Chapter 19: chapter 19

CHAPTER-8SHIVA’S PAST IN HIS OWN WORDS:(only relevant incidents to his current way of living) Have you ever felt awestruck by someone? I felt it today when I saw the girl I was paired with for the assignment. Her name is Riya and she looks like an angel. She is a boy's dream come true or to be more precise my dream come true. She is everything I wish my dream girl to be. Fair skin. Black hair that reaches her shoulder. A sweet smile that makes my heart flutter. Smart and funny. I  simply can't wait to work on this assignment with her.✏️✏️✏️✏️“What Swetha told she doesn’t want marriage now?” I asked my mother on the phone.“Yes, she seems tight-lipped about why she doesn’t want it. Maybe she is in love with someone. If she is, please tell her today when you both meet that it is not a problem and she can marry her lover. I won’t be a villain to her love,” my mother told. I was surprised that my mother supports my sister’s love if she had any.“Ma, are you serious? You are okay with her being in love?” I asked not sure whether this was my mother. Because my mother was always about studying and getting a good job though she had a love marriage with my father.“Yes, of course. She yearns for her bread and butter now, she can live her life and do anything she wants but giving me prior information about it,” my mother replied.“Wait, does that mean, you will be totally fine if I bring a girl and tell you that she is the one I will marry,” I asked pulling my mother’s leg.I wasn’t in love—maybe a crush but no serious love—with anyone but I was asking just to know how my mother would react.“When you have a job and if I like that girl, then I will,” she replied and then after thought, she added, “Now, Shiva don’t get any big ideas and fall in love. I was just kidding. Those conditions only apply to your sister. You have to marry the girl I tell or else you know what will happen.”I laughed in reply. It was an empty threat. “Ma, I was just asking. I promise you that I will marry the girl you tell me to. Make sure you bring me a princess,” I joked. I heard her laughter from the other end.“That is my boy. Just concentrate on your studies. I will take care of that.”✏️✏️✏️✏️That evening I met my sister in the cafe nearby my college hostel. She seemed tired. “Why don’t you want marriage?” I asked sipping my coffee. The taste was good and way better than the one I get in the hostel which tasted like water that was a little sweet and bitter.Swetha sighed. “Ma told you everything?”I nodded in answer.“Shiva, it is only two years since I got this job. I don’t want marriage now. Maybe in another two or three years, I will do it but not now.”“Are you in love with anyone?” I asked directly. My sister’s face showed no reaction. She simply shrugged.“If you are in love with someone, Amma told me it is totally fine. You can marry him. Now, tell me my brother-in-law's name?” I teased. But her face was serious.“Shiva, I am not in love with anyone. Tell Amma, that I will marry the boy she tells me to but I will do it only after you get a job.”“Why?” I asked not understanding the situation fully.“Because Shiva, if I get married, then I won’t be able to give the full salary to Amma as I do now. We can’t be sure if my husband would allow it. Though you are studying with a scholarship, we have to pay the hostel fees. Then Nithya, she is only studying at school. Her school fees and all the household expenses, can’t be paid with our mother’s salary. She has been working very hard all these years. If I get married now, it will be an extra expense that our family can’t afford. I have opened a savings account in the bank, and in three or four years it would help us for my marriage. Then you too would be earning, we could manage”. I didn’t argue back. My sister was right. I didn’t think about it from that angle. I want to complete my studies and get a job.✏️✏️✏️✏️Guess what? Today is the happiest day of my life. Because She Proposed To Me.Riya. The girl I have been secretly pining after for the past few months. For me, it was love from first sight. Riya was different from other girls I had met in my life. After the assignment last year, we both maintained a good friendship. I never guessed she too thought had feelings for me. Sometimes, our friends playfully called us a good pair but I never had the gut to tell her my feelings because I was afraid she might not have those feelings and our friendship might end.But I was very much surprised today when she took me alone and blurted out, “Shiva, I have a crush on you.”I stared at her. My mind still processing her words. She shifted from one side to the other. She was nervous.“Shit, I am sorry, I shouldn't have told you that,” she told me when I was still staring at her in shock. Because Hell. The girl I have crushed on for months has a crush on me.What else do I need in this world other than this?“Shiva, please say something,” she pleaded when I have not yet opened my mouth.“Huh?” I asked snapping out of my dreamland.“Forget what I said,” she muttered looking at the floor embarrassed. She turned to walk away but I placed my hand gently on her arm and turned her as she would face me."Riya, I love you,” I said making eye contact with her. She gasped like she never thought the feeling was mutual. Well, that makes two of us. “I had been crushing on you right from the moment I set my eyes on you.”“So, we are a couple now?” she asked with a huge grin.I nodded with a grin of my own.She gave me a shy smile and ran away blushing. ✏️✏️✏️✏️