Love Is Bliss (Collection of Short Love Stories)

Pen Pals - Part 1

"Dear Shruti,

It has been a year since we started sending letters to each other and we haven't even met each other in real life yet. When I signed up for this Pen Pals program because of a dare, I didn't know that I would come across someone who matches my sense of humor and sarcasm. I am coming to Mumbai next week for work related meeting and I think it's right opportunity for us to meet. I know you must be thinking that this out of the blue and too sudden but trust me I have been dreaming about this for a long time now. Of course I won't force you but I am hoping that you'll say yes. So what's say, shall we meet?

**

Shruti read the letter hundredth time since it arrived.

The letter came yesterday and she was finding hard to fathom the contents of the letter. She had always imagined how their first meeting would go but she didn't know that it would be this soon.

"Am I ready to meet him?" She asked to herself.

Since the day they started talking to each other through letters, she wanted to meet him. She enjoyed his sense of humor and personality and she would eagerly wait for his letters to come. His letters gave her a sense of belonging and something to look forward to. They had decided to not exchange their numbers and keep on talking to each other through letters only as exchanging numbers would kill the purpose of being "Pen Pals".

Shruti was a part of "Pen Pals" programme since she was in college. She loved talking to strangers and hearing about their life story. Her first pen pal was Nilam - A 50 year old lady who was owner of a small cafe in Bangalore. Shruti used to share her college anecdotes with her and Nilam would tell her stories about crazy and funny customers she used to get on daily basis. They really enjoyed reading about each other's life but due to too much rush at her cafe, Nilam couldn't find time to write letters to Shruti anymore so the Pen Pals programme assigned her another pen pal.

Shruti talked to many strangers through this programme and even when she entered corporate world after finishing her post graduation, she continued being a member of pen pal programme. It had become a part of her life and she really enjoyed it.

A year ago, she was assigned a new pen pal. The first letter that she received was something like this -

"Hey Stranger,

I have signed up for this programme as a part of a dare. Honestly I don't know how this thing works but now that I'm in it, it wouldn't hurt to try I guess.

Anyway, I'm Rohan and I'm Business development Manager at one of the IT companies in Ahmedabad. I don't know what else I'm supposed to say.

Erm.... Bye I guess.

Hope to hear from you soon :)

**

Shruti was amused when she received the letter. After giving a long thought about how to respond to him, she responded with-

"Hey Rohan,

I'm Shruti from Mumbai and I work as a content strategist at one of the local newspaper here.

I'm glad that you gave this programme a chance even though just because of a dare. Looking forward to hear more from you.

**

From that day on, they were hooked. They would share each and every little thing with each other. They would bear the extra cost of speed post so that they could get the letter bit early. They felt more and more comfortable in sharing their personal and professional anecdotes with each passing day.