Karan and Ananya…

Any similarity with the incidents described in this story with real life of any person weather leaving or dead is pure co-incidental and un-intentional. If you think you are one of the characters in the story then please stop reading further immediately.

If you are reading this in Facebook Notes, then you might find some formatting missing. To read the actual version of the story, please see the original post in my blog or click view original post at the end of the note.

“Do you love her?” Arijit questioned me when I paused for a while to sip coffee.
“I don’t know; never thought like that”, I replied as my eyes stared at the roads outside which were empty due to the rain.

When it rains, I feel very romantic and sometimes her face flashes in front of my eyes and I think what she is doing. The road outside was empty… The traffic had decreased. It was peaceful. The mind is just like the road. When she comes to your mind, it is clean with no one disturbing you, just like when it rains. When the rains stop the hectic life resumes, just as when the waiter comes with the bill and you have to search for your wallet and forget her for the time being.

My friend Arijit and I left the place and went out as the rain stopped. It was a casual meeting but somehow the matter of me and Ananya came up and while I was describing her (obviously not her beauty, but her qualities and her nature) then asked me the question.

About a year back, Ananya, a very flirtatious girl, who never liked to be called a flirt, started eyeing me and staring at me. I was sort of lonely and was looking for a friend, preferably a girl, but not for the wrong reasons or the things that you are thinking right now. I thought of getting close to her, and phew… we became friends and close friends faster than the speed of light. (I know it’s a bad comparison, but we got along well, that’s what we mean to say)

She was leaving the city for higher studies and I was upset. Arijit asked me to stop thinking about her and get on life. Till now whenever I used to be in trouble or could not decide anything, I used to take his help and count on him. But somehow his words shocked me today. I don’t know why but I thought I would be making a mistake if I followed him.

While walking down the lane to his house he asked “Why do you like her?”

I had no answer. I didn’t know if I was after her. I didn’t know why I liked her. I kept quiet.

Suddenly my phone alerted me of a message. Oh she was here as usually sending a stupid love note and telling how badly she missed me. Yep it appeared stupid to me. I was never in a relationship and never realised if I would be happier if I was in a relationship.

“Karan, I don’t find a reason why you could even think about the very idea of liking, leave out falling, for a girl like her. You went by looks before, and got your ass kicked. Why do you want to get it kicked again?”
“Well I just like her, I mean we are just friends”, I tried to fight back.
“I just don’t get this just-friends deal man.”

Well I don’t know what sort of friends we were or if two lonely bored souls were sharing their happiness and sadness sitting at the banks of a river at night. But she was one of the first girls who seriously and truly tried to understand me and know me even though I didn’t use to care about her at first.

“Don’t make her your priority when you are just an option to her”, said my friend Arijit. I don’t understand how he quickly delivers these one-liners, which will make you go waist deep in thought the moment you hear them.

I thought to myself, that was exactly the mistake I had committed with my ex crush and how the relationship ended in a very bad way. Do I belong to that category of people who never learns from their past mistakes? ‘Well no, hell no’, I said to myself.

I soon changed the topic of the conversation.

That day I took a cab to head back home as my mind was troubled with many stupid thoughts. Well maybe those were not stupid. Well no they were stupid.

The phone rang. I tried to guess who it was. And as usual my guess was wrong. Ranuka had called me. “Hi bhaiya”.
“Hey hi”
“Well bhaiya I heard that you are back in Kolkata after your trip to Chennai?”
“Yeah I came back yesterday night”, I said.
“Hey can we meet up? I need to talk to you about my career”, she said as if I was a part of the counselling unit she had setup herself to advise her of her career options.
“Sure why not, head up to me house tomorrow morning, we can have a chat”.
“Okay then I will be there. Anyways how was your trip?”
“It was fine, my paper was selected and I have now been invited for the Congress in Bangalore this year.”
“Congrats on that man. I knew you would do it well.” she said.
“Thanks a lot…”
“Fine then we meet up tomorrow and chat more… Bye, take care”.
“Okay… Bye… See you tomorrow at my place”.

The call distracted me for a while from those otherwise boring thoughts about Ananya. Well I was confused actually not bored. These sudden phone calls are like a washing machine. They take your mind and spin it for a while cleaning you of the stupid thoughts and taking you to their world and then leave you were before you started your dirty thoughts.

Ranuka was my student who had completed +2 that year and was waiting to get admission somewhere. Though I myself was a student then, still I used to teach others for some extra pocket money.

I came home, had no other work to do, and so opened up Facebook. Usually I don’t get much friend requests but that I had one unusual friend request. It was a person claiming to be Ranuka’s school friend. I thought for a while as to how that person came to know me and Ranuka seemed to be the only link. I searched if Ananya was online, she was not there. I accepted that guy’s friend request though I hate strangers in my profile.

The guy came in chat and told me something I had never expected. True, life is full of surprises. After some introductions he informed me that Ranuka had a crush on me and wanted to date me badly… Before I could reply to him, he went offline.

I smiled for a while, and then started seeing updates from my friends… A message from Arijit advised me to change my relationship status on Facebook.

Next day Ranuka came to meet me. While chatting I found that she is very unlucky to be surrounded by some overly frustrated guys who had over confidence in them. All the advisers of her counselling board agreed to the fact that she should drop a year and study for the IIT next year. According to her, all her frustrated advisers had dropped a year but still they were nowhere close to the IITs or NITs and so they were frustrated and wanted to taste success from Ranuka. When I explained this to her, she said, “What’s wrong in that? They taught me how to dream”.
“They taught you what to dream, not how”, I replied.

I don’t know what she understood but she was pretty much confirmed about dropping a year and won’t change her plans… but still asked me. I had no other option but of supporting her else be blamed for making her weak.

I thought to myself, why is it that people who like me, leave me after a while? I mean do they get bored? Ananya like me so much, she will go out for higher studies. Ranuka liked me (according to her school friends) still didn’t recommend me as a teacher to her friends and is now leaving city to study somewhere for IIT.

So basically when I tried to imagine my future it was Karan, Karan and Karan all alone in the middle of nowhere. Well I did have other friends but they were I just friends, I mean they were friends but not close friends. Well actually may be I and Ananya were not just friends.

I thought about my lonely life thereafter and opened Facebook again; I saw my relationship status and felt sad that it was single. Closed Facebook and went to sleep in the middle of the day and thought of day dreaming about Ananya.

 I heard this from my friend and thought of sharing with the world. Karan remained upset for a while when Ananya left him. Though I did call up Karan after that and tried and talk to him about his personal life. He avoided it. Ananya went for higher studies, as far as I know; she is now a research scholar in AIIMS. Ranuka now is an IIT engineer working in Mumbai. Karan is now in the US working as researcher in Intel. Arijit, Karan’s friend is now also a researcher. And me writing stories and blogs for you to read…!!!