Careless Whisper (Part 1)

17th June.
Her day kicked off as usual. Waking up the earliest at home to do her prayers and meditate. Doing her usual chores, accompanying mum to market and preparing breakfast for the other family members over the weekend. Anishka. A simple sweet, girl-next-door, 19 year old from Kuala Lumpur. A girl that would pass across you a million times yet you’d never realize her presence. Nothing special to mention about. She has her personal idea of thinking on mostly everything. Well for love, she was better off without it. She dedicated herself to her studies and her family. Never worried about when her Prince Charming would arrive. Well, she’s just different or should I say unique.

Anishka, she’s a massive gadget freak. Being in all this has always been a part of her. Facebook,Twitter,Tagged,Myspace, Friendster and the list goes on and on. Then she came across Tumblr. Created her account. “ThePunjabiGori”. No one knew about it. Specially to be treated as her personal diary. She’d update it every day. Every single day. New post, new story, new experience. Time went by and she made a number of followers. Random people all around the world. None that knew her personally. Thus, she approved being followed. But never did she knew that one of them………

Anishka had great passion towards photography. She bought herself a Canon DSLR for self satisfaction. She would carry it anywhere she goes. All special moments captured in her DSLR gets posted on her Tumblr. Only Tumblr could fill her passion towards photography. Well, Tumblr is a world where pictures speaks it all than words.

26th July
After getting too much addicted to Tumblr, her MSN was dead. Anishka don’t check her MSN regularly. That fine weekend, after her usual weekend chores, she sat lazily staring at her bright red Vaio notebook and clicked on the MSN icon on her desktop. "Type in your email address & password".. Type type type.. She spotted 3 new notifications flickering & demanding for her full attention. Click click & off she was directed to her Hotmail account.

3 new friend requests. Kuljit Sidhu, angel sweet and *deLter* wants to be your friend.
Click approve all. She approved all her add request without even thinking twice. Sign off.


Months passed by and Anishka’s semester break came in between. Posts added. Followers begin to increase tremendously. Her semester break was spent more on her lappy rather than any other activities. Updating every moment and going online every now and then.


15th September
Regular stuffs. Anishka logged into her MSN. Suprisingly she decided to appear online today, rather than the other way round, how she always do. Small flag popped up on her screen. Kuljit Sidhu has signed in. His name caught her attention. Being all curious on who he was, she buzzed and said a short, simple "Hello". She remembers very well that she was following him on Tumblr, “isyoudizzyblud” She adored his posts, all to do with photography.

They continued chatting. Oh boy. At first, he was quite rude to her. Replying as short as possible and being all ignorant. Anishka did most of the talking while he just replied her. There was definitely not even a single tiny bit of interest he showed in her. She figured out that he added her randomly through her Tumblr account and for the fact that they both had mutual interest.

Anishka personally felt that he had quite an interesting personality. She keeps saying that she never met anyone parallel to him. Time passed by and regular chats started coming in her way. Every day was something different. Yes, Anishka begin to appear online everyday in order to chat with him. Kuljit was actually more than meets the eye. He was caring and loving towards her.

Both of them got close. Their daily chat knew no limits. Exchanging thoughts and nick name for each other. Their friendly fight most of the time. It was indeed a beautiful feeling, for the both of them. They cherished their friendship very much. Yes, friends. Just friends.

Anishka begin to fall for him. For the first time, all those love songs and lines begin to make sense to her. She felt butterflies each time Kuljit says something nice. Well for her, it was a first time experience. She never realized that she’s falling for him till her Vaio, was sent for “check up”. It was for service for two days. Anishka being herself, patiently waited to have her lappy back. Perhaps she got used having Kuljit in her life every day.

2 days later, she went online. The MSN feature of allowing one to send an instant message when the other person appears offline ,made their communication easier. It had dates and even time written at the side. Kuljit sent Anishka an offline message. He was missing her presence. In fact, he kept sending her messages at different times. And all she did was assume Kuljit’s feelings towards her. She started liking him even more.

Kuljit told her all of his secrets, yes all of them. Then one day, he told her about the girl he loved. Anishka thought to herself, "I should have seen this coming. He is a sweet guy with a charming personality. Of course he's bound to be in love with someone." But there was a problem. More like the usual same problem. He was afraid of the girl's reaction & thus he kept his love for her unannounced. Yes, same as what Anishka has been doing towards him.

Kuljit even tells her stories of the girl he loves. Secretly, Anishka will be wishing that girl was her. Well for the beginning she was a little sad. Then she understood. To her, true love didn’t mean to posses. And so, she left all her love for Kuljit to go in their friendship. She decided at that very moment that she'll treat Kuljit as her friend. That's it.

Anishka is a great girl. One that anyone would adore only if they knew her personally. Happy-go-lucky all the time. But deep down, she was all alone. Tonnes of friends but none of them went from normal to a true friend. Yet, all she needed was that one person she could rely on. Someone she can tell everything to. Anishka saw herself being all comfy, letting Kuljit be that person.

She told him everything. He was even the one she cried on when she failed her subjects. When she argued with her family. When she failed her driving classes for the 5th time. Their relationship was something really special. Unfortunately, Anishka never told Kuljit how she felt towards him. Her feelings kept growing. But she ignored it & instead, focused on giving Kuljit her warm words whenever he was down.

