A Velvety Love Story

Arif doesn't have the patience to beat the coffee grains for a while to make a cappuccino, while he used to spend hour and hour innocently waiting for his beloved Veena. Ah! Veena today suddenly…

As he beats the coffee grains, he sings: O, mere piya gaye Rangoon/ Kiya hai uha che telfun.

The song charms Nidhi. She shouted from the kitchen, "Oma, I have never heard this song. Whose song?"

"Shamsad Begum,” Arif replied.

The name of the singer is also unknown to Nidhi. She ran from the kitchen to their bedroom, brought a diary and a pen and placed it in front of Arif and said, "Write the two lines for me when the coffee is ready. Don't forget to write the name of the singer either."

Nidhi is a creative writer. A novel written by her has also come out. Her short stories are regularly seen in various newspapers and literary magazines. She will surely insert two lines of the song into any of her stories. It's hard to anticipate what's going on in a creative person's head. As soon as Nidhi leaves the diary and pen, Arif's mobile vibrates. It’s none but Veena’s message. Arif deleted the message after reading it. He can't understand why Veena has become so restless to meet him after so long.

Arif was in a relationship with Veena for five years. Veena was the prettiest girl in their department, and arrogant by nature, but it was limited to just ignoring the boys, who tried to possess her heart. That's why her pride was also her sweetness. Elsewhere she was enviable, and deep inside she was very loving.

Arif never thought of falling in love with her, though love never comes thoughtfully. In fact, it was unimaginable to him that even a great beauty like her could be his beloved. So he was indifferent to her, but their friendship was always firm. He did not understand that his indifference towards Veena was pulling her towards him little by little without her own knowledge. Veena herself one day, without any pretense, and without any preamble, proposed to him in a sudden. Since then their love, breaking thousands of Romeo's hearts, continues to run like an intercity train. But their love-train did not reach the last station. Veena's suitors started persecution before she could end her studies. Having been annoyed by her restless suitors, and sometimes lured by the good health of their jobs, her parents put a lot of pressure on her for marriage. Veena threatens to drown her suitors in water, to send them to hell, in order to strictly suppress them. Arif also used to threaten them over the phone. But still the pressure-level of the super-eager suitors didn't decrease. Veena tried hard to hold off the marriage until after her studies, and even after her studies, she managed to give Arif another two years, but Arif failed to get a job. Veena was forced to sit on the marriage seat, and then flew abroad sitting on the plane seat.

Arif never considered Veena's move overseas as well as her move from his life as a betrayal; instead, he felt bad for the immense agony Veena had to endure to leave him. He obviously knew that Veena had never wanted to let go of his hand. The girls don't truly give up until their endurance is completely depleted.

Arif saw Veena's groom, before and after the wedding. Her groom is a doctor. He has his own flat at Uttara in Dhaka. More importantly, he looks more smug than a sacrificial bull. Arif could not imagine himself near him from any side. He was simply a small sheep compared to him, and this may have eased his suffering. Like a generous lover, though he was in fact incapable, he comforted himself by thinking that his beloved was marrying in a good place.

A month after the wedding, the handsome doctor went to Paris to fatten his degree. He took his beautiful wife with him. They returned two years later, though Arif met Veena unexpectedly at the Shilpakala Academy six months after their return from Paris. She had become more beautiful in the air of Paris. A noble marital grease had accumulated in the appearance. Her bodyguard groom was also with her. The insolence of conquering a great beauty like Veena was evident in his face. It was the first time he had seen that proud bull not from far away, but face to face. Veena introduced him to the bull as a friend. Of course there was no hypocrisy there either. They were friends, no doubt.

After Veena's marriage, Arif vows that he will never marry. His promise remained inviolable for four years and might have remained inviolable for the rest of his life if he had not met Nidhi. His mother had been trying to get him married for a long time, but could not succeed. At last he scolded him and sent him to meet Nidhi, saying, "You will not marry, it's fine. You don't need to share yourself with anyone. Just go and meet the girl; Who would marry an idiot like you? If that pretty girl likes you then you will undoubtedly be lucky."

