Love

Love is indeed a complex phenomenon. It often engulfs the lives of teenagers and before you know it, they start entering into relationships. It is not an extraordinary sight nowadays seeing a boy and girl 16-17 years of age walk around arm in arm or go on dates. It has become a frequent and a common affair.  

All of this was not unknown to Rahul, a teenager from Mumbai. At the age of 14, he had made up his mind that he wanted to pursue Engineering and so his parents enrolled him into coaching classes for the same. He excelled in academics, and was a very hardworking person. Similar to Rahul, was a girl, his classmate, Rita. She was also an extremely bright, studious girl and had a flair for writing articles for newspapers and short stories. Being in the same class, they became very good friends. They would help clear out the other’s doubts, hangout on weekends and gave each other good company. As they became better acquainted with each other, they found out they had a lot in common. Both of them were huge Cricket fans, loved watching horror movies and had the same taste in music. No surprise, within a few months they started having feelings for each other. Rita, who could not hold it inside her any longer, confessed about her feelings to Rahul. When Rahul heard her out, he stood there silently. Then he held her hand, looked into her eyes and asked her “Rita, I love you. Will you be my girlfriend?” A teary-eyed Rita whispered “Yes.” Both hugged each other in glee and thus their new, wonderful journey began. They went on dates frequently and became very popular in their classes. Everyone used to whisper “Look at those two. Aren’t they perfect for each other?” And so time flew by. All of their entrance exams were over and one day while they were at the mall to watch a movie, Rita asked Rahul a question which was bugging her since the past few days, “Say, what will happen to us if we get colleges out of Mumbai, in different cities?” To that, Rahul answered “Don’t worry dear. We will think about it when the time comes.” But Rita could never stop thinking about it. She spent quite a few sleepless nights pondering over it. She loved Rahul immensely. Not only was he her boyfriend, but also her first best friend in her class. Thoughts of losing him shook her to the bone. However, Rita’s fears did come true. Rita had secured admission in VIT Vellore. One day Rahul rang her up and said, with a heavy voice “I have got admission in MIT Manipal.” No words came out of Rita’s mouth. She felt like someone had grabbed her heart and wrenched it to the fullest. She could not believe this was happening. She had to force herself not to cry. One day before Rita was to leave for Vellore, she met Rahul. They both decided to try long-distance relationship. “I love you, you will be mine, always. We will be together forever.” Rita said. “I love you too dear, take care, I will miss you.” said Rahul and kissed her. 

Rahul and Rita got busy in their schedules. As their exams started approaching, contact between them started decreasing. The fights between them increased because they did not have time for each other. Both used the other to vent out their frustration on. The stress of the semester exam was slowly demolishing their relationship. At times, it would be a week before they had a proper talk with each other. It was clear now that this relationship was adversely affecting them both. It just wasn’t working out. Eventually, it became so worse, that, one night on a call, Rahul said the inevitable, “I don’t think this is working out anymore. It’s becoming very hard for me to handle this. I think we should end it.” Rita suppressed a sob and said “I was going to tell you the same thing tonight. I cannot believe it has come to this stage that I won’t ever hear your voice again, after being together for almost two years.” Rahul replied “Sorry to have broken this partnership.” Both Rahul and Rita were an awful sight from all the crying, but they knew what they had done was right. They had to move on. It was not possible for them to stay in a relationship which was hurting them both. They had to face the bouncer which Life had bowled at them. The most unfortunate part of it was, they had both lost a Best Friend. In a split second, just as there were many common things between them, from watching cricket together to going for horror movies, Silence became another one.