the relation ship continues, I have no objection in proposing to her. I would say this is what I meant that you are in love” Arjun made his point clear. Some how, the logic and the psychology seem to be perfect. Every one accepts the same idea. Now Surya decides to think the same and the break is about to finish. The call ended with Surya thinking on making a friend ship with the loved one. This seems to be a different kind of relationship for him as he is afraid of talking with his loved ones. But this is a challenging task for him as he needs to talk to make a friendly relationship.

The noon presentation is over and everyone is about to start. Surya urge to ask where Veena is staying in the city but as she is in the first row, she had left the hall already. He decided to board the bus. He noticed a notice board in the bus pick up area. He went near the board and see what is displayed in the board. The board has the list of commuters who are using the bus with their employee ID. The list displayed is based on the route numbers of the bus. As he is a new joinee, he was aware that his or her names will not be on the board for this week. But he decided to have a look at the number of female who are traveling in the bus. As we expected, there are only 8 female people who are in the whole bus. His heart dragged him with heavy weight. He decided to get into the bus and want to hear some gospel.

Devotional Songs and Gospel are the energy boosters for Surya. When ever he feels dejected, he always listens to the gospel songs. He opened the Vishal’s IPod and selected one of his favourite gospels. He played the ‘Savoir- Testify my Glory’ song. He closed his eyes and listened to the song. Some lines in the song forced him to open his eyes. He saw an angel coming towards him and he could see that the angel’s face is Veena’s face. Suddenly he woke up from the dream and he realized that he is in the bus. He looked around the bus and he clearly spotted out that all the 8 girls are sitting in pairs with their boy friends. All activities like dumb sci, listening to music, reading some novels, chatting happily with their friends, are going in the bus. It doesn’t seem to be like a corporate bus but it looks like a college bus going to picnic. He gave a deep breath to get the positive attitude and he is again going to close his eyes.

This time he saw that Veena is actually boarding his bus. He couldn’t believe that this is going to happen. He can’t imagine that she will be on the same route. His heart is now jumping with joy as she boards the same bus. She is looking for a seat to sit. He began to beg or rather prays God, “Jesus, My savior, please send the girl to my seat. If not my seat at least the seat before me diagonally so that I can see her for the whole journey” Suddenly her eyes looked turned and looked at him. He pretended that he is changing some songs in the IPod with his head straight. He saw her without turning his head. She appears to be approaching his seat. His lips are very hard to hide his smile. His mind said,”Oh my...Oh my...Goddd...This is going to be the best evening that I had in my life”. It appeared to be that she is also smiling at him to come to his seat. When she approaches near him, he adjusted himself to make her to sit comfortable. But she turned before his seat and trying to occupy exactly one seat before his seat. At that time only he noticed that the seat before him is also empty and it’s a normal female tendency to occupy the vacant seat and that too if the window seat is free. He felt that his heart is broken a bit. But one mind of him thanked God for at least bringing her to this close.

Before Veena making her to sit, she suddenly noticed Surya in the back seat. “Hi Surya. What a surprise I never thought you are in the same route. Is anybody is going to get occupying those seats”, she mentioned the seats next to him.
“Nope. My left is always left with empty”, he replied in a poetic manner.
“In that case shall I fill your empty?” she asked laughingly.
“Sure but on your own wish”, he made his mind clear.
She changed her mind and she decided to sit next to him. He again thought this may be his imagination but as she sit next to him, he realized that everything is happening in real.
This time Surya doesn’t want to lose this golden opportunity. So he wanted to switch off his IPod and he needs to have a chat with her.
“What song are you listening for?” she started.
“Err. It’s my songs of wish…to say it’s a gospel song”, he thought that some of the girls doesn’t like the orthodox guys especially who involves more spiritual kind.
“Good. Now a day’s it’s hard to find people to listen to Gospel songs except on the Sunday church.” She said with some pity.
“So what kind of songs do you like?” he thought that most of the people know about the church masses in Sundays where they sing and play the gospel songs. Even his room mates used to listen to some of his gospel songs played by him. So there is no big deal that she knew about his religious traits and Christian routines.

