Love Sublime

I sat in my study, with just the reading lamp turned on. It had turned dark outside, without me realising it.
In front of me, on the table, lay the wedding invite of Kavya. She had found the one she loved with all her heart, enough to marry him.

I had met Kavya outside an ice-cream parlour. Not so much met, as bumped.
She was coming out, totally engrossed in her softy cone, blissfully unaware of her surroundings; and I was going in, busy in my preparation for my job interview. And BAM !!! we collided.
I lost my thread of thoughts and turned to scold the offender. But one look into her big bright blue eyes and I forgot everything. She was apologising profusely, and I found myself trying to convince her that it was my fault after all.
When I had cleaned all the ice-cream off me, I noticed that the rest of it lay on the footpath, melting. So I offered to buy her another one, she accepted and so off we went.
Talked with her, for a while, under the watchful eyes of her mother, and then we were on our ways.

Holy Hurricanes !!! Met her again a few days later, in a marriage party this time. She was wearing the prettiest pink dress ever and looked absolutely lady-like. I told her so, and she smiled, with such an endearing twinkle in her eyes.
We hung around a lot that day...talked about so many things...and she didn't get bored of any of my stupid stories.
And then her mom came and took her away, as they were leaving.
The rest of the evening somehow, lost its glitter.

We managed to bump into each other ( not literally, thank God !!! ) quite a few times after that, phone numbers were exchanged and long conversations ensued.
In her, I found unconditional acceptance, and she, would rush to me to tell everything, her joys, her sorrows, her glory, her troubles, everything.
We would have our share of fights, when our opinions differed, and then the apologies, at the ice-cream parlour.
I was her anchor, her confidante, her counsellor.
To me, she was an angel, the one bright spot in my life.

Time flew by. She left town for her higher studies, and I got busy with my own life.
We lost touch, re-initiated contact, drifted apart again...
She met new people, made new friends, but she always maintained that I was her BESTEST friend.
And now this…

I was glad for her, really happy, wished her well, for always.
She had found a person who was adored by everybody in her family. That’s rare.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I broke out of my reverie and looked up.
My wife had walked into the room.
She said, "Come, have dinner. Tomorrow we have to go for Kavya's marriage, and with all the work to be done, her parents have asked us to be there early."
Wistfully I said, "Kavya was 8 years old when I first met her. And tomorrow she's getting married !!! Why do you girls grow up so fast ?"