The Tragic Saga of a Week Long Romance

Deeptanu admits it to me in confidence. He's lonely. One can only admit this over a drink and despondency. So do about ten other friends who are literally half a world away from home, who aren't married yet. He was morose over beers yesterday. Years ago, we'd sit around lustily admiring girls who're smart and beautiful from a distance. The distance has been self imposed and self enforced. Deeptanu, the stupid bum gets attached easily and blames Bollywood movies and shayari for carrying his heart on his sleeve. Hence the distance. Never having seen real romance between adults, he bit the bullet and decided to experiment with online dating, six months ago. Which may not have been a good time, really. He couldn't have known.

It was a whirlwind online romance. They started talking on a Wednesday and Deeptanu had her phone number by Thursday afternoon. Deeptanu was suspicious of how quickly this had progressed. He in fact wanted to Skype to make sure he was talking to the same girl from the picture. It is uncharacteristic of online interactions to go from messages directly to Skype. Deeptanu didn't use the phone number, but got a call Friday night. He was out so he dind't talk at all. He got a call on Saturday afternoon too. They spoke for an hour. The conversation went so well that Deeptanu was suspicious again. But when you like talking to someone, caution gets thrown to the wind.

Here's an example of why he enjoyed talking to her. He asked what the view is like from her office. She said it was a concrete jungle and a few sad pigeons walking on the ledge. Very much the imaginative being he is, Deeptanu goes " You mean their feathers look ruffled and their eyes are crazy? Other white pigeons with beautiful feathers strut about like they have somewhere to be. The sad rock pigeons look like their dog just died, their wives just left them and their truck broke down."

She laughed and went... "Yes, the pigeon's truck broke down.." and then went into peels of laughter... "And he picked up a banjo and started drinking" she added.

The connection of silliness between two people clicks instantaneously. Laughing without contempt at the absurd comes from an acceptance of  existence as it is. Sometimes that acceptance is cosmetic: beneath it seethes a complete and utter discontent. Deeptanu has seen it before. He is afraid he's seeing it again. She even said on saturday, "I can see us together, happy forever after". Deeptanu said to me "This situation resembled this other fickle crazy I knew, fell in love with in spite of my guard being on high alert, and got jilted.". "Her smarts and sense of humor were assets, among others, and the online one was turning out to be the same." And like before, the conversation never seemed to end! Quite literally. On Saturday and Sunday they spent the equivalent of a workday on the phone. He didn't mind that she kept receiving texts at the frequency she did. "She's either very popular, or I'm not the only one she's talking to." he thought, but gave her the benefit of the doubt, like he did another crazy from over a decade ago. They talked about books, family, friends, art, traveling, writing and stories... Here was an audience to whom every single one of his stories was new. She would be his canvas to color in with tales.

Deeptanu was a couple Knob Creeks into his story. He raised the glass to ceiling lamp, watching the potent bourbon glint. "Knob Creek, she liked this drink..." but realizing he was talking about someone else altogether, brought his glass back down. As if nothing had happened he went on "She called me when she was driving home from work on Monday. She said she liked me because she thinks I can be trained. I wondered what she thought I am, a dog?"  They spoke for a bit and she had to get into her apartment and shower, she told him. She texted a little later saying she was out of the shower. Her citrus body wash made every pore on her body feel fresh. Deeptanu tells me, when he's that into a girl, a mere allusion like that puts a vivid, borderline graphic, image in his head. He doesn't let in on though. She calls and they talked into ungodly hours of the night.

Deeptanu wondered on Tuesday morning if she was able to work during the day at all. He held his cool. So far, he hadn't been the first person to text. He heard somewhere 'To deny a desire is to defeat it.'. Deeptanu has always been a semi-pompous ass that way: quoting one liners in context, such that the story seems bigger than it is. Bengalis can be like that. Sometimes, the lines seem to work events around themselves. This one time he was telling me about his father at the hospital. He was the supervising doctor for that shift. A couple of young doctors watched a corpse being wheeled away on a gurney and joked about it. Deeptanu's father was miffed at this lack of respect for the deceased. One of the junior doctors is supposed to have said "You get used to seeing corpses in a hospital." to which his Dad is supposed to have replied "I've been in this hospital for twenty years and I'm not used to it. How can you be?". A passionate scene, this does evoke. I'm sure something similar must have happened. This scene also happens to be right out of an Amitabh Bacchan movie.

