9 in a row

( Again, I would like to mention here that Mandy and others are all fictitious characters. Only they seem real as their experiences are borrowed from our own lives ! )

It all began with 9.

Mandy was in 9th standard. He was one of the bright students in his class. These guys had a separate group altogether. They never mixed with any girls; would only seldom talk teasingly about them. They however, used to tease each others jokingly, pairing them with girls in the school. All in all, they had no scope for girls in their lives.
Mandy was paired with one of the pretty girls in his class. And then it struck.

The constant utterance of her name and the constant remembrance made Mandy start to think about her and look her with new eyes. He found her really pretty and friendly. Then one fine day Mandy happened to sit next to her in the class (The school followed a constant rotation policy!). He was now talking and finding it interesting.
All this was followed by a lot of interactions and ended up in a misendeavour. Mandy bought a Valentines Day card; he was about to give it to her.

Some wise and timely advice from friends saved him. 9th standard and Valentines cards would have made an infamous combination.
Also, the general alienation from his anti-girls group that he could sense would aggravate if Mandy pursued it further.

Still effusions continued to burden Mandy's soul and he was just not able to divert his mind from this unattempted / failed endeavour.

Every year, the Valentines Day was very depressing for him. He used to think and think about ways to approach but end up thinking about the repercussions.

When he was in 10th he had got a lot of pimples and hence would reject himself.
In 11th and 12th, the emotional stress of thinking about a girl when actually one should give his full attention to studies made him feel guilty.

He wanted to do something but would not.

All throughout his 10th, 11th and 12th standard he just played the silent observer.

When Mandy came away from home for his Graduation, he got over that guilt. Geographical separation had made him forget all that. He enjoyed the new found company of his hostel friends.

He was in his first year when he deplored the Valentines Day; nothing to do with culture issues but for its being responsible for stressing out teenagers. It was an unnecessary thing that created an unnecessary need, a Frankenstein – whom people found troublesome after falling for it.

Mandy was happy with his group and all the sports and fun they had in the hostel.
Then came the second year and the Thunderbolt* (ref. "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo).

She outmatched all. Exquisite.

Mandy had been made wise by all his past experience and kept himself aloof from the Frankenstein. He knew better not to borrow any undue trouble.
But a thunderbolt it was and who could escape it.

However, Mandy's second year Valentines Day ended up peacefully: lost amidst calculating the odds and planning a strike which got over-planned and he had to postpone it to the next season.

This time he was thinking clearly. He did not want this to trouble him and so he just made attempts to know whether the investment was worth the risk.
The more he communicated, the more he got entangled. And then the bait was too hard to resist. All was back to the same old story.

But this time it was not troublesome. He did it. No rejection but no result either.

Days went by.

The fourth year passed in pondering over the past memories and in the hangover of the much cherished "Disclosure of Emotions" done in the previous year.
Some meetings here and there did pull some strings but neither was the amplitude high nor the frequency matching.

In the due course of all these years, Mandy has discovered so many like-minded and like-suffered friends, in his office, in his shared bachelor accommodation and in this world, who are all in search of someone, whom even if they locate, end up in neverland.

All in all, Mandy is all dry now. He has become immune to all the fuss and the undue excitement. The innumerable doctrines that have been carved out in his mind - ranging from "Love At First Sight" to "Attraction" to "Infatuation" to "Flirting" to "One Sided Love" to "Love" to "True Love" to "Unconditional Love" to "Love Cannot Be Arranged" to "No One To Love" to "Why Do You Search Love? Cant You Love Your Parents?" to "Love During College Days Is Useless" to "Desperation For Love" to "No One Loves Me" to "Do You Love Yourself ?" – has left his mind exhausted and uninventive in these matters. There is an added tension of getting older day by day and the need to concentrate more on one's career.

This 14th February was the 9th Valentines Day in a row that Mandy has seen and fortunately or unfortunately there are no bells ringing and no butterflies in the stomach.

Mandy has realized that love is a sweet coincidence when two people like each other on coming together. It cannot be planned. It cannot be made to happen. It is spontaneous and you do not need to get tense. If it has to happen it will or it wont.

Someone has said, " If you love something, set it free. If it comes back to you, it is always yours, otherwise it never was. "