CHAPTER-1
THE WRONG LOVE
DISCLAIMER
All the characters, settings, and events in my novels are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real characters, living or dead, is completely coincidental.
Author's POV
I agree that love is unanticipated. I also agree that the identity of our lover is a true mystery until we feel the love! Following the same lines, one thus ends up falling for a bad partner-the wrong love.
It's fine! Making a wrong decision is common among ordinary homosapiens like you and me. However, correcting our blunder and returning to our right love is a worthy question whose answer may either be a ‘YES’ or a ‘NO’ or sometimes a combination of both! There is only one superpower that can answer this query: ‘TIME’.
Let's see what happens in Dhilip’s life…
“I will manage, da. Don’t worry. Your bike will be safe and sound with me. Are you relieved?”, asked a guy, in a black suit upon a violet-colored shirt. His bright smile exposed his pearl-like middle teeth, as he chuckled and sneaked between cars and buses to make his way in the heavy traffic jam.
“Hmm! Bangalore and its traffic. Damn!”, he exclaimed, beating his right palm hard on the right brake. He looked up at the gloomy evening sky. He closed his eyes. His lips, wearing a shade of peach, smiled to the rhythm of the cool breeze. He stretched his arms and blushed along.
“Hello! Dhilip…Dhilip, can you hear me?Dhilip?”, enquired an anxious male voice from the other side of the call. Dhilip adjusted his Bluetooth, such that it protruded from the helmet worn properly on his left ear.
“Hello! Rakesh, bro, I was lost for a while.”
“Oops! See that's why I asked you to follow google maps while riding. Where are you? Should I pick you up?”, asked his caller, staring at the monitor’s screen. His eyes rolled on the colorful editor with red curved lines hither and thither. Dhilip beeped his bike and laughed his heart out to himself.
Rakesh stood up from his couch. He strolled towards the big LCD TV fixed to the opposite wall. “Bro, what makes you laugh now? I am serious. Which area are you in? I'll be there right now”, he offered.
“No bro. I meant I was lost in love. How will I lose my way, especially this way?”, Dhilip clarified.
“Oh God, you and your romance! Phew!”, Rakesh teased, slamming his forehead. "None can beat you, the king of love."
“Why am I dumb, bro? I got stuck in a ten-minute traffic jam. Fuck! I should have left earlier”, Dhilip repented, beeping his bike’s horn once again.
“Bro, chill! Pity the poor horn!”, Rakesh freaked out. He shrugged, throwing a cushion away. “You convinced your manager and left earlier from the office today. Do you think you are a VIP for the roads to be emptied just because it's your girlfriend’s birthday?”
“Aye! I couldn't visit her birthday party last year as I was caught up at work. You chill”, said Dhilip. The adjacent vehicles began moving. “Sexy! It's all clear now. Bye!”
“Hey, wait…careful, bro…”
“Don’t bother, bro. I know that you’re more concerned about your bike than me. Trust your friend. See you later!”
“Urgh! My bike, my sweetheart!”, Rakesh exclaimed, throwing the other cushion. “Urgh! My cushion! Urgh…Dhilip, bro!”, he exclaimed again.
Dhilip raced his bike on the main road. His blooming heartbeat and fair smile were his only pillion. A while later, he stopped outside the gate of an apartment. ‘Brigade Margova’, declared the bold white font on a silver board, resting upon a group of buildings painted with a faded orange shade.
“Good evening!”, Dhilip greeted the two guards jogging towards him.
“Resident or guest?”, enquired the elder guard with fat eyebags. Dhilip removed his helmet.
“Nois(Nice)! Can’t you look at me and guess it?”, asked he, raising his eyebrows and winking amiably. The guards shared puzzled faces with each other.
Dhilip’s pupils, a beautiful mixture of light brown and black, dilated as he shared his purpose for the visit. The younger guard focused on noting down the number plate, the visitor’s name, and other details in his register. He then entered the tiny cabin and rang up the intercom.
“Oh, now I get the reason behind your excitement”, he blushed and chuckled, hanging up the landline. He patted Dhilip engrossed in smiling at the concrete-tiled ground.
“Enjoy, young man”, the elder guard added, gesturing to Dhilip with the parking directions. Dhilip nodded and left.
