Those important words!

It was the morning of July 4th, 2016. It was a nice day in Toronto. Ranveer’s wife Amrita and son Tushar were sleeping as they wanted to do so during the weekend. Enjoying his coffee Ranveer went on to facebook to chat for a while. His childhood friend Sonali was online and she sent him a message to chat. He would start chatting in a few minutes.

Ranveer had moved to Canada from Ghaziabad, India, eighteen years ago. He went back to marry Amrita twelve years ago as per an arranged marriage. He was happy with Amrita. Both were elated since Tushar was born 9 years ago.

In 2001 he visited Ghaziabad to meet his family, relatives and friends. In 1998 when he moved to Canada he did not have the courage to tell his true feelings to Sonali. He started liking her and was falling in love. So in 2001 he was more than happy to see her again. Finally, after a few conversations one day he told her. “Sonali, please don’t mind, but I love you. I love you very much. If you will agree to be my girlfriend, I will be happy. Also, if you agree, I would like to marry you in the future.” Sonali blushed a little and then said, “Thank you, Ranveer, but I am sorry. I don’t think our families would approve of us getting married one day, so I can’t accept your proposal. Can we still be friends?” Ranveer felt like someone punched him in the stomach. He looked away for a moment and then said with a heavy heart, “Yes, of course. I am returning to Canada in two days but I will keep in touch.”

From 2001 to 2002 Ranveer and Sonali exchanged a few emails, talked on the phone a few times, and then their communication stopped.

In 2004 Ranveer’s parents arranged his marriage to Amrita in Gorakhpur, India. Ranveer was very happy with the wedding and in a few months Amrita joined Ranveer in Toronto.

The facebook chat between Ranveer and Sonali commenced during the morning of July 4th. They had not communicated with each other for many years now. Sonali had gotten married to Kamlesh in Meerut in 2009. It was also an arranged marriage.

Ranveer: “Hi Sonali, how are you? How is Kamlesh? Are you guys doing well in Meerut?”

Sonali: “Hey Ranveer, yes we are. How are you and Amrita? How is your son? I am visiting my parents in Ghaziabad these days. Kamlesh will come here on the 8th and then in a day or two we shall return to Meerut.”

Ranveer: “That is good. Nice talking with you. It has been a while. I think I saw you when I visited India in 2010.”

Sonali: “Yes, you did. My brother Harsh bhaiya was happy to see you. So was I.”

Ranveer: “That is great. Hope Harsh bhaiya is doing well.”

Sonali: “Yes, he is. Thanks.” She hesitated for a few seconds and then continued. “You know what – I saw a saw a movie recently with my friend in Meerut. I liked it. It was a nice love story.”

Ranveer: “That is great. What movie was it?”

Sonali: “Its name was Pyar Ka Safar. It had my favourite actor Fardeen Khan and favourite actress Ameesha Patel. I will tell you more about it later for sure, but before then I wanted to confess something.”

Ranveer: “What? Is everything good?”

Sonali: “Yes, all is well. Kamlesh is a very nice husband, but ….”

Ranveer: “But what?”

Sonali: “I regret not accepting your love years ago. Now, we can’t do that anything about that, but I wanted to let you know that I did a mistake back then. I should have said yes to your proposal.”

Ranveer was stunned. He wrote, “What??!! Why are you telling me this now?”

Sonali: “Sorry, but I had to say this, otherwise I would have kept feeling somewhat guilty. I … I … I think I love you. But now all is good.”

Ranveer was happy and sad at the same time. He wrote, “I love you too! I was waiting for those words from you for a long time.”

Sonali: “I don’t think we should continue to be friends now as our past feelings may jeopardize our marriages.”

Ranveer: “I agree.”

Sonali mentions she is crying a little as she writes, “I love you Ranveer. I hope you are always happy with Amrita and your son. I will always cherish our childhood friendship. Goodbye.”

Ranveer concludes, “I love you Sonali. I hope you are always happy with Kamlesh. Our childhood friendship was very important to me. Give my regards to your parents. Goodbye. Take care.”

Ranveer ended the chat.

He wept a little and then thought silently for a few minutes. He always wanted to hear those important words from Sonali and after so many years, he finally did. He washed his face with water and sat down on a chair near the window. In a few minutes Amrita would wake up and would come to sit with him. Tushar would wake up later. Ranveer was looking forward to telling about his chat conversation with Sonali to Amrita. He could feel that he now had ‘proper closure’ with Sonali. Ranveer was so happy that he had Amrita in his life and that they both could continue to be good parents to Tushar.