"One Year down..Another started..Life has just begun.."

"It has nothing to do with the number... it was never about the name...the journey was amazing and the road was insane..I am yet to see my true self..you are yet to witness your show..well nothing of it matters..what does,  is from where we started and how far we can go..."

To be precise, it was 19th January 2013, that was the day when I created this blog, without any intention of seeking any attention, all I did was to capture the day gone by as a "Friday Blogger". Little did I know, that I will be back here and writing something again to impress the girl I already impressed over this blog 4 years back and will try to seek her attention again and to make her admit, that I am still the same, perhaps a more refined version of what she got at that time (I will let her decide that, but she knows me..it doesn't matter, she knows, if I have framed that opinion..its framed already..so do accept that I got a version upgrade..and this one performs better :P).

Well, things were different that day..we both were a blank slate for each other, I was looking at my blog...and with few comments from my loved ones (obviously some were the result of coercion though) and 25 followers (mostly family members),  I was at cloud nine, at that moment I declared myself as a celebrity blogger, I started dreaming about making big, writing meaningful stories, accumulating them and then getting those published, at that point in time, the future was clearly visible. Just when I was in the clasp of my day dreaming, a notification popped up "You have 1 new comment", and like every amateur blogger, I took no time in reaching to the peak of elation, without any delay, I opened the browser, clicked on my blog link and waited for the page to load..it took some time for my blog to open in full (I am not adding to the drama, internet connection can be blamed). I scrolled the page and it had this :

vartika anand19 January 2013 at 02:29

Nice one... but after reading "The Secret" book one thing i know, try to think as much positive as u can coz d way u think things will happen in ur life...:) n it works...

I first looked at the picture, then the name and the last notice was to the comment. The Picture made me think.."She is cute...do I have a chance, the name rang a bell...and my mind was like..really..?..and by seeing at the comment, I was just blown and decided...this is worth chasing".

I smiled..took a deep breath and started typing the response, there was no one in the room, with whom I could've shared that happiness, so I decided to reply as soon as possible, and then I thought..guy...slow down..act pricey...things will fall in place, I decided not to reply..I waited exactly for 7 minutes and then typed a response, which was something like this :

Prashant Srivastava19 January 2013 at 02:37

@ Vartika..Yes..I second that..I too follow Secrets very religiously..rather..whatever I have and whatever I have become..the first 25 pages of that book has a hefty contribution to that...so thanks fr reminding of "The
Secrets" again :)..I really appreciate your views..Have a nice weekend :)

Afterwards, I waited for a response, but against my hope..the girl was not as impressed as I thought..and that is when I decided...I will write for her, I continued writing, blog after blog..waiting for her to comment and one fine day I decided to put a halt on the ongoing mutual admiration club, as it was going nowhere and when I say I decided to put a halt..I called her..expressed my feelings, there was an outright rejection, with no hope of resurrection of the lost... the rejection was on the grounds "We are good as friends, lets keep it that way"...well, at that moment,  for me it was a tragedy, and like every writer, I trudged to put the tragedy in words, and then came the blog titled :

I marched ahead to speak my heart..She trudged ahead to defy, Her words were all mystifying..As she didn't even deny...[Dubious Path-Perplexed Beings.....still not aware where to go...but finally, got and end to  begin]

 It was sort of a stunt at my end to ignite the fire again, to show her that I am heart broken but strong enough to handle rejection...which I knew will be a good to have trait in your would be...not sure if this added to our story or not, but there exactly it started...I knew that very moment..she is going to be in my life...(obviously was not sure at that time what it comes with :P).

