Romance
facebook
on
a novel
Amrita Priya
JAICO
PUBLISHING HOUSE
Ahmedabad Bangalore Bhopal Bhubaneswar Chennai
Delhi Hyderabad Kolkata Lucknow Mumbai
Published by Jaico Publishing House
A-2 Jash Chambers, 7-A Sir Phirozshah Mehta Road
Fort, Mumbai - 400 001
[email protected]
www.jaicobooks.com
© Amrita Priya
ROMANCE ON FACEBOOK
ISBN 978-81-8495-288-9
First Jaico Impression: 2012
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in
any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any
information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Printed by
Repro India Limited
Plot No. 50/2, T.T.C. MIDC Industrial Area
Mahape, Navi Mumbai - 400 710
Chapter 1
It was the month of April and just another Thursday in the
office. Siddhartha opened his Inbox and found a message sent
to him via Facebook:
Hi… I was looking for Sid, one of my friends, when
your picture came my way. Have you changed your
name???
Anyway… it was nice to see you after a gap of maybe
18 or 19 years. You may not remember who I am as
time dulls many memories but I recognized you in a
second.
Hope the very best for you and your family!
Geetanjali… oops you might remember me as Geeti
from Cuttack.
It was just a casual message. But it made Siddhartha very
excited. It was from someone whom he had completely
forgotten, whom he had never thought about after he had left
Cuttack to study Architecture 19 years ago. It was like a bolt out
of the blue that brought with it a gush of sweet images from a
long forgotten past.
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Romance On Facebook
Siddhartha was addressed as Sid by everyone who knew him; a
result of his having lived in America for 14 years now. He had
registered his Facebook account as Sid Verma instead of
Siddhartha Verma. Geeti had recognized him at once but the
change in his name was the only thing that she could talk about
while sending him the message. She had never spoken to Sid in
person, but had loved him silently in her teenage years.
Sid’s fingers automatically went to the keyboard and he replied,
God… what a blast from the past… I remember you.
How can I forget Geeti, the girl next door. How have
you been? Saw that you got married… are an artist
and have beautiful kids… Amazing!!! 19 years huh!!
Feels like it was only a few years ago that you all lived
next door. Where are you and where is Pinku? (I
believe that is your brother’s name.) How did you
figure out that it was me?
Geeti was 39. She lived in Mumbai and was happily married to
Ravi, a workaholic who was a mechanical engineer by
profession. She was an artist, who frequently held exhibitions
of her paintings, and taught art for a living. She was also doing
her PhD in medieval Egyptian art. She was on Facebook for
the past year and a half but had only 12 friends on her list.
Unlike Ravi, who was hooked on the website and played games
in his free time. It was his growing addiction that had prompted
her to check her account one day after a gap of several months.
Ravi had 210 friends on Facebook. With the intention of
adding friends to her list, Geeti began searching for her
acquaintances. As she searched for Sid, one of her distant
cousins, and was scrolling down the list of results, she came
across a face that was known to her but was certainly not that
of the Sid that she had been looking for. Her heart missed a
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Chapter 1
beat and she immediately scrolled up. The face looked familiar.
She couldn’t believe her eyes. It was Siddhartha, whom she had
secretly loved several years ago.
She clicked on his profile but found it protected, giving her
only limited information. She thought of sending him a
message immediately, but her heart fluttered. What would he
think, was her first concern. So she brushed aside the idea of
striking an online conversation with him. However memories
stored deep in her sub-conscious now ignited the feelings and
emotions that she had hidden from everyone all these years.
She wondered whether at this juncture of life it would be
appropriate to contact him. Geeti had never thought twice
before initiating contact with anyone. She had always been an
upfront person but when it came to Siddhartha she was as
hesitant as she had been 19 years ago. She strongly believed that
Siddhartha had loved her as much as she had loved him but he
too had never been able to confess his feelings. Now that many
years had passed and she was happily married she felt even
more reluctant to contact him. Nevertheless she was burning
with curiosity to know about him and his family.
