Same Place

           While growing up I always believed that love had stages and it was powerful and meaningful at an age where one is mature enough to understand it's intensity and responsibility. However, things don't work the way you want them to. I fell in love during my college days. Her name was Kashish. She was my classmate in engineering. Was it love at 1st sight? I don't know. What I know is that I completely changed after I fell in love.
            She was very beautiful, but then I've always been biased when it comes to her. Back in college no one used to talk to her. It felt like she belonged to a different era, like she wasn't one of us. Her unimaginable faith, kindness and honesty used to irritate me. I was a stud during my college days. Though I always believed that I would fall in love one day but before that happened I was a proponent of the saying, 'Till you find your true love, keep enjoying with the wrong ones.'
            But no matter how much one tries to keep the reins of his future in one's hand, things are already planned for us. I fell in love with her. When? I really don't remember the date. What was important was the fact that she loved me too. And nothing remained the same. I guess it happens when you fall in love with the right person. Even though I was no longer a hopeless teenager still I actually behaved like one when I fell in love.
           Anyways life with Kashish had been amazing. I had never met anyone like her. Was she wild and outrageous? No. Was she plain and simple? Not at all. Till this date I haven't been able to describe her in simple words.She was brilliant in studies. Even though I myself never needed any help still she always used to solve my silly problems. Her favorite pass time was playing the guitar and gazing the stars through her telescope. Love makes you do all the stupid things. With no hobbies compartment endowed in my system I developed the hobby of watching her enjoying her hobbies.
         I became a love stuck teenager in the eyes of my friends but it didn't matter to me. It was something that came naturally to me. She was unlike the other girls with whom I had a relationship earlier. She loved me in her own unique way. She had always been unpredictable. Totally against public display of emotions she never behaved in a conventional way. Even if I turned my world upside and down for her and expect those 3 beautiful words in return she would never voice it. But whenevr she saw me upset or hurt, like a breeze she used to say I Love You and then nothing seemed wrong. Our dates were also totally different from other couples. We used to spend our time gazing at stars or by watching movies on the couch.
        Unlike other love stories, our love story didn't have to pass an acid test. Our respective parents gave us their approval and after we finished our engineering they fixed our marriage date. Was I happy? It felt like I got everything that I wanted. Kashish was fond of drinking coffee and everyday we used to go to our favorite place. It wasn't a coffee joint. Actually it was a piece of land with no building around. She used to bring coffee in her thermos and we silently used to sip it. She always had a fancy for that place. Even though it was a barren land still when she looked at it, it felt like that land had the most amazing  beauty.
           "Sir, your coffee."
            Suddenly the train of my thoughts came to a halt. I looked at the table and a coffee cup was kept there. It was the same cup in which Kashish used to drink her coffee. I looked around me and saw the place bustling with people. I took my coffee cup and went out.
           It was the same piece of land where Kashish and I used to drink our coffee daily. Even though she never said a word I knew how she wanted this place to look like and I tried to make her dream come true.
            "I knew I would find you here. Done with your coffee?" A voice jolted me and I smiled at Prerna, my wife.
             "Yeah. Let's go." She started walking and I turned to look at the cafe once more. Kashish was no longer with me. She died in a car accident just 2 days before our marriage. I carried on with my life smoothly 'cos not once I felt like she wasn't with me. However, my parents insisted and I married Prerna. She's a nice person. She loves me and I... I don't know about myself. Love for me just means 1 person and that's Kashish.
                I am happy. I don't have any reason to be angry with god. I opened a cafe and named it 'Same Place' and it's my way of keeping Kashish with me forever. Things change and time moves on. But love, remains. My love for Kashish is like wind. No one can see it but I can feel it.
            Same Place cafe will always make me remember the late afternoons that I spent with Kashish that might at that time ended so soon but I know in my hearts of heart that they will last with me forever. I went to my car and smiled at Prerna. My 1 date with Kashish came to an end but I looked back and promised to be back the next day at 'Same Place'.