I 4 You

Preface

With every sunrise, the sky winks to the earth and passes a complimenting ‘Hello.’ The radiance lightens the aura with green, brown, blue, colorful, and colorless. With this milieu, every living and non-living have their storylines set for the day. The possibility to earn the daily bread being the foremost objective, the time continuum also stages a social drama adding a variety of sentiments to the living. It is these little stories which speak dimensions and volumes, carry a message for the era to comprehend and conceptualize. Those stories living amongst us need to be told to the social order, formally or informally.

It’s a professional personal thing. It’s a thin thread of storyline that possibly happens in disguised form in every individual’s life. It’s about that smile which has won the battle and got featured on face suppressing the pain within. It’s the silent cries that sync with the midnight clock ticks on weekends because life was too busy even to cry on weekdays.

It is the soreness that is left behind for being unable to make some decisions as it was difficult to weigh which one had more sacrifices. It’s telling the little heart housed inside the big body that it’s okay to cry. It's about being part of other’s happiness while knowing that ship we own is sinking. It’s about dreams, dreams that keep one going forward. It’s the liberation of freedom and understanding it in the real sense.

Unconditional love like the one exhibited and wrapped by a toddler rarely blossoms in an adult. But when it does, it’s a mania. That love ignites the mind structure and disturbs the food and water-conducting mechanism. Love, though has ample scribbled and scripted, still lights the lamp for many paths. It’s about all the color wrapped complications gifted by love. With all that said and seen, life is more of a convoluted social romantic drama with chapters of experience sharing.

Our life story, while knitting with jargon’s, only a twist at regular intervals can sort out those intricate interwoven complicates. i 4 you is one such life and love story. The periodic logical ends open new possibilities marking a break-point to the life decisions.

The 4 in ‘i 4 you’ stands as a symbol of many 4’s like care, miss, hate, like, love, lust, etc. that influence life. On top of the pyramid is lust. The story is about:

Celebrating life when it is at hands reach

Embracing love in every possible means

Rejoicing over the little things in life

What it means when we say living life to fullest

The purest form of emotions

The importance of having surrounded by family, friends, and well-wishers

‘i 4 you’ is yet another love story, another life story, yet another story.

Part A

Niya’s Adit

01. I Love You

I don’t know why,

Why,

It’s Love and heart!

I see through eyes,

I feel with skin,

I whiff with the nose,

I lick with tongue,

I heed with ears.

In love and romances,

I lose my senses.

Still,

Why is it love and heart?

My heart beats sturdy,

Loudly, impatiently,

When I say ‘love’ and when I demand,

Why is it heart?

Why is it heart?

Niya was a poet in the making and a recent graduate with a distinction in LOVE-101. She had given up on taking sides with the two schools of thoughts, whether to - ‘rise’ or ‘fall’ in love. She now had her theory that if rise, then grow high. If fall, then fall deep down. But in either way, there had to be a ‘converge.’ Most importantly, there had to be a ‘stay’ because that’s where miracles happened.

Why is the love red? she wondered asking that to herself. Without trying to understand her apprehension, she stared intensely at the desktop screen. As her fingers moved on the mouse, her wacky mind went ape having no clue of what she was browsing.

Who would it be who named the colors so? she asked herself again. With no answers in need, she smiled at the red-colored ceramic photo frame positioned beside her computer. The photo frame had the picture of her favorite quote printed in red letters on a white flowery background that said –

"They come with stories; they come with feelings,

The best gifts ever.

They come."

In the last six months, her office desk had seen quite a lot of restorations. It had gone from lackluster touchwood smell to aroma of ‘complex named’ perfumes. Reorganizing and assembling the stuffed small teddy bears and clay models happened daily. There was no more dust accumulated office table phone. The wooden pen stand had gathered different colored pens which usually otherwise had a borrowed blue point pen. The trash bin below the table mostly had crumpled paper balls and paper coffee cups.