She continued thinking about him for long. Many thoughts and
feelings that she had hidden over the past two decades now
suddenly surfaced. She was nostalgic about those wonderful
days when her father was transferred from Jamshedpur to
Cuttack and their family had shifted to a house next to
Siddhartha’s. It was a time and place when girls spoke only to
girls and boys had only boys for companions. Frequently
exchanged glances and a few smiles here and there were usually
enough to convey secret feelings amongst youngsters. However,
the two teenagers did not realize when and how they developed
strong feelings for each other. Seeing each other for a few
seconds everyday was enough for both of them. For five years,
they kept up with their studies, obeyed societal norms and
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Romance On Facebook
abstained from giving in to the uncontrollable and immense
attraction brewing between them. There were many budding
romances in the air all around them. Some of their friends were
smart enough to meet each other escaping the prying eyes of
the elders at home and in the entire neighbourhood but
Geetanjali and Siddhartha were a shier lot. They were aware of
their feelings for each other but did not know how to express
them. Neither did they feel any need to do so.
After five years in Cuttack, Geeti’s father was transferred to
Varanasi. Three months prior to her father’s transfer,
Siddhartha had left Cuttack for further studies. And in all this
transition, love was crushed even before it could bloom.
Geeti spent the next few days thinking about him, reminiscing
about every forgotten detail of those wonderful days and
debated whether to send him a message. She logged into her
Facebook account more times in two days than she had done in
the past two months, just to have another glimpse of him. She
was perplexed by her own childish behaviour but could not
stop herself from thinking about him all the time. It was
becoming increasingly difficult not to write to him.
Finally, unbearably curious about his recent past, and firmly
resolving to stop all communication after learning about his
present, she sent her first-ever message to him. Not a single
word had ever passed between them in the past, yet Geeti felt
the warmth of a long and good relationship as she wrote to
him for the very first time.
Chapter 2
Even after all these years, Geeti always associated Cuttack with
Siddhartha, perhaps because he was the first, and only, love of
her life. She was now a beautiful wife, a responsible mother and
a successful teacher and artist. But when it came to Siddhartha,
she realized that she was still the same old timid teenager that
she had been in Cuttack.
That was why she found it impossible to resist the strong desire
to reconnect with the one person whom she had never been
able to forget, with whom she had always felt a deep emotional
attachment. Geeti was thrilled when he replied within a couple
of hours. She was touched by the fact that he recognized her
and remembered details about her family, just the way she
remembered all about him.
And so she responded as soon as she read his message.
“Your face has not changed much even though you
must be nearly twice as old as you were when I last
saw you. I have been in Mumbai for the past 14 years.
This is where I’d always dreamt of living, right since
childhood. It’s just the right place to bring out the
best in one’s kids. My parents shifted to Cuttack after
their retirement.
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Romance On Facebook
My brother Rinku is in Calcutta. He keeps postponing
his plans to get married but now my parents and I are
plotting to push him into wedlock by the end of this
year, if only we find the right match. It is our biggest
family goal now :-) What about you? I thought you
would not recognize me at all. Where are you? You
must be married too. How are your parents, your
brother and your sister?
It is strange that we have known each other for such
a long time but are communicating for the first time
only now. “
It was half past 12 in the night and Geeti was awake, typing out
a message to Sid. She was painfully aware that if only she had
initiated such communication 19 years ago, she could have
easily changed the course of her entire life. Usually, she went to
bed by 11 o’ clock. But she could not wait for the next day to
reply to Sid’s message. To her surprise she received a reply from
him within a couple of minutes this time.
He wrote, “Reading your message just brought back
so many childhood memories. Feels like I am talking
to a long lost friend, which of course you are… (Kind
of, you were just too young then.) Looks like you are a
popular painter now, can I get your autograph?:))
I did my Masters in Architecture and then moved to
the US 14 years ago and have been living here since
then. I got married in 2003 and have two kids.
Sumedha is six and Aditya has turned two this
month.
Parents and siblings are doing well. Both my brother
and sister are married. My sister also lives in Mumbai.
