I don’t know why…but I looked at my watch. The angle between the hands of my watch or rather the absence of it told me it was 12 ‘o clock. Though a simple fact… It was hard to believe this.

I was standing in the ‘middle’ of ‘it’. I’m using the word ‘middle’ because I don’t know where it started and where and whether it was going to end and I’m using the word it because I really don’t know what would be an apt replacement for the word it here. Could it be pandemonium… chaos…destruction…end of the war…or maybe the word end itself would be most suitable replacement.

They say we had been warned about this. But even if we weren’t. Wasn’t it damn obvious that eventually this would happen? The way we had been tormenting nature, testing its tolerance limits…Wasn’t it obvious, that one day she would get back at us, and when she does…she’ll show us our real place…show us what happens when you literally ask for nature’s wrath. Unfortunately, I was witnessing it...

All I could see around me was dust, smoke, fire, dead people, dying people, scared people. I could see death inching towards me…not slowly but yeah definitely…steadily. Water …huge waves of water engulfing everything that came in its way was heading towards me. I knew that the end was near. Even though I could see from my own bloody eyes, it was hard to believe this. I had so much to do…so much to see…so much to learn…so many dreams to fulfill…mine…my parent’s…my family’s. But then it was all going to end like this. Ironically, 12’o clock – the start of the day as some would call it – was going to bring the end of my days. The huge waves – the monster – engulfed me like I was a minuscule insect.

It was almost impossible to accept that these would be the final

moments of my life. Soon I would just be a memory...everything I was... or had ever been...or would ever be...was ending. I fought hard to hold my breath but finally gave up…Water poured into my lungs…The pain was unimaginable. And then it was all dark. Was I dead? But if I was…how could I hear this noise…and this voice…a man’s voice. Maybe I’m in heaven…or hell. No it must be heaven, I wasn’t that bad. Hey the guard of the heaven looks familiar. I think I know him.

“Uth jaa saale class nai jaana kya”, said my roommate and I finally realized that all of it was just a dream. I opened my eyes, sat on my bed and pinched myself. Even though it was quite evident to me that what I was seeing right now was real, it was hard to believe that the dream I just had was just a dream and not real.

I didn’t go to class that day…nor did I go back to sleep. But instead I sat on my bed and thought.

I thought…

The only thing certain about this life is…death, that one day…it is all going to end. And unfortunately the most uncertain thing is when. Recently, there were rumors that the world is going to end on 21^st December 2012. You know it’s a

great thing if we for sure knew that world is ending on an exact or precise date. Then it would be like we have these many days in hand and these many things to do. But sadly – in the current scenario – we have no idea when are we going to take our last breath. It could be 50 years from now…or 5 years…5 months…5 days…5hours or maybe just 5 minutes. We don’t know and we have no means of knowing either. So whatever time we have remaining on this planet…why not live it in the best way we can.

I mean why hurt somebody we love when we don’t know whether we would even get a chance to apologize. Why be bad to someone when we don’t know whether we would have a chance to make up to him/her. Why not be a part of some good work…make someone happy…make a difference in someone’s life…bring smile to someone’s face…be a support for someone who really needs it…make the people who love us proud… when we have the opportunity. Why leave it for tomorrow or some other day when we are not sure that day is even gonna happen.

Somebody once said – and that somebody I’m referring to is not priyanka chopra in anjaana anjaani – that live each moment as if it were your last. So that if suddenly on some random fine day…death knocks at your door and you stare into its cold hollow eyes as you take your last breath...you don’t regret that shit I shouldn’t have done this or I should’ve led a better life or I should have been better to my parents or blah blah blah but instead you should think that whatever short or long life I had…I lived it the way I should have…I have no regrets…and yeah I’m damn proud to be ME.

So finally when I stood up after this long thought process and looked at myself in the mirror…a new me was looking back at me and the old…careless me was dead and gone…

P.S. – A great man once said…It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth -- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up -- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had. So If I were to sum up this whole thing in one sentence it would be…Dude THE TIME IS NOW!!!

