A love story...

It wasn’t love at first sight, I don’t believe in it anyways.

It began in 2007, that’s when we first met. A chance encounter in the month of June. Little did I know that it was just the beginning. We met again in August, with the sound of rain serving as the background score.

It began as just any other love story- with instant dislike. I didn’t like him, and I wasn’t exactly planning to spend the rest of my life with him. He wasn’t even an important factor in my life- just a temporary item that I had to put up with, till brighter pastures came my way.

But you know how it is with love. It is quirky. And stubborn. The more you try to resist it, the harder it’ll cling on to you. So it was with us. As I got to know him better, I realised, that he’s not so bad after all. He was not perfect, true, but then I’ve never liked perfection in the first place. He had his negatives, and they quite clearly outnumbered the positives. Heck, I wasn’t even ready to consider the good side of him initially.

Then I slowly started to acknowledge him, grudgingly. He was nice to me, and was trying hard to accommodate me. How could I ignore that? He was patient with me, allowing me to take my time to accept him. And he was very honest with me. He didn’t hide his ugly side just to get into my good books. He had shown his true colours right from the beginning, and the colours that seems garish and ugly to me initially, started to look better after a few months.

And so we carried on, for two years. It wasn’t a very stormy relationship- it was quite, calm, exciting(mainly owing to the novelty factor), with occasional fights when I got disillusioned with his negative streak. It was the kind of relationship that comes with an expiry date, and both parties were aware of it right at the onset. And maybe it was because of that, both of them tried not to get too attached to each other.

But as the expiry date drew closer, the pangs started. I knew I had to leave him soon, and the thought started to gnaw at me. Sure, it wasn’t like I was desperately in love with him, but we had reached a comfort level by now, one that you get only when you’ve seen the nastiest side of each other, but are still willing to accept each other with all that. He was also sending me signals, that he doesn’t want me to go, just as yet, to give him another chance, but I knew I was not meant to be his forever. So I made plans to leave. We prepared ourselves for the inevitable.

But we hadn’t considered the entry of a very cunning character at this juncture- Fate. Actually, correction. Re-entry of Fate, because She is the one who had brought us together in the first place. So Fate re-entered our lives, and decided that this love story will come to an end only when She decides it, not us. I didn’t leave. I stayed on. I figured, I gave him two years, one more won’t hurt.

And that’s when I really fell in love with him. Till now, I had shut my mind to him as an option, because I wasn’t aware that he was an option at all. But once I opened my eyes a bit wider, I could see him for all his splendour. He too accepted me with open arms, and though we didn’t make any promises to spend the rest of our lives together, we knew that would be together for quite some time. Or at least until Fate intervenes again.

Now we have reached a different level of comfort. And familiarity. We have accepted each other for whatever we are, and neither of us tries to change the other. Sometimes we can’t stand each other, but for the most part, we’re crazy about each other. He has grown on me now. He makes me happy. He makes me laugh, he makes me cry, but he never gives up on me or tries to send me away. I can’t imagine going away from him, starting my life with someone else. It wouldn’t be impossible, but it would be hard.

And that’s the love story of me and Hyderabad. Almost four years of a love-hate-love relationship, but still going strong, nevertheless. Be it the unbearable heat, the dirty monsoon, or the biting cold, I still love the city.

Sometimes, you just can’t challenge Fate.