Chapter 54

54 The Flashback

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Delhi, India. It was the first day of my third year in college. I was on the welcoming committee. It was my team’s job to help our fellow freshers. We set up a table at the entrance of the gate and guided every fresher to their respective departments.

A lot of girls and boys passed through our table after thanking us for helping them. Our job was to hand them a visitor’s pass, the brochure of our college and a map that had every department highlighted on it.

We were busy with our work when a group of boys approached our table. Some were from the Media Journalism department, and a few were from the law department. Suddenly a boy with a happy and go-lucky attitude and a breezy smile approached me. His pearly whites were glowing in the morning light. The slick back hair and square jaw were enhancing his black, beautiful eyes.

“Hi! My name is Ritvik,” he said.

“Hello! Ritvik, here is your welcoming packet. Welcome to Deep Institute of Education,” said I and moved on to the next boy.

But he was not ready to move. “May I know your name?” he asked. Everyone stopped what they were doing and started staring at him.

“Excuse me!” I exclaimed with surprise.

“I would like to know the name of the beautiful girl who helped me,” he flirted.

.....

I stood up angrily and faced him. “First of all, I am your senior not some girl you flirt with. You better remember it next time. Also, you are here to learn, so concentrate on that. Don’t think you will score a girlfriend the first day you arrived. Now get lost and go to your department before I get you expelled for your inappropriate behaviour.”

“Sorry! I didn’t mean to offend you. Extremely sorry, please forgive me,” he said, guilt-ridden.

“Move, you are blocking up the queue,” I snapped.

He hung his head low and started to walk away when one of my friends, Nishant shouted, “Hey, Ritvik! Her name is Nivritti.” And he winked at him. That made him smile.

But I was angry. I hit Nishant on his head, angrily.

“Ow!” he cried.

“Shut up! Concentrate on your work,” I shouted at him but never looked at Ritvik.

I was in the English Literature department, and he was in Journalism. All those two years I would catch him staring at him with his friends. But after that scolding, he was always afraid to talk to me. He never approached me or even tried to talk to me, he would just stand in a corner and watch me talking or laughing with my friends.

It was well-known in the college that a junior had a crush on a senior. My friends would tease me, even my teachers would tease me. Sometimes I would ignore them, sometimes I would scold them but most often I would end up hitting them.

My two years were completed, and it was graduation day. No juniors were allowed to attend the ceremony but somehow, he got himself into the cultural committee that organised every event in our college, and he was present in our graduation ceremony.

His job was to hand over our caps and robs. We would go inside a room according to our roll number and after signing a sheet he would hand us graduations caps and robs. It was my turn, my roll number was called.

I went in, he saw me and froze. The cap fell from his hand.

“The cap,” I said.

“Huh...”

“I pointed at the cap at his feet and again said, “the cap.”

“Right, sorry!” he bent down and picked up the cap. “Please sign this sheet.” He forwarded a sheet on the table.

“Um... pen?” I asked.

“Right, of course,” fumbling he picked up a pen and handed it to me. Carefully, not touching his hands, I grabbed the pen and signed the sheet. He placed the cap and the rob in a white packet and gave them to me.

But this time, the unthinkable happened. My fingers touched his fingers. I could see his eyes widening and mouth opening. But he immediately closed his mouth and gulped. I can’t say what he was feeling but I know that he liked the touch.

I pulled the packet from his hands and turned around. Without looking at him, I said thank you and left. But before I could exit, I heard a faint sigh and an “I love you”. I don’t know why but that made me smile. I shook my head at his silliness and left.

I thought that would be the last time I would see him but after the ceremony, he was waiting at the gate. He never said a word, he never approached me. He just had his hand over his chest and kept staring at me.

“He wanted a last glimpse of you. Oh, how I wish I had someone to obsess over me. You are so lucky girl,” teased one of my friends.

“Shut up!” I snapped at her. I don’t know why but her words made me turn around and look at him for the first and last time. The moment I turned around to look at him, he threw his hands in the air and shouted, “Yay!” I could not help myself and started laughing.

A few years went by. I completed my masters and got a job as a content writer in a reputed advertising firm in Delhi. It was my daily routine to board the metro from near my house and the metro would take me near my office. My friends and I would walk to the office after that. It was within a walking distance.

After all these years I even forgot about Ritvik when one day the doors of the metro opened, and everyone started deboarding the metro in a hurry. My friends and I were pushed out of the door, and I stumbled by two firm hands that held me tightly and stopped me from falling face down.

“Thank you,” I said and looked above to see who the person was. My mouth fell open. Ritvik too was staring at me with shock. It was clear that he never even thought of meeting me like that but there I was in his arms. But the waves of people kept coming. He pulled me closer, spun me and took me into a corner to keep me safe.

My friends were lost from me. I had no idea where they went. The crowd kept forcing them to move down the stairs to the exit gate.

“Are you alright?” he asked politely. This was the first time in all those years that he gathered the courage to talk to me.

“I am okay, thanks to you. Oh shit! My friends,” I shouted.

“Sorry! I could not do anything to help them. As you know today the metro is facing some technical problems, so the crowd is late and thus in a hurry to reach the office,” he explained. I had never heard him talk so much in a single sentence. It was bizarre to me.

Then I realised that his hands were still on my waist holding me tight, scared that I would fall. “You can let me go now. I am fine,” I assured him. Awkwardly he smiled and stepped back.

“Where are you going?” he inquired.

“Um... IT city, building No. 2. I work there,” I replied.

“What? That’s a great coincidence. I start my job in that building today,” he replied.

“Oh, which firm?”

“Truth Media!” he replied proudly.

“Congratulations!”

“Thank you and you?”

“You are on the fifth floor, and I am all the way up to the thirteenth floor, working for “Fresh India Advertising.”

“Wow! That’s the most reputed Advertising firm in North India. You were always an over-achiever,” he smiled.

“Your firm is not bad. It’s an up-and-coming media firm in India,” I said.

“Thank you,” he smiled shyly.

“Well, let’s go. It’s your first day you must not be late,” I said.

Happily, he followed me. I took him to our building and after leaving him at reception, I walked up to my office.

Then it became a routine. He would meet me and my friends at the metro station and we all would go together to the office. Slowly, he gathered up the courage and asked me for my number. For a few days, he didn’t send me a message but then he started messaging me.

Something happened to me, in my heart and I started liking the time I would spend with him. I loved talking to him, eating with him, and partying with him. He was charming and polite. We would spend the whole night messaging each other. Slowly those messages turned into late-night calls.

My friends would tease him that his crush is now changing into love. They would tease him about his puppy love coming to fruition. But now I was not angry. I too loved the teasing.

Then I was promoted and received a huge bonus. I wanted to stay away from my parents, wanted to be independent. I had to fight with my mother and my sister to get a separate house near my office. That would reduce my commute time. Finally, my family said yes, and I bought a house in the residential area near my office.

It was my housewarming when my parents first met with Ritvik. But he was still a friend or maybe more, I didn’t realise at that time.