The sun was setting. The autumn season had paved the roads with golden brown leaves and left most of the trees naked. The children were finishing their games in the park and returning to their home. Seema felt butterflies in her stomach on seeing many children. She always felt happy seeing these little bundles of joy. She took out a packet of Parle-G biscuits from her handbag and opened it. As she opened the pack, her memory opened its gates to her school days when she had a crush on Ishaan.
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Hey! I am Seema. I am 65 years old. I am quite weird and a shy woman. I had a crush on a guy named Ishaan during my college days. My grandson has three to four crushes and then he talks about philosophies related to unconditional love. Coming back to my crush Ishaan, this tall fair-bearded guy had stolen my mini Seema’s heart. Those days, we girls were quite shy and reserved. He was also in the list of many other girls’ crushes. After a lot of gossip and trails, I found out that he used to come to the tea stall near my hostel. Next day, I was there with my bag and books, sipping tea. I had three cups of tea to kill time but he didn’t turn up that day. The next day as I was returning from classes, I found him sipping tea. I went to the stall and sat next to him with a teacup. I opened the biscuit packets without making much noise and I placed it between both of us. Ishaan looked at me and smiled. On the other hand, I jumped in excitement in my mind. We shared the biscuits and I left the stall towards my hostel. This continued for many days later until he graduated (Yes! He was two years older than me) We used to be together in the tea stall, shared the biscuits and never uttered a word. I always carried a biscuit packet in my bag and used to preserve it for our tea time. I was angry at him for not starting a conversation with me. I had only one crush throughout my college life.
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It begins to get darker as the sun was now almost completely set. Seema goes to her house and realizes that she had a guest in her house. As she enters the living area, her husband approaches her and offers a glass of water to Seema. She goes into the kitchen makes tea for the guest and her husband. She came back to the living room with a tray that had three cups of hot ginger tea. She serves tea to her husband and the guest.
Her husband says, “Seema! Meet Ishaan! He was my office colleague.”
Seema gets shocked for a moment. She gazed at him and realized that he recognized her as well.
Ishaan then asks, “Do you have Parle-G biscuits?”
Seema quickly responds, “No!”. She tries to hide her inbuilt delight and blushes.
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