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Chapter 2
My brother and parents stay in the same house in
Cuttack.
Tell me more about yourself and your journey to
becoming a famous painter.”
The complete silence all around her in the middle of the night
helped Geeti’s memories come alive. The warmth of their first
interaction further ignited their thirst to know everything about
each other’s present as well as about the past that lay wrapped
up for 19 long years. Both were discovering a certain level of
ease while communicating with each other. There were no signs
of the kind of hesitation that accompanies first time
interactions. Geeti could completely understand him when he
said that he felt as if he was talking to his long lost friend. She
wanted to let him know that she felt exactly the same way but
could not do so. She wanted to hide from him the cacophony
of different emotions that she was going through. She was
ashamed of the overwhelming thoughts about Sid that had
constantly led her mind to wander in the past. She wanted to
project an image of a mature woman who was happy with her
life. She was perceived that way by all who knew her. It was her
opinion of herself too. But now that she had re-discovered Sid,
it was difficult for her not to think about him. She had missed
him many times in the past 19 years. Whenever she saw
teenagers around her having a nice time, either in person or
happily engrossed in their virtual worlds, thoughts of Sid would
fleetingly cross her mind, just like a butterfly that flutters
around in the garden and then suddenly disappears. Though she
was happy in her world, she often felt that being born a couple
of decades later might have shaped her life in a different way.
When Sid expressed his desire to know more about her, she felt
good that he was taking keen interest in her but at the same
time she did not want to reveal her inner feelings to him. She
8
Romance On Facebook
was trying hard to hide her enthusiasm while chatting with him.
But to be able to tell him something and to be able to see him
respond within no time was like a dream to her. Ever since her
teenage years, she had been yearning for such close interaction
with him. Now that they were finally talking it filled her with
the same excitement that she would have experienced as a
teenager. However, maturity of age had taught her to
successfully camouflage many emotions. So she replied in a
tone that would project her no-nonsense attitude.
“I have to sleep because it is afternoon for you but 2
a.m. for me.”
However, she did not want to let go of her new-found
connection on Facebook. She wanted to hold his interest and
hence continued,
“But yes, I feel as if I am speaking to a very dear
friend. Our times were different. We were so naive
and scared of everyone around. But today, teenagers
are so advanced. They have so many communication
tools – facebook, orkut, twitter, mobile phones. They
are fully in charge of their lives and more open to
expressing their feelings for each other. My children
are just 11 and 9 years old but are so comfortable
with SMS’s and have their own email ids. They keep
sending messages to their favourite uncles and
aunties as well as to those friends who have access to
mobile phones and internet. We never had all this. It
was a completely different era plus we were smalltowners. Our counterparts in metros must have been
smarter at that time, no doubt.
I suppose our lives could have turned out differently,
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Chapter 2
but it doesn’t matter, I am very happy that you are
successful in life. By the way I am not a famous artist
as you seem to think, but yes, I am definitely good at
my craft. It feels good to see one’s paintings in art
galleries alongside those of the well acclaimed artists
of Mumbai. The response that I get from art lovers
gives me the enthusiasm to work harder.
How often do you come to India?? Are there any
plans to return??”
She phrased her reply with careful thought, hoping that Sid
would be able to make out what she was feeling yet not be able
to catch the intensity of the feelings that she was beautifully
sandwiching between facts.
Sid read each word carefully and understood what Geeti really
wanted to say. Ever since he saw her pictures on her Facebook
profile, he was bowled over by her simple beauty and
fascinating personality. Just as Geeti was making a calculated
attempt to articulate her thoughts yet maintain a balanced
approach to the conversation, Siddhartha was trying to project
himself as a good guy. He was trying to let her know how much
he was enjoying interacting with her yet he did not want her to
accurately interpret his growing interest in her. He did not
know how to react to what she had written in her last message.
He could sense that she was trying hard to convey something
subtly to him but was somehow beautifully garbing it in a veil
of general observations, comparing their own adolescent years
with the advanced and gadget-filled times of today’s children.