But this is his story, so I convey it you as it was told. On Teusday evening he kept looking at his phone for her texts. None came. He looked for things to do, but couldn't settle on anything. The phone was unusually inert that day. Yes, unusually so. Long conversations, even a couple of them, become 'usual' before you can acknowledge it to yourself. He didn't text her. He knows that once he starts, his texting her, will become the new 'usual'. The first text is all it takes. He knows himself well. So he tosses and turns in bed and glides into somnolence at yet another ungodly hour, speaking to no one, like he did five nights ago. Whether it was anticipation, or the coffee he had at 5pm, one cannot say. Again, Bengalis!

He spent Wednesday waiting for the sun to set. She called on her commute from work. He is surprised he doesn't remember what it exactly was they spoke of. He usual does. Whether the conversation was boring, or that the question why she hadn't called on Tuesday, lurked at the back of his mind, he didn't tell me. They spoke again after her shower. The words 'breasts and thighs' were used later. Deeptanu cursed himself for having a Y chromosome. He managed to stay focussed on a clean conversation however. She later offered that she was talking to other men the night before. Deeptanu felt special that he had her exclusive attention of the past couple of days.

I count this as a red flag, but clearly Deeptanu didn't at the time. That night, she told him of all the previous men she had been with, even texting him pictures of them, disclosing details about their lives that sane people try to protect. The details of her escapades with them, drove the back and forth into an... adults only direction. At this point Deeptanu whipped out his phone showed me pics, not of the exes, but her, in her... naturalist moods. Let us say their talk reached a mutually beneficial climax.

Six Knob creeks will do that to a man. He shares more than warranted.

Thursday morning, put a brake on Deeptanu's teenage dream. News from home was ominous. His father had just had a a heart attack and Deeptanu would have to leave for home very soon, for good. Thursday evening as spoke with her over the phone again, his enthusiasm was subdued. Right before she was about to fall asleep, he mentioned what had happened and its consequence on his future plans. He added that he's understand if wouldn't consider moving to India with him. She said " I never said I wouldn't consider it. One of my friends of Indian descent who grew up to be a doctor here, decided to marry and move to India. They are happy there." For a second Deeptanu wondered, is this sleep talk or did he just become a really lucky man! He found out next night. 

This is what he heard "Do you really think, I'd give up a happy life here in the land where I was brought up to go to new a place, that really isn't mine!? My parents maybe, but me?! Are you crazy? I know what you did. Nothing has happened to your father. You're making things up. I bet you couldn't stay anyway and wanted a last hurrah! Look, my family and I are above this! We don't need people like you among us. You make me sick. You come from a filthy land and just want to have fun. What happens in America stays in America right! How dare you toy with my hopes and emotions. You f^&*ing liar! You disgust me. I hate people like you. You have no right to be here..." The barrage of insults was unceasing. Deeptanu went numb. His face felt cold. He didn't know what to say! No one in her state, is ready to talk logically or even accept truths. He could never had dreamt of her ever sounding like this. And yet, he couldn't hang up, for the same reason as he kept looking at his phone a few evenings ago. In less than twelve hours, everything that seemed peachy, wilted. "...And just remember, you played with my emotions and I hope you suffer."

Deeptanu was stunned by events, stung by her vitriol and stumped by what he'd do next. Eight friggin' Knob Creeks! They make a grown man cry.

He went back to his apartment and wept some more I imagine. He's preparing to head back home. He's definitely never dating online anymore, or so he says. People like him, are always looking, but she never comes into their life for very long.

He could be a  carefree player that hops from girl to girl or juggles many girls at a time, which is very appealing on screen. You need to be shallow with the emotional attention span of a gecko to pull it off. Thankfully, I have no such friends.

* This is my first attempt at fiction.