2. The Back-up option

You must have thought that this is a dead blog now and all my spirit to write has fallen down the drain. Well you are not totally wrong, this blog was kind of hibernated. After publishing the previous post, my exams started. It’s not that I was studying from dusk to dawn putting my entire ass in the books; rather I was wasting time doing simple nothings and never had the heart to do something productive. Actually exams are something where we don’t study much, but our mind becomes paralyzed to think of anything else other than exams. And fortunately after exams, I went on a biking trip with a 'homie'( a word referred to friends who are even better than your best friends), so I hope you will understand the complexity of the situation. Ok, enough of these lame excuses for my laziness. Let’s start with the story.

3^rd Semester. End Term Examinations

All three of us were sitting in my room having the awesome event of “Group Studying”. The aforementioned event is traditional practice where you study less (almost zero) and gossip more (almost all the time). Next day I had to face my Data Structure exam.

After studying for about two hours, we all were restless, so Satyaprakash started to narrate his stories or more accurately – his love stories. The stories in which he is the heroic stud, moreover a Casanova hitting and picking up chicks from all over the town and making out in the wildest of the places. Though the stories were very interesting but they were all far cry from reality. So, after a while we all told him to “SHUT THE FUCK UP.”

Thus, we started studying, but, as far as studies are concerned, complete concentration for half an hour feels like ages. I could not resist and asked Sahir, “How much growth have you made in your scene?” He was perplexed at first but as we shared same frequency, he understood what I was talking about.

“Hmmm, nothing much, we chat occasionally, actually this is her twelfth standard, so you know boards, her parents want her to remain away from the internet. That’s why.” he sounded helpless and a little sad.

On the other hand, my love for the lake girl was in full swing and I had no idea what the fuck was going on in her head.

“Yaar. You have never told me how did you started chatting or to put it in better words, how did you started this online dating? I mean there must be many guys on that chat box, then how come she chose you?” I was really very curious to understand this mystery about Sahir.

“Hehe… It happened just like that.” He was now smiling, maybe thinking about that very day, but keeping his image of a secretive person, he gave me this silly answer. It was getting very irritating.

“Would you stop fooling around and tell me what happened or the secret services will fire you for letting the next big thing out?” Yes I was very much irritated.

“It’s nothing much dude. I sometimes used to visit this site and one day I saw this chat box. It was actually a common chat box where anyone could write anything. Then I saw this name called 'Ishi' his smile widened. What the hell. Love seriously screws up your mind. I say this because I was in the same state as he was. Whenever,I thought about her, I felt awesome and maybe I even smiled.

“So, how did the chat initiate?” I was waiting for the ultimate suspense to uncover. An answer that would change my entire online dating life. Yes, I was thinking too much.

“Actually people in the chat were busy flirting and abusing each other. I started chat with this girl. She liked me and then we moved to a chat box for private chatting where two people can chat in private.”

One thing I concluded about Sahir that day. He sucked at narrating stories. Satya was maybe a fake, but he was an amazing story teller. He could bind his listener and entertain them, specifying each and every detail.

“Oye stop it. Who will tell the details?  What the hell did you utter, that she found you interesting enough to open up a private chat with you?  And this time please tell me like a sane human being.” I literally begged this time.

“You are such an ass. You want to know in detail, ok then listen. Long long time ago.” I gave him a furious look.

SAHIR’s NARRATION

“Ohh, I exaggerated a bit. At that time I was in twelfth and she was in tenth, so we both had our board exams in that session and we both thought that the site would be of some benefit. Yes it proved out to be, because I found her there. I started the chat with a simple hello. She answered. She answered because every guy who found a girl in that chat box either started with ‘I love you’ or any other nympho shit. I talked normal and maybe genuine. Actually a funny thing happened, when she asked my name and I answered ‘Sahir Arora’, she was quite surprised and told me that her full name is ‘Ishi Arora’ which means we both shared the same surname.”

“Oho...  Arora !!! That means you are my wife.” I joked.

