Adhiti's Musings & Books

Here is the prologue of YET TO LOVE? Read and revert with your comments, reader friends.

PROLOGUE

Tokyo, Japan

 

Time: 11.30 pm, December 31st, 2009

 

My constant yawning made me check the time – 11.30 pm.

 

‘Enough of studying for today’, I put aside the research papers I was reading, removed my glasses, and pressed my eyes lightly with my cold fingers. I was going to put away my laptop too but suddenly a thought made me pause. Simply for fun, I thought to indulge myself in a strange whim. I clicked the Yahoo Messenger icon and typed in a fake ID and password I had created. I was amazed at my memory for correctly recalling the ID and password, and patting myself on the back.

 

For the past few weeks, I was practically living in the lab, completely consumed by my research, with no sleep or social life. Of course, I had food on time – courtesy to my dear friend, colleague, my mother hen – Mizu.  When I declined most of the New Year party invitations that came my way, all were surprised. I am a social butterfly who never used to miss a good gathering or fun. What to do? This time I was truly burned out. Hence while the whole world was waiting for the New Year with fireworks and parties, I opted to stay back in my apartment alone. At that time, it seemed to me like a good idea and I did plan to catch up on my sleep. When I tried to sleep, sleep wouldn’t come and I ended up working on my protocols and planning some new experiments. But now I am seriously bored and I wanted to talk.

 

I usually talk a lot even when there is nobody to listen to me – I talk to myself, I talk to the walls of my apartment, to my cute teddy bear which was always near my bed,  to my lab instruments and the list goes on. But now I didn’t feel like talking to non-living things, I wanted to talk to a person who would respond to me. But it’s almost midnight now and all my dear friends would be busy partying, hence I didn’t feel like calling them. I was going to give up and sleep, when I recalled a quote I had read “. . . sometimes one feels freer speaking to a stranger than to people one knows. Why is that?” “Probably because a stranger sees us the way we are, not as he/she wishes to think we are.” ― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind. Yes! That’s what I want- a stranger, who would let me be myself. I usually don’t indulge in chatting with strangers but now, knowing that New Year was around the corner and I am sitting lonely, didn’t sit well with me. It’s a bad omen – FULL YEAR I will be ALONE then – my superstitious mind gave me a warning bell.

 

Heck! No way!

 

‘Let me give it a try and see. What if I get an interesting companion to chat with?’ – My romantic heart geared up. While my cautious as well as impulsive mind analyzed for few seconds and then approved – ‘Hmm…You won’t know until you try. Go ahead!’

 

I saw the ID getting logged in and my icon glowing green. I checked a few random chat rooms and then finally entered the Yahoo general chat room under my ID “Delulumoments”.