Now that's me getting a bit philosophical.Actually I always wanted to be a philosphologist if there is a term like that.Anyways please readers donot forget to leave your comments on how you felt about the blog.Thank u.

PART III.....THE DATE

THIS STORY IS PURELY FICTITIOUS AND RESMBLANCE TO ANY LIVING OR DEAD IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL

“Tell me your secrets… &

Ask me your questions...

Oh lets go back to the start..”

These lines are from one of my favorite songs “The Scientist”. It’s really true. Isn’t it.I mean nothing is as exciting and as thrilling as the start of a relationship.

Later on..the love Is still there and in most of the cases it is many times stronger also…but the excitement..the thrill…the enthusiasm…..they all take a backseat.Ppl will say its kind of obvious also as so many responsibilities come up and they have to keep up with them..

But as I see it…Its like, one starts taking things for granted and is not grateful for what he or she has..The person feels…come on yaar..its not that necessary…he/she is mine only and puts these things down at the bottom of his priority list.And once it goes down there, it doesn’t take much of a time for it to be completely thrown out of the priority list.This is the only logical conclusion I can think of….as I mean….even the busiest person in this world will have…..few minutes in a day…just to remind her how lovely she is looking or how much lucky he is, to have her…..few minutes in a week to stop his car and buy some flowers for her….few minutes in a month to buy a surprise gift for her.These moments…when she smiles while you praise her….when she cries while you remind her of the old days…the moments you’ve spent together…the look of surprise on her face when you get a gift for her….precisely these moments are one of the very few things that make this life worth living.

As usual.. I got deviated from the main topic…the thing for which you’ve been reading this blog, the main plot and not for this unlimited philosophical bakwaas. Actually what I wanted to convey through the above paragraphs is that…in this part of my blog, I’ll tell you people about the most exciting & thrilling part of our male lead’s life i.e. start of the first relationship of his life.

Einstein once said that love cannot be explained in terms of physics and chemistry. I don’t know whether he was right or wrong but one thing I’m sure about is that….that physics and chemistry certainly appeared inexplicable to me that day.I was not able to solve a single question but strangely there was a constant smile on my face.”Strange” was the word which everyone meeting me since afternoon described my behavior as.But none of them knew that I had two big reasons to smile.The first one was that Shandilya had finally opened his mouth to say something simple,straight and productive(of course it was not before loads of begging and a samosa treat).According to him the girl I liked…miraculously liked me too and there were rumours in the institute that she was going to propose me on 14th feb.Now that made things much simpler for me.And the second reason was….Damn it! For the first time in my life…I was in LOVE…….and that with a girl who also liked me.I thanked god because I knew only he can create miracles like these.

Shandilya finally introduced us to one another and then thankfully stepped away.It was an awkward moment for both of us.we both knew we liked each other(courtesy Shandilya) but I don’t know why we were waiting for the other one to express it.We talked for a while…just the usual boring things like about classes,institute,PMT,tests..But surprisingly,these boring things seemed to be the most interesting things I had ever talked about.It was like…She couldn’t say anything wrong…she couldn’t do anything wrong. I know it feels a bit odd to hear all this and if any of my friends had told me this, I would have made great fun of him.But then love is not something which can be understood by watching movies or reading novels…Its something which can only be…..experienced.

Unfortunately the bell rang just a few seconds after we had started talking.Maybe it was just a few seconds or maybe it was like I felt as if time had passed so quickly because I didn’t want it to pass at all.My wrist watch supported the second theory.

Unwillingly…we left for our respective classes.One of the many good things of our apparently brief talk was that…we had exchanged our mobile nos. and that opened a whole new world of opportunity.When I reached the classroom my friends started teasing me but I was way too busy in my own dream world to hear them and moreover my eardrum refused to give entry to these rude, harsh voices after it had heard such a gentle sweet and musical voice just a short while ago.

