I believe in love stories ~

Every love story is beautiful
But ours is my favourite ~



 When I started this blog, I decided to name it 'Dreams are made of these' not because my life is full of mushy dreams or because all my dreams have come true or that my whole life is based on rosy , happy incidents. On the contrary, many dreams never took off, many lay languishing in the pipelines, many dreams got shattered in between and many just did not reach a happy ending. But then, I also got the courage to pick up the shattered pieces and put them back in place, making a happy jigsaw puzzle out of it, smiling at the end result and then there were dreams that I had never dreamt of, that suddenly took place bang in the middle of an ordinary day and took the shape of a fairy tale. It is dreams like these that I like to look back upon with fondness because they just happened without any effort on my part, like it was always meant to be.

There was a time when my parents were all set to get me married ( sixteen years ago, to be precise ) and were on the lookout for a suitable boy for me and my extended family ( a fairly big one) were all helping by contributing earnestly to the cause. Many aunts had their own quota of eligible bachelors and there were  rishtas flying in from many quarters. My parents were even asked to get kundlis matched and though they were not much into it, at times the anxieties drove them into it and the  prospects of kundlis aiding them in their mission excited them tremendously. There was one incident where the entire set of 36 gunas ( which is the maximum you can get ) of a prospective proposal matched with mine ( Good heavens...how ?? Talk about marriages being made in heaven !! ) and my mom got all excited and went jewelry shopping to celebrate it . There was excitement flashing in her eyes rolled in with pride, happiness and joy as she thrust a gold choker against my throat exclaiming "This is what you will wear for the wedding" only to be met by a very indignant " What ? Wedding with whom ? " by me. There were many other proposals too coupled with the 'most perfect match' of gunas but seriously ...an arranged match ?? I kept refusing and with every refusal I kept getting pushed closer and closer to that enemy camp designed especially for traitors and character assassinators ( in my case) , casting aspersions on me of being mean enough to be declining such wonderful boys/rishtas under some pretext or the other but I'm sure my parents knew it well enough as did I that it was all for a person I had met fleetingly during a train journey.

It was a cool, pleasant November evening, a time when the Earth tilts away on it's axis from the sun bidding adieu to it's scorching rays embarking upon a journey to cooler climes , a time when you want to grab a warm wrap before you venture out in the evenings , a time when the six petalled harshringar flowers just start to make their annual appearance in your garden, wafting down gracefully every morning filling the air with their intoxicating fragrance...in other words, the most delicious time of the year in terms of weather :) It was the twentieth day of the month and I had a train journey to undertake. A journey that would take me back home . I was happy to be going back home after completing a Post Graduate course that I was pursuing for a year and probably this was the end of my academic career and with that my last journey on this train. Secretly I  was doing cartwheels around my head thinking that I would never have to sit in rows of anxious, isolated students again but then there was a melancholic ache as I thought about leaving a well acclimatized life behind. I already had a brand new job waiting for me back home and I was all excited about it so that was something to look forward to as well. I entered the train compartment, the only air conditioned chair car coach the long train boasted of and I felt sad as I did so. This train was almost like a second home to me since I visited my home town quite frequently. I would find myself on it every second weekend , or at least once a month, perched happily with happy thoughts of mom's cooking and spending time in my room. I knew all about the train's halts, the duration, the particular place it stopped to let the other important trains pass, the station mid way where the tea vendor lopes in, dragging his crate full of thermoses ( orange ones with white caps) with the promise of piping hot tea inside each with the aroma of elaichi escaping the moment it was yanked open along with a  choice of refreshments too ...."cutlets or omelette-bread ?" he would ask each passenger. Boy ! I will miss this. I loved the greasy aaloo cutlets with whole cumin seeds along with peas and  grated veggies !

