*So is your family in Bhubaneswar too?'

*No, my native place is a very small town called Burla, near Sambalpur. Mom and dad live there. My brother and I are in Bhubaneswar, and we both work with Infosys. We stay in a rented flat with two other roommates, and visit our parents on alternate weekends. Burla is just a night's ride from Bhubaneswar.'

We talked for nearly an hour. I could feel my cellphone burning my ear, and the cell's battery was on its last legs. And even though I wanted to keep talking to her, I had to say, *Listen! My battery is going to give up soon. But I hope we are going to stay in touch.'

*Your battery?' she said, laughing.

*I mean, my mobile's.' I started laughing too.

*Just kidding. But I believe we'll talk again.' Then she added, suddenly, *But before you hang up, you have to say one good thing.'

One good thing? Now where on earth would I find one good thing to say? But I'd watched a movie the day before and, thanking G.o.d, I repeated a line from it. *Bismil ka sandesh hai ki kal Lah.o.r.e jaane wali gaadi hum Kakori pe lootenge, aur un paison se hathiyar kharidenge.'

Then, I took a deep breath, and waited ... And she burst into a big laugh.

I still think it was a good line. But I don't know what made her laugh. Anyhow, I too joined in her laughter, so that she would not think me stupid or lacking a sense of humor.

*OK! I'm hearing the final beeps from my cell. It was really nice talking to you, Khushi. But we won't be able to talk more, though I want to.'

*Same here. I liked talking to you very much. See you.'

*Yeah, bye.'

*Instead of bye, you should say *see you'. It's nicer. It means we'll interact again ...' she said, and touched my heart, somewhere. Her innocence and the candid way in which she talked to me had left its mark on my mind.

*See you,' I said, before I hung up.

That night, lying on my bed, I went over the conversation again and again. And I wondered: Could I have been more humorous, just to impress her further? Or was the call just perfect, the way it should have been? And was she thinking about the conversation too, at that very moment, sitting somewhere in her room.

I don't know why, but I felt like calling her up again and it was hard to curb that urge. But I had to control it, because I did not want to mess things up, right in the beginning, by becoming a guy who bothers her at 11.30 in the night. *No,' I said to myself, loudly, switched off the light and jumped into bed.

Alone in my room, I was smiling, talking to n.o.body and there was this different sort of feeling within me. I slept, just so that the night would pa.s.s, and a new day would come when I could hear her beautiful voice once again.

The next day, I waited for her call. Though we'd not decided that she was supposed to call me, still I had this gut-feeling that she would. By 10, in the office I was getting restless. I wanted to hear her voice but, at the same time, I wanted her to call me up.

Happy had given me this success funda in the matter of girls: Don't make them feel that you are going crazy after them; just give some time and they will come to you.

At 11, I realized that Happy was a fool and I went ahead and SMSed her a *good morning', even though it was a little late for that. But I didn't receive any reply to my SMS and began wondering who the real fool was ...

And, that day, I was also uncertain. Should I listen to my heart or my brain? Both of them were pointing in opposite directions. My brain was telling my ego, *What does she think of herself?' Whereas, my heart still wished to hear her voice.

Call it my weakness or my effort to curb my ego-a little later I did what my heart told me to do and I dialed her number.

*Hey! Hi, how are you?' Khushi picked up the phone.

*When wishing you a good morning, the sender also expects a similar response. I am fine.'

*I was going to reply on the way to the office.'

*You mean you're still at home?'

*Yeah. Actually, we work in the afternoon shift as we have to be in sync with our UK-based clients. Hey, my cab's outside,' she said rushing and saying *bye' to her mom. I could hear the door being closed and her *hi' to her friends in the cab. After she got in, we resumed our talk.

*So what's up?' I asked her.

*Ami di was here this morning,' she said. I remembered her mentioning a couple of names during our previous call, but I could hardly remember who was who among them.

*Ami di ...?'I murmured, trying to recall the name.

*I have three sisters and one brother. Misha di is the eldest and lives in Ludhiana. She has a very sweet kid, Daan, who is studying in nursery. Ami di is the second, and she too is married. She lives in Noida, an hour's drive from our place, and works with a BPO. Deepu, my brother, is two years younger than me and is working with an MNC in a.s.sam. They deal with oil wells and stuff. And Neeru is the youngest, my sweet little sis,' she told me about her siblings again, with no complaints or questions as to how I forgot about them so soon.

She continued, *And apart from this, mum and dad are with us. And in your family, it's your mom and dad, you and your younger brother, Tinku, who is also a software engineer with Infosys, and his office is in the same building as yours, except he is on the first floor and you on the second. Right?'

And that was a silent slap to my memory. She remembered everything about my family. All I could do was say, *Hmm ... 10 on 10,' and laugh. But I laughed alone.

*So, I was saying, Ami di was here this morning. After completing her night-shift she came to Faridabad. She visits us once in a week or two.'

