Tashan-E-Ishq: The Author Recognition Competition
Love Amidst Our Hatred
A boy in his early twenties dressed up in a black shirt and denim jeans was standing at the front gate of Delhi University. He walked inside looking around in the campus and unknowingly bumped into a girl dressed up in a pink top with a long purple coloured skirt. The books from her hand fell down as she bent down to pick them up.
Girl: Dekh ke nahi chala jata kya?
Boy: You could’ve also seen. (He replied in the same tone.)
Girl: Haan, kyun Prime minister ho tum?
(She asked and stood straight to face the boy.)
Girl: Oh.. Toh Mr. Kunj Sarna aap hain! After all, aap toh thehre bhagwaan so, obviously I’ve to look out and walk, right? Sarnas se toh aur kuch expect bhi nahi kiya jaa sakta.
Kunj: Look who is talking! Miss Twinkle Taneja, you could also see and walk. Why am I wasting my time explaining you. Will you Taneja’s ever accept your mistake? Seems next to impossible I guess.
Twinkle makes a whatever face, turns around and walks off leaving kunj irked. Kunj too walks off for his class.
The Sarna and Taneja had been each others rival for the past 2 decades or so. Earlier the two families were close but due to some misunderstandings they had drifted apart. The hatred among the family had made the kids of these families to each other as well.
Twinkle and kunj’s fight had been a daily entertainment for the rest of the students in the campus. All very well knew that the two could never get along.
As both took the same stream; marketing, the two had to even bear each other in the class which to some extent wasn’t a big deal as both were very bright students who would pay great attention to their studies.
As a regular day was running, all the students waiting for the teacher to come. When she arrived, she spoke “I have decided to give a project to all of you. This is going to be done in pairs. To be fair enough, I have made chits which have each of your names and the ones that are picked up together will have to pair up for the project. Is it clear?”. All of them agreed. The teacher read out all the pairs as she picked up random chits. While continuing to speak out the pairs, she added “so the next one turns out to be two bright students together, kunj and twinkle. All of you better watch out”. As the class heard this, they all oohed and aahed and began whispering to one another. Kunj and twinkle looked at each other and exchanged glances and gave disgusting looks. The teacher screamed out asking what was the need to make such noised and reaction to this pair. Everyone remained silent. Both, kunj and twinkle reached out for the teacher and asked if there was anyway possible if she could change the pair. The teacher asked for the reason to which the two had no answer as they didn’t want that the teacher looses the impression she had for the two of them. With no other choice, both agreed to work with each other. The class remained silent for a while. The teacher resumed making the remaining pairs and later announced what the project was about and the dead line. With saying all this she leaves. The class was back to normal mode, all chit chatting with each other, some discussing about the project while the others discussing about the funniest pair i.e twinkle and kunj. Kunj was just about the leave the class when twinkle called out his name. She went to him and spoke in full attitude “So now that I am stuck with you …” kunj interrupts saying “Correction, we are stuck with each other”. Twinkle continues being annoyed “Yea yea whatever. So now you better bring all the information and I’ll take care of the presentation alright?”. “Well, I am not the only one going to bring information. You bring half, I’ll bring the other half. Simultaneously the first half of the presentation can be done by you and the other half by me. I hope that was clear enough. Moreover, do not try to boss around me only cause we are paired up now” kunj says annoyed and in a slightly little high tone. “Fine” twinkle replies arrogantly matching his tone and angrily moves towards the cafeteria.
The two of them would meet up at the library or some cafe to discuss regarding the project and during this they had learnt and observed a lot about each other realizing that they had a complete wrong opinion about one another. Their friendship grew with time and soon they were best friends. The whole college was surprised at this but later digested the fact.
One random day, twinkle entered into the class and looked for kunj when she heard some girls gossiping about kunj. She went near to hear it properly and she was shocked after listening it. She left the class and messaged kunj saying “I want to meet you urgently. Come meet me in the garden” to which kunj replied instantly “Okay (with a smilie)”. Twinkle walked over the garden, her eyes looking for kunj. She found kunj standing near the bench waiting for her. She motioned towards him and tapped his shoulder. Kunj turned and found twinkle. “What’s wrong? Why did you call me urgently” kunj said in one breath. Twinkle calmly replied “Well, I actually heard you had a girlfriend named Alisha I guess?”. Kunj lowered his head. Twinkle continued “Am I right?”. Kunj spoke “Ahuh”. “Then why didn’t you ever tell me? Don’t you consider me as your best friend? Do you think I am not worthy enough to know that? It’s just feels so sad knowing that I did not know about this” twinkle spoke and kunj sensed the pain in her voice. “I am sorry twinkle. I really didn’t mean to hurt you please?” said kunj. “It’s okay. Just promise me you will never hide anything from me now on and and, do you miss her?” twinkle spoke. Kunj face turned pale. He said, “Yes twinkle, I do miss her sometimes”. Twinkle feels sorry for him and gives him a hug. But somewhere she was unhappy about it and she had no idea why. Twinkle spoke, “Anyway, come lets go back to the class”. Kunj nodded his head and they moved together.