Days passed, the communication source kept changing,  from Blog to Gmail to Facebook and then finally over phone...thats when I thought...now this is the time..I should let her know that I sing..and one fine day while we were on a call..I asked her "You know what, I was once singing at my friends place...and the obvious question was "You sing?"....I reacted as if it was not at all intentional and my answer was not pre-prepared...I said "I do..in fact I play guitar also..and if you allow..I can sing now..I have the guitar ready (PS My brother was ready with the guitar, I didn't know the G of Guitar at that time"

She took a pause and said "Ok..lets hear you..", At that moment...I considered that as the last nail in the coffin..before I actually put the corpse in it (going ahead with proposing her another time)...with all my soul..I sang "Naa hai ye paana...Naa khona he hai a beautiful number from Jab we Met.."

She was stunned (thats what she disclosed later, in her words, she admitted... "I thought..you are just going to sing like usual...but when you started...I was like..this guy is amazing")

The next lap was to make her see all the positives I had..and all the best I could promise...and then within a weeks time..I went ahead..expressed my feelings again..this time..it was all poetic...5 AM in the morning..I called, her and started the poetry..I don't remember exactly what the words were (but had the mention of all the stars, planets, moon, sky...etc)...it lasted for close to 10 minutes..I kept saying, she patiently listened to every single word I uttered...I completed that poetry and then said.."This is all I wanted to say...I am gonna sleep now, Good Morning to you..you can wish me good night..I will wait for my morning to be good when I get to hear from you..."

I closed my eyes...I knew I had to wake up at 8 again..I had three hours to catch up on some sleep..but I was not able to..I kept checking my phone..ensuring that the ring tone is turned on..so that I don't miss on a call..I was anxiously waiting for her response... and exactly after 9 minutes and 47 seconds (don't get amazed by my memory..this is made up..),  my screen flashed..and then everything was in slow motion..the title tune of "Kal Ho Na Ho" started penetrating my ear drums...screen displayed "Vartika Calling"...and the impact of it was amazing....suddenly that clogged balcony appeared soothing to me...my fat cousin looked beautiful...and I was looking forward to a new day" 

I accepted the call..and said "Hey..Hi..I am..sor........", I was about to complete the remaining words..thats when she said "what you said...few minutes back..that was really special...no one has ever done this for me...Prashant..I am In....the feeling is mutual..I am not poetic..I don't know how to play with words...all I can say..I found you true..enough to convince and make me accept..you are the one"

And thats how it started, like they say...the fun is in the chase, once the chase is done..the fun ends and life starts. Days, months and year passed...I got to know that music, poetry and blogs are not the only things to make a girl happy...she realized this guy sucks on all the things other than poetry, blogs and music.....so that is when life started....still we thought...lets drill down further...it can't end here...and like all other couples in their late 20s...we too decided to do the obvious..."WE GOT MARRIED"

And that is when, other characters entered the plot...Expectations, Commitment, Sharing, Caring, Love, Laughter, Disagreements, Tiffs,  Possessiveness etc...they were all set to ruin or build the life..we were about to start...

Well, there are no set rules..there is no guidebook for marriage...all it comes with is uncertainty and hope...Uncertainty of what it would entail...and Hope of what it could bring...."

We loved like insane..we went crazy together...we did things unimaginable..we saw the best and the worst of us we could ever witness. An year passed, it is not an accomplishment, neither a milestone..but a reminder...two lives can stay together...if they have two things...love and respect...

If you ask me..."Did your life go as you planned...did it change?"...Well I would say and I will be candid...."certainly not, we planned things at times..but the outcome was different....our interpretations were wrong and at times our intentions didn't match..."...but that made us realize one thing...we started making plans which were reasonable..and the ones which were unreasonable...they seemed to be realistic when we were together...

She transformed for me, I tweaked myself for her...that is what a team does...even when we were dealing with things as separate individuals during our disagreements...we followed each other like a shadow...thats what we are...a team..a shadow to the body...

I don't know about how good I was during the year gone by in my new role as a "Husband" (transformation was one hell of a task though)....but yes..she was amazing....a hard task master..used her learning of MBA in the actual life...managing things...managing a guy like me...dealing with my idiosyncrasies...catering to expectations..knowing me in and out..aware of every other step of mine...she amazed me..and that was consistent...I got amazed to see the level and extremes of reasonableness and unreasonableness as well at times (I know she will not agree to the latter).

