Dear Alphonsa,
How are you dear? I went to your house yesterday. I met your parents and sister. Finally, I have your address. The phone number which you gave me isn’t reachable. Your sister told me that you and others from your batch have been transferred to another city. I tried to contact you many times. I learnt from your sister that the new place doesn’t have continuous electric supply or proper network coverage.
I miss you so badly. I need to talk to you about so many things. Life has changed totally after we bid goodbye. I cannot write everything in this letter. I can simply tell you that I am in the happiest phase of my life. My only regret is that I do not have my best friend to share my happiness. God doesn’t give everything at a time, someone has rightly said.
I and Radhika meet once in a month. We both talk about you and our school days. We both sing your favourite songs and tears just do not stop rolling down. I wish you could come back and be with us. I know that thought is forbidden for you. But, trust my words; we will be there for you always, no matter what. You are always in our hearts and prayers. God bless you dear.
You are alone and nobody is there to look after yourself. Please eat well. Take good care of yourself.
Hope you have made good friends there. Give our regards to them.

We all love you and miss you.

Yours lovingly,
Gayatri

I wiped my tears while I folded the letter and inserted it in an envelope. I had wonderful friends in college who loved me, unlike my school mates. Yet, there was a vacuum created by Alphonsa’s absence. Hari and his phone calls filled the vacuum in my life with unlimited happiness.

“Gayu...I miss you so much dear. I wish I had a time machine so that I could time travel to future and marry you. We could live together forever then”

“Take me with you to the future I cannot wait either. It’s so painful .I miss you so badly.I miss our little but sweet moments.Your hugs, your kisses and your warmth.I never ever realized how much I loved you & your presence.I now realize that you are the World to me and mean everything to me.I love u more & more each day. I wish to be with you as soon as possible and forever."

"Hey do you know I saw a dream yesterday. I saw that we both went for a long drive."

"Then..?"

"We went to a hill station. It was rainy season. The clouds had descended down and it was misty all around. We drove till the hill top and decided to camp there.Just you and me. "

"How I wish it happened for real?"

"I wish I could just take you in my arms now and kiss you . i can't tell you how much I miss you each day."

"Shall we run away from home and get married? I always wondered why people ran away from their houses and got married. I can now absolutely empathize with them.It's so painful to stay away from each other that people forget everyone else in this World. I would have opposed the idea the most few years back.But now, I just do not care about anything else except you."

"You are blinded by love. How can you forget about your parents. You always spoke that you never will take advantage of their freedom.What about that now?You are mine only mine and we will be together forever but only after a few more years with everyone's consent."

My project had to be submitted within few days, I had very less time to prepare my project and submit. I was totally stressed out. I thought of asking Hari's help and he readily agreed. While we were discussing my project, Hari said,“Hey, one of my friends here has software to match horoscopes. His father is an astrologer. He had installed it in my friend’s laptop”

“Do you believe in horoscopes?” I was surprised.

“Yes. I do believe to an extent. His software really works magic. It seems it has predicted almost 90 percent perfect matches for brides and grooms. I was wondering if you gave me your birth date, time of birth and date of birth, I will get ours checked” he said.

“Okay, I was born on 17 December 1989, at 11.55 in Mumbai” I quickly replied.

“Hold on I am writing it down. I will call you back after I check” he disconnected the call.

Hari didn’t call. I called him the next day.

“Ours doesn’t match”, he sighed.

“Is that the reason why you didn’t call?” I asked.

“I didn’t know how you will react. I thought you might get upset, so..”

“No. I’m not upset. But won’t our parents match our horoscopes before our marriage? Will they agree for the marriage if ours doesn’t match?” I interrupted.

“We will convince them. Do not worry about it. There’s still a lot of time for our marriage” Hari pacified me.

“Exactly, there is still a lot of time for our marriage. Should we reconsider our decision? I’m worried how we will convince our parents? What if they say no? It will be so painful to live without each other after so many years of togetherness” I blurted.

“What are you trying to say?” Hari was confused.

“Let’s break up” I exclaimed.

Hari was stunned and said nothing. There was sheer silence, we both were mum.

“Why do you want to break up?” Hari asked worriedly.

“I do not know how to explain it to you. I feel we are not destined to be one. God has been hinting it all this while and I ignored the signs. I know how painful it will be to part ways. But, just imagine, being together for 4-5 years in a relationship and then quitting. It will be more painful and devastating than today” I explained.

“Gayu... I am unable to understand a word you are trying to explain. Let’s forget that we checked our horoscopes and that stupid idea of parting ways” Hari pleaded.

“No Hari. You are not trying to understand” I said.

“I have a solution for your problem. I am going to tell my parents about us right away. Now, you will not have to wait for 4-5 years. You will know the answer immediately and then we can contemplate about your stupid ideas. I just want to tell you that I simply do not care about anything and I want to spend the rest of my life with you” Hari said sternly.

“No Hari” I cringed.

“Yes Gayu. Please tell your parents too. I will not let some stupid software decide our fate. Let our parents decide our future.

“What if it’s a no?”I asked worriedly

“You were going to break up with me, remember?” Hari mocked.

“Hari....” I cried.

“Stop being silly Gayu."