The Impulsive Soul-Mates

Chapter 1 - Starting From the Start

Somewhat 3 and a half months back in Nandini's part of world

I was never a loner kind of a person. I was used to people being around me. Although ours was a small family with Mom, Nanu(maternal grandfather) , Nani(maternal grandmother) and me but we had had like a big big extended family with all uncles, aunts, their children n their extended family and also because Nanu(maternal grandfather) was one of most prestigious person in Ahmedabad(Indian city) due to his textile and fabric business and his philanthropic nature, more than half the city were included in our kin. And now all of them had an extra reason to rejoice. I was getting engaged the next day. Everyone from the oldest to the youngest member in the family was as busy as the PM himself. I was the only person left for all the experiments.

Nandu try this dress, ohh that neck piece, this design of mehendi(heena) will look good, you can have that hair do, ohh will this earring go with the dress ? Everyone had gone crazy and was driving me mad along with them. I had to agree when other girls in my situation would have beamed with happiness, I was not very excited about the whole thing. Dhruv was a nice chap, simple and sober. I had met him at a family event before but that's that. At that point of time I didn't even know the real intention of both our families to make us meet each other and after the alliance was fixed I spoke to him only twice for 3 and 5 minutes respectively that too because Nanu(maternal grandfather) and Dhruv's parents were hogging around our heads. I knew that someday I would get married so it was okay besides the Patel's were close business associates of Nanu(maternal grandfather) and had a decent background.

After the daylong madness, my family had a little mercy on me and they finally let me go to my room to relax. Besides I had to look all nice and fresh the next day for the big event. My room was a complete mess with all garments, jewelry, gifts stuffed in every corner. I freshened up a little, cleared my bed and fell flat on it. My head was throbbing hard but still I opened my laptop to check the thread of congratulations or condolences to be apt from friends and family. My FB page had like 65 unread messages, congratulatory posts, but I happened to follow none because my focus stopped on my chat list which showed Manik Malhotra online. I clicked on his name to open the chat window being sure that I will never ping him.

Yes I was friends with him on FB but we never chatted or messaged. He hardly came online. He was a college senior in Delhi(Indian city) in fact the most handsome senior, worthy to drool over. I always had a crush on him in fact half the college did, the way he carried himself, spoke to people, his attitude everything about him had panache. I remember how my friend Anjum had literally handcuffed me and sent him a friend request on FB and I was in seventh heaven when he accepted it. But that was it, I never had the courage to ping him although I followed his profile or to be exact stalked his profile very keenly on every other social sites as well. I zoomed out of my thought when Riddhima pinged me saying

hi babes congratulations on your big day tmrw

I thought of ignoring at first but reluctantly replied

Hi

Just as I had pressed the enter key I realized hell I wrote on Manik's chat box. In a spur of 2 seconds I hurled some 20 abuses to myself. All my exhaustion of the day had flown out of the window along with my brains.

What if he replies? what will I say? What will I do? Oh God!!I am so stupid so dumb.

2 minutes passed and there was no reply from his side. I felt a little relaxed and heaved sigh of relief.

The very same day same time in Manik's part of the world.

It was one of those lazy Sunday's when I didn't have much to do. Usually my routine is pretty exciting the mornings starts with jogs, I never really could fit myself in a gym kind of workout regime, a quick breakfast and then off to my first love "AURA". You could say I am ambitious, focused, practical and shrewd when it came to work and otherwise. I was always a go getter and got whatever I wanted and the way I wanted them to be. "AURA" was my first baby and I could never grin enough of being a proud parent. Our journey started 3 years back and we have surely come a long way, from being a marketing executive in Mesmerizers (my first job) to being the Founder and MD of "AURA" was indeed a tough journey. When Cabir , Mukti and I first conceived the idea of having a Fashion house of our own, it seemed like an impossible dream. But with years of hard work, dedication and right moves we have reached where we are today. Cabir entirely handled the designing and production department and Mukti was into Marketing and PR and I basically was the jack of all trades, from client supervision to meetings to projects and deals. Our focus now is to invade the international arena and we are working towards it vigorously. Right now the biggest opportunity in our hand is designing for the Dhanrajgir's (the 3rd richest Indian in the world). It would open up a whole new plethora of prospects for bagging international projects.

Night had fallen, it was around 10pm. I didn't feel like having dinner as I had a late lunch. I laid on my bed lifelessly hanging my head down the edge of the bed holding a beer can in my left hand, thinking about my conversation with Dad earlier in the day. Talks with him were usually chilled out but it was one of those occasions when he tried doing the serious sentimental stuff with me. He always had objections that I was 26 and still didn't have a girl in my life. But today he planned it smartly by blaming himself for it. Well he was not entirely wrong. I never could really understand the configuration of relationships especially after his and Mom's separation. I had tried being in relations but none of it really worked because the keyword was that I had to try, nothing happened because it was meant to happen. But I never gave enough thought to it nor had the time. I was sure about my professional life but my personal life had nothing personal to it. I knew I needed someone in my life but was not sure enough how to go about it.

A ping from my laptop pulled me out of my contemplation's. My FB page flashed a Hi from some Nandini Murthy. The face seemed familiar but not so familiar. I checked her profile and photos. A few old photos or say the college behind her made me remember her vaguely. Yes she was a college junior and the main reason I remembered her was because of Cabir. I wouldn't have bothered to reply her but something just stretched my hand to the key board to type.

Hey Hi