As soon as the floor number displayed ‘13’ in dark red on the black background, the lift’s doors slid open. Dhilip stepped out with a bouquet of roses and a thin rectangular box wrapped with a dark pink glittering gift wrapper. He heard a sweet melodious female voice; as sweet as that of the nightingale. He stopped beside the wall juxtaposed to the lifts. He spotted his beautiful girlfriend with chubby cheeks and rosy lips.
Priya stood outside her flat whose door was thrown open. Balloons were hung from the entrance. She, in a pink frock, was busy laughing and conversing with her friend. Dhilip peeped from behind the wall. He couldn’t stop blushing at her straight hair extending on both sides in the front and to her waist. He leaned his head on the wall behind and sighed at Ayesha pulling Priya’s cheeks thereby making the latter blush and laugh.
“Go ya, as a bestie, I invited you to my birthday. But you never treated me as your bestie”, began Priya, shrinking her eyes and pouting.
“Aww, Priya medam! Give it up. You are the sweetest person I have ever met. How on Earth can you be angry with someone? You are the most innocent soul who can't even harm a fly!”, thought Dhilip. He looked down at the floor and blushed.
“Give up, da. You can never be enraged.” He shook his head.
“Oye, come on, medam. The role of an angry young woman will never suit you.” He smiled once again to himself.
“Sorry, Priya. Don’t you know my problem? I just can’t stay awake after ten at the night. I slept off and couldn’t wish you on the eve of your birthday. Sorry…”, apologized Ayesha, catching her ears cutely.
“Arey, fine, this one time, I will let you go. This is your first and last excuse. Got it?”, said Priya, smiling widely and hugging her.
“See, hmmm…you can never be upset with someone. You can only pretend to be so...No, and wait. You can’t even pretend to be rude”, Dhilip whispered, in a meek and hesitant voice, to himself. He looked up at the white ceiling. “Oh, great heavens, thank you very much for bringing Priya into my monotonous life. No doubt Priya has been the best chapter of my life”, he prayed.
He was interrupted by Priya’s screechy voice. He chuckled, with his eyes back on her.
“In fact, Ayesha, bro, let me give you a tip. I’m sure it will not only help you wish me at midnight but also for our other besties or anyone else. My tip will also hold good for the next New Year’s Eve or anytime you wanna stay awake until the clock strikes twelve at midnight. Shall I?”
“Wow! Sounds interesting. I want to know. Tell me, please”, requested Ayesha, shaking Priya’s left hand like a persistent baby demanding a toy.
“Wait, bro. Don’t be very curious. Curiosity killed the cat, remember?”
Dhilip adored her cuteness.
“Listen, that's the only reason you need a boyfriend. The foolish guy will always be at your service”, suggested Priya, closing her eyes and laughing. Ayesha opened her mouth. Priya nodded.
“Look, he will always long to talk to you. That’s how guys are. Agree?”, Priya highlighted. “Use him to keep chatting till midnight and ditch off!”
“Oh what!”, exclaimed Ayesha, laughing along. Dhilip tightened his fists. He swallowed his tears at Priya’s words.
“Then, what about your boyfriend Dhilip?”
Priya burst out a great round of laughter.
“I hope you were joking…”, guessed Ayesha, shrugging along. Priya laughed aloud, waving her hand along. She rested both hands on her knees and laughed to trigger a bunch of tears of laughter to roll down her cheeks.
“What?”, Dhilip trembled to himself, as he noticed the lady of his dreams nod and laugh wickedly, a little louder.
“Awesome, Priya. Thank god. I used to wonder how you, a gorgeous girl accepted him who is, yes, decent-looking but he isn’t very handsome. Bro, trust me, you deserve a better partner. Dhilip was such a boring and serious guy back in college. Pah! Those online semesters…Thank goodness you don’t love him…”
“Hahaha! He has showered all his true love on me, bro. Yappa! What does he think of himself? Hardly does he know that I have been making a fool of him. Bro, who the hell takes love seriously? I have been clinging to him just to pass the time until my parents find a solid husband for me. He loves me very much, do you know? He once told me that he would have broken down if I had turned him down…Hahaha! Oh Lord, save him from me!”
