Loves Me, Loves Me Not
- 
from Spandan 1999

Ah! what it is , to be a love-torn romantic (only without a girl-friend). Ask me. As Rahu met Ketu in the sky, people on Earth (those with a heart), chose to proclaim the auspicious hours of 14th of Feb., as the day of St. Valentine, the day of love. And then, centuries later, the educated, sovereign and secular mind-set of India chose to adopt Valentines day as just the right occasion to confirm their faith in all religions. After all, all religions profess, "love".

But only little did they know that somewhere in the national capital, in a small room somewhere in some New Boys Hostel of some Maulana Azad Medical College, some soul would take this some St. Valentine's day to heart. 

And so it happened that this secular but single soul (you can call him Saurabh) began to identify this day with his failures in the field of love. The newspapers spoke of love, and those which had already found love, even went as far as upto sex. And then love was in the air (I mean FM). And the final blow was struck by a dance party at LHMC, to celebrate the cause of love.

Everyone put on their most appealing attire, sprinkled some pheromones, and left no aspect of make up untouched to prove their clean and yet virgin status in lieu of the dance party. The focus was so much on love that his friends forgot, to call poor Saurabh and he was left behind in the hostel. And then his loneliness forced him to recall whatever experiences with love he could cherish.

Twenty one years of life, it had been a long road indeed but luckily the need was for a different kind of love before say age seventeen. And then there had been a crush of sorts in twelfth-standard, but the time was not ripe then for career prospects (specifically medical entrance exams) loomed large ahead and they were the priority. Saurabh got selected, and so did she, but they went their own ways.

And then, it was college time. College was meant to be for socializing and breaking out, hence Saurabh decided to dedicate himself solely to finding love. But to love and to be loved, you have to find a girl (unless of course you are of the different variety). Thus the search began for a true soul mate. But, unfortunately many were too fat and some were too thin, and then quite a few were too short; and the rest were too tall, for him. what had to be settled for, was a small, select portion of society. Those he approached did not appeal to him (but obviously, you have to balance mental frequencies somewhere unless you are the succus-succus variety). And those who appealed , he could not approach, out of fear that when he would approach , they would stop appealing.

But this is not to say that Saurabh had lost hope. As he sat back in his room and abstained from the dance party at LHMC, he decided to make a new beginning and devote himself to love once again from the coming day. He took no trysts with destiny on the Valentine's day because to make a new beginning you have to end the previous ordeal somewhere, and hence Valentine's day served as a welcome pause. And if nothing would still work out; kudos to the Indian system of arranged marriages.