Now since, I made the point related to being unreasonable...even when I wrote 10 good things about her...this will come back to haunt me...and thus I will start with the actual good she has done to me....


1 Year of Love (well there were tiffs too), 365 days together (this is not the correct number), Lots of Laughter (Yes, followed by tears..we have laughed and cried...the best part was we did that together), 52 Weeks of Happiness (well that is an exaggeration, she will also not agree to this), Countless Memories (that is the thing we both strived for..and to some extent we succeeded to create great memories, credit goes to her..as this guy suck on anything other than poetry, blogs and music), 525600 minutes and counting (some random number, lets be realistic, you are so much occupied figuring things out..in the first year of marriage...you don't get time to count minutes...so you can ignore this)....The BEST IS YET TO COME (this is what we both learned over the period of time..no matter what is there..no matter what has passed...all we have is a beautiful future to create..and that can be done..when we are together).


So now, when, I am done taking that trip down to memory lane...and done presenting the current state with the facts and numbers, I have a task unfinished....here it comes..."A Letter to my lovely wife, friend, soulmate...blah..blah..blah...'

To
Mrs. Vartika Anand
C/O - Her Husband (mostly it is other way round :P)
Bangalore  (for now, not sure what future entails)


Subject : "Letter to acknowledge and disclose, if I want more of this life"


Dear Ma'am,

I would like to take this opportunity, to thank you,  for first of all accepting me as your legally wedded  spouse (this reminds me that you asked me to get our marriage registered, I know I have delayed a lot but I am on it, the government website is not working these days, as soon as it is up..I will get that done..till then the pictures and the Invitation card can be used as a proof...:P). 

So without deviating further, lets come to the point..., I know what you went through to get us where we are...and perhaps..that is the factor which contributes to you being over possessive about me (no complains, I love it), thank you for sticking to me...thank you for not giving up..when the world said you should....thank you for embracing the life...which was different from what was promised and forecasted...thank you for all the things you do (right from managing my cluttered cupboard to putting money in my wallet, managing finances and dealing with my credit card bills, I know I am being candid over a social forum, but I take pride in letting the world know that what I have and what they don't, thank you for taking care of my parents without the least of the difference how you treat yours...thank you for managing my relations...which I somewhere lost touch with during my run to life, thank you for holding my hand and saying things that makes me feel better, thank you for putting my head on your lap and  reinstating time and again that I am capable of handling any shit what life throws, thank you for believing in me, more than I do...thank you for being a child and allowing me to be your guardian...thank you for bearing all the odds and thank you for contributing to all the evens, not sure if life would have been same if we were not together but one thing, I am sure about is "this was worth trying...life changed...it pulled us...and thus thank you for pulling us and life together, as I always say...the best is yet come...and the tale is yet to see the climax....the best part of the story...is under construction...when it will take shape..it will be more exciting than what we actually thought....So Thank you for all what you've created so far...and thank you for all what you will...

I hereby accept, I want more of this life...I want this to continue...we will love, we will fight..after every disagreement, you will hate me and I will be annoyed, still we will look at us..we will smile and things will be fine...coz..our story was not an ordinary story...someone plotted it...and wanted this to happen...the best of you is with me...the better of me..is what you have...whatever happens...lets create life...lets create memories...lets create joys...

PS, I  Love You.........infact all of me..loves all of you...not sure about other life times...this is gonna be one hell of a journey....and as "Harvey Specter says (Courtesy- Suits) - "Win a No Win...by Rewriting the Rules"...

So lets win together...by rewriting the rules...of marriage and love......In the end...you made me breathless the very first day I saw you...and you still do everyday...Thank You and Love You....

Ink Off..till I get here again..to impress you..and reinstate...ours is a no ordinary story....I believe so...and everyone else who will read this...will do......