Friday, March 11, 2011

The Crush


It was three in the afternoon. Karthik was was standing by his bedroom window, from where he could get the best view of the main road. Every few seconds he would look at his watch. Suddenly his face lit up. He closed the window and ran downstairs to the living room. He plopped on the sofa and turned on the T.V.After about five minutes, there was a knock on the door. 'Karthik' called his mom from the kitchen 'Open the door, son. That must be Chitra.' Karthik smiled to himself and walked to the door. He waited a couple of minutes and then opened the door.

"What took you so long?" demanded the pretty girl who walked in "It's really hot outside".

"Some of us have things to do you know" replied karthik "It's not like we sit by the door waiting for madam to walk in"

"Why do I even waste my time talking to you? Where's Krithika?"


"In her room. They've already started studying, I guess. How come you are so late today?" he asked trying to sound as non challant as possible.

"As if I'd tell you" replied Chitra as she shoved him aside "Now out of my way. I need to catch up with them"As she did this, her bag slipped from her hands and fell, scattering it's contents everywhere. Chitra hurriedly started picking up everything and dropping it her bag. Karthik noticed a binculars among her posessions."What do you need binoculars for?"

"Don't you have THINGS to do?" , Chitra retorted as she walked up the stairs to Krithika's room. Krithika walked out of the room when she heard Chitra."There you are.Did you get the ..." her voice trailed off when she saw her brother "Come in Chitra, we've got a lot of studying to do." she added. She shut the door as soon as Chitra entered.
Karthik could sense something was wrong. He knew these girls were up to some mischief and wanted to find out what it was.
He walked outside and looked at krithika's window from below. Nothing! The window was open but the girls were nowhere near it. He knew he couldn't listen by her door as his mom would be around. But he badly wanted to know what they were up to.
The next day at three Karthik was at his usual perch waiting for Chitra. Chitra and Preethi were walking along the road together. Instead of going downstairs like every day, karthik stood there and watched them. They seemed deeply engrossed in their conversation. As they reached the gate they both turned around, looked at something and started giggling.They straightened their faces while entering the house, and shut the door behind them as soon as they entered Krithika's room.
Karthik could not help but feel suspicious. He wanted to get to the bottom of this. He followed their gazes and looked across the road. He could not see anything except for a block of houses. What was in there?
Karthik decided to stay home the next day and poke his nose around the house. He stood in the balcony and tried to find out what the girls were spying on. He waited for hours in vain, but could not spot anything unusual. At around one P.M his mother called him downstairs. "Could you put these clothes in Krithika's room?" she asked, as Karthik slid down the stairs. "Sure thing mom!" He said, and ran upstairs with the clothes,after giving her a mock salute.
This was the chance he was looking for. He went into the room and looked out of the window. The scope had narrowed but he still could not focus on what they were looking at. He put the clothes on her bed and looked around for the binoculars. Krithika's room was very neat and organised, completely in contrast with his room, where it was impossible to find anything. The binoculars was on a table facing the window. He picked it up , walked to the window and looked out, but again he was faced with the same dillemma. There were many flats and a lot more people out there. Who or what were they looking at? He watched for a few minutes, but he knew he couldn't risk staying there long. His mother might come upstairs or worse, Krithika might come home. He put the binoculars back where they were and was about to leave when he accidentally knocked a couple of pens off the table. As he bent down to pick up the pens his eyes were level with the binoculars and suddenly he knew what they had been looking at.
A young boy was standing on the balcony of one of the flats across the road. He seemed to be in his late teens, almost the same age as Karthik. Karthik felt a strong surge of jealousy as he looked at the guy. He was unusually good looking. He had floppy hair and a very cute smile, which he knew young girls would die for. He also seemed very muscular and strong, probably an athlete. As he was looking at the guy, he heard Krithika downstairs. In his hurry to leave, Karthik did not notice the other person who walked out on to the balcony.
That night, Karthik could not sleep. He kept picturing the guy he saw in the afternoon. He hoped and prayed that it should be Preethi who was interested in the guy. If it were Krithika, he would kill her and if it were Chitra, he would die. He had a crush on Chitra for more than six years now, since they were little kids. He would tease her, irritate her just to make her talk to him. And in all these years, he could not gather the guts to tell her how he felt about her.
He was a reasonably good looking guy, a bit of a nerd, but Karthik knew girls found him attractive. However, he also knew he was no match for this guy. The only thing he could think of doing was telling Chitra how he felt about her.
The next afternoon, he waited down the road for Chitra. Unfortunately for him, she was accompanied by Krithika. He walked down to them and said "Chitra I need to speak to you, alone. Kriti, go home". Krithika started to walk away, but when Chitra turned her back on her, she shook her head as if to say it wouldn't work.