She grabbed a blue pen, then a white A4 sheet white paper and began to scribble. She drew little heart-shaped drawings at the corners of the paper which seemed to boogie in celebration. She stared at the pen and smiled as if at her best friend. She gaped through the window and smirked at the funny shaped clouds which she thought were trying to tell her something. While the lines were gathering the lust words, she lost herself into the hypothetical universe she had created, which only had one emotion – Love.

***

Niya?? You stinky ass, what’s wrong with you lately?

Nothing Sana! uttering that in a stumpy voice, Niya grabbed the paper she was scribbling and crumpled it into her hands.

Niya was ‘rain on a dark cloudy day’ confident that Sana was not going to let her go any easy. In fact, ‘No easy let go’ was the reason why they both had turned out to be supportive colleagues. They were colleague turned friends, and friends turned BFF’s.

Sana snatched the paper from Niya’s hands and started reading it aloud.

Like I said, like you heard,

Like I wanted, like you are.

My likes and dislikes,

Are your dislikes and likes,

Union is bigger,

Intersection is slender,

Likes of types and materials,

Dislikes of people and nature,

I disagree your dislikes,

You disagree my likes,

One thing you have liked,

Of my likes,

Is me liking you!

And that is why,

I Love

Okay, I see what you did there! You need the word ‘You’ to complete this poem, said Sana with a husky voice.

Niya wore a quirky smile, and she muchly wished for an invisibility cloak. She knew her secret would no longer be one anymore.

So, who is this ‘You’? Sana persisted, And when do you plan to say it?

Wwwaaeeeelll, Niya dragged that word like a sloth and continued Well, Well, Well….

Jump into that Well! It’s quite deep already alleged Sana.

Niya laughed with a shy and said, Now, don’t tell me that you are unaware of my fairy-tale!

I know my babes, Sana half closed her eyes, It is you and Adit. My concern is why so much madness all of a sudden? You were normal until past recent times!

Niya knew she had to do it sometime or the other.

I got engaged! she whispered.

You bitch! Sana kicked her, And this is when and how you decide to tell your best friend? I want to kick you harder! She did just that.

Sana sighed While I am still trying to understand my three-year-old relationship, you got engaged with a guy you have known for six months? A long-distance relationship? And why am I only hearing about it now?

Niya; staying composed and calm; knew that she had some explanations for doing. Trying to answer as many, she said, I know, and it’s sensibly okay for you to be mad at me. Listen; I was unaware that I was going to be engaged. It came out as a surprise to me as well!

With the increasing impatience, Sana said, Oh! Now you think I am going to buy this bat shit cover-up story? Really? You ghost! You son of a gun! I so much hate you! with weird expressions, she pulled a chair and sat in front of Niya and said, Ask me not how much!

Sana kept her hands on her forehead with ‘I hate you’ expression on the face and said, Okay! My lady, tell me. I am all ears and nose and eyes and face. I hope you and your butterfly story will convince me. Else you are going to pay for it.

Niya took a deep breath and restlessly explained how she got engaged and how her world had changed for the predictable better good. Sana was in tears. She hugged Niya tightly and expressed, You lucky ass!

While Niya had a fast heartbeat recollecting her treasured moments, her eyes fell on the photo frame. This time, the quote on the frame made sense to her differently. She could vividly recollect the hug from Adit, as well the hug from Ish soon after ring exchange. The soothing and comforting hug from Sana stood equal to that. No wonder the best gifts, hugs - in this case, came with feelings and stories. They both smiled at each other with the sense of ‘I get you. Totally.’

Then, did you get laid? winked Sana.

Shut up! said Niya with a loud exhale.

Sana then called out for her gang, the remaining nine of them and announced, Niya is engaged, and you got to listen to her.

There was a noisy discussion in the room. Simultaneous talks were creating noise. There was a decent deal of quirky questions, and the room sounded flea market. Sana, being the loudest of all made them shut their mouth, take a chair, and settle. Murthy asked to order tea while it got peacefully rejected.

With the same curiosity and interest, Niya repeated her story and how it turned out to be a huge surprise