After reading her message for the second time he wondered
whether he was over-analyzing it. He found it hard to believe
that such a beautiful and accomplished woman could actually
have all these feelings under the surface. Maybe he was reading
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Romance On Facebook
into her words a little too much. And so he replied,
“Go to sleep… I am about to head home… will catch
you later… Planning to visit India in November. Will
talk more tomorrow.”
It was the last message from Siddhartha that day. She could not
sleep until late and he could not stop thinking of her while
driving back home.
Geeti’s words kept coming back to him even after he had
reached home. When his wife and children were asleep, he
could not help but read all the messages she had sent once
again. It all seemed like a breath of fresh air for him. He felt
like the Siddhartha of yesteryears, the one he had left behind in
Cuttack. After a long time he felt as if he was back in those
carefree days. He had been living a boring, routine life. Geeti’s
messages were working like a balm, soothing his tired soul
which had lost its identity, caught up in the varied
responsibilities of his professional and personal life. Her
messages had the power to swiftly brush away the cobwebs of
his monotony. He was truly enjoying this unexpected online
encounter, reliving memories and emotions he had relegated to
his past. The entire situation seemed a little unreal to him.
He was not actively into virtual networking and hence did not
have many online friends. He always believed that Facebook
had become popular only because of self-centered people who,
instead of connecting to real people in a real world, found
solace in connecting with virtual friends from whom they could
completely hide their real selves. He would not log onto
Facebook for weeks at a time. For the first time, he felt
differently.
The next day he was keen to write to Geeti once again. So the
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Chapter 2
first thing he did, as soon as he came to office, was to log in to
his Facebook account. There was no message from her but he
could hardly wait for her to initiate the conversation of the day.
Impatiently he typed,
“Last night I was thinking about you and it’s
interesting how you found me. I was thinking about
how the depth of your messages helped me feel so
close and connected to you. What is more amazing is
the fact that we have never talked till date, but
reading your messages made me feel we are close
friends and have known each other for ever. To think
that a little girl whom I knew in Cuttack has grown up
to become an accomplished artist and such a
beautiful and intelligent woman… It’s really so
unreal.”
Geeti, meanwhile, spent that entire day, expecting Siddhartha to
make the first move. There was a spark in her, as she waited
eagerly, for the day to turn into evening and the evening to turn
into night. She could not remember the last time she had
experienced such impatience. She frequently looked at the
watch, calculating the corresponding time in the US. When she
knew it must be morning there, she grew more excited. She
knew that soon he would be in his office and would definitely
send her a message. In this hope, she logged onto Facebook
several times. When she finally received Sid’s message her
anxiety was beyond control. Her heart was fluttering wildly, just
as it used to all those years ago in Cuttack, when she would
have a glimpse of Sid flying kites on his terrace or roaming
around with his friends in the lane outside her house or sitting
indulgently in front of his home tutor in the warm sunshine
that stretched to his veranda on cold winter afternoons. She did
not like the word ‘little’ that he used to describe her. Until now
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Romance On Facebook
she always believed that though young, both of them had been
old enough to fall in love. She replied,
“I don’t understand why you are saying ‘little’. I was a
little girl when we moved there but I grew up by the
time you left Cuttack. And it was for five years or a
little more that I stayed in the house next to yours.
We saw each other for such a long time. Both of us
grew up together. We were not little when I last saw
you.”
She felt good when he called her beautiful and intelligent. She
had scoured his friends’ list in curiosity to see how his wife
looked. She came across a profile that seemed to be his wife’s as
the ‘Current City’ and many other details matched his profile
‘Info’. She was beautiful. Without even being sure that she
really was his wife, Geeti felt a stream of jealousy pooling down
in her heart. It was the first time that she had felt so jealous of
another woman’s beauty. But the warmth with which Sid wrote
to her, right from the beginning, raised a flicker of hope that
maybe his wife was not as nice a person as she was and perhaps
that was why he was being so nice to her, Geeti. She was eager
to resolve her doubts. So she continued,
“Anyway, what’s your wife’s name.”
