CHAPTER-1

THE NEXT MORNING -

It was 10:30 am when I checked the clock hanging on the wall. Yes, I had missed my college bus. But this is what exactly I thought two hours before. I was turbulent the whole night. It wasn’t a very usual morning for me. With a lot of her thoughts bouncing on my head the whole night made me felt so sick.  I got up & went straight towards the restroom; my burning red eyes were pure reflection of my restlessness & were narrating something unusual has happened to me.  She, out of sudden but most expected proposal from me was astonished & wanted couple of days before she responds. I was told not to call again, so the only thing I could do was to wait till she calls me back. Expecting a gigantic surprise on my birthday oon 16th January was all I could think out of my curiosity. It was now time to get through with the daily routines.

I was least interested in anything but her. It’s not of course a quixotic one.  I didn’t even see her for past two years. But it was not too long when I started falling for her.  It all started six months back, when I had fortunately gambled with my friend cum roommate, all in joke. I had never thought that very soon I will be the one most bothering about her.  See was now everywhere. I wasn’t interested in any other girls in my college though I had a proposal from few too. There was a girl who had proposed me & wanted to share a kiss with me but unfortunately I was too shy (or you say stupid) to make use of the opportunity. All I did was able to get out of her was a bracelet & a big greeting card like your university degree hard to handle. Uuuuhhh..  I think we shall time travel exactly 3 months back to past.

Blackout in Jharkhand–

 It was a hard time during summer of May 2007, when a group of Maoists had attacked the southern part of Jharkhand destroying all the power grids from nowhere to make the complete city Black. Jharkhand is supposed to be one among the mostly affected areas by Naxalites.  They are very prominent among northern part of the India including Central India too. This was the time when I was in the city to enjoy my semester break which finally turned into a catastrophe. There was shortage of everything. When I say everything here, you were to pay 10 rupees to refill your mobile batteries once. I also had daily job of following married women to get 3 buckets of water promised to each family by our state government. This all lasted for 15 days. The only thing which kept us connected was Newspaper which local vendors used to sell for thrice the price since it was being imported from the nearest unaffected city at a distance of around 150km. While this was not the only trouble there were loot, robberies & theft too started taking place overnight. Situation was worsening day-by-day. Government had again come up with their delusive promises. I just wanted to go run-away back to Raipur seeing all these hullabaloo but wasn't in my destiny too due to sky touching fares of travel which were almost around 5 times the normal adding to your life threatening risks on the way. I was left with no option but to wait for the government & their servants to take an action after they are done with their inutile talks.
But it has been correctly saId, “There’s something good in everything even if it seems to be bad eventually”. Putting those thoughts of the unknown motivator, I started finding out the ways to pass away my leisure time. Ideally speaking, my complete day was full of time with no other work after 10 am once I had provided my mother with three buckets of water.

Then came the day when I heard her for the first time.

“It’s your turn now , make your service”, said my brother shashank to me.
“Uuuuhh…wait its still 5-8, I’ll make it bro..”, I said to my brother with over-confidence.  We were playing badminton as usual for the sixth day as our daily time pass in evening.  While I was in Bermuda Shorts  & only sleeveless to bear with  humid weather, my brother was more bothered about his looks when out & was wearing a blue color jeans with a green color t-shirt over it.

“Here, I go “, I shouted & jumped with my service. Shockingly, my brother didn't respond to the shuttle & ran shyly towards the main gate of my house. He was a kind of reluctant to girls but no he too has his own story like everyone else.

 I was now to turn back to examine if something has really gone wrong. And there she was,  right behind me with her friend actually with our friend gazing at me with my sophisticated looking attire. I too was so insensible for a moment to run like my brother. Her eyes were the only twinkling things I’d ever noticed since the day of blackout. I could feel the smell of her perfume over my half displayed body as was the only fresh things I’d noticed after very long in this blackout where I was only suppose to smell sweating of my brother the whole night . She was the most beautiful girl I’d ever seen in my life since my birth standing in front of me next to my mother & sister. She was looking fantastic in light green color salwar with embroidery over it in white & blue. She was absolutely perfect; No doubt that was the moment, when gravity of her love started pulling me & I'd became a victim of “Love at first sight” in this blackout.