A love story of Shalu and Abhimanyu
Part 1
Sitting in the garden of the city college, Shalu took Abhimanyu's hands in her soft hands and said, " How much do you love me Abhimanyu? Hearing Shalu's words, Abhimanyu started laughing and then, controlling his laughter, said, "Shalu, do you always have only this one question to ask? Sometimes, like other lovers, ask me something else as well." "Abhimanyu, first tell me how much do you love me?" Shalu said a little seriously, then Abhimanyu looked into her eyes and said, "Shalu, the whole college knows that we both are the best couple for the last 3 years and everyone imagines a love like ours, then why do you ask me this question again and again? Don't you trust me?" "It is not like that Abhimanyu, it often happens that two lovers get separated at some point of time", said Shalu expressing her trouble.
"Those who get separated are the ones who are afraid and do not accept their love in front of people, but I am not afraid of anyone, when we have not done anything wrong then why should I be afraid and as far as loving you is concerned, the truth is that after my mom, you are the second woman whom I love more than myself", said Abhimanyu holding Shalu's hand lovingly in his hands.
Shalu was satisfied with Abhimanyu's answer, then she thought of something and said to Abhimanyu, "You said that you are not afraid of anyone, right?"
"Yes, I am not afraid", said Abhimanyu excitedly.
"Look, my father saw us together", said Shalu.
"Da..Dad, where are you?" Abhimanyu said stammeringly and started looking here and there. Seeing Abhimanyu stammering like this, Shalu started laughing loudly and said, "You who were not scared of anyone, got scared of Father's name." Seeing Shalu laughing, Abhimanyu ran towards her but before he could catch her, Shalu got up and started running. Abhimanyu also started running after her to catch her. After running for some time, Shalu got tired and Abhimanyu stopped her by holding her hand. Both of them were breathing very fast, then Shalu teased him and said, "You got scared of Father's name, how will you ask for my hand from him?" Abhimanyu pulled her towards himself and said, "I will go and tell her straight away that I have fallen in love with your
daughter. Please marry her and I will keep her happy forever." Saying this, Abhimanyu started looking into Shalu's eyes. Shalu blushed and lowered her eyelids and then looking into Abhimanyu's eyes asked, "Are you really going to ask for my hand in marriage from Father ?
"Hand... what will I do with just the hand? I will ask for your hand from your father tomorrow itself." Abhimanyu started laughing, making fun of his father. Shalu lightly punched Abhimanyu on his chest and said, "Beware if you say anything like this about my father."
"Well, we haven't even got married yet and you have started trying to silence me already", Abhimanyu said in a dramatic tone. Shalu became a little sad and said, "Abhimanyu, I love my father very much. I can't listen to anyone else saying anything about him."
"Hey My Baby, I was just joking. I respect your father a lot and he is my father too, silly girl. In fact, I am happy that after marrying you, I will also get the support of a father", Abhimanyu said lovingly. Shalu's face lit up after getting respect for her father in his words. Abhimanyu took Shalu's face in his hands and said in a low voice, "Shalu, just like you love your father, I love my mom a lot. After Dads's death, she has taken care of me and herself alone. For you, I can go against the whole world but not my mom. Nothing is more important to me than her happiness."
"So will she refuse to marry", asked Shalu worriedly
"She will not refuse to marry if she likes the girl", said Abhimanyu after thinking for a while
"So what kind of girl does she like?" said Shalu cheerfully
"I will tell you all that later, we have our final exams after 2 months, let's prepare for them first, if we fail then your father and my mom will break both of us without marriage", said Abhimanyu making a face and Shalu started laughing, when Abhimanyu started to leave then Shalu stopped him by holding his hand, Abhimanyu looked at him shocked and signaled through his eyes then Shalu said "You will really marry me, right?
"Yes, as soon as my studies are over I will join Father's office which Mom is now handling and then I will meet your father and ask for your hand in marriage, anyway he will not find such a capable son-in-law anywhere in Bangalore", Abhimanyu said smilingly and Shalu also started smiling and started looking at him lovingly. Seeing Shalu looking at him like this, Abhimanyu came close to her and said, "Have faith Shalu, if I have loved you then I will keep it, just for a few days after that we will be together forever"
"I have faith in Abhimanyu, and it is on the foundation of this faith that this love has stood till today. I will wait for that day when you will come to ask for my hand from Father", Shalu said while hugging Abhimanyu. And then both of them went towards their respective classes.
