The Unfulfilled Wish

Kavya was 21 and Amardeep was 20. The age gap was not of a year but of few months. Both of them joined the same college of engineering in Patiala. Amardeep was a tall handsome guy, a native of Punjab. Kavya was a smart girl of wheatish complexion from Andhra Pradesh. Both met at their classroom for the first time, unaware of each other's presence.

Their first year's first class was going to start. It was the time for the organizational behaviour lecture, which was to be taken by Mr. Rajpal. Apart from these two people, there were other 31 students in that class. Kavya was seen very excited about this lecture, as it was the first lecture of her engineering career. Everyone was gossiping with each other before the start of the lecture.

Mr. Rajpal entered the classroom at sharp 9.00 am, which was the time of the lecture to begin. Everyone greeted him, "Good morning! Sir". Kavya was impressed by his punctuality. Mr. Rajpal replied, "Hello everyone! and please don't call me sir. You can address me as Mr. Rajpal, that will sound better". Suddenly a voice came from the middle row of the classroom, "But you are our teacher and very senior in terms of age". The voice was of Amardeep's. Everyone stared at him. Kavya also joined the crowd and tried to put a glance at Amardeep for his remark. "Gentleman, you in the middle, could you please stand up, I want to have some words with you", asked Mr. Rajpal pointing towards Amardeep. Amardeep stood up and felt a bit awkward while standing in front of the whole class.

"May I know your name, gentleman?", asked Mr. Rajpal. "Myself Amardeep Singh", replied Amardeep in a proud tone. "Yes, please sit down Amardeep, you are right, I am very senior to you people. But in the corporate world, you are expected to call everyone by their names only. Don't worry you will get to learn this etiquette in coming lectures of this subject", Mr. Rajpal answered to Amardeep's question. Amardeep was satisfied with Mr. Rajpal. "Okay guys and gals before we start our lecture, I want to choose representatives from this class, so that you people can reach out to me through class representatives in case of any concern", addressed Mr. Rajpal. "Volunteers from both boys and girls must raise their hands and I will choose from them", asked Mr. Rajpal.

The class was silent, no one showed interest, neither from the boys' group nor from the girls. To see this type of cold response from the class, Mr. Rajpal chose the representatives by himself, "Amardeep, I want you to be the CR (Class Representative) from the boy's side. Kavya, I want you to be the CR from the girl's side. I don't know anyone here personally, but I got some positive feedback about you (Kavya) from the teachers of your previous college". Kavya was very surprised and never expected to be chosen as CR, neither she had any experience of leading a classroom. She was quite nervous. But she got herself ready for this responsibility. The lecture ended in one hour. The whole day went well for both Amardeep and Kavya. After finishing the lectures they headed towards their hostel.

The next day began with the computer science lecture with full classroom strength. Like good representatives both Amardeep and Kavya began their duty. They hardly talk with each other. After the completion of one more lecture, there was a tea break of fifteen minutes. Everyone went outside for the break except Kavya and few other girls. Kavya was from a conservative family. So, she doesn't like going outside very much unless it is needed. She rather started interacting with other girls who stayed in the classroom during that fifteen minutes break. While flipping the pages of her notebook of the next lecture, suddenly she saw a note kept in between the pages. The note read as, "Will you be my friend?- Amardeep".

She couldn't believe that Amardeep has written this note because he never showed any interest in her. But Kavya gathered the courage to reply to this note. She wrote below the lines written by Amardeep, "Yes why not? if we are good representatives then we can be good friends also". Then she kept the note below Amardeep's desk in a safe place so that others won't able to access it. It seemed like Kavya was very much interested in friendship with Amardeep. The break was over and everyone returned to the classroom. Kavya was looking at Amardeep and expected him to read her note. Amardeep saw the note but did not show any reaction. Kavya was a little bit disappointed with this.

