'Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.'
                                                                   -William Shakespeare

That quote was the basis of constant discussion and disagreement between Nikki and me and perhaps what made us fall in love with each other.

‘Are you saying, that even if things got bad between us or we lost interest, you wouldn’t want to end the relationship?’

‘Of course not! That won’t ever happen because when I say I love you, I mean it and you know what the wise old man had to say about love…Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.’
That was such a weak argument but it always shut me up because when she said it with her beautiful smile and her pretty brown eyes looked so genuinely and innocently at me, I believed that she loved me. I believed her over and over and over again for the last 3 years and I don’t know when exactly it happened, but against my better judgement, I started to strongly believe in her favorite quote as well. I think it was because I finally understood that disbelief in the quote would be denial of her true love for me. Since that was something I never once doubted, all my doubts about the cliché quotes and idealistic notions about love disappeared gradually.

Around our 3 year anniversary we became that annoying couple who completed each other’s sentences and that quote would always find a way into majority of our conversations. The 3 years we were together, we went through so much which though at the time was heart-breaking was more so the reason of our relationship strengthening – her father’s accident, my grandmother’s death, her sister eloping for marriage, my brother dropping out of college. All these tragedies caused so much chaos, drama and pain at home that our sole solace was our love.

After being to hell and back together, all our friends thought we would be together forever and would someday be the ones who married their college sweethearts. They only thought we would but I was sure about it and so on the day of our graduation, I was all set to get the formalities out of the way and officially propose. It took me 4 weeks to go through her Pinterest boards and find the right match to her dream wedding ring. While purchasing it, the shopkeeper asked me,
‘Sir, do you want to get the rings engraved? It makes it even more special.’

‘Oh, yes, yes of course.’

It’s been 3 days since our graduation night and as I look at Nikki sleeping peacefully right now, I am happy that the ring fits her just perfectly. It wasn’t as easy to get her to agree as I thought it would be. I was in for quite a shock the night I asked her to be my wife.
‘I’m sorry, but no. I just can’t. You know that I am moving to California for my Masters, Rohan, and you also know how I feel about long distance relationships.’

‘But...but we love each other!’

‘Things change, Rohan. Time changes everything. It would be best if you move on too.’

In all the big life changes post-graduation Nikki was clearly confused and just a little lost. It was my duty to calm her down, to remind her of all the promises we made and guide her to the path of our lovely future, the seeds of which she sowed brain in my. The future changes seemed to intimidate her and it was time for me to step up and protect her against these momentarily scares. 
I understood the role I had to play for our sake, our love and to see the ring on her finger which had the perfect justification for what I did next…Yes, I put her into perpetual slumber and now she resides with me forever but I am not at fault one bit as the ring engraved rightly states,

Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds. 
-Rtr. Hargun Sachdev





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