Her mother clearly pricked him, and managed to instill a kind of curiosity in him about Nidhi as well. Arif met Nidhi. But they didn't meet in a restaurant as others do, they met in an open garden. Knowing the identity of Nidhi's writer entity, he absorbed a whole novel's nuts and bolts. The novel was titled, Noukadubi. When he had no desire to get married, before meeting Nidhi, Arif was surprised to think why he had put so much effort behind that novel. But he had no difficulty in realizing that it was used as an effective weapon to capture Nidhi's heart.

On seeing Nidhi for the first time, Arif feels that although the girl writes fiction, she is actually a poem in itself. Although Nidhi didn't seem to be extremely beautiful to him, he noticed a strong personality in her appearance. She seems to him like a calm gentle river. He couldn't help but be attracted to her. In order to endear herself to her, he tells her about his love of books with a well-crafted tact, and in doing so he makes a sharp analysis of the novel 'Noukadubi'. Nidhi was also fascinated to find such a book-lover, though after marriage she came to know that her handsome husband had read only one novel in his life outside of textbooks. Nidhi, however, was not dismayed, but rather pleased to hear him digesting the entire novel through tireless night-long efforts to win her over.

Although their marriage is a family affair, but they fall in love with each other in that pre-marriage meeting, and Arif falls so deeply in love with Nidhi that she realizes that she never loved Veena so much before marriage, and then she also realizes that there really is no such thing as first love or second love or third love in life, only fools can't free themselves from the illusion of first love. Soon after Veena flew to Paris, she got the job. The job is pretty good. Even though they don't have their own flat, they live in a nice big flat in Dhanmondi. Nidhi also works. His office is two steps away from their house.

After making two cups of cappuccino Arif writes the lines of the song. Nidhi also comes out of the kitchen. Drizzling rain also starts to fall down. Both of them went to the balcony with coffee in hand. Arif can never make Nidhi sit for writing in the evening. Nidhi loves to spend this time with him. When Arif talks to her about writing, she says, "At this time, your company is sweeter than the company of writing."

Nidhi actually writes in the deep, soundless night, when Arif is lost in the dark pit of sleep. But Arif can't sleep at all today. Veena is playing the flute of memory in his mind. After half past two at night, he got out of bed and stood next to Nidhi, who was tapping away on the keyboard in a quiet corner of the room. Nidhi was surprised to see him and said, "Don't you sleep yet?"

"Sleep has escaped. Give me a kiss, then I will die, I mean then sleep will return to my eyes," Arif said with a smile.

Nidhi sends him off with a kiss. Arif wakes up in the morning as usual, prepares breakfast, eats it quickly, puts it on the table for Nidhi and goes out placing a kiss on her forehead in return for her late night kiss. As Nidhi's office is near, she usually leaves a little late. So Arif always makes breakfast. Veena has already sent the message. She is waiting for him in a restaurant, in which they spent many afternoons. Arif can't think why a girl like Veena got a crack in her married life. However, he doesn't know for sure whether they are divorced or not, he didn't even try to find out. He has just come to know that Veena is not with that bull for a long time, she is with her parents. Is it right to meet Veena now? Why will he drag her into his life again? Veena disappeared from his life like a bubble. He loves Nidhi now, love too much. He can't show disbelief to Nidhi. Arif continues to suffer from ambivalence on his way to the old restaurant, filled with sweet memories.

He also can't deny the fact that Veena sometimes pierces his mind. But that piercing pain isn't caused by the nonattainment of love; She had been there, in his heart, for a long time as a part of his life, so sometimes she flares up inside and stings. There is no dearth of love in his life after getting Nidhi. Arif's rickshaw comes almost close to the restaurant. Veena's number appears on his mobile phone. Arif hung up the phone. The rickshaw driver says, “Mama, will I stop here, at this hotel?”

"No, no need to stop here. Keep going on the way to the bus stand," Arif changed his mind speedily at an electronic pace, guiding the rickshaw puller to his office-way.

As he passes the restaurant, Arif discovers that the ambivalence within him has been unleashed forever. As soon as he came out of the web of Veena's memories, Nidhi began to manifest more strongly in him. He took out his cell phone and dialed Nidhi's number. Nidhi received the phone and said in a sleepy voice, "Hello.."

"Nidhi, I love you. I have you in my heart forever," Arif's voice rang with joy.

From the other side, Nidhi's sleepy voice came out with a gentle smile: You are really crazy!