"Chitra" Karthik stammered, "I've wanted to say this to you since many years"
"Please don't say anything" Chitra interrupted "I have known for a while now, that you like me. But I don't feel the same way for you. There is someone I really like... "
"I know, I've seen him out on the balcony. I know what you were doing with the binoculars" he smiled wryly,"I must say, he is very good looking"
"You dog!" Laughed Chitra and slapped him playfully on the back. "I know he is older, but I can't help it. I am so attracted to him, I feel helpless at times"
"He did not seem a lot older, he was probably my age"
"No, he must be in late twenties or maybe even early thirties." said Chitra " You are talking about the guy from flat 21-b, right?"
Karthik thought for a while and replied, "Yeah, but I felt he was younger"
"I do hope he is younger" relied Chitra, " And even if he were older, I don't care. Oh! Karthik, I know this is too much to ask, but could you find a way to introduce me to him?"
There was a conflict in Karthik's mind. He felt selfish and angry and did not want to help her. At the same time, he knew this would mean a lot to her. After a little coaxing, he relented.

Two days later, Karthik and Chitra met at the park down the lane.

"Ok! Here's the plan" said Karthik, "Krithika told me the first time you saw him was when you went to that building to collect funds for flood relief. So we can do something of that sort again"

"Don't you think it would be too selfish to wish for floods again?"

"Chi, I'm just glad you are pretty. With a brain like that.... " muttered Karthik " We don't need floods to collect funds. Ganesh chaturthi is around the corner. We could collect funds for the pandal"

The next day, Karthik and Chitra took a leaflet of old reciepts and went to the building opposite to their house. In order not to look fishy, they first went to a couple of houses before knocking on the door in question. A very good looking man, probably in his late twenties opened the door. He looked inquiringly at the pair of them. Chitra, who was talking non-stop until then, stood there with a dreamy look in her eyes. Karthik quickly got into action and explained that they were part of this youth association and were collecting funds for ganesh chaturthi, and were also on a drive for new members

" Would you like to join our assocation"? Chitra chipped in.

The man looked at Chitra for a few seconds and then started laughing. " I'm not all that young little girl." He said.

There was a flicker of disappointment on Chitra's face.

"Just a second" The man said as he turned around "Rishabh! Come out for a second will you?" Karthik looked at Chitra expecting a happy face, but she still had the dazed, dreamy look. The young boy whom Karthik had seen earlier walked to the door.

"This is my son, Rishabh" The man said with a smile "He would be fit to join your association I guess"

Karthik was taken aback "Oh! I thought he was your younger brother" He blurted out.

The man laughed again and said that he heard that often. He welcomed them inside and then Rishabh and Karthik got talking. Chitra however, was unusually quiet. After a short conversation and Rishabh agreeing on joining the non existant youth association, they started to leave.

"Excuse me" Chitra said to Rishabh's dad " Can I know your name?"

"Kumar" he replied.

Chitra and Karthik bade goodbye to Rishabh and his dad and walked outside. They took a few steps when Karthik said " Well, Now that he agreed to join the association, you can meet him whenever you want"

"I did not know Kumar was married, I thought he was younger.. and you said he might be your age"

Karthik turned so fast he almost had a whiplash. "What?"

Soon, all of them became good friends with Rishabh,Kumar became Kumar Uncle and everybody forgot about Chitra's little crush.

Eighteen Years later, it was Chitra's daughter's fifteenth birthday. Rishabh walked in and wished the young girl and gave her a gift. And then he fished another big package and said "This one is from my dad".

" And this" He said as he took out an envelope from his pocket "is for you Chitra".

Chitra took the envelope and opened it. There was a note in it which read

Chitra,

I thought this was the right time to get her one :)

Love,

Kumar Uncle

Chitra urged her daughter to open the package she recieved from Kumar. Inside was a shiny new Binoculars...