This call was all about her family. I came to know about two more people-Davinder Jiju, Misha di's husband, and Pushkar, Ami di's husband. Pushkar and Ami di used to work in the same company and they happened to fall in love, which was not a good idea according to Khushi's dad. The hurdles they had to face were no different from any love story in Bollywood movies. Pushkar comes from a Hindu family whereas Ami di belongs to a Sikh family. Pushkar is cool with boozing and non-veg while these things are taboo in Khushi's family. But then, as we learn from those same movies, Love, in the end, wins all the battles. And, that is what happened here as well. All the youngsters in Khushi's family successfully convinced their dad to give his approval for the marriage.

In that call, Khushi also mentioned that she used to leave her office around 9.30 at night and reach her home by 11. Which meant that she would be awake for quite a while and I could call her late at night in case I felt the way I had the night before.

So that was how we started calling each other, writing messages, even wishing each other goodnight. But, in our initial calls, we never touched upon the purpose for which we had started interacting-marriage.

But she initiated this, one day, when I forwarded her an e-alb.u.m of my pictures, with my friends, in Belgium.

*I noticed one pic with the description-enjoying red wine in a pub,' she said.

*Oh yes, that was one of the happening evenings in Belgium.'

*So you booze?'

*Hmm ... yeah. But very rarely. Once in two or three months, or at times six. Only on some occasions when I am with friends and they insist I give them company,' I answered coolly.

*Well, I don't know how you are going to react on this, but I always wanted a life-partner who abstains from this.'

And I asked myself, *So, is she saying that she is going to look for somebody else?' I wasn't sure. But the one thing I was sure about was that, finally, we were discussing marriage.

She continued, *See, every person has some likes and dislikes. When we talk about marriage, it's about respecting each other's feelings; it's about trust, a few compromises and much more. And if you are going to be my life-partner, I sincerely urge you to choose a life without alcohol.'

She was the first among us to say: if you are going to be my life-partner. And in her voice those words sounded so different, so magical.

And, of course, it was the magic of those words which overrode my consciousness and made me say, *It's a gentleman's promise. If you are going to be my life-partner, I will not booze unless you are comfortable about it. And I mean it.' I didn't stop there but continued, *The reason I can do this is because alcohol is not something I am addicted to. At the same time, I don't think it's bad to booze once in hundred days, just to give company to your best friends. Even then, I have never crossed my limits and got drunk completely. Still, if this becomes a problem between me and my life-partner, I will gladly abstain.'

*And promises are meant to be kept ...' she reiterated. And, probably, she smiled too.

*Absolutely!' The gentleman within me was still talking. *But the day you get to know me completely-after six months, or ten, or maybe a year, or maybe more than that. Then, if you think that boozing is not at all a bad case with me, you will have to allow me to have a drink with my best friends. But, again, I will never force you to say that.'

This was another landmark in our saga and, henceforth, she felt much better talking to me. And I felt good, just because she felt good.

Was the second, out of the three things (wealth, women, and I still can't remember the third) that could make anything happen in this world, making me do this? I didn't know then, and I don't know now. The only thing bothering me was, what would I say to Happy and MP when we sat together with red wine, at our next reunion? *Guys, please bear with me as I've stopped boozing because of a promise I made to a girl, whom I've only talked to on the phone for a week. Yes, only a week. Far lesser time than the years which we all have spent together.'

I didn't know, then, if that promise was good or bad for me. But what was definitely good was the trust and understanding we gained. And this was just beginning. It was a tough call ... But then, something within me wanted her for a long, long time ... Forever.

Another Step Closer.

*What? You haven't talked to your parents yet? Shona! You promised me you'd do that by now.'

If you are wondering who this new character, Shona, is-it's me. And the person shouting those questions at me is my Khushi. Yes, she is mine now.

We are in love. For the first time ... Sounds crazy?

So, did it happen when we were studying together in college?

Of course not. I am a thousand miles away from her.

Was it love at first sight?

Definitely not. We haven't even seen each other yet!

-The questions my friends would ask me, and the answers I gave them. (There were some dirty ones too, which I can ignore.) But everyone's last question was the same.

Are you crazy?

I don't knnoooowwww ...

Indeed, being in love with a person you haven't even met is a crazy thing. And deciding to marry that person some day, even crazier. Never in my wildest dreams had I thought my love-life would be like this. To be honest, I had never even thought of any love-life.

But, now, I had changed a lot and was no longer the person I used to be till some time ago.

A lot of things had changed, in me and around me. I had started slipping out of conversations with my friends just to give her a call. I slept less and talked more. My phone bills led my monthly spending chart, leaving the house rent miles behind in the race. I started noticing couples: the way they sat together in gardens, hand in hand; the way a girl holds her boyfriend, on a motorbike. I started worrying about the *how do I look' factor. My status on Orkut changed from *single' to *committed'. She became the pa.s.sword to my several Internet IDs. Sitting in my office alone, I used to smile, talking to n.o.body.

Love was in the air.

Ours was such a different story. A 21st century love story, whose foundation was modern-day gadgetry. Thanks to Graham Bell for inventing telephones that helped me talk to her, know her better and, finally, fall in love with her. Thanks to the Internet, the World Wide Web and sites like Shaadi.com that helped me find her. I discovered myself to be a true software engineer in this hi-tech-love phase. And whether this kind of love was good or bad, was no longer a point to ponder-we were already in it.

