Love Notes (1990-2010)

Decades back when I was a small kid, I wrote a letter to my sweetheart with all the love I ever had and waited eagerly for her reply for so many days. But she didn't reply, months cycled to years and I still waited. Eventually we were parted by space and time with the remaining memories of our little love story as she was migrating to Canada with her family. Maybe she completely forgot me or I was never in her to remember and then one Saturday afternoon while I was shaping my adolescent mustache came the reply in an empty envelope as numb as my mind. I cried for days remembering *Devdas and *Paro, started drinking at the tender age of 13 and felt myself growing wise and healthy. Eventually grew beard after years of tireless practice that scratched the skin out of my face.

Years passed in forgetting her sunshine smile, pink frock, white shoes, hair band and matching ear rings. In the mean time, I topped my graduation, almost miraculously completed post graduation and then flunked variety of certificate courses to be a dedicated Sudoku player. Maybe she was the puzzle I was trying to solve everyday and once while searching for my lucky Sudoku solver pencil; I found her empty envelope in my cupboard calling me blankly to look at it. I curiously checked it over and over and to my surprise I found something so tiny written so beautifully. I couldn't wait to read it, I knew what I missed all these years and I rushed to my Grandma's room, opened her worktable and took her magnifying lens. I slowly moved it over the text for the reply I waited all these years, 'grow up loser'.


This is a work of fiction and luckily I didn’t have a lover to be such a loser when I was a kid or else it would have ended up the same way because recently my personal experiences are real close to the above written story. Not really but yes, I didn’t flunk any certificate course. That was added to generate some fun for the readers who accidentally reach to read love notes but I guess it didn’t bring any good. Anyways,

*Devdas and Paro are fictional characters from the tragic Bengali novel by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay. They were written as perfect lovers in the novel but separated by fate which turns Devdas to a full-time alcoholic in memory and love of Paro's love for him till death. Fortunately he died very soon not testing the patience of the readers.