The Dilemma and the Celebration

A ting sound and the screen goes blank

The colourful screen and background of windows gives way to a black screen, as if in mourning, and declares some error – “disk will have to be checked for consistency”

Now I’m not new to this error, the last time this happened, it cost me all the data in the hard-drive, and a new installation of windows – which again didn’t last very long. I don’t want that trauma happening again.

Whenever something wrong happens with my laptop (and laptop being my best friend, if you must know), it’s a red alert for me. Too much time goes in recovering and saving the laptop from the crash.

And the red alert seemed to be happening again.

My thoughts turned to my IT friends – more particularly, a certain someone whom I’ve always given a call when red alert happens. She’s the expert.

But that certain someone is busy today. And why would she not be? Her wedding’s just 5 days away now!

I sigh, unsure of what to do by myself. Throwing up my luck to the Gods, and keeping my faith in Windows 7, I allow the computer to reboot and check the disk.

Google searches on net confirm that the disk checking might take time, so I allow myself to slip into a reverie.

Supriya, my IT expert. I would trust her more than I trust the manuals. She seems to know the pulse of the system. Her judicious, detailed approach, make all solutions (apparently invisible to us normal folks) completely transparent. And it’s not just the IT. It’s the way she would approach every problem. “Nip it in the bud” – she would say often, quoting her father. Something she tried quite hard to implement in her own lifestyle – something which I wish to implement myself.

4 years of being roommates quite helped us to know and observe each other from close quarters. Things we could not tell anyone, we would share before we turned off the lights for sleeping. Sometimes we would sing crazy songs, trying to match our dulcet tones, carrying off a soprano with comfortable ease, moulding the two voices into one. Our similarities were few, but we weren’t night and day. We were just two tangents, tending in our own directions, but somehow trying to cross each other’s paths once in a while.

Advices we were always ready with, for each other. Criticism was never hidden – although she had a much better way of letting things known which she did not like about me – I was a bit more caustic. We had our own share of cold conversations, but more than made up the share with innocent laughter and a deeper bond. She remains, till date, one of the few people with whom I’ve been able to share, what i DON’T like, about them. Needed a lot of gumption for that!

Times changed, so did the cities. Did the conversations dip? Yes they did.. for some time, then they picked up again.. and back – the high point of every talk being, we began right where we left off. The camaraderie remained the same as ever.

Now this wonderful girl in my life is going to marry a perfect match her parents found for her. The coyness, the bliss, the happiness in her voice is all too amazing to believe! Since the day we’ve known each other, this would be the biggest step that she would be taking in her life. And I’m lucky enough to be there for her.  To see the transformation, as she gains the title of “Mrs”. To wish her all the luck in her newly wedded life. To listen to her stories, of how she balances and manages the little (and big) challenges of marital life – to know if she “nipped them in the bud”.

Funny how my laptop should go bust the day I receive her wedding card. Probably, it is to say, take over the mantle from Supriya, she’s going to be busy for the time to come J

I smile, having gone from a rewind to a flash forward in 15 minutes. I look at my laptop.

It is smiling too... windows is back.