Romantic Short Story – A lifetime of tomorrows
Photo credit: mconnors from morguefile.com
Nirupama loved the balmy September evening weather in Coimbatore. In fact, she loved every single thing about the city, the beautiful roads, the sight of the Nilgiris from the balcony of her grandmother’s house, the cool weather, the lovely language of Coimbatore. Actually the list was endless. Nirupama was getting back from college in the city bus. The bus journey was a beautiful learning of sorts for Nirupama.
She studied in one of the prestigious colleges in the city that took a good forty five minutes from her house every day. She loved the travel. The travel was the time when her mind segregated the rights and wrongs of her life and compartmentalized the same.
It was her birthday the next day. She had semester exams the next week and she was busy preparing for the same. Everytime during the exams she became a nervous wreck and it needed a bunch of books and hours of sleep after the exams for her to get back to normal, if you could call her that.
She went home and started studying for the same. She got a buzz on her phone. It was a wish from her friend, wishing her for her birthday. There was another buzz and another and another. People kept buzzing her and she kept responding. Her parents surprised her the next day by gifting her a two-wheeler. She got umpteen gifts from people near and dear. Still, she felt that something was amiss.
She had a gnawing feel at the bottom of her heart. It was not everyday a girl grew up to be 21. She was entering the third decade of her life in the world and still something was not complete. She felt she missed a certain something or a certain someone in her life.
On the other side of the world, Nidhir had just woken up. He had a fitful sleep .When he woke up and saw the date, he smiled to himself. He was sure that he had planned a good surprise to Nirupama and that was enough to make him smile. He knew his life was about to change and he was excited. Still! He thought, he should not let any emotion show. He was sure of the result. He knew her and because he knew her, he knew she would accept.
He had known her since her birth. She had been a chubby, big eyed kid and had wailed right from the moment she saw him. As she grew up, he kept challenging her, making her climb trees, jump from walls, play cricket and cycle around the city in the hot summer sun. They both were opposite poles, she was nerdy and a bookworm while he was a movie buff. He was a foodie and she hated eating except for curd rice. Their music tastes, costume choices differed. If there was a single common denominator, it was this. They both loved discussing politics and economics and cricket.
This separation was tough for him, still he knew that this was temporary. He had realised and he wanted her to realise that they shared a deeper bond, something special. He was not sure if this was the magical thing called love, but he knew one thing. He knew that he could not live without her by his side. She was special to him and without her, his life would be empty.
He had planned it all. He would not call her. He had wished her first, every single year of her existence. However this year, he would not be doing that. He would not call her at all. He did not.
Nirupama waited and waited. He never called. Nidhir was always the first to wish her. She wanted to tell him about the two-wheeler. He was the one who taught her to ride and would often pull her leg reminding her of her initial attempts and the way she had fallen over a pup. She had broken her left wrist and had even gone on to promise her grandmother that she would never ever ride a two-wheeler. When Nidhir narrated this story, it often brought tears of joy to his eyes. Now, when she had been gifted a vehicle of her own, she wanted to tell that to him, only that he wasn’t there to listen to her. How silly the human heart is!! When someone is near, it never realizes the worth of the person, however when the same person is miles away, the same heart misses the person very badly.
Nirupama waited till 11:45, got irritated and called Nidhir herself. However, he had not picked her call. “How frustrating”, thought Nirupama to herself.
Nirupama shook her head. She was not the kind of a woman, who needed a man to validate her existence. Just as she was talking to herself and scolding herself for expecting Nidhir to wish her, she got an SMS. “Can you please go to your bedroom and check under the bed please?” .The message was from none other than the irritating Nidhir. Why would he even send her such an SMS.
Nevertheless after a lot of deliberation, Nirupama went to the pillow and saw that there was a gift box waiting for her. She opened it and saw the following plaque there, a message across the seas saying ,” Dear Niru, Sweetheart there is nothing more I could ever hope to do, than have a lifetime of tomorrows to spend just loving you”
Nirupama’s eyes started watering and without even thinking twice, she replied a “Yes, I would love to have a lifetime of tomorrows that you can spend in loving me”..
A lifetime of tomorrows, based on the real life story of someone I know personally, a couple who kept bickering, keep bickering and will keep bickering on every single thing! That is the way they love each other and will grow to love each other for a lifetime of tomorrows.
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