After returning home from college, both of them started preparing for their exams.
Shalu's father Ravi Shastri was a successful businessman who was often out of town for his work. Shalu lived at home with her mother Malini and younger brother Shubh. Shalu's house was full of all the comforts and amenities and there was nothing lacking in them.
She was no less, Shalu was very close to her father, Ravi had named Shalu himself and he loved her more than himself and fulfilled all her wishes, Malini also behaved with Shalu like a friend and Shalu also shared everything with Malini openly, be it college assignment or gossip among friends, but till now Shalu had not told anyone at home about Abhimanyu, she wanted to complete her studies first and only after that she would tell mom and dad about Abhimanyu!! Shalu was also good in studies, so she was completely engrossed in preparing for her exams!!
On the other hand, Abhimanyu was the only son of his mother Shailaja Bhaskar. Abhimanyu's father Arvind passed away a few years ago when Abhimanyu was very young. Shailaja raised her son alone. Arvind had a very big office which Shailaja later took over. Shailaja's family members put a lot of pressure on her to remarry but God knows what was the reason that Shailaja decided to spend her life with her son. When her family members repeatedly asked her not to, she turned away from them and started living with Abhimanyu in Bangalore forever. She did not look back in the last 24 years. She had a lot of influence in the office. The entire staff was scared of even hearing her name. After Arvind's death, she seemed to have turned into stone but even that stone had a delicate heart which had a lot of love and affection for Abhimanyu. Shailaja loved Abhimanyu a lot and Abhimanyu loved his mother equally. But like Shalu, he too had hidden his and Shalu's love from his mother. He first wanted to become capable so that he could tell her about himself and Shalu.... Abhimanyu too got busy preparing for the upcoming exams.
We didn't even realize when the two months flew by. In these two months Shalu and Abhimanyu couldn't meet each other. They would just talk on the phone sometimes. Both saw each other on the day of the exam, but couldn't talk much. Both wished each other best of luck and went to their respective classes.
Both did well in the exam. Abhimanyu asked her to drop him home. After meeting her friends, Shalu came and sat on Abhimanyu's bike.
She kept one hand on Abhimanyu's waist and with the other hand she was holding her bag, both were lost in conversation. Abhimanyu liked it when Shalu used to sit with him on the bike, he wanted Shalu to go to college with him but Shalu was afraid that if someone saw her and told the family, that is why she always refused Abhimanyu but today she did not refuse, maybe she was understanding the distance from Abhimanyu for two months...
It was the first day of college when Shalu and Abhimanyu had a fight over something and both of them left staring at each other but slowly the fight turned into friendship and then friendship turned into love, Abhimanyu was as handsome and well-built as Shalu was beautiful, the color of Shalu's eyes was light blue and on seeing these eyes Abhimanyu always used to forget everything, every student remembered that last day of the first year of college
When Abhimanyu, drenched in rain, had expressed his love for Shalu by kneeling down in front of everyone and Shalu had hugged him. And then slowly this love kept growing so much that both of them started loving each other more than themselves but Shalu never crossed her limits nor did Abhimanyu ever force her. He respected Shalu as much as he loved her. He never wanted Shalu to get hurt by anything and hence always remained within his limits. He had learnt to respect women from his mother Shailaja. Shalu and Abhimanyu would sit for hours after the class was over holding each other's hands and would search for their own identity in each other's eyes. Both would know what was in each other's mind without saying anything. Shalu would talk a lot but Abhimanyu would mostly remain quiet and would look at Shalu smiling.
He used to listen to her talks. One evening when he was smiling at something Shalu said, Shalu said to him, "Why do you speak so little? Do you know how much I like listening to you, but you never say anything." Hearing Shalu's words, Abhimanyu smiled and said, "What is that?" and then he stood in front of Shalu and started speaking and kept on speaking in one breath. Shalu was not able to understand anything, yet she kept on listening to him smiling. Abhimanyu was looking very cute to her at that time. Abhimanyu continued to speak. In no time, Shalu touched her lips to Abhimanyu's lips and smilingly walked away from there. Abhimanyu's face turned red with shame. This was the first time when Shalu had kissed Abhimanyu. College days ended like this, laughing and playing.
Well, the exams were over, both had done well in their exams and hence they were not particularly worried about the results. They were only worried about how their families would react after knowing about their love. Both were a bit nervous but at the same time were happy to know about their new life to come.