Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Survival Of Love: My entry for the Get Published contest




A literature student, who knows more about the corners of her dusty college library than the race to high paying careers, would probably never imagine her man, coming from an MNC and talking about his trade of corns in Europe. And no man, who knows it is smart to talk about gadgets, would date a girl bound to classics. But it does happen with the narrator, who meets Kabir for the very first time at her home. She finds a known sheen of dream hidden behind a pair of spectacles. Kabir is someone who can handle a group of fake people, but does not know how to respond to simplicity. He looks several times below, when he so wants to keep looking in her eyes. Our narrator, Avi, and Kabir talk for about 10 minutes, and their conversation free them in a way. In each other, they see an unknown side of life.

Kabir had read and appreciated her poetry several times before, not knowing who she was. Now that Avi tells him about her works of poetry and stories, her simplicity draws him in, and he reveals a lot about himself. He finds something magically appealing about her. They talk about books, they talk about their own poems and part with a promise to come back with their writings. A promise made on a thin ice. Which would better be broken, but better kept by an unseen pull, a force. He, a drifter by nature, who would recluse from anyone who tried to come closer. And Avi, someone who has just trusted books so far, finds him strangely close. Avi emphasizes him to write, instead of typing his poems. She has this vague confidence, that she can judge a writer through his writing and work, combined. Her queer way of relating him closely with her books maybe?

After this unexpected meeting at her home, where he just drops in to return few novels that her sister had borrowed from her, for him to read, a series of meetings unfold. And everything happens so naturally, that they both feel like they are flowing on water.

On their second meeting, he comes with his poetry that titles, “You are not welcome”. And she comes with her poem, whose first line says, I was a dream, now a reality, soon to elapse as memory”.
Both are fearfully aware, that they live in different realms of the world, with different social circle, topics to talk about. They live their lives for different purposes, which do not recognize eachother. And even together, they see this one single world, very differently.

While on the first date she has this flighty feeling that says –“you belong somewhere else”. By the third date, she feels that she is dancing in a crystal ball, with a strong blizzard blowing around.

If you have picked up the cue from ‘blizzard’ in their crystal, you will know a lot is to happen next. A lot is to happen between them, helping them grow together, and know themselves better. A lot more than a plain love story, peek into their world, to know what happens the next.

This is my entry for the HarperCollins–IndiBlogger Get Published Contest