Prem Vivah

• Tum Mera Aaj Ho •

"I didn't expect you to recognize me," Namrata said with a lighthearted smile.

"Kyun?" Sameer asked her in confusion.

"Because school me toh tumne hardly mujhe notice kiya hoga, toh itne saal baad bhi tumhe mera chehra yaad hai yeh thoda surprising laga," Namrata replied to him with a gentle smile while twirling the strap of a beige jute bag.

"Seriously? Maine tumhe notice nahin kiya?" Sameer looked at her accusingly as if she had held him accountable for a grave crime.

"Nahin," Namrata said confidently.

He stared at her helplessly, wondering how to explain to her that she was the only girl in the entire classroom or if he rephrase in the whole school whom he diligently and genuinely noticed.

Sameer exhaled slowly, visibly disappointed to know that Namrata never saw him secretly looking at her. How cannot she notice that? Just How? Whenever her name was taken in the classroom during attendance time he was the one who would glance at her with that teeny-weeny stupid smile on his face. He was the one who would wait for her in the canteen during recess time. He was the one who was more excited than her to see her perform a classical dance in the competition, and He was the only one who would hopelessly wait for her outside the school every day.

Namrata looked away, feeling weird by his unbreakable silence.

"Okay, but main nahi bhula," Sameer said in a gentle voice, and his words coerced her to look back at him in sheer flabbergast as she didn't expect him to remember her.

"Not me either." Namrata thought with a small smile, and told him gently - "Tum aaj bhi school time pe jaise dikhte the waise hi dikhte ho...no difference, sirf height badh gayi hain." Coming a little closer to him, she gazed at him keenly and added - "Aur beard aa gayi hai."

Sameer simply smiled at his first crush, who is his ex-crush now, lifting his hand to rub his stubble while pinning his gaze on the mosaic flooring, and Namrata didn't know why she felt like staring at him without getting noticed by anyone. He looked charming in a plain grey shirt with a minimal beard making his skin look fairer in the broad daylight.

She remembered him sitting alone in the canteen while playing with the steel spoon, his school uniform looking a little mezzy like his silky fluffy black hair.

Those memories were etched in her heart with the euphoria of a lifetime.

"Tum bhi same dikhti ho, innocent aur cute." Sameer complimented her in a soft voice, making her feel shy.

"Thank you!" Namrata said sweetly.

"Kaisi Ho?" He asked her in a soft voice while continuously rubbing his palms.

"Main theek hoon, tum kaise ho?" She replied to him with a mild smile.

"I am good too," Sameer answered.

There was a long-soft silence between two schoolmates, who were frequently smiling while looking at each other, and then lowering their calm gazes to the ground beneath their feet.

Namrata was wetting her lips, rapidly blinking her honey-brown eyes, and blowing air on her sweaty skin through her mouth. She wanted to talk to him, wanted to know him, wanted to know how life is treating him now, and did he make any new friends? Did he meet anyone from the school? Did he become an extrovert?

Did he find someone special?

"Tum Mumbai me hi thi toh hum itne saal mile kaise nahi?" Sameer initiated the conversation with a question.