Taqdir?

“But I don’t want to get married,” Sana told her mother when she heard about the rumors of an apparent ‘rishta’ from her cousins.
“They’re good people, Sana. You’ll be very happy,” her mother shot back, a little less dramatic than her off spring.
“You know I’m not ready,” she said and walked out of the room, signalling no-more-discussions in her favorite manner. Escape.

“I don’t know, Deeksha,” Sana said as she looked at Aarav’s profile on Facebook, “this guy is Mr. Goody Two Shoes. He’ll never accept my lifestyle. He’ll never even try to… and while I’m all up for compromises, he looks like he’ll not even make half a compromise.”
“Don’t judge a book by its cover. That’s all I’m saying.”
“You’re forgetting I’m dating someone else. And you know I like him. I don’t know why am I even going through his profile,” Sana said as she switched from Facebook to Instagram to stalk him.
“There might be more to this than you can imagine,” Deeksha said and sipped her drink.

“I don’t know. I like who I’m dating right now. Even with all our complications since day 1, you know how badly I want to make it work,” Sana said after sending a ‘Follow Request’. It had been good 10 minutes since she’d been contemplating this.
“Then you should probably cancel that request,” Deeksha said and winked.
“Like you said, there might be more to this.”

And then all was forgotten, until Sana broke up with her boyfriend. After a lot of setbacks, relapses, she finally began to feel herself again. Her relationship with her now-ex had been an abusive one, and it took everything from alcohol to friends to self help books to make her snap out of it. 3 months after her break up, she randomly happened to check her Instagram, remembering the night with Deeksha and the conversation they had about Aarav.

He hasn’t accepted my follow request. What an arrogant prick. Whatever. This was anyway just a random stalk attempt, she thought to herself and cancelled the request. 5 minutes later, she sent it again.

Whatever. 

Aarav happened to accept the request in a couple of days. Feeling like her bakchod self again after months, she texted Aarav on Instagram to get the conversation going. He didn’t seem like her usual run-of-the-mill guys- for this one wasn’t interested in her at all!

That was, until she dropped her stalk-bombs.

“Where do you live?” he asked her, a question more out of courtesy than curiosity.
“I won’t tell you that,” she replied promptly, “but I do know you happen to live in Greater Kailash.”
“What? How do you know that?”

Ah, so now I have his attention, she thought.

“Well, I also happen to know that your brother lives in US, and your father works in…” she told him all that she and her sisters had found out via stalking. Not to mention, since her parents were friends with his parents, she’d gotten to know a little about him from her mother herself. Casually, of course.

While any ordinary person would be freaked out, Aarav was now more hooked than ever. By the way, kids, whenever a stranger divulges out your information to you, run away and lock yourself in a room. Call the cops if necessary. Don’t be like Aarav. I repeat, don’t be like Aarav.

Because Aarav invited Sana for a meeting.

“It’s a date,” she said.

“Parul,” she called her best friend the next day while coming back from the office, “dude, I have this date I have to get to in like 10 minutes. And I’m looking like shit. I’m dropping by your place to get a touch up, okay?”
“Who’re you going out with?”
“Aarav.”
“Aarav, who?” Parul asked.
“Arre, that ‘rishta’ guy!”
“Come home and then we’ll talk,” and then she hung up.

“Tell me everything,” Parul said as she opened the door for Sana.
“It’s nothing, really. It was fun freaking him out on Instagram. I just want to see his reaction when I tell him for real who I really am. A girl he was being considered in a matrimony with! L-O-L.”
“Are you sure that’s the only reason? Why’re you getting dressed up?”
“Because I look like shit.”
“Sana, I’ve seen you come to office in your pyjamas, without taking a bath. I’ve seen you go out to the fanciest of places without combing your hair. And a casual date with this guy and you’ve stopped specially to get a touch up? Who’re you kidding- yourself, or me? You already like this guy!”
“Shut up and get me bhabhi’s pink lipstick,” Sana said, avoiding something her conscience was barking at her about all day.

Sana picked him up from his residence and they both formally introduced themselves.
“Now can you tell me how and why do you know so much about me?” Aarav asked.
“Sorry, need alcohol to do that,” Sana said and made a mental note of leaving in an hour. She had important re-runs of Friends to watch back at home.

“Whisky or beer?” he asked.
“It’s a whisky kind of occasion,” Sana said with a smile.
A drink later, she told him everything honestly, including the fact that she was there just to derive some sadistic pleasure out of his reaction, even admitting that she was enjoying his company more than she’d imagined she would.

“You didn’t accept my request earlier!” Sana taunted.
“I actually don’t think I noticed it. Also, I was in a relationship then. After that, I got busy with my family and then I had my exams. Your timing actually couldn’t have been better,” he said.
“The second time around,” she said.
“The second time around.”

Staying out way past her deadline, Sana knew by the end of the evening that she’d like to see this guy again.

As the time went by, they got to know more about each other. The differences. The similarities. And where he fell short, she compensated. Where she fell short, he compensated. They were a perfect living example of the ‘Olive Theory’- he made a mess, she cleaned it up. She hated onions, he loved them. Also, lucky for him, she was a vegetarian so he’d never have to share his beloved chicken with her.

Having these differences, however, didn’t mean they didn’t have anything in common, or that their interests never overlapped in a Venn diagram. They both loved rocking to good music- specially Punjabi songs. They both loved the same kind of shows. They both had immense love and respect for their respective families. They both had tattoos. They both loved travelling and going on adventures. Cars. Falling asleep to a TV show running in the background. Cleaning notifications from the bar as soon as they appear because, #OCD.

They were perfect together.

And they met again. Coffee date happened. Late night conversations happened. Road Trip happened. Go Karting happened. Movie happened. Opening the ex-files happened. McDonald’s-lunch-date-in-a-car happened. Meeting-the-friends happened. All in a week or so. Before they realized what was happening, they were both involved. In the shortest time span possible, in the weirdest fashion.

They flirted with each other, roasted each other, even tagged each others in memes. It was perfect.

Sana ended up falling for this guy quicker than she’d imagined was even possible for anyone. He was her kinda-sorta perfect guy, with ‘roast to flirt ratio’ on point- a metric she judged all the guys on. He made her feel happier, like she was a teenager again, and who doesn’t crave a love like that?