After reaching home, I sat on my bed…took the mobile in my hand…fixed my eyes on the screen…and started waiting for her call or message.When after few hours of waiting…nothing happened, I couldn’t control myself and messaged her “Hi”. Five secs later, her reply came…”Hi…was waiting for your message”.Ist message led to the 2nd…2nd to the 3rd…and finally messages led to calls…calls to hours and hours of talking and which finally led to….no pocket money in my pocket.There is a famous sms joke which goes like this…When do you really know that you’re in love?The answer is…when you start looking for the cheapest mobile plans.So,here I was in the streets, looking for the cheapest mobile plans.Though none of them seemed cheap enough and the T&C were too complicated to understand, I finally settled for the one which the retailer told me was the cheapest.

After two weeks of all night long talks, we decided that we should meet somewhere outside the institute…somewhere we could sit and talk without disturbance.It was damn risky as there was a long list of mine and her relatives in the city and in the end as we all know girls always get the benefit of doubt…and the boy..Well he becomes the topic of doubt…but then I was ready to risk my life for a date with my dream girl.

So, finally the day arrived. I bathed..dressed up..applied loads of perfume..combed my hair and looked in the mirror for the 25th time.When I was totally convinced that..whatever I do…I can’t look any better than this, I left for the decided restaurant. I reached there 15 mins early and she arrived exactly at time.When she entered the restaurant, I just couldn’t stop staring at her.She was looking extremely beautiful. I tried to stand up but my sensory and motor systems were not supporting me and I fell down on the chair. I was literally falling in love…….all…over…again.She was wearing a green top with black jeans. She had let her hair loose. One of the strands after taking a long curvature around her forehead and cheeks had come to rest near her beautiful smiling lips.Absent mindedly she was trying to push it back. I was just looking at her while she walked through the door to the table where I was sitting.She held out her hands and said”Hi”…I really don’t know why but instead of shaking hands with her…I went a bit more closer to her than what is required for a handshake and took that strand of hair which was troubling her and put it behind her ear. Well…she was…not shocked but definitely surprised.In fact I was the one who was in shock of what I had done.We both sat down and there was an awkward silence after the initial hi and did-you-have-problem-finding-the-restaurant-thing.Finally after five minutes of silence…I gulped one full glass of water…gathered some strength and said…Look Neha I’m not gonna waste this precious one or two hour that we have together in telling you……how beautiful you’re looking or how nice your earrings are looking on you or how fabulous dressing sense you have because it’s so obvious and evident that the shine of your earrings are perfectly blending with the shine of your face which of course is in perfect contrast with the kajal that you’ve applied on your eyes and this dress is looking so perfect on you that it appears as if it has been manufactured only to be worn by you and all this and everything else is making you look exceptionally, stunningly beautiful or in one word perfect.And maybe this is the reason that from the time you’ve entered the restaurant…I’m not able to take my eyes off you.

And then when I stopped I realized that I had spoken two completely opposite things in one breath.This is what girls…especially the beautiful ones can do to you, they make you go all funny in front of them.But I was not sorry as she was laughing and the ice had been broken.So, we started talking.She told me that she liked me and I told her that I also liked her a lot.We talked about our family, friends,schools and we talked about ourselves and we decided that we should try and know each other more before going any further which meant that the formal proposal had to wait.

When we walked out of the restaurant, I requested her to let me walk with her to her friend’s house which was nearby and where she was going have a sleepover tonight and she agreed. We walked together for a while and after sometime when her friend’s house came in the range of our eyesight, she stopped and said that she’ll go from here. I said ok. Then suddenly she turned and came very close to me and whispered in my ear…”Thank you so much for the evening and walk”.My mind was intoxicated by her fragrance and I kept staring at her for one complete minute. She shook me and asked…”What happened”. I came back to my senses and mumbled…”Oh…I’m sorry….i mean…thank you…I mean…the pleasure was entirely mine.She smiled naughtily and started walking towards her friend’s house. I stood there looking at her till she reached the entrance. She turned back and waved her hand saying bye. I too waved back although I really didn’t want to say bye.She went inside but I stood there for half an hour hoping she would come back and then when I realized she won’t…at least not today…I started walking the long way back to my home.

I HOPE YOU PPL ENJOYED READING IT AS MUCH AS I ENJOYED WRITING IT.PLEASE DO POST YOUR COMMENT AND HELP ME IMPROVE THIS BLOG..