Coming back to the reason she was shouting at me.

It was because I had broken a promise. No, not the boozing one. Something else.

Her family knew about me since our first call, but the case wasn't the same at my end. My family did not know about her yet. In fact, they didn't even know that their son's profile was on some matrimonial site. Naturally, she was concerned about this situation. That too, after we had finally decided our destiny.

Her queries about this matter were growing everyday. Gradually, she started feeling uncomfortable because of this very reason. Therefore, a week earlier, I had promised her that I would talk to my family on the coming weekend. But unfortunately, I could not, because of the weekend exam at IMS. (IMS. Another interesting similarity between us was this MBA preparation center. We both were preparing for MBA, and we had joined the same crash-course in the same inst.i.tute in our respective cities!) *I could not travel to Burla last weekend because I had to appear for a test at IMS,' I said, trying to calm her.

*But you promised me Shona ...!'My shouting lady turned into an emotional one. She killed me with that name. She loved to call me different names and the best among them all was Shona. And I loved the way she used to say it. With such care and warmth.

*This weekend I will, for sure. I don't have any task more important than this one,' I told her.

And my Shonimoni was happy again. Shonimoni. The name I gave her. Punjabi for cute and sweet; the feminine counterpart to Shona.

The next weekend arrived and I was panicking. After all, I was going to talk to my parents about my marriage. This was definitely going to be a bolt from the blue, for them.

I was smart enough to take my younger brother, Tinku, into confidence the night before we left for Burla. He already knew something was going on between me and some girl. My late night calls had made that much clear. But he had never imagined that all this started at a matrimonial site. Being his elder brother, I did not give him any option except to be on my side when I talked to mom and dad.

Since the moment we arrived at our home in Burla, I was doing strange things, moving here and there, trying to bring the subject up, trying to find just the right moment. But I was not at all sure what the perfect moment was.

I was thinking too much. More than my brain could handle. Should I say it now? Or should I wait till the clock's minute hand has covered fifteen more minutes? But even after it had covered a hundred and fifty minutes, I was still waiting.

Every time I was about to spill it out, something would happen: the telephone rang, somebody knocked at the door and, if nothing else, the stupid pressure cooker's whistle dragged my mom back into the kitchen. The one moment when no such thing happened, I just could not open my mouth.

*She's going to cry this time, if I don't do this,' I told myself.

After lunch, I somehow gathered enough courage to initiate the dreaded conversation. Even though I thought it was quite bizarre to ask my parents how they met and married each other, I could not think of a better way to bring up the subject.

*Mumma, tell me one thing. How did you guys find each other and end up marrying?' I asked.

Mom and dad looked at each other, then at me and smiled. Parents are smart, and what we don't know is that they know what is going on in our minds. They had probably read, very easily, what the marquee on my forehead was displaying.

Still, they narrated their story, and the moment that was over, Mumma asked, *So how is yours getting started?'

I wondered if I should hide my face in the cushions, or say, *My story ...? I don't have any,' before my brain angrily told me, *Come on, speak up, you fool!'

And, fortunately, gathering all my shy courage, I narrated my story so far. I even showed them her picture. I was expecting a lot of ifs and buts from my parents, but to my surprise nothing of that sort happened. Even Tinku had asked me more questions than my parents asked!

Mom was happy because, finally, her son was thinking about marriage. Dad was happy because the toughest part-searching for a girl of his son's choice-was over. He was relieved, though he tried to sound quite diplomatic. I was happy because, finally, I was able to get this thing out of my heart and place it in front of everybody. And Tinku, he was observing everybody's reactions. He doesn't get influenced easily, and that's something I both like and dislike in him.

A couple of questions from both mom and dad, which I answered with confidence, and that was it. I had never thought that this toughest of hurdles would be over so quickly.

But before we left for Bhubaneswar, on Sunday night, at the bus stop, dad said, *We will a.n.a.lyse this, but it's good that you have become serious about your marriage.'

*No issues. I understand your point,' I said to him. Inside, though, I was thinking, *Who cares Dad!'

Monday morning, I reached my other home in Bhubaneswar. Stretching out on my bed, I called Khushi up.

*Mission accomplished,' I said, waking her up. Those two words conveyed everything to her. And what did I get in response? A fusillade of kisses. The last ones were real pa.s.sionate. That was the first time she kissed me on phone.

*Oh boy! So loud? No one is around, haan?' I asked.

She didn't answer my question but said, *I feel like pulling you into my bed right now and kissing you madly.'

Wow! She was so happy, mad and comfortable, knowing that I had finally told my family about her.

Another milestone in our love story was crossed. Both our families now knew about our affair. And, as usual, I was happy because my Shonimoni was happy. But, as they say, *Love is a blend of different emotions.' Soon an evening came when I made her cry. And then I cried because she was crying.

It was another weekend and I was in Burla, sitting in the verandah, busy with my Reading Comprehension-RC-section. I was annoyed, having scored rather badly in my self-exam. I was about to advance to the next pa.s.sage when she called.