A Real Love Story That Started While Travelling

Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 11:32

Our story began on a journey and from then on it has been a long journey of love and togetherness. When we talk about love on travel, images of 'Dil Hai Kay Manta Nahi', 'Jab We Met' etc start flashing across your eyes. Ours was not as dramatic or well publicized but we did make history in our own way. As V Day is just round the corner I wish to motivate all my friends who are in love here my real life love story that began on a railway station.

It was an extremely cold December evening...

I was traveling from Jamshedpur to Calcutta on the Shatabdi Express. It was a boring journey I made twice a year to visit my grandfather in Calcutta. This year was special because I had been selected as a cadet at the IMA (Indian Military Academy) so I wouldn't be seeing my old man for a while. I was just browsing through a boring romantic novel when my love at first sight came by. I saw a flash, rather a vision of an angel with hair up to her knees left loose except a tiny clip to hold her fringes.

The girl was accompanied by a younger girl and a little boy. V Day is not the time for lies, I was mesmerised. I forgot all else and followed the group towards the coach they were getting into. It was 2 coaches away from my seat but who cared! I hopped into their coach with my back pack and seated myself near the door.

It was a family of five, parents (later I came to know they were her uncle and aunt), two daughters and a son traveling back to Calcutta. The more I looked at her the more convinced I was that this is a story of love on the travel that will be famous. However, I kept trying to catch her eye but she was busy playing with her little brother.

For the first time in life I was glad that the train was about 2 hours late. I struck up a casual conversation with her uncle and found out where they live but I had still not made any contact with her and we were just ten minutes away from our destination. In haste I scribbling my phone number, name and address on a piece of paper and slipped it into her bag. Sadly I saw my love on travel depart with her family with little hope that I will see her again.

But life works in weird ways and I got lucky. I received a call or rather a silent call from her in a week. I knew it was her and kept pestering her to talk. She finally gave in. Our real love story bean when we met outside her school. Yes she was in standard 8th and a good 8 years younger than me!

Then the obvious happened. I went off to army school and we wrote some of the most romantic love letters in the world during this time. Now I am waiting for her to complete her final year of graduation so that we can tie the knot to culminate our love on the travel that started 8 years back.

People say that long distance relationships don't work and age difference makes it worse. But for us our age difference has made it work (she will always be by baby) and distance makes our hearts grow fonder (she is in Darjeeling now and I am posted in Pune).

On V Day I can proudly say that our real love story is one of the most successful stories of love on travel.

Sudipto Sen