Once inside the bogie, I started looking for my seat hoping it would be a window seat. Since I always traveled alone on this route, I always took the window seat. That helped me to switch myself off completely from the snoring uncles and the loud aunties, not to miss the bawling babies and also because I preferred my own company . Whenever I didn't get a window seat, I just hunted down and requested the elderly uncle or the sweet looking aunty to kindly exchange their seat with me and they would happily do so. I would return the favour by helping them with their luggage or just taking care of their belongings whenever they visited the washroom so that was a good bargain . Win win situation for both parties . This time too, I hoped for the same when I realised much to my dismay that I had got the aisle seat which was the most lousy one to get in a chair car compartment . You constantly get elbowed by the passing junta who never even apologize for it and that is so irritating. The window seat in my row was already taken and instead of the usual sweet aunty or  kind uncle, it was a young man occupying it. Okay ! Let me try my luck, I thought. He sat angled towards the window, reading a book. All I could see was his black trousers, blue shirt, sleeves rolled up till the elbows and a steel kada flashing from his wrist (  one that  Punjabi men folk wear ) as he turned the pages of his book. Errmm, okay !!!!! He must have seen me looming on his head because he looked up inquiringly at me that very moment. I switched on my most gracious smile and blurted out my perfectly practiced lines if he could exchange his window seat with my aisle one since I was traveling alone, I preferred being on my own and blah blah ! He cut me short by saying he also wanted a window seat and had especially requested for one while getting his ticket so he couldn't give it to me and immediately went back to his book. Sheesh! What a grouch ! I mumbled something like 'chivalry is dead in this world' under my breath as I stomped into my much hated aisle seat . I'm sure he heard me but did not look up, pretending to be looking up the page he was reading , as if he had lost his page due to my unwanted intrusion. I gave him the dirtiest look possible which was cut short yet again by the entry of a cousin who had come to the station to see  me off . He had been standing on the platform all this while and now had made a last minute dash to check on me if I had got a seat comfortably or not. The train was about to leave so my cousin just asked me if I wanted a magazine or something for the journey which was actually a good idea. The joy of flipping through the pages of a glossy is always exciting and with a grouch in tow for 6-7 hours, it would be the need of the hour , so I just nodded happily. Just then, the window seated grouch spoke up almost making me jump "Hey, I have a Stardust with me , so you can take that or if you ARE sending for one, send for something other than this" he said pointing to the cover of Stardust where Salman Khan stood baring his torso . What was he thinking ? Why would I even dream of borrowing his Stardust , especially when he didn't have the decency of giving me his seat. Dream on !!! But the words that tumbled out of my mouth as I turned to my cousin were " Okay, then get me a Filmfare, please ". My cousin looked at me inquiringly "Who is he ? " to which I just rolled my eyes, shrugged my shoulders and said " How do I know ? "

Now, the middle seat that was lying unoccupied was taken up by a sneaky looking geek who grinned at me as he lugged his bag onto the overhead loft. I almost groaned when I saw him. I was hoping for the middle seat to go vacant so that I could at least rest my elbows this side but there dashed my last hopes of doing so. I just flounced onto my seat with the Filmfare that was promptly handed to me by my cousin clinging on to it as it was the only straw that could save me in this stormy blast ! As a last resort, I looked around the compartment to see if there was any seat lying unoccupied but the coach was  totally packed like sardines . It was a weekend and the train was full of chattering students going back home so ...fat chance there ! I had no other option but to get hold of my aisle seat right there and then with the grouch on the extreme left who couldn't stop scowling at me and a  shifty, sneaky looking geek next to me who just couldn't stop grinning at me. Is this what one means by being in August company ?? SIGH !! Whatever happened to my delicious November evening ??!!DOUBLE SIGH !!

So that was the beginning of a journey/ relationship that began on rattling wheels, went through some halts and unexpected delays, at times belted down like crazy but thankfully reached the much awaited destination without any derailment  :D

All this ^^ because today happens to be my other half's birthday ( the sweetest grouch ever) and for a person who does not like to celebrate his birthday or receive any gifts, who does not have a thing for clothes, accessories or sophisticated gadgets, who always likes to maintain a low profile and stays away from the social media letting his actions do the talking instead of too many words and me being the opposite, this is the best gift I could think of giving him today......memories of our first meeting :)