“You can be a brother too.” She attacked back. I was taken aback by this missile.

“I don’t think that would ever be a scenario.” I was curiously waiting for her reply.

“He he” what the hell does she meant by this “he he”. But I then I asked.

“Let us chat in the private chat box. This one is too creepy.” What would she answer?

“Ok.” Rajat gave me an expression of appreciation.

“Then we chatted and chatted about almost everything. From her favorite shopping destinations to her favorite books, music, places and how rich she was. No she never boasted anything like that, but both her parents were working in investment banks at high posts. Now you can make out how much money they made. She had already seen more than half of the world. Now I was feeling very small, very poor. Like a beggar dreaming of a princess. But she was sweet, really very sweet.

She asked about me but I had nothing fancy to tell about. My life sucked. I had not even been to all the tourist spots in India, forget about the world. My life was limited to the comfort zone of my home, or the discomfort zone of school, nothing else. I thought of writing fancy stuff that I thought would impress her but I dropped the idea. I told her about my normal boring life. In return, she sent me many smileys. The chat that day continued for about two hours. For me this was a big achievement. I had already fallen for her.” Rajat passed me a smile which conveyed that “Yes you are in love”.

Rajat was giving me a puppy look, he wanted to hear more. I remained silent, lost deep inside my thoughts.

“Then?” Rajat had to bring me back to the real world.

“Then? The frequency of chats increased, we used to chat all day long during holidays. I used to wait for her to come online, she waited for me. Believe me she did. Then we moved to Facebook, she already had an old FB account. I never really liked FB so never cared of making one but for her I made an account.”

“To hell with you bitch. You don’t have a FB account. Who are you lying to?” Rajat blurted out, shocked.

“I have one. It’s hidden. She is the only friend in the list. She knows it.”

“Are you seriously a boy or some pretty chick who doesn't want random friend requests? I mean seriously, which normal male will keep a hidden Facebook account?” It was quite hard to digest this stuff for Rajat.

“Look dude, if you seriously are one and doesn't have any other strange stuff hidden inside those shorts. Please continue and finish the story fast before I pass away with inability to take so many shocks.”

I smiled and continued, “On her Facebook account I saw her photos. Yes, she was beautiful and cute and amazing. And she had travelled half of the World.” Rajat rechecked the photos; he told me that girl was maybe not a hot bombshell but she was quite beautiful. He was partially correct. I found her hot too. He also read some of the chat which I showed him, the chat made him believe that she likes me.

“This continued for two years, we still chat, not that often as she will have her twelfth boards this year and her parents are pretty much concerned about it.” He explained half heartily.

“Did you go on a date?” asked Rajat with even more curious face.

“No?”

“Asked for her number?” he again asked, a little sad but still curious.

“Many times.”

“Thank God. Did you get it?”

“Nope.”

“WTF. Then she is playing around with you brother. She is just keeping you as a sweet safe guy back up option.” Rajat was concerned, but he was no pro about chicks or relationships, so I did not took him seriously.

“What do you mean?”

“If she had any feeling for you, she would have at least wanted to go on a date with you, and she has not even given you her number.Which means you are on the hook!”

“You will not understand, she says that it is good this way and she want to concentrate on her studies and we will date when she joins college.”

“Ok dude. But don’t be a back up option.”

“You are crazy. How can I be? And I will never be on the hook.”

“Your choice.”

BACK TO MY NARRATION

It’s our third year now. Sahir and I have different subjects, so we never study together and hardly get time to discuss each other’s life, also our friends are mostly restricted to our classmates now. Fortunately, I met him last week, about three days before the exams at the hostel canteen. We gossiped for about two hours that day. He told me that Ishi is now in a Delhi University college, they chat occasionally, about ones in about three or four months when she comes online. He still doesn't have her number and they have never dated.

Yes, he had let himself be the ‘Back - up option’.  And he is still going on with it from past three years.

Random Fact :- I managed to grab a ‘F’ in my Data Structure exam.