Postcard Princess

This was in the second year of my college education where I stayed in the hostel. The room was B-328 and was shared by the shy, nerdy, wordy, indoorsy me and my sporty roommate who seemed to be involved in all sorts of activities, music and dance, all except academics. The only common thing was our shared dislike for the ancient ritual of bathing and we took the eco-friendly route of taking a shower only when others could'nt bear it anymore!

This was the time when only ministers and top executives could afford a mobile phone and its subscription, and everybody else lived in a world where communication took it's time.

So to contact my dear childhood friend (also named Arun) the only easily affordable option was the 25paise postcard that allowed one to express all you wanted in 1.5 sides of microscopic text. We had been writing letters to each other for years, when he lived in Bellary and then returned to Chennai for his High school. We had just vowed to stay in touch with those postcards, which had amazing privacy features - Every postman and his dog in the delivery path could read it's contents!

Then the best day of my 2 decade-long life happened, in the middle of assignments, internals exam preparations and washing the dirty clothes in the weekend routine... 

A lovely letter from my old friend Aparna, addressed to me. Written within the privacy afforded by an inland letter, it was everything a young man could ask for in a mail. It had beautiful handwriting (which itself was worthy of framing to me, with a script that required hackers to decrypt). It started off in a friendly manner, enquiring about my college life and events, and describing in colourful details about hers. There was this air of familiarity of really knowing a person inside out and enjoyable humour while describing her events. And then it took an unexpected turn, there was some longing to meet again, enquiring about my next vacation back in Chennai and pleading me to stay in touch and not be lazy with letters.

Just wonderful, but with a minor problem to resolve. I had not stayed in touch with that old apartment mate Aparna, and lost touch after she and family moved to another place. Another minor problem, we probably played freeze-n-melt , lock-n-key kind of games in our childhood but then I abandoned her and all other girls and immersed myself in the world of mottai-maadi cricket - but never had known each other to consider it a close friendship.

My next few weeks and months went with these exchanges in my head -

Firstly, how did she get my address in hostel? 

  Well, my old pal Arun would have given it to her,  perhaps he stayed in touch all these years.

Why is writing to me after all these years?

  Well, I'm probably the kind of person you would miss only after you lose contact. I'd like to think, I'm a likeable nerd.

What's it with all the sudden yearning and longing that I can sense in the letter?

  Well, it must be the hormones!

Wait, this is too good to be true. What if someone is pranking you?

  Well, did you see the beautiful handwriting and the genuine words of affection? I can surely catch my mates trying to con me into a fake affair.

What if it's the evil twin Arun who is the prankster?

  Well, he to too lazy to attempt something this elaborate.

What if it's not for you at all?

  Well, what if it's actually from Aparna to me?

Why don't you get a second opinion from your roommate?

  Well, he will inform everyone in the class and I would get roasted till I graduate from this place.

What are you going to do? Ignore or ?

  Well, I will do the gentlemanly thing and reply and stay in touch if possible. Who in their right mind would leave a letter like this unanswered???

And hence I started to compose a funny, friendly, nerdy, a very Aruny reply to her. It took a while to compose and I wanted to hit the right notes while rekindling an old friendship. 

Weeks into the composition, I would still struggle with the doubts of What-if as above and kept the draft a super secret from my hostel mates. One of them was a floor-mate, final year senior Jay, who was really this pleasant and unintimidating fellow who loved to chat without any air of seniority and was the Photography club president. 

He enjoyed the company of artsy friends and introduced me to more seniors and his roommate who was even cooler dude. That guy was so cool, when I asked him if he can play any musical instruments, he said with a sorry voice "None, it's just me and my voice", so I assumed he one of the many bathrooms singers who sang their hearts out during the shower. That very weekend the college band TekMusik gave us a terrific performance and this dude was actually the lead singer with the voice that seemed to blend SPB and Hariharan into one -needless to say he was very popular wand had a dedicated female following! 

Back in the hostel, I went to congratulate him for the great show, expressing my surprise and we talked about other things. That's when I learn that this senior dude Arun, had lived in B-328 the previous year !!

I quietly walked to my room, retrieved the letter from a secret location, and apologized to him for opening and reading it without realising the mistaken identity.

That night I tore up my draft letter to the friend that never was, and forgot all about it till now - I was added in a newly minted whatsapp group with both Arun and Aparna in it !!!