To Life, To Life...Lechaim!!!

Ah, life! The more you think you have it all figured out, the more it puzzles you. Atul and Ipsita were in love. And being in their thirties, both of them felt like there weren't any surprises ahead. They were both upfront with each other regarding their pasts and they were both pretty okay with each others' former love lives. They got along famously and were really excited about creating a life together. Then one fateful day, Atul had to move to another city for work. And just like that, the fairy tale romance that the two had created got a twist of reality.

I've always believed that long distance relationships are unnatural. Think about it, just hundred years ago, a man living in Chennai could not, under any circumstances, be in a relationship with a woman staying in Aizawl. Yeah, you can give me some bullshit about people falling in love over letters back in the Victorian days, but that was simply because they were so repressed in their real lives that they sought escape through something which was clearly non-existent. So, had it not been for mails, internet, telephones and recently video-calling, long distance relationships just wouldn't have worked.

But people are foolish and love is like quicksand, once you're trapped in it, you have no way out, you just keep sinking deeper and deeper. Atul and Ipsita believed they could make it work. And so, they soon had a routine set in place, and managed to talk to each other as much as humanly possible. It was cute. But over time, they realized that there wasn't anything new to say to each other. And over time, texts replaced calls and emojis replaced actual words.

They did meet every now and then, when he'd fly to meet her over the weekends. They'd cozy up in her bed and make love like rabbits. And then just cuddle and feel close to each other. But soon, the ticket cost and the whole back breaking travel experience impacted the frequency of their meeting. And then, the temptations of instant gratification started working their magic. 

One fine evening, Ipsita was asked out by her boss. She wasn't sure if it was a social invitation or a date kind of a deal. She called Atul to consult on the same and he didn't pick up. He was nowhere to be found. She called his office and a woman answered his desk line and curtly informed her that Atul wasn't at his desk at that moment. Ipsita was pissed. So, she just agree to her boss's invitation. After office, Ipsita's boss picked her up and took her out for a drink. It was indeed a date and Ipsita was a little awkward because her boss knew about Atul. They started drinking and conversation jumped from one thing to another. Her boss told her about his divorce and the custody battle that was afoot. She felt sad for the guy. A few drinks later, she got a text from Atul. 

"Hey love, sorry, today was real busy. DS really reamed me today. What's up?", Atul's text read.

While she was reading the text, her boss just leaned over to kiss her on the cheeks, which startled Ipsita and she looked up, a little dazed. Her boss, who'd sobered up a little by her reaction, apologized and offered to drop her home. On the way, he kept talking about his troubles and Ipsita sympathised with him. When they were at her place, she just moved forward for a side hug but her boss read it wrong and just kissed her on her lips. For some odd reason, she didn't push him away. He read it as consent. Very soon, he was back with her in her apartment. Maybe it was the alcohol or maybe something else, things escalated quickly. He boss left soon after and Ipsita was just left behind with a pile of guilt and self loathing. She felt bad, really bad about herself as she took a shower, trying to wash those feelings away.

On the other part of the country, Atul was just listlessly looking at his phone, wondering where Ipsita was. Then her text came. "Hey, I had dozed off. Sorry. It's late, let's talk tomorrow." He just texted back with a wide smiley and slept off happily. By now, Ipsita had started rationalizing what had happened. It was the alcohol's fault. It was his sob story. It was her anger about Atul's absence. It was everything else's fault but not hers'. She decided to leave it behind. And not talk about it ever. She just texted her boss, saying it was a one time thing and he was quite a gentleman about it. And that was that.

But when is life ever that simple? Her boss was a social media junkie and was used to clicking a lot of pictures and had clicked a few while in bed with Ipsita without her knowledge. And he forwarded one of them to a colleague by mistake. By the next afternoon, everyone at the office knew. They gave her some nasty looks that day, which she couldn't understand. But one of her frenemies forwarded that picture to Atul. 

Until yesterday, Atul had it all figured out. And now, he didn't know what to do. So, he just went out and got hammered. Later in the night, he called Ipsita. He tried to coax the truth out of her, but women are made of stronger stuff than that. She gave him nothing, blissfully unaware that he already knew. Later that night, Atul installed Tinder and created an account. He subscribed to a paid membership in his drunken state and swiped on a few profiles and slept off.

The next morning, he had a match. It was a very simple looking girl without any bio. He texted 'hi' and promptly got a reply back. It was Sunday and the Tinder girl was a great conversationalist. She invited him to meet for lunch. Still angry with Ipsita, he decided to go. Lunch turned to a movie, movie to dinner and dinner to her apartment. Ipsita, who had work that day, finally realized that people in her office knew about what had transpired between her and the boss. Devastated, she got to damage control and that kept her busy all day.

The Tinder girl was just the right mix of crazy, sweet and sexy. Atul came clean to her when they reached her apartment. She laughed and told him he was so naive to think this was the first time Ipsita had stepped out on him. She had a lot of baggage of her own and projected it on Atul. Around midnight, Atul was having crazy remorseless sex with the Tinder girl. She was so different and quirky, knew exactly what she liked and didn't shy away from asking for it.

The next morning, when Atul left her, she gave him her number and said, "You're a nice guy. I hope you sort things out with your girlfriend." And just like that, everything was real once again. He had her rosy smell on him when he got back and it felt wrong. In his guilt, he just called up Ipsita and told her everything. A weird silence took over. 

Now the question here is one of morality. Who was more wrong in this story? Was it Ipsita or was it Atul? 

Interestingly though, real life, in my opinion, has no place for morality. There's just cause and effect in real life. Three weeks later, Sanya, the Tinder girl, called up Atul out of the blue and told him this: "Dude, I am not sure whether I should even tell you this, but I am pregnant and it's yours and I am going for an abortion. Thought telling you would be the decent thing to do."

More interestingly, a few days before that, Ipsita had realized that she was pregnant too. She didn't even bother to tell her boss about it.

And now, let me give you another little detail that might interest you. Three years later today, Sanyan and Atul are married and their two year old daughter has amazing parents. And I don't know what happened to Ipsita but God bless her nonetheless.

Isn't life weird?