You may be wondering by now who is this woman we are talking about in the story. So I have to go back in time and relive some happy memories, when the summers seemed endless and the dreams all in the palm of my hand. It was a time when the past was forgotten and the future a misty thought in the very back of one of the endless corridors that was my mind.

This was the time when I was working as junior programmer in Bangalore, five years ago. I was young and full of energy, that if someone could have poked me with a pin I would have oozed warmth and hope in to the air, in that year. My friend Bharath, who was already earning loads of money all with the IT boom and everything, introduced me to this nice and quiet girl one day. We were visiting one of our favorite hangouts in the city ( it seems quite funny now on introspection, but our favorite place was Brigade Road, a small road near MG road where we just walk up and down, gawking at girls), when this girl comes up to Bharath and says Hi. The short end of the story is she was introduced to me as a colleague of my friend’s.

The one striking memory I have of that day is that she looked so frank, shy and outforth at the same time that I was dumbfounded. The truth is, I was not embarrassed to stare at her and so didn’t she, as I gathered much much later in my life. Soon we were having coffee at one of the cafes and there he was Bharath the usual shy guy who was talking nineteen to the dozen, while I, supposedly, the extrovert, was just trying to look just a little bit uninterested. After some time Bharath’s girlfriend at that time came in and after all the introductions were done they left us both together. Now you can probably imagine what might have happened. We sat together and learnt about each other. It turned out that she was working as a secretary in Bharath’s company.

Days went by and we met each other occasionally and there was a time when we could not stop from seeing each other. Those were the days when the cellphone revolution had not touched India in a big way. So we were content to write each other notes and send cards. In a rush of love of passion we got married the coming year with both our parents’ consent. We took up this nice apartment on the outskirts of the city and started our lives together.

When I think of all those times when we just started living together I can only had happy times. Small squibbles and bad quarrels ( there were too few then) were settled down once and for all in the comfort of the bedroom and in each other’s arms. I have heard of fallouts and I have heard of breakups. I have heard of slow fallouts and one incident breakups. But in this relationship, I had a sinking feeling that it was doomed after just one year of happiness. Mind you, I am talking about happiness with her and not any misery. She was too good a woman and really sweet. But there was the problem, you see. I could not take it anymore. Man there is only so much sweetness and possessive love that I could take.