A Photograph that Got Me a Date!
Everyone yelled ‘Surprise!!!’ but no one could have predicted what happened next…
There was something about inter-college fests — the activities, chaos, games, food, and plenty of new faces.
In my final year of engineering, I decided to attend my college fest, Zenith, one last time. Given that the semester predominantly consisted of the final year project, I had plenty of free time on my hands.
I knew that there would be plenty of kodak moments that I would want to capture and look back at 10 years down the line.
The day finally arrived. I picked up my DSLR, erased the memory card, charged the spare batteries, and waited for my friend, Arjun, to pick me up in his white Honda SUV.
We picked up two more friends on the way and set off to the last college fest of our lives.
At the college entrance, Dhruv was waiting for us in this red Hyundai sedan with 3 other friends. We decided to enter the college like a boss one last time.
For context, the college entrance was 1 kilometer away from our department building.
We blasted a Kannada (local language) song in full volume in both cars, synced it to the apt second, and drove one behind the other.
Everybody on the path was staring at us for the entire 1 kilometer.
We stopped the cars right in the middle of our department’s entrance and got out of the cars in slow motion.
Needless to say, everyone present there was wondering “who are these idiots?”
We parked the cars and started walking towards the main auditorium where Zenith ’17 was taking place.
We were about to cross the canteen when my eyes fell on a narrow lane between the department building and the canteen.
For a second, I felt an acute pain in my chest and I sprinted down the memory lane.
Aditi
We met almost a year ago at the previous edition of the Zenith. I had just bought my DSLR back then and was looking forward to capturing striking photographs of the bike stunt event by the Dare Devilz.
I squeezed my way through the crowd and reached the barricades where I could click close-up shots of the stunts.
The Dare Devilz team consisted of three bikers, all of them on modified KTM Duke 200s. They coordinated splendidly while doing donuts, wheelies, stoppies, and burnouts.
I was able to neatly capture 3 photographs, the rest were not so insta-worthy.
After the coordinated stunts, they were looking for a volunteer from the crowd who would sit pillion with them for 2 stunts.
The offer was only for girls — many of them were excited and were jumping to be picked.
That’s where I first saw her, wearing a black leather jacket, white top, blue jeans, short hair, and a smile to die for.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t love at first sight, but man was she cute!
I immediately got clicking, she bravely sat through the stunts — a wheelie and a stoppie. She happily hopped off the bike after the stunt and walked back to her friends.
I was looking at the photographs and noticed that there was a very pretty candid shot of hers that she might like.
After the event, as everyone dispersed, I decided to walk up to her and show her the photograph. As I reached her, I noticed that she was sitting with four of her friends.
One of her friends saw me approaching them and quipped “We don’t want any photos, please go away!”
“You wouldn’t be able to afford me anyway”, I replied and walked away pissed.
Aditi saw this, walked towards me, and asked if I was able to capture any of her photos during the bike stunt.
I showed them to her and guess what? I was right! She did like that one photo.
I asked her to message her email id to me (had to get her number somehow) and promised to send the photo to her.
The first thing I did after reaching home that day was edit her photo, add my signature at the bottom and email it to her.
She was really happy, posted it on her Instagram, and even gave me the picture credits in the caption.
We started texting after that. From Hi, Hello, Good Morning to talk about life, stars, ocean, pani puri etc.
Aditi was from the Computer Science department and I was in the Mechanical Engineering department. I didn’t know many people from her department so I wasn’t sure if she was single or not.
I didn’t want to ask directly either because that feels kinda desperate.
One fine day, while just the two of us were hanging out at the basketball court, I casually asked her “So what does your boyfriend think about that bike stunt photo?”
“I don’t have a boyfriend”, she replied
I started jumping around with joy, and violins started playing in the background
I didn’t realize that I was staring into the abyss and imagining the violins.
She shook me back to reality and said, “Right now, I don’t think I’m going to say yes even if anyone asks me out”
“Oh really? What if I ask you out?”, I said and regretted it as soon as the words left my lips.
As luck would have it, she started blushing and said “I don’t know” with her signature sly smile.
Just as I was savoring the moment, I saw my friend approaching us from a distance. He would have ruined the moment instantly.
I pointed at the opposite direction and yelled “Oh look! There’s a black Audi Q7 there!”
She turned in that direction immediately and asked: “Where?!”
In that gap, I signaled my friend to walk away immediately. Thankfully, he understood and disappeared in no time.
“Oh, I guess I was wrong”, I said.
The magical moment continued for some more time and then, I dropped her home.
She used to stay near my place, so I started picking her up and dropping her off occasionally.
On one such day, I was getting late for my Automobile Engineering (AE) class and the professor used to be very strict.
I picked her up, sped to college and as I was parking, she asked: “Do you really have to go to class right now?”
