This is a lesson I learned in the mid-1990s. Back then, I noticed a beautiful girl walking home from school. By coincidence, she happened to be my neighbour. Determined to get to know her, I carefully arranged situations that made our encounters appear accidental. For weeks, however, I lacked the courage to start a conversation.
Finally, one day, I gathered enough confidence to introduce myself. I mentioned that we were neighbours and expressed my desire to become friends. Although I didn’t ask for her phone number directly, I eventually obtained her home number through mutual community friends. When I first called her, I used a different identity. Since we were neighbors, I was afraid that being too direct might make things awkward. On the street, I was simply Rajan, the friendly neighbor. On the phone, I became someone else entirely—someone she came to know as “Mr. Mysterious.”
For nearly a month, this unusual arrangement continued. As Mr. Mysterious, I spoke with her regularly and shared thoughts freely. As her neighbor, I remained polite and familiar. Over time, she grew closer to the mysterious voice on the phone than to the neighbor she occasionally met on the road.
Eventually, I realized that honesty was the only way forward. One Saturday, after a community meeting, we sat together in a nearby park. There, I confessed that I was Mr. Mysterious and explained why I had hidden my identity from the beginning. To my surprise, she smiled and admitted that she had figured it out within the first two weeks. She had noticed subtle changes in my behavior whenever we met in person. Hearing this brought me both relief and happiness.
From that day onward, our friendship deepened. We met in community parks and public libraries, exchanged academic notes, and spent hours talking on the phone. Since we were studying in the same grade, though at different schools, we learned a great deal from one another. At the time, neither of us viewed our relationship as romantic. We were simply very close friends, although I occasionally felt what I believed was mere infatuation.
As the years passed, our bond grew stronger. However, after completing our School Leaving Certificate (SLC), our paths diverged. I joined a college where hostel residence was mandatory, while she enrolled in a different college and pursued another field of study. Communication became increasingly difficult. Hostel rules allowed only limited access to phone calls, and I could contact friends and family only once a week using a coin-operated public telephone. Despite the challenges, I tried to call her regularly, and whenever I returned home, I made an effort to meet her. Gradually, weekly conversations became fortnightly, then monthly, as academic pressures and responsibilities increased.
One Saturday, after finishing my examinations, I called her home number. The call would not connect. I tried again and again, but without success. Later, when I returned home, I learned that her family had unexpectedly moved away. A few months afterward, my own family relocated as well so that I could continue my higher education.
Neither of us had the other’s new contact information. From that moment onward, we lost touch completely. It was only after that silence entered my life that I experienced a feeling I had never known before. I began asking myself a simple question: “Am I in love?” Only then did I realize that what I had once dismissed as youthful infatuation was, perhaps, something far deeper. By the time I understood its true meaning, the opportunity to express it had already slipped away.
I missed.
Key Takeaways:
- Value People While They Are Present
- Communication Is the Lifeline of Relationships
- Honesty Builds Deeper Connections
=============== ORIGINAL COMPENDIOUS SCRIPT ========================
“You don’t value sunshine until you are in rain. When you realize, it’s too late for an umbrella” this is what I’ve realized after going through the experience of my own. Once, I met a beautiful girl and I wanted to be her friend. I started talking to her on the phone with fake identity. I lied to her. As she was my neighbor we used to talk properly whenever we meet on the way. This process continued for couple of months. I kept calling her, and on meeting we talked as we were only neighbors. Only I knew I was acting two roles: as a Phone Friend and a neighbor. We were being very good friends.
Later, I realized that I had to be honest with her. So I told her every single truth; from the day of our first meeting. To my surprise, she told me that she had guessed it was me. I was so relieved to hear that. We became much closer than before. We started meeting each other more than we used to do. We called each other on alternate days and talked for hours. But, neither she nor I had taken our relationship seriously straight to the heart for the matter of love. We were just more than good friends. There was a bit of attraction but I mistook it for infatuation.
One day, she had to migrate with her parents to some other place. Neither she had my changed number nor did I have hers. So our communication gap increased to a great deal. Till date I haven’t met her or heard from her. And now she’s gone I am feeling something that I have never felt before: “I think I AM IN LOVE”. Now, I’ve realized it wasn’t just infatuation it was much more than that. I truly miss her. I hope she could return back and contact me so that we can give our friendship a new meaning.
Original Composed Date: 13th January, 2006