The Prelude- Kahaani poori Filmy hai (With due liberty from the author- Neha- For making it even more special with her version..)

Limitations: The authorial voice is that of the girl’s friend so it might concentrate more on her and also may digress.

He was a boy and she was a girl. It doesn’t get more obvious than that. And when they first met, sparks flew. The boy talked to his freaks about the strange connection that he felt while the girl couldn’t stop raving and ranting about this meeting to her loonies. And both smiled non-stop.

Now those who know these two already know that they are incapable of a straight conversation- and so the bickering lingered one conversation after another, and these conversations lingered in their minds… The long distance couldn’t erase the effect of that first meet- and they kept reinforcing the charm through stolen conversations, time and again. And just like cosmos had it planned, they met again.


The girl had long waited to be complete always knowing something was amiss- never once denying that dreams were for real. She cautiously oscillated between denial and delusion while the boy stayed innocently confused trying to come to terms with his feelings. The made for each other bit extended to the fact that both our protagonists were commitment phobic people. But in the city of dreams, they met over movies, dinners and coffees. The closeness, the comfort, the charisma…and Candies transformed into the Lovers paradise, a nest, a refuge.


And while they kept bickering, taking two steps forward and one step backwards, all friends waited with bated breath to see it happen…because everyone knew the girl had irrevocably fallen and the guy’s friends could vouch that he was taken. Like an unsaid bond, like glue they stuck- His work took him everywhere- out of the city and sometimes the country, but he kept coming back to her, while our poor love-sick girl waited much against her own nature, patiently.


And just when I was in doldrums, because of the baby steps these two were taking, I was scared for her- knowing she had pushed herself for him beyond her capacities, loving him like she could love no one else. But as usual, (pardon my cynicism) my fears were misplaced. Yes, dear readers, I saw dreams transform into reality- thanks to these two.


And what less would do for our starry-eyed girl than a proposal more beautiful than any scene shot in any movie simply because of the fact this wasn’t reel. I must applaud the guy’s guts and gusto. He had transformed into a Hero, ladies and gentlemen. He single-handedly purchased a ring beautiful beyond words. He conspired with friends and common friends and went every length to make the moment just right.


And when she got down the car, oblivious of how this was going to be day she would never forget- he stood there, her knight in shining armour- dressed to kill, suited’ for the occasion. Oh what old world romance! The quaint tape recorder played their song in the backdrop with the love soaked picture scrapbook in a corner and flowers strewn over the bench. And a classy bottle of wine to celebrate that what he was confident, God had meant for him in the first place.


No less crucial was the place- Sunrise point, Kasauli. Meticulously chosen, painstakingly located. And here he went down on one knee and proposed to her. And in that moment, we all knew he could die for her, would die without her- eyes brimming with love and a prayer on his lips- He Loved Her.


She could not believe what was happening to her- the world had halted while her emotions moved- all at their peak- smiling nonstop, holding back a tear, turning red, turning numb, being supremely shocked, being acutely conscious, being alive. This was a moment she had waited for without even knowing. Maybe her dream Guy showed her dreams she could not even see for herself. And Dreams do come true. It was a Yes, out and out.


Finis

Special Thanks to:

Valmik Mirani: the best friend, the brother because of whom they met. The one who relentlessly took care to execute his part of the plan and also tolerated the girl’s constant yapping throughout the journey.


Samdisha: For being a great moral support to the Boy (read Man after this achievement) in the crucial final hours- for bringing her effervescent giggle into it all.


Ashutosh J: For rescheduling his flights to fit in with the plan, and more so for his awesome (dangerous) driving on the mountains to make it on time before the sunrise (though the clouds never really let that happen) and lastly for bringing me along to witness the MKP (as they called it) executed, to witness Love take over.

Read on..

This part of my life is called-The Proposal !!

Well here it is..my own personal account of how it happened!!!

Yeah after screwing my brains for quite some time now, typically me..even though I knew it was meant to be from the first time I met her in Delhi in February 2009 in TGIF. I had called my friend Girish the same evening and told him something.