I (such an idiot) didn’t get the hint and was constantly imagining the professor yelling at me for being late to class. I told her that I needed to rush and ran to the class. Since I have amazing luck, the AE professor was on leave that day and there was a substitute professor in class.
Four years later, I still wonder what would have happened if I had skipped class that day. I don’t remember the lesson that was taught that day but I remember missing a golden opportunity.
As days passed, we became closer but we didn’t tell our college friends about us. Only a few of our best friends knew about it.
We bunked classes together, went to watch movies, visited our favorite cafes in the city, and even went on an impromptu bike trip.
It was all going so well.
Her birthday was fast approaching and I decided to do something special.
She had told me that she didn’t celebrate her birthdays growing up because her parents used to fight most of the time. So, I decided to make this birthday really special.
I called up one of her friends and asked her to gather the remaining gang for a surprise birthday party.
We all gathered on the terrace of my department building and one of her friends got her up there. We did the usual screaming, throwing cake, and opening gifts.
I gifted her the rose gold Fossil watch that she always wanted and she was elated when she opened it.
Aditi was really happy that day. As we were all hanging out on the terrace, she took my hand and dragged me downstairs.
She pointed at a narrow lane between the building and the canteen which led to a secluded spot that wasn’t visible to anyone.
There, I got the best return gift that I could have ever asked for. And with that, that place became our official “spot”.
So if we had to catch up there, all we had to do was drop a text to one another “I’m at the spot”.
In those days, I honestly felt like I was living in a fairy tale.
We both were already placed in an MNC, my proposal for an ambitious final year project was approved, and I had Aditi by my side through thick and thin.
Towards the end of the semester, I was playing football in college with my friends when another friend reached the field and told me that he spotted Aditi and another guy hanging out near the library.
I brushed it off because she had many guy friends and it wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t even feel the need to ask her so I let the matter go.
We were supposed to meet for dinner the next day but at the last moment, she canceled because she was unwell. This was unlike her because she never ditched plans at the last moment.
I let it go and asked her to take care.
In the next few weeks, I noticed her behavior towards me changing for the worse. She became distant, would reply really late to my texts, and always went to college with another friend.
I decided to give her some space and asked her to meet me over the next weekend for lunch at Little Italy.
She agreed.
On Friday, April 1st, 2016, I was having lunch with my friends in the canteen, we were talking about the Manchester United vs Chelsea match that happened the previous night.
It was a nail-biting match and ManU beat Chelsea 3–2.
As I walked up the stairs to the restroom on the first floor, I noticed a small hole in the wall. I hadn’t noticed it before but decided to take a look.
If the view was good, I could click a nice picture on my smartphone.
I ducked, closed my right eye, and strained my left eye to see through the hole.
Remember how I said nobody can see who is standing at ‘the spot’? Well, I was wrong.
I saw Aditi there with another guy.
I guess I wasn’t the only one whom she gave return gifts to.
You know that feeling when something truly shocking happens and you feel the earth beneath you slip away? I lived through that, in slow motion.
I was oblivious to my surroundings for a while and it was only when my friends came and helped me get up that I realized that I was lying down on the staircase.
I wanted to run and confront her immediately and punch that asshole.
But, I didn’t have the strength for any of that, I was ashamed to even tell my friends what I saw.
Looking back, I don’t know why I was ashamed because I had done nothing wrong.
It was a slow, painful ride back home that day.
I don’t know if it was the wind or my sorrow but I could feel a few tears rolling down my cheek. Must have been the wind.
I locked myself in my room that day and came out only for dinner.
Guess I really was a fool on April 1st.
She texted asking if we’re still on for lunch the next day. I said that I wasn’t feeling well and canceled.
It was a sad weekend to say the least.
The next Monday, I got a text from her when I was in the class — “I’m at the spot”.
My first instinct was to throw my phone away, but common sense took over and turned it off.
After 7 minutes, I turned it back on and replied to her “That spot is not ours anymore. Goodbye”
I guess she figured it out that I knew.
There were 8 “I’m sorry”, 5 “it was just that once”, 3 “It won’t happen again” messages and 13 missed calls.
I just ignored them all because it didn’t matter anymore.
I avoided her over the next few days, came to college at odd times so that I didn’t run into her, didn’t leave my classroom for lunch, or anything else for the same reason.
The messages and missed calls continued and so did my ignorance.
I won’t lie, it did hurt like I was hit by a ton of bricks but I couldn’t go back to her, it just wasn’t worth it.
I think she moved on pretty quickly, the messages and missed calls reduced in number. Less than a month later, she was hanging out with the next fool.
At this point, I decided to stop the memory tape, shook my head in ignorance, and continued walking towards the main auditorium with my friends to attend the last college fest of my life.
Zenith ‘17 was spectacular and I was able to capture many kodak moments but Zenith ‘16 will be the one that I’ll remember forever.
Note: This story is a work of fiction inspired by real-life occurrences.
