Those were the simpler relations.

 “Do you have any Cadbury deodorant?” standing on the other side of the counter, I asked sheepishly. She reacted as if she misheard me first. But with the moment, her eyes recognized mine, as if we were friends in person than just sms-pals.

Those were the simpler times.

We met online, it was like any regular story of a boy who stumbles upon a girl in the online world. Stumble upon, that's how all special relations start.

I sit back and stared at the screen for some time. Starring at mobile, I was not sure what to do with the sms I got in reply. That “Hi!” in reply was like someone acknowledged my existence from some other end of this universe. It was a reply to an unassuming ‘Hi’ initiated by me. It took some time to not get surprised every time getting a reply in return to my text messages.

Those were the simpler conversations.

Each day we come to know a little more about each other, than before. She runs a store with her brother in a distant city, and I was for the first time away from my family, doing my professional studies. But then, never before knew, that one can look into their own lives as the second person, to share it as a story with someone as the third person. Hardship looked less hard when another end of the universe acknowledges it. The day could glow if it's a sunny day on the other side of the universe. Seeking someone to acknowledge we exist, seems to be one of the core feelings of being human. One realizes this, when stumbling upon such relations for the first time; as we did.

Those were the simpler feelings.

With no afterthoughts, on one of those summer breaks between semesters, I decided to pay a surprise visit to her.

There I was, standing outside her overcrowded shop, not sure what to utter as the first sentence to her; I was blank. Finally, I stepped inside and found myself on the opposite side of the counter to her; standing along with ten other customers. She along with her brother was busy like hell. I waited. Waited for her to acknowledge my glance. And as soon she did, I asked her sheepishly, “Do you have any Cadbury deodorant?”. She reacted as if she misheard me, I repeated myself, but this time my eyes were asking a different question to hers. Her brother overheard me, he got baffled by my request, but by then her eyes recognized mine. She smiled, asked her brother to give her a break. We came out, and for the next couple of hours were strolling in a nearby park.

We met, we talked, acknowledged each other's presence with little pleasant awkwardness and then, gone back to our old lives.

Those were the simpler relations.