Few days later, twinkle and kunj were sitting together in the cafeteria having their lunch when someone called out for kunj’s name aloud. Both turned their heads around and found a girl standing wearing a pink dress. She ran to kunj and hugged him tightly. Twinkle was surprised. She questioned kunj through her expressions askig who she was. He gave her a wait-I’ll-tell-you look. “Alisha” exclaimed kunj. “Ahuh! So glad to see you again. Before you ask me what I am doing here, I am here to study in this college with you” said Alisha excitedly. “But, did’t we ..” kunj was interrupted by Alisha who spoke “Yes, I know we broke up but later I realized that you meant so much to me and I am incomplete without you”. “Really?” questioned kunj. Alisha replied “Of course darling. I mean it”. Twinkle was burning in jealousy. She got so mad that she just stood and left.
Days passed by, kunj and alisha were back in their relationship but kunj wasn’t happy enough. Seeing this, a little jealousy took place in twinkle’s heart. She began to avoid kunj and had stopped talking to him. Kunj felt uneasy about this. The two just waited for each other to start a conversation but non of them did. Slowly, months passed by and they still hadn’t speak to each other. Kunj was very badly affected and decided to face her. He was finding twinkle in the campus. He finally found her, caught hold of her hand, dragged her to one silent corner in the campus and pinned her to the wall. “What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you ignoring me? What have I done?” says kunj aggressively. Twinkle remained silent. Kunj continued “Can you answer? I have noticed that you have stopped talking since alisha is back. You never picked up my calls, didn’t bother to reply my messages. I am tired asking you but I am still asking you again, what is wrong with you?”. Twinkle yet again remained silent. Kunj was pissed off now. He pulled twinkle closer and shouted “Will you bother answering my questions?”. “I blo*dy love you, yes I do and that’s why I have been ignoring you since so long. You are so happy with alisha, I don’t want the two of you to separate cause of me” twinkle spoke, her voice trembling and crooked. Kunj was baffled. He didn’t know how to react. A tear drop fell from twinkle’s eye and she left kunj running to the toilet. Both were confused on the recent happenings. Twinkle thought why she spoke it all while kunj was bewildered.
The two still haven’t talked yet, this time because none had the guts to face one another. Kunj was rather confused. She thought about her words for indeed a really long time. After some more days, kunj decided to talk. He messaged twinkle to meet at a cafe.
Twinkle reached the cafe and found kunj waiting for her. She moved towards him and tapped at his shoulders and spoke “hi”. Kunj too replied with a hi. She sat opposite to him.
Twinkle: Why did you call me here?
Kunj: To talk about something really important
Twinkle: What is that?
Kunj stood up from the chair and kneeled on his knees. Twinkle had her hands on her face due to shock.
Kunj: Okay, you might find this weird but I have fallen in love with you. Yes I have and I have no regrets. You might be wondering why I was doing this when I am dating alisha. Well, I ain’t now, we broke up. To be honest, I was never happy from inside being with her. I felt incomplete. Being with you felt just perfect, complete. How dumb of me to not understand that. I know I am the stupidest person in the whole world not understanding your love. I am sorry, but please .. Would you like to be mine forever? And can I be yours?
Twinkle had tears in her eyes. Everyone in the cafe encouraged her to say yes.
Twinkle: Yes yes yes yes! I love you and would love to be yours forever.
Everyone applaud while the two hug each other. The hug was filled with passion they had for each other. They had smiles on their faces, satisfying smile.
Kunj: I Love You!
Twinkle: I Love You too!
****************************************************
Hello, everyone. So, here was my One Shot. How was it? Drop down your comments below as I’d be waiting to know your views about it. Keep guessing me and do go through all the other updates being updated for this competition and guess those authors too. Kruti and Ria would be updating you all with the author names and their respective stories soon after the competition ends.
Best regards,
Ria, Kruti and the author