“I like the Christmas songs and I’m very crazy on all the Hill Songs especially the Australian Hill Songs”, she said knowing that Surya is a Christian and he is aware of all the songs.
Jesus Christ! What is she telling? Hill Songs, Christmas songs? What is she talking about? He is ready to ask her that are you a Christian? Suddenly he see the temporary ID card of Veena flashing her full name as NAVEENA ANTHRAPER. C. In the form filling section, he saw her name as C.A.Naveena. He thought it was her father’s name. Now he thought that may be due to space constraint or other matter she will have a habit of writing her surname like that.

Surya doesn’t know how to react in this situation. He is totally confused. What is this strange coincidence? What the hell in this world want me to meet her like this? Why this is happening to me in this stage. ”God I’m already in a confused and messy mood. Why are you playing with me again? If you need to play with me again give me the enough strength to handle the situation”, he prayed to God.

He wanted to get more personal information about her within this journey. So he decided to ask her without wasting any more time. “Morning I didn’t see you in the bus”.
“You are aware that I came late to the office after half an hour or so. Then how come I’ll be able to come in the bus in the morning? Do you have the hill songs in your IPod? she changed the topic.
He blushed without knowing how to respond. “Careful Surya. Why are you asking this stupid kind of question? Use your brain at least now”, he said to himself.
“Yeah. I have the Video version itself. If you want you can watch the video for a while”, after telling this he realized that he himself is letting her to stop the chat. He uttered the word and he didn’t know what to tell if she asks the IPod to view the video. He has to sit along for the whole 45 minutes journey.

As he feared, she asked for the IPod to view the song. He had no other option other than to give her the IPod. He checked with the battery life. Thanks to Vishal. He never charges the IPod. Only Arjun charges it if he uses it. Now Arjun had bought a new mobile with a Radio attached. He always listen to one of his favourite RJ voice before going to office. When he is having his old phone only he used to take the IPod along with him and now he always listen to the local radio station. Now the battery is suffering to death. It hardly had 5- 10 minutes of backup. With a bumping happiness Surya gave her the IPod.

“Where can I found the video songs?” asked Veena finding difficulty in finding the songs as there are lot many video songs.
Surya helped her in finding the desired song and he asked her the song of her liking.
“I love to hear and see ‘One Way Jesus’ Song” she said. He asked why. “I don’t know. I can hear the song both as a gospel as well as a rock band song”, she smiled giving him the answer.
Rock song? His ears is hard to believe. He thought she is like him only to see the gospel in the fast track rock and pop like songs. But in his mind, this rings a bell. Arjun used to jump in the house on hearing the song accompanied by Vijay. Arjun always view this song as a rock rather than a devotional one. Surya played the song for her.

He just watched her expressions on hearing and seeing the song. He loves to hear the murmuring lines with her sweet voice from her lips rather than from the IPod. He feels this as a different experience. When the song is about to finish, the battery life is gone and the IPod switched off automatically.
“What happened? It’s been switched off automatically”, she asked with a little bit upset.
“The battery is gone. My room mates used this last night and forget to charge. I’ve taken this in a hurry burry mood”, he replied thanks to the IPod.

“That’s okay. Have your IPod back”, she gave her IPod back to Surya.
“It’s going to take about more than half an hour to reach my destination. Tell me something about you” Surya asked happily.
“Well. I’m not a special sort of person or popular personality to have my history to tell”, she said with a casual gesture.
“Of course. If you are that much popular then you would be on TV and I’m waiting in a crowd to get an autograph from you. Jokes and kidding apart. Just to kill the time”, he made his point clear.
She gave him a cute smile on hearing his kidding and said “To start with I’m the only child in my home. I used to play on my own and grown up with this lonely atmosphere. My parents are very loving and affectionate to me as I’m their only kid. My native place is Pune not Kerala but I brought up in Calicut, Kerala from my early child hood and we settled down there. My father is a Government Employee and he used to change his work place a lot. So we had a tendency to move all over India before settling in Kerala. My mother is of course a house wife. Is this information enough? Now it’s your turn”

