How did it happen? It happened over a hungover weekend after Zentralfest, on an emotionally charged and tiring Tuesday, over Frappuccino and Hot Chocolate. Yes, he asked me to be his girlfriend over a hot chocolate. A well deserved “yes” was waiting for it.
I read somewhere that reading excessively as a child can cause dissociation. But then I thought, I learnt so much from reading, so many lives and characters left a mark on my soul – and did it keep me from wondering off into dismaying about South Asian family dynamics? Yes. Reading kept me protected in a cocoon. A world created by authors. It also made me into a romantic. Taught me to feel and to wonder, to dissociate from toxicity while I got the opportunity to travel time and space through old and new works of word. Who would believe that a dyslexic can actually enjoy reading? Who’d believe that someone with ADHD actually can get hyper focused and visualise every word read in motion picture quality? But that’s me.
Perhaps why a “what will you say if I ask you to be my girlfriend?” followed by a “will you be my girlfriend?” over hot-chocolate, while seated at the corner bench shaded into privacy with big plants and dimlit atmosphere of an autumn evening in Aarau, made the setting a much cherished memory.
ANTHROPOLOGY OF LOVE 