Read previous part of the story here: The Second Time – Part 1 The Second Time – Part 1

Pranav is a guy who will befriend with almost everyone easily in the blink of an eye. When he went to college five years before today, within the first few weeks itself, he became best friends with a girl, Anamika, who is supposed to be the college sweetheart. There was something very unique about him that made him very popular among girls; he can make any girl feel comfortable around him. That was his Ultimate Selling Point as a boyfriend.

Priya, on the other hand, is someone who will take it quite slow. She will make her friends only after investing quite a lot of time, energy and trust. Maybe that is why; she has only limited number of friends in her life, unlike Pranav.

It was not long after when Pranav and Anamika started seeing each other that Pranav finally met Priya, Anamika’s best friend. Whenever there used to be fights among the new sweetheart couple, Pranav would call or text her to straighten up things between them. She, like a dedicated friend, will do exactly that. Pranav was awed by her simplicity and her way of tackling big problems. It was something which Pranav found really attractive and unique about her.

The circumstances, however, under which both met for the first time, were not quite ‘ideal’. Anamika was not happy with the growing friendship between both of them. She knew that there is nothing substantial going on that would worry her anyhow, but well, as a girl; she had her own inhibitions.

It was one, not so fine, Friday evening when three of them met at a local hospital. Anamika had called Pranav especially to meet both him and Priya as she wanted to show what Priya had done as a result of the misunderstanding that was building amongst them. When Pranav reached the hospital and saw Priya, he was shocked. On her left hand, between elbow and palm, there were three deep cuts done by the shrill razor blade, at equal distances from each other  (she was always good at art), spurting out the red.

“Why on earth did you do that? “, Pranav asked.

“It is all because of you. “, Anamika said.

“What have I done?”, Pranav replied in absolute disgust.

“She thought that she is the reason of all the differences that were occurring between us. And since you came in our lives, you are the reason she thought all of that”

“What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t understand even a single word you said”

“I do not know. I just know that you are the reason she did all these things and now you are supposed to apologize to her.”

Pranav was constantly looking at Priya’s hand and wondering how can anyone do a thing as silly as this?  When Anamika was busy cursing Pranav for all the things he has done, Priya’s expressions were that of complete denial. It was as if she was trying hard to tell that he was in no way linked to what had happened. Well, she did not say anything.

“I am sorry Priya”, Pravav said.

“It is okay”, she replied, with a smile that will take Pranav’s life away.

After another 15 minutes of chit-chat, Pranav finally decided that it was time for him to take leave. When he was about to go, the nurse came in and asked for Anamika.

“You need to bring these medicines Ma’am.”

“Will you stay here for 5 more minutes before I go downstairs to take her medicine?”

Pranav wanted to say that he would go and bring the medicines himself but he managed to say something totally different.

“Sure. I will make sure Priya is treated with utmost delicacy when you are not here.”

(All three burst out laughing as the footsteps of Anamika going downstairs become less audible. )

“I am sorry again”

“No. It is not your fault.”

“Of course, it’s my fault. Why will you do anything like that, then? ”

“No. It is not your fault. Leave it. I cannot tell you what it is.”

“You have to.”

Over the next few months, Pranav and Priya started talking to each other day in and night. They would text, call and sometimes meet.

“I want to meet you”, Pranav texted.

“Why?”

“I do not know. I just want to.”

“In a city like Kanpur, there is no place where we could go and meet without eyes looking at us. It is better not to take unnecessary risks.”

(Kanpur, the largest city in the state of Uttar Pradesh, is not a place where young boys and girls can meet easily without escaping the ‘letting our culture down’ eyes of the so called conventionalists. In a country like India, where we worship sports like Cricket, to be able to play a sport as traditional and pure as love, you need something better than just cricket balls.)

“Do you have a scooter?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Just bring your scooter anywhere near main market and wait for me there. I will join you there.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just wait and watch.”

“Okay, fine.”

Priya was standing near the old Hanuman* temple in the market. Pranav could not believe how beautiful she looked that day. Dressed in a white salwar suit**, she was glowing like the first ray of light that eliminates darkness. The smile she wore that day could make even time stand still. She was as traditional as nature and as modern as Husain’s muse.

Pranav called up Priya and gave instructions to start her scooter and move alongside him. Both were driving, side by side, on their respective scooters, looking deep in each others’ eyes, completely indifferent to people around them, the traffic around them and the world around them. They were in deep meditation called love. They meditated for almost 15 seconds before the truck honked with all its might. 15 seconds, it was just enough.

After months of denial, both of them finally agreed the feeling of love they had towards one another. By that time, Pranav and Anamika had broken up. The reason for their break-up was not Pranav’s new found attachment for Priya but Anamika herself. Her constant behaviour of cursing Pranav got on to his nerve and he finally called it quits.

Pranav and Priya were completely in love. They will call each other at odd hours and would wake up at night just to see if anyone has messaged “I miss you”. They would talk about things as small as the colour of their hair to as big as getting married. At one moment, they’ll pause in between to think whether they are going too fast but the next moment, they’d listen each other plan the names of their unborn kids.

Love has a way to express all those things which you wish to feel. It also has the way to feel all those things which you wish to express. Pranav and Priya wanted to feel the first touch, the first hug, the first kiss, and the first sex and, they did experience it. How? They felt it by expressing and they expressed it by feeling.

(When they love each other so much, then, why do they find themselves in a situation where they are in now?  What will Priya do now? Will she go away from Pranav or give him another chance? Tune in for the conclusion on 5th December, 2015.)