Anishka lives in KL whereas Kuljit was all the way at Malacca. Distance in kilometer didn't at once came in the way of their friendship. Call it destiny, or call it fate. By coincidence, her university organized for an event at Malacca.

She thought to herself, "Maybe I'll be able to meet him! FINALLY!" She told Kuljit all about it. And so, they exchanged numbers and waited patiently for the day to come. Yes, for all this time, they never exchanged numbers. The reason was Anishka’s strict parents that wouldn’t be glad to know that she’s talking to a complete stranger. Kuljit never bothered to ask more than once. He understood her situation.

The day came by for Anishka to meet her other half. Not as a soul mate, but someone who understands her the best. She was supposed to meet him at the Grand Paragon. As soon as she got down at Malacca, she called Kuljit.
First ring, “Hello,Where are you? Im waiting at the entrance!” she heard the rough manly voice on the other side of the line.
Anishka then spotted a guy around 6 feet tall with an average body frame. He was at the entrance facing the other side. Her heart first skipped a beat when she saw him. With her hands getting all numb, she walked towards him. She wondered how would he react when he first saw her. Well on his side, Kuljit had a rough image of Anishka. He saw her pictures via web. But he was unsure if she will look just the same as he saw.

She wore a white top with a pencil skirt. She even ditched her lenses and grabbed her glasses. All she wanted was to appear natural in Kuljit’s eyes. She didn't want to impress him by being all fake. Besides, to her, he was already charmed with love.

" KULJITTT", she shouted.
"Yeah??", he turned around and replied. Raising his perfectly formed eyebrows.

Anishka was a little devastated. Her best friend did not recognize her. Kuljit gave her a half smirk smile, and grabbed her hands.

"I was just pulling your leg, nerdo! Of course I recognized you! "
"Awww.. You almost made me wanna cry! Meano!"

Their rambling that usually happens online happed in a different way today. Once a while, their eye meets and there she go, feeling a thousands of butterflies flying in her stomach.
Time passed by and Anishka had to attend the event organized by her university. She somehow managed to convince her lecturer that she was ill. She choose to catch up with her bestie than to attend the boring lecture. How many of us would give up a good time with someone special for a lecture class?

"Nish, I can’t believe you’re skipping your class just to meet me. I want you to attend it. I can never be more important than your future. Don’t skip it."
"Jit, I don't wanna go. It's soo boring you know. Plus Im not well." She winked at him.
" I know it is. But just for my sake? Go for it. And no Nish, you’re not sick! Alright! No more arguments!"
"You just had to na! Okaayyy!!” She smiled and her dimples carved beautifully on her cheeks.

She then left for her class. What Kuljit wasn't aware of was that Anishka liked him so much, she would rather have her future get destroyed than missing the chance to spend some time with him. Yes, she would be in hot soup if she was caught cheating.

After the university talk, they both met at the hotel's cafe. They spent the whole night talking. Too much stories to tell yet very little time left to spend.

"Jit, I'll be off tomorrow by 12 something. You'll come and visit me for the last time na?"
" I'll try to make it, Nish. I need to collect my assignments from my college."
" Alarrr, please laa."
" Nish,Nish!! Joking! I'll never miss my last opportunity to disturb you, nerd!"
"Jit, you know what?? You get on my nerves often. Very often! Meano! "

Those priceless moment when nothing else matters. Only the both of them. Meaningful talks, candle-lighted café, cold air breeze- she was in love with the atmosphere. Even more, with the man sitting right before her.

Anishka was probably the happiest soul that night. Whenever Kuljit looked elsewhere, she secretly gazed into his eyes. She was caught in love, just too afraid to say it out.

At about 5.45 am, they called the night off. She headed back to her room, and him back to his house, situated around 5km away from the hotel.

That night was a sleepless night for Anishka. She had deep thoughts about Kuljit. What was she to do? Can she forever hold back her love for him? The question that kept playing constantly in her mind. Every time her heart whispered “Love”, her head screamed "Best friend. That's it!"

The next morning, Anishka rose and shone! She was excited to meet Kuljit for the last time before they got back on their usual daily routines. Only to meet each other in the virtual world. She wondered if he would make it on time.

10am...10.30am.. 11am.. Anishka was to leave at 12.30am and Kuljit was no where in sight.

She texted him. No reply for all five messages. Called him thrice. No answer.

Time passed by faster than usual to her. Her white Gucci watch indicated 12.10 noon.

"Students, start keeping your luggage into the bus. We're leaving soon. Make sure nothing is missing!" A woman with thick glasses and brown high-lighted, shoulder length hair in her mid age, said in her high pitched voice.

Anishka’s heart was thumping soo loud it almost failed. She rang Kuljit again..

“When I see your face, there's not a thing that I would change,
Cause you're amazing, just the way you are,
And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while,
Cause girl you're amazing, just the way you are” Bruno Mars played as Jit’s caller ringtone.. and she reached the voicemail box, again!

Her mates began to board the bus 10 minutes earlier. Preparing to leave. A few was in their own world with their headphone on, a few others gathered in small groups, and the others has boarded the bus.

Anishka couldn’t help but getting really worried. She began biting her nails and her hand palms getting all sweaty. There is no sight of Kuljit anywhere around. Was it possible that something bad has happened to him? She has no clue what was coming her way…. What would have happen that Kuljit didn’t even wants to pick her calls up? Did she go wrong anywhere? This questions kept repeating in her mind. Yet, the person who could answer all this is still no where in sight….