“Anu” he replied.
And Geeti’s hunch was confirmed. The emotions she felt
piercing her heart were entirely new to her. Her mind and heart
were running in two different directions. Her mind calmly
accepted the fact that Anu was his wife but her heart was not
able to accept the fact that his wife was so beautiful. Despite
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Chapter 2
her rational bent of mind, she could not help feeling jealous
and sad.
Sid had gone through her entire profile, seen all the pictures
and posts on her ‘Wall’. Ever since he was in touch with Geeti,
he would look at her pictures daily, before leaving the office in
the evening. He found her gorgeous and sexy. From her photo
albums, it was evident who her husband and kids were. They
looked like a happy family. Though he felt good seeing her
family, he didn’t know why he felt a tinge of melancholy,
particularly when he saw all the pictures in which her husband
was with her. He noted that her children were older than his.
“Saw your kids’ pictures in your snaps. What are their
names? Tell me more about your husband?”
He was confused by the warmth and familiarity he sensed in
her messages to him. He had never expected a married woman
to be so open about her feelings. By writing “Tell me more
about your husband,” his main motive was to gain as much
information as possible about her relationship with her
husband. He wondered whether her husband was not able to
satisfy her or whether he misbehaved with her or had some bad
traits that were coaxing Geeti to chat so freely, with another
man.
“My son’s name is Gaurav and daughter’s name is
Gauri. My husband is a very nice human being. He is
down to earth and loves me a lot. In these 14 years of
marriage we have grown habituated to each other.”
Reading the last line of her reply was like waking up with a
sudden jolt while engrossed in a beautiful dream. Before he
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Romance On Facebook
could find a suitable answer, there was another message from
Geeti.
She asked, “Was it a love marriage? Am sure you love
your wife very much. She is so beautiful and your
children are also very cute.”
Geeti was hardly interested in his children at the moment. All
she wanted to know was whether he loved his wife or not. She
added those other sentences as an afterthought because she
didn’t want to let him know her inner turmoil regarding his
relationship with his wife. She hoped that he would confess that
he did not love his wife. She wanted him to tell her that he had
missed her and that ever since they had re-connected on
Facebook he had been constantly thinking of her and regretting
the fact that he had never made any effort to pursue her after
she had left Cuttack. He replied,
“It was a partly love and partly arranged marriage.
Your kids are adorable and sweet too.”
Geeti was expecting Sid to tell her that it was a traditional
arranged marriage. She had always thought of him as a shy
person. She had thought that had he not been so shy, they
would have taken their friendship to the next level in their
younger days and may have lived together, happily ever after. It
was hard for her to imagine that he could ever go in for a love
marriage. Naturally, she grew more curious. She wanted to
know the complete story and asked,
“How did you meet your wife?”
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Chapter 2
There was no reply. Half an hour of sitting in front of the
computer screen and waiting for a reply to pop up, seemed too
long. She tried to check her mailbox in the meantime but could
hardly concentrate. She was switching back to Facebook every
three minutes. She tried to read a couple of emails but could
not grasp the contents clearly as her mind kept wandering
towards the interesting story that she was yearning to read.
An hour passed and still there was no reply from Sid. She typed
the message once again.
“How did you meet your wife? Am I getting too
personal?”
Her curiosity to know what had happened to him since she had
last seen him in Cuttack grew with every passing second.
To her second message she got a reply instantly.
“No u r not… but it’s illegal to text while driving. And
it’s late for u as well. Will tell u tomm, goodnite.”
Geeti calculated the time. It would be half past five in the
evening in the US. She thought, Oh! He leaves for home at
around five. Now onwards I will be careful regarding the time.
It’s too childish to disturb his routine. What will he think about
me? She reprimanded herself for letting her curiosity about Sid
and his personal life show in her messages, but at the same time
thought, it was too rude of Sid to drive back home without
even letting her know that he was winding up for the day. He
could have at least said a ‘bye’ to her. What if she had waited
another hour for his reply without re-typing the message? How
inconsiderate of him.