The two friends shared a hi-fi. Dhilip sobbed behind the wall.
“Priya, how could you do this to me?” He gave a gentle pat on the wall, as her face flashed in his mind.
“Is she really Priya or someone else who just spoke these lines?” He kicked his shoes hard against the wall only to feel a trace of pain. “Why isn’t this a bad dream? Why is it real?”, he swallowed his tears and banged the back of his head against the wall.
“Love is just for fun, man. The purpose of Dhilip in my life is nothing more than fun. Hahaha! Come, let's have fun now”, said Priya, inviting Ayesha in.
“Hasn’t Dhilip come yet?”, Ayesha enquired.
“Who cares? I have invited him, again, just for fun. But, I’m sure he will turn up because he is an emotional fool. Right?”, Priya mocked. They shook hands, bursting with a great round of laughter.
“Wish you an unhappy birthday, Priya. May all your wishes never come true. Wishing you the worst year ahead”, Dhilip raised his voice which, yet, sounded meek and hesitant; Aww, he didn't know how to hate someone. All he knew was to lead an honest life of not only true friendship but also true love.
“What rubbish? How can you hurt my friend?”, shouted a tall and slim girl, a year older than all others, rushing out of their flat. Priya swallowed her fear. She breathed hard, rolling her glittering black eyeballs hither and thither, at Dhilip. Ayesha bit her lips and stood dumbstruck.
“You have already hurt her once due to your fear of commitment. How could you curse someone on their birthday? Shit! Dhilip, you were being very rude to her”, Haasini screwed him.
He swallowed his wrath, dropping both the bouquet and his lovely gift. His eyes grew red. However, his tears resulting from the emotional breakdown overtook the wrath toward his beloved. He neared her and raised his hand. Haasini bulged her eyes and extended her right forefinger. He bet his closed fist in thin air.
“Enough of you. A girl like you doesn't deserve a true lover like me. Get lost!”, he rebuked her.
“Excuse me, you get lost. This is Priya’s house, not yours…”, Haasini yelled, following him, to the lift. The doors slid towards each other as Dhilip frowned at the arrogant Priya.
Dhilip forced glasses of beer into his mouth. He finished three straight in a row. He sat in a silent corner of the bar. The white bar dancer with heavy breasts and in a transparent red frock rolled on the dance floor. A gang of crazy men, especially the brown man, his dark mustache being the center of attraction, formed a circle to surround her. They rolled their shoulders to the disc jockey’s local Desi pop songs.
She winked at Dhilip. She lifted her attire a little above the right knee. She swayed her body to invite him. He faked a smile and shook his head. She shrank her eyes cutely and offered him a flying kiss. She nodded her head. Dhilip sighed and leaned back in his seat. He faked another smile. He filled a glass of alcohol to force himself, attempting to feel better.
He closed his eyes. He massaged his forehead with his thumb and little finger. He patted his right hand loudly on the table, not to the beat of the bar’s music, but instead, to the beat of his boiling blood. He sat erect; his spine stood, as usual, at right angles to the chair’s seat.
The scene of himself jumping on the bed upside down, opening Priya’s chat, and texting her ‘I love you’ flashed in his mind. He shook his legs anxiously remembering how he had always commented ‘pretty’ or ‘cute’ every time she changed her profile picture on WhatsApp. He gnashed his teeth as he closed his eyes and rested his head on the drinking table.
Tears flooded his eyes as he remembered spending quality time with Priya at the mall theater, chatting with her day and night, sharing his personal matters, offering to revert their love to friendship, and finally, confirming her after nights of decision-making; his process left the Indian Parliament’s complicated decision-making process behind!
Her fake words of love floated like heavy clouds of heartbreak within him. He felt as if he was left behind to suffer alone at a bomb blast.
“I thought, thought, and thought to check if I had made the right choice. But, in the end, I fell into a trap. I was about to ruin my own life. Urgh!”, he roared. He applied all his energy to lift his left leg backward and discard the bottle with all the possible force he could.
“Eyy! Eno? Thale kettogidiya ninge? (Hey! What? Have you lost it?)”, exclaimed the heavily bearded man in a lungi. He folded his tongue and tied up his lungi like a rogue as he neared Dhilip.