“Yup. I had an elder sister. My native is Madurai in south Tamil Nadu. I did my schooling in Madurai. After that I moved here to Chennai for my college. I studied in SSN Engineering College. My father is a bank employee and he is settled there in my native itself. Mom is a House wife. And I thought you are a native of Kerala. So when did you actually moved to Kerala? I mean on which year of study?” he finishes his turn
When I was in 8th standard I moved to Calicut. From then we are in Kerala only.
Surya thought she obviously studied in the College of Engineering as it’s the only college he was aware of. To confirmation he asked, “So you did your college in COE?”
“Nope. I studied in Kochi Engineering College. COE is not the only college in Kerala”, she replied quickly.
Again a nose break to Surya. “Common Surya, use your senses. Ask her directly and don’t act like a smart. Be yourself.” He said to himself. Also something strikes Surya that he heard the name of the college KEC sometime back. Now to his recollection, Vishal’s girl friend Priya is also studied in KEC.
Now he wants to know her age too. So he needed a question for that and Priya’s name helped him this time. Quickly, without letting her asking another question to him, he asked, “Hey, you studied in KEC. A friend of mine is also studied in KEC. Which year pass out are you?

“Really. I’m a 2003 pass out. What about your friend? And which branch?” she tell in a surprise
Now the chemistry works for Surya. He calculated that she may be more or less his age even though she joined lately or having a gap in the education. Surya had a gap in the education and he joined the schooling also very late. He is the eldest in the class. Almost 2 years of difference is there with his college mates. He is always scolding Vishal for roaming behind Priya in the initial stages of Vishal’s Love. Sometimes he gets too tensed when Vishal brought the book, ’How to read Malayalam in 30 Days?’ He asked him what is so much important on her to behave in such a manner. He helped Vishal in his final stages to take the decision for Priya. At last when both are finalized they gave him a big treat in a 5 star multi cuisine restaurant. To his surprise Priya’s college friends, who are currently her room mates, are also accompanied in the hotel. As we guessed Surya didn’t open his mouth there.

“She is also a 2003 pass out. She is from ECE department. Her name is Priya”, he said after recollected his thoughts.
After hearing the name Priya she couldn’t believe her ears. “Do you know Priya? She is my very best friend from my college. She is my room mate and class mate in the college. I can’t imagine that you know her. By the way how did you know her?” she asked unbelievingly.
Surya caught up in a hook now. He don’t know how to tell that she is Vishal’s girl friend. ”Well...Err...to say that I know her from my friend…actually room mate...” Surya stammered to get the words.
“Is your room mate studied in KEC?” she is not letting him without telling the truth.
“Frankly speaking she is a girl friend of my friend. Okay” he breathed a sign of relief.
“Oh really! Vishal is your room mate. You stay with Vishal. I never believe this. You are driving me crazy today”, she is hard to explain her over whelming excitement.

Jesus Christ! Oh my God! I’m going to be insane today. She knows Vishal. Am I dreaming now? What is this? This is supposed to happen only in the movies. But how come this happens in my life? He is totally confused between the real and the imaginary world now. He never have or heard this type of experiences and links.
“You know about Vishal? How come? “he asked to get to know by any chance she knows about him already.
“Priya used to tell me a lot about the Vishal. Your question is absurd. She is the best friend of mine and obviously I know about her all right?” she proclaimed.
“That’s right. Then you could have know about other Vishal’s room mates.” He just wanted to be clear that she know him already or not.
“Nope. I know only about Vishal. I didn’t see him in person too. I saw him in a photo once when Priya forwarded me an individual photo which took in a team outing”, she explained.
He remembers Arjun saying that girls are interested only in their interests and they hardly hear other than their interests. But there are exceptions also. He understands that how true in the case of Priya. If she is an exception then he would know Veena a year before.

Before asking the next question Veena get up from the seat and tell Surya that she has to alight in this stop. He said bye and watch her alighting through the exit. It is actually one stop before Surya’s Stop. He thought that she is residing in his area only and he didn’t see for these days. He is happy that at least he had seen her finally.