We fought over 2 LITs sponsored by Valmik (her best brother/friend from school) whose head I had eaten all along that I feel there is some cosmic connection with her, so he should take me along, I need to meet her , universe is conspiring something and all bull shit..out of just no where.

Actually, infact I had just seen her Profile Pic on Orkut and dats what got me mad about her. Something clicked between us, over 2 LITs we fought over Delhi & Mumbai , of course I was defending Delhi, which city is better. Nobody won but we were too high to keep pulling each other and parted by saying on each other’s face that we hated each other- All this the very first time we met :)

In between there were occasional Gtalk and Phone calls when I used to drive around Delhi in night wandering in my free time before joining RB. It was kept alive somehow-The spark. Then came September and I moved to Mumbai- I had to literally force her to meet me and take me to Leopolds – I dunno it had been a while I had done that. Those were the most amazing moments we had in Mumbai- The INITIAL phase. She took me to my favorite place in the city now-Candies- Our Love Nest :)

It’s the only place in my memory which I have frequented almost 5 times a week during our peak dating period and still not get bored !! It has a life of its own, its evolving & growing at its own pace. It always surprised me with something I had either failed to see before and had just grown up there.. Most beautiful moment was our Kiss ..yeah we had one in Candies..On a raining day in Mumbai monsoons under the canopy over Hot coffee turned cold !!

It had now been almost a year and a half since we were together through almost innumerable fights, hitting each other , swearing on each other- All our friends were troubled but still we were together. I dunno why were we delaying the realization or may be it was just me.

What were we fighting over- It took me a week of solitude and thinking and counseling from bloody Mankey,Singhi& Chummi( 3 of the most un-romantic people in the world-suddenly turned Gurus of Love and cheesy stuff) to make me realize what I was doing and screwing my life for. It suddenly shook me and I realized what the hell am I doing- how could I not realise what’s right there in front of me and just let it go like a fool waiting for dunno what!!!!

I dunno any one else who can be as stupid as me. But may be it was not like filmy magical love for me but a subtle realization of what I had felt the first time I met her and called up Girish and how over this period of time I just locked those feelings somewhere controlling them too much, holding myself back to just be 100% sure of god knows what!! I guess sometimes we just get too blinded with own perceptions that reality becomes hazy.

Anyways enough of my foolhardiness so here’s my story of how I pulled it off to seal it forever- Yeah and I dunno from where but I was super confident about it and dint feel jittery or had second thoughts again. I just had it in my mind.

I have to have to mention Mankey here again ( I knw lot of people would swear on me fr this and even I hate it as much- Kidding :) But it just could not have been had it not been his inspiration to take it to THE NEXT LEVEL- something totally un imaginable in my set of people and something that would be remembered forever ). So here’s how its happened. I like to call this part of life as – The Proposal !

After I had decided ,we needed a moment together with each other, but somehow it was not working out..So It just struck me that she had a trip planned to Kasauli with her school friends along with Valmik the coming weekend. It could not get better than this. We were introduced by Valmik, he got us together (For the first time.. !!) in Delhi so this had to be it. I had to get everyone and I mean evry1 ( my gang, her gang) on board for this one. Every one was a part of the plan and in that week had some or the other role to play.

So First things first, I got 2 hotels booked , 1 for my night stay, a night before they reach near to the destination and another for 3 couples for weekend :) There was a small hitch, her friend Ashutosh was arriving late in Delhi, this would have screwed the plan as they had to reach Kasaulli before Sunrise, come what may! I included him in plan and he was too sweet to oblige and take the same flight as Mona to reach Delhi together. Now about the second glitch Valmik had to pick his girlfriend from Patiala on the way!! This would have delayed them by another hour which I could not afford at all. So a brain wave struck Mirani ( as I fondly call Valmik ) and we decided that I get down at Ambala instead of Chandigarh from the train, take a Cab to Patiala , pick her up and both of us drive down to Kasauli…Grrt plan !!

So here I am landed in Delhi on Saturday morning, clandestinely, Rajat( my bro) came to pick me up and we headed to CP for Lunch in the afternoon. My train was leaving at 5:00 pm so had a lot of time to catch up. We went to our usual hang out Castle 9 in CP for cheap beer and okie food. Soon to join me was my gang-Mirani, Chummi, Mankey and a very special guest Natty, who rarely gets his bum out- All these people came specially to wish me luck, share my zeal and be happily amazed at what I was going to do !!

