Chapter 1: End is a new beginning
It was the summer of 2005 and unlike all the 15 year blokes from his class some of whom eyeing the sexy seniors from science and commerce, some talking about the female anatomy at length and few of the secrets they discovered, some playing football on the basketball court with coke plastic bottles and some just trying to rob food from every other lunch box they can in those 15 minutes short lunch break; there was this guy Anay pacing the corridors searching for the remedy to his eyes, the girl Anika he has been in love for the past few years, a love confided in none but him and Alas! he saw her there near the Chemistry Lab and the serenity of her face seeps in his nerves and calms his anxiety the same as a shot calms an addict.
But like all beautiful things are this too was an ephemeral moment like those house of cards, as to his horror the next moment he saw Anika talking to a senior who Anay knew liked her and that was the day the teenage love knew pain, "how could this happen?, this isn't fair!!!, I've loved her for so long and how could she not see it?, how could she fall for such a bully?, he is 5 years senior to her how can she be such an idiot?, oh! I hate her!!!" all day and for the coming days ahead those inane inferences from that silly meeting between Anika and his arch-nemesis jostled his mind, days passed he stopped waiting outside the school near the cycle stand just to have a glimpse of her, one which he religiously did for the past 2 years, lunch break sessions with his friends day after day made him an expert of woman anatomy in his own rights and an expert sniffer of the best lunch boxes even before it was opened, he was really honing his skills with those newly found 15 minutes, adding new cuss words to his dictionary on way back to his home with his friends, exploring every nook and corner of that township he lived in and reaching home back from school more late than ever.
Days past and in less than "500 Days of Summer" for Anay came Autumn in the middle of monsoon, that day when cursing the rain, he saw her walking past him on road to the school main gate, as if the celestial messenger herself has descended to bring rain from Indra. Nothing was more mesmerising than those rain drops in that moment touching her tender face. He was in awe of that ethereal beauty he just encountered only to find that she didn't even spare an eye for him and walked past him as if he was ghost, though her friends did notice Anay's more than wide eyes and his unblinking face and he turned only to see her disappear in the buzzing crowd after the last bell of the school, a declaration that it was time to run to their homes.
