The Choice

How I Met Your Mother for me, is like black tea.

On strong recommendation from my best friend, I might give it a try and might even like it, momentarily. But it's not something that I would choose over regular tea or coffee.

However today, indulging in the feeling of missing him I made my tea black and strong and instead of FRIENDS switched over to How I Met Your Mother.

It was right when Ted Mosby left his yellow umbrella in the apartment of his date that an epiphany the size of Jupiter hit me.

An epiphany and a strong dose of nostalgia.

I caught a whiff of HIMYM sometime in class nine when the broadcast timings fell in my schedule. I watched it meticulously daily and even felt a strong pull in those days, but once I stopped, I didn't much feel it's absence.

Come August 2016 and a set of new friends, some of whom were rather taken with the show, going as far as to compare and relate with the protagonist.

Now since I've always been a rather emotional and sentimental sort of person (read: foolish), I decided, in the spirit of new friendship that it would be a rather touching sentiment to gift them a yellow umbrella.

A much known artifact of the show, the loss of the yellow umbrella is a rather significant turning point in Ted Mosby's life. Something he doesn't realise till much much later.

Ted Mosby and I do not share a lot of things. Two characters of different personalities, perspectives and perceptions, there is till date only one thing that I can say, we both have in common.

A rather significant turning point that has a little lot to do with the loss of a yellow umbrella.

And this is something I didn't realise till after eighteen months of the said occurrence.

The plan was to present a yellow umbrella each, to two of them. The symbolism of it would impact both in different ways but with equal magnitude. And their happiness was enough impetus for me to undertake this endeavour. And so the search began.

But of course, like most things I get into, without thinking twice, this too was a little more complicated than I could have guessed.

Tough to locate the exact shade and colour, I had gone around with a colour pencil, matching shades in shops for days at end. But I was not going to give up. Once an idea creeps into my mind, I unite time and energy (and waste them both) till I see it through.

And after relentless searching, on the hands of me, my friends, my maid and my father (in that grammatically incorrect order), it was my father who had returned home one day, with the colour pencil in one hand and the umbrella in the other.

One umbrella in the other.

And it was then that I entered the tougher part of this undertaking.

One yellow umbrella. Two crazy fanatics.

One very confused me.

Without giving it too much thought, I wrapped it in a polythene bag and tied a bright neon ribbon around it, keeping it simple and innovative (like most things I did).

And then I sat down with my phone, my finger hovering over two contact numbers.

You probably think the next words are going to describe how it was one of those mind-boggling, hard decisions to make. How I sat for hours at end, calling one number, disconnecting and then calling another, now being able to make up my mind, who the right person was.

It was nothing like that.

It took me all of seven seconds to decide who I would gift the yellow umbrella.

It took me all but a breath to make a choice.

And all it took was one choice for my sunconscience (yes, I like inventing words) to make it a precedence for all future choices.

At various points in our lives, we encounter crossroads that make us stop and choose a path. Some of these crossroads are the ones we are expecting. Choice of streams, subjects, choice of careers, choosing who to vote for, choosing who to spend the rest of your life with.

And then there are those which we believe aren't as significant. Choosing to remain silent, choosing to lie, choosing to sign up, choosing to give up, choosing to believe others, the choice to believe in an Almighty presence. Choosing our friends, choosing to reject, the choice to act and the choice to do nothing.

Every path we choose leads to a different journey. Every choice has an impact. Actions have consequences. Inactions too.

But it's only when you've experienced the turmoil that precedes these choices that you realise there is a third kind of crossroad as well.

The one, more commonly known as a Turning Point.

The point which it all boils down to.

Which you can look back to and say, that's when it all changed. The point demarcating your life into a Before and an After.

Most Turning Points hit us when we least expect them. Results of elections, blockage of arteries, reckless driving, wrongful trusting, an undertaken pilgrimage or something as basic as an epiphany at the end of a book.

Sometimes a Turning Point can be choosing to stay back and console a disturbed friend outside the Art Room. And sometimes it can be the choice to give someone a yellow umbrella.

Whatever be the path you tic-tac-toe, it's not till you are too far gone that you realise the deep repurcussions it holds. And by then, it's too late to turn around and go back.

You make a choice. You stick with it. You see it through.

Eighteen months ago, I made a choice between two of my friends.

And without even registering it, at every crossroad after that, I made the same choice over and over and over again. Till today, when there is no further choice left. Today, there is only one non-diverging road ahead.

And a single companion to traverse it with.

Doesn't mean I don't mentally walk down the other road every now and then. The much thought of Alternative Universe with its big bold What Ifs and unanswerable questions, has crossed my mind, one too many times.

Maybe going left instead of right would have meant a less complicated life. Maybe it would have meant less heartbreaks. Maybe it would have meant that multiple friendships would not have died.

Or maybe, even despite choosing left, I would have eventually found my way back to the right path.

That's the funny thing about this world. It makes you feel like you have a choice to decide your future, that everything isn't already planned out. It gives you the illusion of choice, of autonomy. When actually all we are, are puppets in the hands of Fate.

If given a chance to go back and do it all over again, differently. I wouldn't take it. How would I learn to do things right, unless I first did them wrong. How would I realise the importance of things unless I almost lost them. And how else will I realise that some friendships are worth all the trouble that they create.

Because that's what it is. Trouble is a friend. And even despite knowing that, I chose trouble. I chose that friend.

I made the choice.

I picked up my phone and called him. The line rang for a few seconds before he picked up.

"Hi, its me. Can you meet me for fifteen minutes after my exam? In the lane beside the confectionary. Yes, there's something I need to give you. Okay and afterwards, I'll show you my tuition spot. The one from the story. What? No, I don't drink black tea. I don't like black tea. Alright, I'll see you then. Don't be late."