I showed them the ring and the cheesy yet nicely made scrap book :) It was really awesome as if I was going for a war on the border or something with all of them wishing me luck and all. I somehow enjoyed it a lot. By the end of it Rajat handed over the tape , his second task for the day after picking me up. Well about tape, he had arranged an old Boom box with a cassette inside with an hour duration of recording of “our” song- Fade into you by Mazzy star. ( A must recommedation for anyone getting together with anyone)


I had pictured this song in the background, so it had to be. Yeah I carried the boom box in the train with me, trying to pull it off. I reached Ambala after trying really hard to keep myself awake to avoid missing the station and called up the taxi guy already booked before to pick me up.

It was a nice drive through the interiors along the country side to Patiala as the driver avoided highway. The full moon was quite bright and I was thinking to myself, “What the hell am I doing ?”. I realized I have never been so impulsive and done something like this ever, u know like just gone ahead and done it !! So this was my moment. I have to mention Mirani’s sweet, kiddo girl named Samdisha..who was even more excited than I was about the whole plan and was a tremendous sport throughout the night and was like really really chirpy to not let me develop any cold feet . So thanks Sam.

Well it started raining on the way and drive got just amazingly beautiful while listening to “Fade into you”, having a smoke, and driving through the rainy starry night in the hills of Kasaulli. So we reach at 12 at night, even before checking in the night stay hotel, I took the cab to the “Sun Rise” point- My destination for the moment for which I had come.




But amazingly neither the driver nor the locals had a clue where it was exactly. I mean “Why are you kidding me, is it a conspiracy??” I mean seriously how the locals could be so oblivious. And you know where do we land up? - The Sunset Point. On the top of it locals tell us this is it- it’s the same sir!!! What on earth was going on? Though it was also quite beautiful but it was not a spot as such as described by Manky (My inspiration who had been here before). So soaking in the super winds and rains on the Sunset point I decided to go back to the hotel and let it be the Sunset point only if not Sunrise Point.

I was trying to convince myself it might just be better incase these guys get late and Sun is on the Top so it might just be okie at Sunset point!! We let the driver drop us and let him go after he told us there’s a short cut in the hills from the hotel to reach this point on foot early in the morning! I mean seriously, nor once did I doubt him. I dunno I would have believed any one that day. By car itself that spot was good 5 kms distance and any goddamn hilly shortcut would also be 3-4 kms through an un known, wild path!

I spent the night on net searching for the real Sunrise point as locals turned out to be of no use, finding the right address and catching some sleep as the power went off in the hotel. And yeah through out all this Sam was constantly locating Mirani and updating him and pestering him to bloddy better make on time or else I had threatened him what I will do to his girlfriend, who was with me :) Kidding, she was constantly directing Mirani and the story as known to Mona was that Sam had already reached Kasualii by a cab, and she’s gonna meet Mirani at Sunrise point. So he better make it on time along with Neha & Ashutosh in cab.

At 5 we were both ready, it was still quite dark in Kasauli and we thought we might just climb that natural path told to us by the bloddy driver!!! There was no body at the reception at 5, ofcourse why would they be. I was about to panic, I called for a guy who seemed helping & genuine the night before when we checked in and arranged something to eat at night. His name was Vijendar, I told him “Yeh meri zindagi aur maut ka sawal hai, please kuch kar”! The guy was really a genuine soul; he called up the whole Hotel staff to request them to drop me off on Bike to the point as it was impossible to make it in time on foot.

He went outside and stood on the road. I went after him, he was stopping passing by cars for help. One obliged, a “Fortuner”, (It was perfect-I think the car had a purpose) he agreed to drop us. I thanked Vijendar and sat in the front seat with Sam in the back seat with the tape. The ring was in the pocket of my blazer, yeah I carried one, on the advice of bloddy Mankey again, to be all dressed up while I do it.



