The Writer’s Love – Short Story with a social message

He was foodie and loved experimenting with new dishes daily. Why not? He was a chef in a decent restaurant and they loved him because his hands had magic. Magic, that drew loads of customers to their restaurant. He also managed a food blog, for the love of his ‘cooking’ and helping people to cook food with ease.

Ayush also loved reading stories, hmm ‘Love Stories’ and followed quiet a few blogs for the same during his free time. Hi favourite blog was ‘Life is Love’ by Purvi , Purvi Ahuja. He loved reading her stories and stayed hooked with her blog, all the time.

The only common thing they had was, they never shared their pictures on the internet ever. They didn’t like to be too open in the virtual world. They loved their space, believed in doing good work and remain un-recognized. Weird right ?

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and he saw a pop up message on his laptop window. It was Purvi. “Hey Ayush, you are our first winner of our ‘blog anniversary’ giveaway, can you please send us your address with contact number , so that we ship you the gift hamper?”. Well, he did the needed. Destiny has its own plans, there was some miscommunication regarding the shipment of the gift hamper and Purvi had to call Ayush. Period. It all started there.

Ayush already had a crush on her and loved her love stories. “This girl seems full of love and her stories put me to another world”, he wondered to himself. He had heard her voice for the first time on call and it kept hitting him in the backend.

She also realized that Ayush is a real fan follower on her blog and started following his ‘food blog’ and their friendship started. Likes and comments now switched to whatsapp messages and then progressed to phone calls. They loved how different yet how similar they were.

They kept talking for hours daily and realized that the friendship is progressing to another level. They now often checked their recent calls and waited for the last call of the day. They discussed their daily work routine and their ideas on career. They could chat and chat for hours and it was so meaningful.

“Purvi, Don’t you think we are a little weird ?”, asked Ayush on call. “And what made you say that ?”Purvi questioned. “We have been talking daily, for hours and almost everyday. And we still haven’t seen each other. Not even in pictures!”, said Ayush.

“Well, that are how ‘Pen friends’ are supposed to be, but since we have technology, the channels of communication has improved”, Purvi sounded absolutely normal. “Am I just a friend to you?”, Ayush enquired. There was a minute silence on the call and both got awkward.

“Purvi, I have started falling for you. I really think we should meet, I really want to see you”, Ayush said it in one single tone without a pause. There was still silence. “Purvi ? Did you hear that?”.

“Yes, I did hear and I didn’t expect this from you, How can you fall for someone without seeing?” , Purvi seemed confused. “Can we meet ? Please, just once. And we can then see where this goes”, Ayush seemed confident and Purvi approved.

Purvi stepped in at 5 pm, Della Café, all nervous and cautious. She didn’t know what’s happening and she was wondering why did she say a yes to meet him. She entered the café and glanced at the huge café area. They had planned to identify each other and call to confirm.

She saw someone with a white coat and his back was facing her. He seemed tall and she had a strong feeling its him. She was just gonna go there and give a call when the waiter came and told him – “Mr. Ayush ? here is your renew(ed) café card and the menu card that you were asking for”. She changed her side and her heart started beating.

He turned, stood up for a call and all she could do is, stare at him. Tall and fair, handsome and fit, graceful and confident, He looked absolutely stunning in his white coat , over his denim and tees. His stylish glasses and evenly trimmed beard complimented his look. She skipped a beat.

All she did was turned around, and moved swiftly to the main door. She was out of the café in no minutes. Her face was pale, her mind wasn’t working and her hands were shivering. She never imagined him to be so gorgeous looking.

She reached her house and rushed to her room. She couldn’t gulp down and was feeling too restless. She looked at the mirror. “I never shared my pictures online because I didn’t wanted people to know me. I didn’t make friends because I was scared of being called ‘black beauty’. I didn’t attend get-togethers because the relatives pestered me “You need to loose weight, moti ladki ko acche rishte kaha milte hai”. In this process, I shun and locked myself, with fears only increasing. It was Ayush who spoke to me without even bothering how I looked.”

Today, when she saw Ayush and how handsome he was, she snapped in fear. She just could not face him. He kept calling her, but she didn’t pick his call. The only thing she had on her mind was her last sentence on their call, yesterday night – “How do you imagine me?”. “Beautiful..” was just on word he used. The moment she saw him, she was absolutely awestruck and compared her beauty with his. Tears flowed from her eyes and her heart broke. Little did she know that all he meant was, Beautiful at heart, beautiful soul, beautiful person…

Purvi could only think the other way because she had been judged and taunted for years, probably since she was born. The society had broken her from within, had crushed her self-respect and she just couldn’t stand for herself all these years. She regretted it only today.

She wrote hundred of love stories that were complete, hers was a love story that ended incomplete.

Story Ends

Written by :

Mumtaz Surani Merchant