Once Upon a University Campus

Prosecco Calling

Annika fiddled with her bracelet,covetly glancing her watch. Om was curled up at the other end of the sofa talking about the mural he had just finished. A bottle of prosecco he had received as a gift for the mural stood abandoned between them. Om's talk about the colour, pigments, oils, layers meant nothing to Annika. Not that she was disrespectful, but the time was not conducive for such talks. She would have instead loved to cuddled up with her brother or snuggle up with her new found love. She sighed that both of them had their own priorities. Post lunch at the fancy restaurant, Saahil and Rudy got started on their PUBG marathon. She was able to spend some time with Shivaay before something urgent turned up and he was caught up in a conference call since. She had been sitting there, looking at the watch every few seconds to see the needles pretty much stuck till Om arrived, after which she still kept checking time every few minutes. To her disappointment, the needles on her watch continued to appear stuck. It is only good time that flew.

Om looked rather dispirited much against norm. When he finished a piece, he did be typically very happy, or at the least, relieved. Annika noticed his long hair that was pulled into a bun, his beige kurta crumpled, nothing out of character but something about his eyes made Annika worried. He kept looking away as if he was trying to run away from himself, from everyone else. She quietly listened though, giving Om time to warm up, open up if he wanted, else she would have respected his silence too. It was not long before he laid bare his heart.

"Do you think life gives us second chances?" Om asked abruptly, deviating from his mural.

"Second chance ? It depends." Annika remarked waiting for him to elaborate. Finding no response, she continued. 'Rudy got a second chance and he made good use of it. He abandoned his course in Mumbai and now done pretty well for himself. His second chance on paper is better than his first one. So I did say yeah, life gives us second chances sometimes."

Om squirmed in his seat and pulled his knees close to his chest."I am not talking about studies, career and things like that Annika. I am talking about relationships." He said hesitantly.

Annika maintained a pregnant silence. She wanted to hear him before jumping in. In any case relationships were not her forte.

"Now that you are in a relationship, I can safely assume you know what it is to feel for another person in your life. " Om looked at Annika. Annika vacantly nodded. "There will be a point where you cannot imagine your life without the other person. Everything in your life revolves around that one person." Om looked at Annika and Annika cast her eyes downwards, vacantly nodding. She had gone through all of it. "In my case, I had Riddhima for so long, we pretty much grew up with each other, we were so used to each other that we shared our lives without even realising it. I had imagined her to be by my side all my life. But fate had other plans. Of all the people in the world, of all places in the world, Riddhima, her husband in tow, visited the store even as I was finishing up on the mural. Like many newly married couples, they looked so much in love with each other, holding hands, sticking to each other as if they were accidentally glued.... It was my choice to break up with her, I had my reasons. It has been some time too but it hurts. It could have been me who was carrying those dresses outside the fitting room for her to try. It hurts that I have lost her forever. In some sense the gravity of a life without her, the gravity of my choice stuck me only today."

Annika listened quietly for she had nothing to say. She for one did not, could not think about either second chances or a life without Shivaay.

Om continued after a long pause. "Riddhima and I are now strangers. The rest of the day I kept thinking about what lies ahead. Am I capable of loving someone else with the same intensity, with all my heart? Is it possible that I make space for someone else removing all traces of Ridhima now that she has moved on? At one point the thought of growing old alone and lonely scared me. That would not happen though right" Om chuckled. "I will always have you, Shivaay, your children. I will never be lonely. But it is not the same as having someone significant in your own life. " Om paused only to lose himself in the bylanes of memory. "I miss my previous life, the uncomplicated evenings I spent walking on the beach with Ridhima with small bags of roasted peanuts in our hand. It did not matter that there were several thousand people around us, that the beach sometimes stank of sewage or tonnes of garbage was strewn around. What mattered was I was with someone who cherished me and I cherished her. "