‘Cool it guys!!. I couldn’t stand it any longer, So had to do something like this,’ said Thej.
‘But how could you trick us both, especially in something so important? ’ argued Rani.
‘Yeah! What if one of us didn’t love the other? What if it was only one side love? Or what if neither of us loved the other? You could have ruined good relationship that we had.’ said Tarun supporting his girl.
‘Don’t “WHAT IF” me you idiot, I am a friend close enough to both of you to understand perfectly that you two were madly in love. It was your damn ego that was stopping you from letting the other know. Neither of you wanted to be the first person to propose. Hadn’t I interfered, you both would have continued this whole dumb drama for ages. And for that what you do? Argue with me instead of thanking? Such blockheads I got for friends,’ said Thej with a slight anger in his voice.
‘That’s not true!’ said the love birds in unison though both of them knew perfectly well that Thej was speaking gospel truth.
Rani and Tarun were traveling from Tirupati in Padmavati Express when the first met.
Both were final year Computer Science students - Tarun in IIIT Hyderabad and Rani in NIT Warangal. They were going back to their colleges after vacation. They had a long chat and observed that they had lots in common, the biggest one being their ego problem. They both agreed that they had that in plenty. They chatted up to 3am (from 5pm the previous day when the train left Tirupati) when Rani`s station came and she got down after saying bye-byes. Tarun decided to catch a couple of hours sleep before the train reaches Hyd. The train was in the outskirts of the city when he woke. Then, the TTE came and demanded the ticket. It was then, he noticed that their tickets had mixed up somehow and tried to explain it to the TTE who didn’t buy the story and made him pay a huge fine.
He decided he would call her and demand her, the money he had to pay because of her. He realized they hadn’t exchanged numbers or email ids. All kinds of curses came out of his mouth when he realized he didn’t even know her name. Even if had remembered that he didn’t know her name a couple of minutes before the train left, he could have checked it from the reservation list. He wondered how they managed to talk about everything yet didn’t ask their names. He hated having to lose money unnecessarily and his mood remained bad for a couple of days. Whenever he had to spend money or pay 4 something, he cursed her. Soon, he realized he was thinking of her 24X7. At the end of one week, he began wishing he could talk to her again or be with her.
Exactly one week after that, he got a call,
‘Hello?’
‘Hai, guess who?’ answered a female voice.
He instantly recognized her voice. It was as if he had heard her voice a million times before. (And true too, the whole train drama was repeating in his head over and over for an entire week.)
‘Hey you are the train girl. How are you?’
……………..
……………..
This went on for almost an hour when Rani’s balance was out. Tarun didn’t know this and decide he wouldn’t call her. ‘Let her call back, she disconnected.’ Though he felt that something else could have happened like battery down or something, he decided she will have to call(Ego problem). Rani had a top up card in hand, but she decided she wouldn’t call. ‘I called the first time, now let him call’. (She is no better, same problem here). Both did nothing but look at their cell phones for an hour willing it ring but not dialing. After an hour, Tarun decided he couldn’t wait any longer. Cursing himself, he dialed the number.
‘Hi, I called only to tell you that you have to pay me for that train thing?’
‘Wow! Looks like you miss me a lot Tarun! And asking for money is a nice pretext for making a call. Ha! Ha!’
‘Yeah? And who took all the troubling of doing all kinds of detective work to get my name and phone number? No Rani, it looks to me like you are the one who misses me.’
‘Yeah?’
‘Yeah!’
………
……..
This went on for sometime. And soon they began calling each other many times in a single day. Then they began meeting each other. One of them would come to the others place every weekend.(It’s a 2.5 hour journey from Hyderabad to Warangal). Soon they realized that they were in love but waited for the other to admit it first.
Now, Thej was Rani’s classmate in school and Tarun’s in intermediate and these two felt really happy to have such a cool common friend (self-dabba). Soon he became a very close friend to both. He realized that these two loved each other, but their ego would not allow them acknowledge it. They would for whatever time it takes for the other to propose. (And Thej knew it would be forever). So he decided to act and so wrote love letters to both as written by the other and gave to each personally. Every thing turned out to be good and was going on smoothly until today when they came to know about the self-less trick played by Thej.
Now coming back to the present argument:
Thej got really angry and went away. They both realized that Thej was right but even now they waited for the other to say it first. Neither would first admit their mistake in arguing with Thej. They knew perfectly well the other person was thinking the same thing but remained silent. Then after half an hour,
‘Thej is right,’ they both said at the same time and surprised at their timing, laughed out aloud.
‘Thank goodness, I was losing my patience waiting for you to admit it,’ said Thej coming out of his hiding place behind the wall. .
‘You both are such blockheads! Filled up to necks with ego! What does it matter who says it first? I know what you two dumbos were thinking for the past half an hour. Why do you always wait for the other?? N e way I am just glad you gave up your ego for once, though it took half an hour’
Rani and Tarun smiled at this, wondering how well their best friend can understand their thoughts.
Don't know how well I succeeded in telling about ego problem through this story, but my main theme was that. And the whole story is pure fiction. And the Thej here is not me :)
