The Cosmic Joke

It was a big night for the two roommates. It had been about a year since they had moved to Delhi, and started living the big-town lives. Now, they wanted to take things a little bit forward – they were ready for a girlfriend each.

So, they planned out their dates for the night. They would do it together. Ishaan was the sensitive one, while Nandu liked to live the precarious life. Ishaan was in love with a girl, at least he thought he was. Nandu knew that he liked someone, but he wasn't that sure about love. Unlike Ishaan, he didn't think about spending the rest of his life with his girl…

They had gone out for dates, but none of them knew if they had the right to call their respective girls their girlfriends or not. They wanted to though. Call it peer pressure, but almost all their classmates in college had had at least one girlfriend in their lifetime. For Nandu, it was more for his self respect than anything else, that he wanted to get this girl to be his girlfriend. So they went out, with a purpose this time.

Nandu had a good time in the evening. She was quite pleased to meet him, and they went for a movie, dinner, and a nice walk after dinner. They found that in spite of a lot of differences, they indeed enjoyed each other's company. It was quite late when Nandu finally dropped her off at her hostel, and went back to his room.

Walking into the room, Nandu found that Ishaan was hopelessly drunk, and by the look of it, even more hopelessly sad. The door to the balcony was thrown open, even in the chilly Delhi winter night. Ishaan had tried to jump from the balcony, judging by the almost incoherent sobs that came from Ishaan, lying curled up on the room floor. It took considerable effort on Nandu's part to get Ishaan off the floor, and on to the chair. Two strong cups of coffee later, however, he seemed slightly less dazed. He recognized Nandu, and said his life is over, and there's no real purpose for his existence anymore.

Nandu, who had never experienced such emotions, sat there, quite unsure of what to say. Having nothing better to ask, he said "What exactly happened tonight, that almost literally pushed you over the edge?"

"I told her exactly the way I feel about her. She said she understands, but she needed time to figure things out. She said she'll let me know what her answer would be, and now she's not picking up my calls. She's going to say no to me, I just know it. I don't even feel like living anymore. You know how I feel about her; you know how crazy I am about her, how much I love her," said Ishaan, almost succumbing to his sobs again.

Nandu really didn't know what to say to this man. He thought he had known him, but apparently he hadn't. All he could say was, "Consider yourself lucky man. The girl I fell for turned out to be a lesbian."

***

Image Courtesy BloOwITt