Two alarms in the tunnel of love….when love was so near yet so far away and I finally found you……

March 7, another evening. I heard her say “thank you…thank you” a few many times when she received a few incoming calls….only then suddenly realised that because it was her birthday. That was her first birthday since our marriage and I missed the moment to glorify it by miles…..felt down and out every way. The toll of pushing the job-paddle hard due to corporate pressure had unsettled a balanced mind.

Never the less, I knew I had to carry the burden of this mistake through the whole year until I compensate till next time.

Throughout the year I had to listen mouthful from my wify…..like, “Before marriage you were too caring, emotional….now you have changed…..you are no more like you used to be…like this….like that….”. (I just can’t be like Great Hanuman to tear my chest to show that my love for her has never faded anyway….). I got to realise that a woman needs expressive love and affection too….

Turning back the clock by 15 years, the hormones did catch me heavy in my early days during college and I had my days of chasing the skirt….it’s only a human sign….isn’t it???

Well, I did find my heart pumping a bit faster than normal and pleasing when I found myself beneath a girl….wasn’t it a early symptom of someone suffering from love fever….However these were early moments of our friendship days.

Competition more often than not brings out the best in you. There were two guys in our hostel who had soft-corner for this girl….one being me. We came to know from someone that next day was her birthday. Me and the other guy were in a mind-war already who was gonna wish her first….to show off our respective affection. The world didn’t have mobile phones in those days, but each hostel having its own LAN-line phone. But who was gonna get connected through the wire first??

I had a plan in place. The cornered somewhere in the wardrobe my aged rusted & dusted alarm clock found a new life when I cleaned it neatly and put a new cell. Suddenly, it became my best friend for the night….it responded well as per my expectation to wake me up at 5-30 am and I was able to win the little battle over my hostel mate to wish the girl I loved, first in the morning…..

The two souls were in desperate search for the right piece of zig to complete their own world of love puzzle. As written on the cards, finally, we found love somewhere in the winters of year 1999. It did felt like we were high in the world.

In the coming days our possessiveness made us argue and fight frequently only meant that we were grooving better with each passing day and sooner realised that our dices were loaded from the heaven above. However, we could never able to master the art of balancing love and study and it was indeed recorded in our final report card. It’s not everybody’s piece of cake either, I guess. Wish it could have been maintained though.

We did have all those short of spicy moments during our heydays…..and very often would plan a perfect day by ticking away the moments that make up a dull day.

A date in the evening hours on the shore of the romantic lake in the college campus….Roaming around under a single umbrella out in the heavy pouring…..Doubling a cycle around the college campus….Holding our hands together in the crowdie-lanes of the busy town….Checking-in in the movie theatre….and choosing for the darkest corner (only love birds know the true value of a dark corner in a movie theatre just like a gemmologist knows the real value of a gem)….Sniffing out at the restaurants and the pleasure of walking on the streets with your wild best friend….

We also have a special feat of appearing at the local TV channel in one of their romantic coverage….while they caught us through the video camera in a town park without our attention. Though my parents missed the show….but our neighbours didn’t…..eventually my ears had to pass through a big blast of words later on as my mom came to know from them.

OK….back again to where I stared….I forgot the first birthday after marriage of my girlfriend turned wife.

Time flied and for yet another time we were closing in to 7 March (the 2^nd one after marriage). Oh God! I just could not afford to miss it again like I did last year and made it a bumpy ride for the whole year ahead. Then how to double ensure that??

A successful stint from the past (my hostel days) knocked at my mind and for the second time around….I set the alarm at 7-00 am at the mobile with reminder-on with a tag line….”Happy birthday my love” (…not for waking me up) and slept peacefully and thanked the modern day innovation for this special feature. But alas! Not everything goes as per your plan always….

As usual, I woke up around 6-45 am in the morning and rushed into the wash room. While I was inside the bathroom, my mobile started to beep with the remainder tag “Happy birthday my love”. Guess!! Who saw the reminder first? Oh yessss!!! My wify.

Hope, I need not to explain what was coming next…..(A heavy thunder storm in the early morning….”You missed it last year……now we have arrived at a time when you need help of reminders to memorise my birthday…bla…bla…bla….). For a moment I felt like “Hey mother Earth open up and hide me under your lap”. A moment that squeezed me down to the bone. As they say the brightest flame burns the quickest. However, some cooling off after some convincing words from my side with a promise for a grand dinner at the evening and a D-ring. High stake for high mistake….

Remembrance is a golden chain that keeps you connected with your silver lining moments of yesteryears.

15 + years of togetherness in the tunnel of love….many more to sail over…We don’t know how long this tunnel will carry us….nor we want a measure of it or curious to know….but we both thank almighty for these moments….a legacy of this blood and bones….hope to carry forward through gen- next….to an another journey event called life.

A lot many sweet and salty moments happened…..a lot many to be happened, but as someone rightly said, “There should be laughter after pain, there should be sunshine after rain, these things always been the same, so why worry now…………..”.

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