During our Engineering college hostel days we had a senior. We used to call him “Arvind da” (Name changed). He was very friendly and decent. He used to roam around with a girl of his same batch from different branch. She was Pooja(Name changed). They would enjoy their evening stroll in the campus, spent time together in the canteen, go movies together, only two of them. The beautiful lady also frequently visited him in our hostel. He stayed in a single room. They would spend good amount of time in the hostel on the weekends, and then went out by the college bus. For us they were ideal couples. They looked alike, both had the kind of charm, they always had smile on their face. Those were pre internet and pre mobile phone days. We also didn’t have a landline phone at our hostel, it showed up much later. But our Girls hostel had one from the beginning. If the boys had to communicate with their girlfriends or friends they had to either give a visit or go to the telephone booth about a km away. But during the ragging days there was also another option. The seniors would write letters, yes, hand-written letters, and would ask some decent first semester guy to deliver it.
So, one day I met Pooja in the city. We both hello-ed. I asked if she's with Arvind da. She smiled. Aha, I remember her smile, so delightful. She said she's alone, some shopping stuffs. Later in the evening I and one more friend were with Arvind da, in his room. We were simply gossiping, smoking.
"Today, I met you girlfriend near Pan Bazar, " I said.
"Girlfriend? I don’t have any girlfriend."
"Come on Arvind da," the words came out from me and my friend’s mouth simultaneously.
"Are you talking about Pooja ?" Asked Arvind da.
"Ofcourse yes, or who else?"
Arvind da laughed, "Pooja is not my girlfriend."
The discussion continued for some more time. Arvind da was close to us. He tried to explain his relationship with Pooja. But we were not convinced.
"So you mean to say Pooja is only your friend and not girlfriend?" I asked.
Arvind da remained silent for a while. And then he said, "It’s much more than friendship I must acknowledge. But then she’s not my girlfriend. It is somewhere in between."
We were totally confused.
"Are you guys into some kind of physical relationship?" My friend asked.
Arvind da tried to bring his charming smile on his face, but it was fake.
"No yaar, nothing like that."
"Not the hard core type, but kissing and may be some other soft stuffs?"
Arvind da again laughed and denied. I think he was upset with the question. He was a very emotional and simple guy.
"Forget it. You will not understand our relationship. It’s very complicated," he commented, smile on his face.
Even though we were not matured enough to understand such relationships, but we didn’t bother our senior friend anymore since then. A couple of years later it was time for Arvind da's batch to move out of hostel. We still had another two years. It was time to depart. Arvind da passed us a small diary. We were supposed to write our address/contact number/email address (Yes, suddenly internet cafes became a booming business those days). I noticed many of the guys mentioned some goodbye quotes on the diary. I was confused. It’s pretty easy to say Hello and get introduced for the first time, but farewell quotes are difficult. I didn’t know what to write? And then something came to my mind and I penned it down, fast.
Arvind da laughed. It seemed he liked my goodbye message.
Actually such relationships has had always existed. Some relationship better remain unnamed, unrecognized. Chetan Bhagat tried to give it a name. Like many others, even I didn’t like the idea. I think for some people "Half Boyfriend" name would have been more convincing name than "Half Girlfriend", or does it anyway matter? My wife picked up the book from a store long back. Even though I’m not a big fan of Chetan Bhagat but I read the book. I felt an emotional relationship is not presented in a mature way. But the book is a best seller. The novel is made into a movie as well. I don’t have any plan to watch it though, but "Half Girlfriend" made more than ten crores on its opening day. Not half bad, isn’t it?
Grab a copy of my debut book Story of Tublu from Amazon or Flipkart. It is a Contemporary Fiction novel, published by LiFi Publications Pvt Ltd. The book has its share of drama, that entertains; humor, that makes one reminisce; love, friendship and emotions that defines the amazing journey that is, life.