“Oye, how dare you throw a bottle at our brother?”, yelled a guy behind him. A man from the same gang checked Dhilip out just like a creep.
“Babyface, apologize to our brother. You look decent.” He patted him, adding, “You must be frustrated in life. But, what if your bottle had harmed our brother? It's your good luck that it just hit him and left.”
“Wooyie, sorry helo(say sorry, man)”, howled the goon-like drunkard. Dhilip shrugged and looked away.
“Brother, look at his attitude. The only way to handle him is by thrashing him to the ground. You utter a word and see what we do”, yelled the guy who pretended to be cool up front. He stepped front to squash Dhilip’s neck and the latter displayed his light brown meekish eyes at the gang of goons. The leader hissed aloud, placing his finger on the lip, thereby ordering his fellows to stay quiet. All eyes were on the gang and Dhilip.
“Sorry, boss”, apologized a familiar male voice, entering the scene from behind. Dhilip looked away and wiped a teardrop. Raakesh joined his hands and pleaded with the gang to let go of his colleague. The drunkard guy tilted his head and checked him out.
“Fine, we spare your friend for you. Anyway, you aren’t of my standards for me to fight with you. Huh, baby faces. Live your life!”, said the leader, lifting his left hand up, smiling, and leaving, with his buddies following him.
Raakesh helped his friend take a seat. He pulled a chair closer.
“Bro, seriously? What’s wrong with you? Priya wanted to ruin your life and you are getting ruined. Are you mad to be on the bad books of a goon at the bar?”, whispered Raakesh, shrugging and giving a gentle pat on his devastated friend’s back.
“Leave me alone, bro. I wanted to talk to you. So, I shared my pain and wept over the call. I will feel better only if I screw myself for being in a fake relationship…”
“Stop it, bro.”
“How can I forget Priya? She has been an integral part of my life for the past two years." He emphasized, "A whole duration of two years", continuing, "I thought that she would be my life forever. But, she…I didn’t mean anything to her. The truth of my love is incredible. She was just faking in response to my true love.”
As Dhilip bet his forehead with his closed fist, Raakesh got up from the chair.
“You were lucky enough to realize that you loved the wrong girl at an earlier point in time. Understand, bro. You made the wrong choice. That’s it. Priya doesn’t deserve your love. You must have showered your true love on a girl who longs for your love. Mark my words, it's only the girl who understands the significance of your love that deserves to win a place in your heart. Preserve your true love for your right love. You have already wasted a good amount of time, weeping hard for the wrong person. The king of romance deserves the queen of romance, not a fraudster.”
“Bro!”, Dhilip exclaimed, standing up and kicking his chair behind him. “Where will I find my so-called right love? Where will I go in search of the genuine girl you are referring to? Are we even destined to lead a happy life together?”, he yelled his frustration out. All eyes were once again upon him, for the second time. He made his way between the tables and hastened to pull the door’s handle to leave the bar. His colleague shrank his face as he rushed behind him.
“Wait…listen to me. Don’t lose hope. What idiots in love realize after two decades, you have realized it in just two years. Thank the heavens for opening your eyes. Bro, stop! Screw Priya dude, seriously. Wait...Where are you going?”, cried Raakesh. Dhilip hurried on the bike.
“Bro, my bike!”, cheered Raakesh, jumping and waving behind as Dhilip started the bike on the lonely dark road, in the heavy downpour, drenching muddy water upon him. The bright street lights joined hands with the colorful lights decorating the entrance of the bar, to illuminate his bike. He shivered and wrapped himself at the strike of a loud thunder far away. He advised Dhilip to stop but the latter was too frustrated to activate his ears.
“Dhilip!”, Raakesh yelled at his friend slipping over a pothole. He fell, hitting his head on the footpath. A few customers peeped from the bar and wondered at the pool of blood below Dhilip’s head on the sandy-colored footpath.
Alas! What happened to Dhilip? Will he ever get to live the true love story?
Dear readers,
Thank you for supporting me and reading the first episode of my new series, "Wrong Love Right Love". Please stay tuned and keep following it!!! Rate it and write your review, give it a heart, and share it in your circle whenever you are free. Your voice matters a lot to me.
