Read first part of The Picture #ShortStory here.

Read the second part of the story here.

“Who is this from?” Mohit wondered looking at the long email he had just received. Apart from college assignments it had information about various competitive exams to apply for after graduation. It was from someone named Kriti who even after racking his brains for a long time, he couldn’t place. He cordially replied to her informing about the jumble and requesting nevertheless if he could refer to it for himself.

The peculiar reply had Kriti’s mind in a knot. Baffled and embarrassed, she let out the confusion created by a missing dot in the email handle. She apologised profusely and said that the information was his if he wanted it. Both of them didn’t reveal how impressed they were with each other’s writing, chivalry and future planning though. They were both in the final year of Engineering and keen on post-graduation.

What began as a serendipity soon blossomed into a friendship and then relationship which they never paused to realise. The fact that they lived in different cities didn’t deter them from finding solace in each other’s words and virtual company. They exchanged notes, gave pointers and cheered each other’s small successes. The beautiful and popular Kriti and the charming introvert Mohit had hit it off, and how! Regular calls, mails and a few clandestine meetings managed to keep them glued to each other and made them crave for more.

Their surreptitious behaviour invited endless questions from their friends but they agreed to keep it under wraps till they made something out of their lives. Mohit wanted to enter one of the prestigious IIMs in India while Kriti had her eyes set on Australian universities. They knew their paths were different but had a lovely picture of them together in their mind. Wasn’t distance a crease they had learned to iron out long back?

Sadly, life had other plans. Challenges and responsibilities of their new lives soon started weighing down upon them heavily. Their emails went unanswered for days and calls became infrequent before completely drying up. It didn’t help matters when their parents came into picture and they started pressurising them to settle down. Although Mohit and Kriti never had any other romantic liaisons the pull they had for each other slowly started weakening.

Who would bell the cat though? Mohit was hoping for a campus placement overseas, which given his splendid performance was a cakewalk. Kriti was getting great opportunities in Australia and didn’t want to let them go. What about their future together? Hadn’t they vouched to make it work somehow? Where did they go from here? Nobody wanted to address the elephant in the room.

Both of them didn’t look forward to hazard an attempt at answering these questions or seeking it from the other one. Considering their intimacy, they deserved a proper closure but wouldn’t that put finality to the obvious? Wasn’t it an insult to their feelings? Was it necessary?

Right or not, they did the next best thing they could think of. They silently wished each other the best in life, changed their contact details and decided to move on.

Watch out for the last part in the next post!