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Does love come with an expiry date? Is there a label that says, “Best before 3 years from the date of manufacturing”? Even if there is, no one really cares because it is just so mysteriously beautiful. Perhaps it is this mystery that pulls and consumes even the toughest of hearts.

Sheetal, a fiercely independent girl is always focused on what she wants in her life whether it is the Barbie with perfect fashion sense in the toddler years or the MBA degree in the best B school to have a career as an investment banker. It is in this B school she meets Kabir, an easy going lad who takes life as it comes and they discover the love that is passionate and wild. But when love decides to hide behind dirty dishes and soiled laundry after years of marriage, they have only one question to ask each other, “Was it really love?”  But the answer is not that simple. That is when starts opening the layers beneath the calm and the complexities of their characters and their fears.  And they must now face what is worst nightmare of a relationship, questioning their own intentions.

My inspiration for this story is the world I live in where I see couples whose lives have turned into monotonous gigs despite being passionate individuals. They no longer resemble the fairy tales but get speckled by harsh truths and bludgeoning routines.

Excerpt

There was a miserable sense of submission Sheetal felt every time she saw Kabir walking across the corridors. They had different departments but the corridors ran opposite each other just like the two sides of river- the river she always wanted to cross or get submerged in. Her eyes used to get intertwined in his gaze so tightly that someone else’s words always felt like axe sending her spinning. It was stupid, meaningless yet the heart always pounded hard in the deepest crevices.  His ravishing smile, his lively eyes spoke volumes; yet they never said a word to each other.  

Was it love?

She didn’t know and just didn’t want to know.  Because it was something toxic – something that pulled you so close that you feared losing yourself and melt.

She blinked her eyes and realized that the mirage of those years was nowhere close to the reality of today – the reality where though they slept on the same beds but there was always an invisible glass wall no one dared to break.  He put pillows in between saying that it offers comfort to his legs and hands and she worried whether he did not want to touch her even accidentally. What was he afraid of?

This is my entry for the HarperCollins–IndiBlogger Get Published contest, which is run with inputs from Yashodhara Lal and HarperCollins India.

If you Like my entry, please vote at this link .  Show me some love.

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