All the lectures of the first half got over. Then it was the time for the lunch break. Everyone headed towards the cafeteria including Kavya and Amardeep. Kavya was the alone girl from her class inside the cafeteria as other girls went out to some nearby restaurants. Kavya was very much conscious regarding eating healthy food which according to her won't be available in any restaurant. She took her veg meal plate and started eating. Coincidentally Amardeep also joined her at the same dinning table. "If you don't mind can I sit here and have my lunch? Actually all other dining tables are occupied ", asked Amardeep. "Sure, no problem at all", replied Kavya in a friendly voice.

Her heart was beating fast thinking about the morning incidence. She wanted to continue the conversation with Amardeep. "Are you a vegetarian?", asked Kavya. "Yes, I am. But how did you get to know about this?", cross-questioned Amardeep. "No no, I don't know anything about it. I just asked after seeing the veg meal plate kept in-front of you", replied Kavya. "Ohh great. you are a smart girl then", remarked Amardeep. Both passed smile to each other. "If you don't mind can I know something about you?", asked Kavya. "Yes please go ahead", replied Amardeep.

"Today morning I got a note from you regarding a friendship proposal. Was that written by you? You could have directly asked me for the same instead of sending notes", enquired Kavya. "Ohh that morning note. Actually Kavya, that note was written by me but my friends insisted me for doing that. They are making fun of me all the time. I have never expected that you will reply to that. I was feeling embarrassed so couldn't dare to look at you", replied Amardeep. Kavya was relaxed on hearing this. She said, "No need to feel any embarrassment, we can be friends if you want." Without thinking much Amardeep accepted her friendship formally. Now the lunch break got over and they headed towards their classrooms. The entire college day went well for both of them. They returned to their hostels after a tiresome day.

Now everyday they will do their duties, attend lectures, meet and greet each other formally like friends. They would talk over phones after returning from college. They would attend all the college events together and would spend time with each other in most of the leisure times. Kavya started developing a love like feeling for Amardeep, unaware of his feelings. Three years of friendship passed like no time. Amardeep still did not show any love interest for Kavya. But Kavya had developed very strong feelings towards Amardeep in these years. She couldn't read his mind for his feelings. But she was expecting a proposal from Amardeep. This was like a dream for her. As she was a girl, she was not supposed to take any initiative, according to her. She waited for Amardeep to take the initiative. But life was not a fairy tale for Kavya.

All her dreams and wishes got shattered one day. Both were having conversations while returning from college. To know about the feelings of Amardeep, Kavya indirectly asked him regarding his choice of a life partner, "What type of marriage you want in future- Arranged or love".

Amardeep felt a little awkward. "Well, I will go for an arranged marriage and the bride will be selected by my parents", replied Amardeep. Kavya was a bit upset about hearing this from Amardeep. She further asked, "Any specific reason for going for this decision". Amardeep replied very casually, "Yes, my parents want me to have a homemaker or a working girl who can quit her job after marriage to look after our future kids. I think this is not the right time to discuss all these stuffs. We must focus on our careers". Kavya was very sad about this reply. Both left for their hostels by saying good-bye to each other. Kavya never expected such a cold response from Amardeep. She was disappointed in seeing that Amardeep has not developed any feelings for her even after three years of closeness. She never discussed her feelings with anyone, not even with Amardeep. On that day, Kavya wept a lot in her hostel room. It was like an unfulfilled dream for her.

The college years got over now. Both Kavya and Amardeep got placements in different MNCs. But Amardeep decided to go to the US for higher studies and rejected the job offer. For the last time, Kavya wanted to meet Amardeep and say goodbye to him. But Amardeep did not show any interest to meet her before going to the US and also stopped calling her over the phone. Kavya was really very disappointed with the sudden change in Amardeep's behaviour. But she decided to move ahead in her career and life without dropping a tear.

Now ten years completed to Kavya's marriage with a very responsible guy called Anil Kumaran. She is very much happy and satisfied with her married life. But still, she has hidden the guilt of involving in a false friendship and dreaming for an unfulfilled wish, somewhere in the deep corner of her heart.