We'd asked you to share your love stories with us.
Here, Sudhina tells us how she met and fell in love with Aswin.
Photograph: Kind courtesy Sudhina
It was an evening lit up with lamps all the way to our home.
It was a wonderful Navratri evening!
Amidst the illuminating lights, I saw a young cute face at a distance. He must be seven or eight (years old). I was seven then!
I looked up to him and waved my hands which meant, "Come on, join me!"
I could only see him shaking his head, a big "No." Then he disappeared.
Days passed by. I kept seeing this cute face at times from the same house.
We ignored each other and I always thought, “What a creature he is that he doesn’t know to smile!”
Years passed. I was 12, and the monsoon season had begun.
To be precise, it was June 2, a rainy school re-opening day!
The smell of our new uniforms, new class, but the same old friends I thought!
With the rainy background, my eyes stuck to the same old cute face. He had a dimple, I noticed then, as he walked in shyly into his new class, my old class.
I gazed at the newcomer for some time and I remember he gazing at me at times.
I was angry, happy, sad at that moment.
He was too shy to talk to girls and always teamed up with the anti-girls group who gained pleasure torturing girls mentally!
Gradually, 'the cute face' turned up to my biggest enemy in my class. That whole one year, we fought.
Soon I’d think about our fights and smile. The vacation at my grandma's place was boring though.
I missed my class, or maybe him. I don’t remember but I wanted to get back to the new class as soon as possible. And there came another June, another monsoon!
I was surprised to see him smile at me from the entrance. I was also glad and excited to know that he went through the same emotional process I did!
From that day, we forgot to fight!
That's how we started our journey of friendship, a deep friendship. We talked a lot. At some point, we talked less.
I witnessed a kind of emotional change whenever I saw him.
The way he treated me changed.
We both felt something which I couldn't explain. Still, we talked whenever time paused for us.
Our love during our school days was like a dictionary, I would say. Because we had lots and lots of words to share but we hardly opened it!
We were afraid and didn’t realise that it was LOVE flowering!
We could only see emotions of shyness, smiles and butterflies in our tummies when we saw each other.
We walked all the way to school, sharing only the syllabus but we could hardly sit at home without thinking about each other.
The journey entered its second phase in our college days where we started to open our dictionary and share as many words as we could!
We found new words of our own to share our secrets. Gradually, we became best friends ever!
The pages of our book took twists and turns, but each one was very smooth and peaceful!
We completed graduation and that was the first time in nine years that I had to face his absence as he was placed in a reputed company.
He flew to Delhi, leaving my life a grey void!
That was the time we realised how much, and for how long, we had loved each.
Sadly, we began our professional lives.
Every day, we would wait to talk to each other. And, once in six months, he would come down and I would feel the same butterflies in my stomach.
The journey has now witnessed its fourteenth wonderful year where we still feel the same and where I still see a "cute face" whenever I think of him.
I would always think, why him? And he would always think, why me?
The only answer I got is: We are the same little kids who never expected anything but loved just to be as happy and as joyous as kids.
These years have taught us how to be good friends and how to make good friends the best partners.
I once wrote a poem which would best portray us and is the reason behind our happiness of being together!
We are in love with our eyes, which see us real;
We are in love with our nose, which smells us pure;
We are in love with our lips, which talks to us a sense;
We are in love with our ears, which hears us raw;
We are in love with our body, which pampers us soft;
We are in love with our thoughts, which make us think;
We are in love with our space, which stays open for us;
We are in love with our actionsm which giggle us laughter;
Ultimately we are in love with the whole of us who literally reflects US!
Yes, we are in love!
And I am so glad that my butterflies are in hibernation, ready to fly in larger numbers soon.
When we meet next, there would be lamps to to welcome him for our dream come true moment!
The cute face is gonna tie a lovely knot! And I am waiting to say, "Come on, join me." I am quite sure that this time he would nod a big, "YES."
The cute face is Aswin who'll be wedded to a cute girl, Sudhina. This is the story of our LOVE! And our favourite one too!
You too can share your love story with us.
Write in to us at getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'Jab We Met').
You can also include a photograph of you and your partner and we'll publish the best entries right here on Rediff.com.