So we are heading upwards. I was just thinking to myself how it’s destined to be. From where on earth did this guy come to drop us and Vijendar standing at 5:00 on the road to help us? Some thing was quirky about all of this. Wait, so we were thinking we will drop off at Sunset point only as we dint have time to find the right spot now. We had already asked Mirani to slow down his car a little bit now.

But the Fortuner takes a left turn to the lower mall instead of the right for the upper mall where the sunset point was! Driver told he was going on the lower mall- How will I manage now? But suddenly in a split second it ringed a bell; the Sunrise point is indeed on Lower mall. So I asked a morning jogger thinking this time he would know. Guess what he did, he told us the spot was just a km ahead of where the driver was actually going.

The driver was kind enough to drop us till there exactly. Man my belief in destiny was getting only stronger. After much cajoling he accepted some money as a token of his sweet gesture. The first sight was BREATHTAKING- I can rechristen this place as the official –Proposal Spot for every couple.

It can’t get better than this. You take a few steps down in a courtyard with a small hut, a bench in the open surrounded by railings, looking towards the expanse of huge valley and just Blue Mountains running parallel to each other in so many rows. It was sheer Bliss. I kept the stereo on the bench and played it. I was so moved at that moment- I thought I can come here bloody every year to propose my love. It was just as if some one had created it for this moment.





It could not have been better than this. So now the twist had to be communicated to Mirani- He now had to actually come to the real Sunrise point instead of the purported one and that too fast. As sun would rise in like half an hour. So we were there at 5: 45 am. I was told by hotel staff whom I was frantically calling for last 2 days about when does the sunrise actually happen in Kasauli?? !! So I had actually 15-20 min for Mona to reach there for it to happen as I had imagined it to be.

I and Sam plucked some wild beautiful flowers to shower them on steps, on the bench, near the tape, on the scrap book for her to walk down. Being a public spot we had some unwanted people- CRPF personnel for their morning exercises. I was a little thrown off, man it can’t be spoiled now. So I actually went up to them and told them “ I am going to propose here for my marriage, if you don’t mind can you please hurry up and leave a bit early!!!”.

Well as I said something was working for me that day- They were just so nice to leave in like 5 min flat. I asked them before leaving about the Sunrise time again and he said “Its not going to rise today!! “, I was like what? He told me it usually does by 5: 30 am itself but it was cloudy so it won’t be like a full sun shine. I actually felt numb for a moment- Is this really happening- So I have more time now.

And just then I could see at the turn of the road down the hill a White Swift climbing up. So the tape was on and I took my position, standing at the railing, facing towards the valley. There came my baby, stepping down in surprise and shock, and so I turn around as I had thought like straight out of a bollywood masala movie and hugged my baby. It was the most beautiful moment for me.

And we just looked into each other’s eyes and were so happy. I was actually laughing and was truly happy; she was trying to believe what was happening to her. I had not prepared any speech or anything- So it was just my spontaneous best at that moment- Things I had never told her and should have done long back. While the whole gang was sitting behind on the road trying to record us in the camera!

So finally I had to do what I gotta do- The moment a boy became a man!! – I bent down on my knees and popped the ring with the eternal question- “Ms. Mona Thakur, will you marry me?”, and “Yes” she said. !! . This was it. The Sun had risen in the clouds and it was still very beautiful and the song continued to play. The group popped opens the Champagne and I pour it in the valley. It was surreal. Me and my love – Finally together in Kasauli- We sealed it forever in our memories for our entire lives.




Some how I believe that something was playing a very important part in making it happen. You might call it destiny but there definitely was some intervention to make it happen and happen exactly as thought-each and evry moment.Just like the saying- when you want something too much-blah blah conspires for it to happen !!

It was just so beautiful; we sat there for an hour, drinking champagne. Oh wait a minute, how could I forget the story of the ring. It was one of the most unusually beautiful one’s out of 40-50 odd that I had seen. It had a heart shaped figurine of 3stones stuck like a hook from the ring- kindaa my story.
And I was not sure of the size of the ring. But like everything else it just fitted perfectly well. So this is the story of my Proposal- As I call it- The most beautiful morning of my life.