FIRST BIRTHDAY GIFT
May 24, 2015.
It was Hritisha’s birthday. She was excited and asked me for her birthday gift. I told her that no more surprises and gift for her from now onwards. I thought she would be angry at any other girlfriend would if her boyfriend does not give gift her anything or surprise her on her birthday. To my surprise, I found her to be calm and normal.
‘You don’t feel sad if I don’t gift you anything on your birthday?’ I asked.
‘No. Not really’ Hritisha said.
‘Why?’
‘Because I know that you have planned something amazing for me. Am I correct?’ She asked.
‘I hate you Hritisha. You always sprinkle water on my excitement.'
‘Hahahahaha, Funki Funki’ she laughed.
‘I thought I would annoy you by saying, I do not have any gift for you.’
I confessed that I was just teasing her after which I surprised her by informing about my visit to Delhi
‘I will be with you from thirtieth July until first August.’ I said
‘What! Are you serious? I am so happy Siddhant… I love you.’ Hritisha astonishingly uttered.
It was almost two years passed since we saw each other. I wanted to see her again, but of course not in photos.
I booked a hotel in Paharganj through OYO Rooms, nearby her home. My dad asked me to meet her family for the marriage as well, as was decided before.
I told dad that I need to ask Hritisha first. Dad was of the opinion that if I meet her family this time then I will not have to visit Delhi again to meet her family. Hritisha asked her mother. She agreed to the family meeting, but she was not sure about her father’s decision. However, she assured me that she would try her level best to convince her dad.
Ultimately Hritisha's father got convinced. Hritisha’s cousin Suraj was given the responsibility to talk to me and find out whether I was suitable for Hritisha or not. He interrogated me, for almost one and half-hours. I had to tell him everything, starting from my schooling to my current job and status.
I informed him about my current situation and told him that I had everything, except my own house. My father’s business went under loss when I was just fifteen years old. My sister Drishti had to drop her college to support our family. When I finished my twelve standard exams, I started working. After ten years of the hard work, we became financially strong, the only thing we did not have was our own house. Suraj requested me to give my father’s number to him. He got the same and honest response from my father side also. Suraj was quite impressed after he got to know everything about me. I found Suraj to be sweet natured and friendly person. He assured me if Hritisha were sure about our relationship, then he would try his level best to convince her father fully for the marriage.
My father was also impressed with Suraj’s behavior. He told my father that he would come down to Ahmedabad soon to meet my family with Hritisha and Vidhyaben, her mother. This decision of Suraj gave me some satisfaction.
After talking to Suraj, my father was excited and asked me to arrange a meeting with Hritisha’s parents as soon as possible. All of a sudden, he realized that Hritisha is the best girl for me. My parents too booked their tickets from Ahmedabad to Delhi.
Initially, I had planned for three days. One day would be fully engaged in family gathering, so I just had only two more days to spend with Hritisha. She knew that I would reach Delhi on July 30, 2015, as I had already sent her tickets and hotel booking details. I had arranged for surprises but at the end moment, some idea just clicked into my mind.
I decided to reach on July 29, 2015, a day before, just to surprise Hritisha. Without thinking twice, I rescheduled the flight. I did not tell Hritisha about my new schedule. I planned to surprise her at the metro station after her office hours. Google uncle helped me to find the Shastri Park metro station, the nearest metro station from GENPACT.
However, the problem was her flexible job timings. What if she would not come out at the regular time? What if she would come out of the office late? What if she would not go for her job, that day? I was not willing to take any risk to surprise her so thought of pinging Shruti, Hritisha’s best friend come, colleague
‘Hey, Siddhant this side. I hope you know me. Hritisha must have told you about me’ I texted Shruti on Facebook messenger.
‘Hi Siddhant, of course, she told about you,’ Shruti replied
‘Thank God. Listen I need your help. Can you do me a favor?’ I asked
‘Yup, go ahead.’
I explained Shruti everything and told her that only my parents and she knew about my surprise visit to Delhi a day before. Shruti described the route to reach Shastri Park metro station from Paharganj. I also requested her not to tell Hritisha about my one more surprise, which I was planning. With assertive tone, Shruti agreed to keep it a secret and to inform me about last minute changes of the plan.
Now, I just had to wait for one more month to meet my love.
( to be continued... )
