Weekly Writing Challenge: The Distance Between Us

If it wasn’t for the internet, I would have always thought of him as the guy who made me cry by scoring a mark more than me and securing first position in 7^th grade.

If it wasn’t for Orkut, I would have never known him personally, never ever have interacted with him in any way.

If it wasn’t for mobile phones, emails, text messages, and video chats, I would have never fallen in love.

Modern technology has played quite essentially the most important part in shaping up the story of my love. Although we knew each other since the time we were 10, we never really liked each other. I always prayed for him to leave school and my prayers were answered after 7^th grade, as he left the city to study in a different state.  He was out of my mind and my life until the day when we met in Orkut, the then famous social networking site. The scraps in Orkut soon turned into mails and the mails into phone calls. I was going through a rough phase during those times and the only time I was happy was when I talked to him. After a series of never ending phone calls and numerous texts, we turned from just being friends to best friends. The words we spoke and the words we wrote laid the foundation of a beautiful relationship. We were undoubtedly in love but with a distance of almost 1400 miles between us and with the uncertain future of an inter-caste relationship, it was difficult for us to acknowledge our feelings. We did give in eventually, as it became impossible to hide our feelings from our own soul. There wasn’t a particular date, when we confessed our feelings to each other. I still don’t know the exact time, when our conversations through mails started changing from those of friends to lovers.

The real problem though, was not of falling in love, it was easy, but of keeping that love alive, especially when we had the disadvantage of not being together physically. In these 3 years since we have been together, there were times when I longed to see his face, or wished for nothing but a hug, but all that I could get was a text or a call. There are numerous things I don’t know about him yet. I know the smiley he would send me if he is angry but I still don’t how he looks when he’s angry.  On those rare occasions when we meet, the initial few hours are spent in accepting the fact that this is the same person we talk to for countless hours through phone. By the time we get comfortable with each other, the time to part ways sets in. But those few hours we’ve spent together till today have been inscribed as the most beautiful memories in our minds. If we can make so many memories living at a distance, how wonderful it would be to finally spend the rest of our lives together. This thoughts keeps us going, makes us work hard to make it work. The pain, the separation is worth the happiness.

We’ve shared our dreams and hopes for the future, we’ve shared our embarrassing secrets, the desire to do senseless things, the disappointments and fears we have. We’ve fought over silly things, hurt each other only to forgive and learn from those fights. We’ve always found a way to shorten the distance between us. Our love hasn’t faded because of the complications we’ve faced in life because at the end of the day we trust each other. And trust is what matters the most, be it an online or an offline relationship. If you’ve the belief that you will find true love someday and will strive to make it work, then you surely will, no matter what. You may face many glitches on the way, but one or the other medium would help you to overcome those glitches.

In these three years we’ve created a world of our own. We may not be perfect for each other, but every step we take in our lives; it is to get closer to that perfection. We may have sacrificed few things on the way, but it doesn’t matter much. Love after all is worth giving up everything for, yet feel good about it. It has always been this way, be it the 18^th century or the 21^st and I believe that it’ll always remain the same.

We clicked this picture sitting on the shores of the holy river Ganga, this month when I met him after a gap of one year. I wish our love remains as pure as the water of this sacred river.

 

 

Written for the Weekly Writing Challenge.