Together Forever
I always believed that the future has something special for me in the love section, because it does, for everyone. Love is always special!
Things around us can not always be good or bad, boring or entertaining, they flow through different moods. Yet I also secretly hoped that it would not be just special for me, but a bit crazy too. A little out of the box, a hair more interesting than special.
Talking about special I would like to mention my out-of-the-world-super-cool parents. Born and raised in typical Indian and conservative surroundings, my parents are jaw-dropping-ly supportive of my somewhat crazy decisions as long as those decisions contribute to my happiness, which is quite unexpected in a lower-middle-class setup, right?
There was a time when I was getting my heart-broken, again and again. I like to think of it as the world making sure that I become someone who would never take the gift of love for granted when I finally get it. Because this way it sounds more romantic, you know. I think it was also slowly preparing my parents because a few things happened around us which made them more open towards the idea of me making my choices, which are based on what I think is going to make me happy. Something made us realize that society, culture, and traditions are there to make human life easy and more enjoyable. A community is supposed to grow collectively instead of questioning people’s life choices or expecting us all to follow a certain way of life. Communities and societies are for us, and not the other way around. But let’s not go there for now or did we?
So, back to the love section — the love of my life and I have been in a relationship for the past six months now, long-distance actually, and we have never even met before. Unlike most modern relationships we did not meet on Facebook/Instagram, any other social media, or dating site. We are just two programmers who discussed a bit more than logics and algorithms while being slightly shy and very subtle; things like our take on the world, our past/present, approach and attitude, insecurities/fears, the definition of success & happiness, love & magic, faith & religion. We also talked about some more heavy stuff, like what food we like, places we want to visit, taste in music, our families, Harry Potter, beach or mountain, etc, etc.
We fell in love, hard. And we have been trying to meet ever since, we can not do everything on Zoom, right?
So… he is Dutch. That’s the crazy part, even though my past self could have totally seen it coming. The special part is that he will be coming to India for me, to settle, just for me. Not for work, not for travel or adventure, only for me. Super romantic, I know!
But of course, our love story is not untouched by the pandemic, in fact, it’s the biggest villain in our story. It obviously is for the entire world right now. I know it’s not just happening to us, though I don’t want to make you think about that now. Or did I already?
We did get close though… once… but then all the flights got canceled and all the countries closed their borders. The night his visa was supposed to get approved, we cried together because they stopped giving out visas, and we then spent the next two days trying to make each other smile, and stay hopeful.
Four months later we’re still spending our days planning everything for the day we meet, and the first month we’ll have together while keeping an eye on the current international flight situation. Our families know about us, and they are excited. We’re too, with a hint of nervosity, I mean c’mon we’ve never met before. I am not sure if he would like my left ear as much as my right ear.
Honestly, being apart is killing us. We’re at the stage of “What wouldn’t we give to be able to hold hands once?”. It’s really difficult, yet I never had a second thought about it because I have an immense amount of faith in us, despite the constant waves of what if this? or what if that? in my mind. Maybe it’s because he always has the answers to my what-ifs, and he knows it’s a temporary fear and yet treats them with sensitivity. Maybe my faith comes from my own determination of never letting a connection like this go. Maybe it comes from his courage for leaving his whole life behind and putting everything aside, trying to come to me. Maybe it’s his faith that I have faith in. Or just him or in the entire flow of things. Who knows? I know that we share the feeling of moving mountains, to be with each other.
Whatever comes ahead now, we will end up together. In every parallel universe. In his words — We have at least 80 years of togetherness at the end of this storm.
Meanwhile, I’m thinking about writing to the embassy for some help with his visa so that in the next lockdown, we are at least stuck together and not apart. Let me know what you think!
Did I make you clap? ;)
