Password

Tejas took his eyes off the monitor, focused it on his keyboard, used his index finger to carefully type the letters gulmohar, making sure he does not press the wrong key. The characters will give him access to his girlfriend Shreya's Gmail account. He got pissed off when he saw the error message appearing in bold red font saying, "The username or password you entered is incorrect."

"Damn! What the hell is going on? How could I possibly type the password wrong ten times in a row? Not even when I am drunk!", he muttered to himself. He wanted to try for one last time, to convince his yet-to-get-convinced heart that she had indeed changed her password.

"Sharing our mail passwords," Tejas once said to Shreya, " is a symbol of our love, that it means we trust each other, and we have nothing to hide."

"That is the newest definition of love, I suppose!", said Shreya while she happily texts her password to him. It happened the next day after she had accepted his proposal.

Tejas decided to try one last time, and this time, he wanted to use a foolproof method. Ya, it's a method to prove his foolish belief that his mind thinks the right password, but his fingers are pressing the wrong keys instead. He opened a notepad, typed the letters, selected them using his mouse, copied them to memory, opened up his browser again, went to www.gmail.com, typed her username, and pasted the password. Somehow, he felt sure that this time, Gmail will let him in.

Instead, he starred at the red letters with disbelief.

"How could she do this to me? We didn't even have a fight recently! There is no reason for her to get angry with me! What wrong did I do?"

Was he drunk last night? Did something happen last night which he could not recollect now during which he abused her or did something terribly wrong, which pissed her off to sever their relationship?

He got up from the chair, went to the kitchen, and poured himself a cup of coffee. Through the window, he could see a table and a couple of chairs still kept in the lawn, neatly arranged. On the table was placed a candle stand, aesthetically designed. He could remember the previous night very well. How could he forget it?

Shreya returned from her office to find the dark house inside when opened.

"Tejas, aren't you home yet?", she asked while groping for the switches in the dark. She could see the back door open, which opens up to the lawn. There in the garden, she found Tejas, holding a lit candle in his hand, arranging a romantic candlelight dinner outside.

"Wow! That was very romantic, isn't it" he asked her after making love the same night.

"I loved it! It was a surprise to me," she replied ecstatically.

Fast forward to now, Tejas could not believe that she had changed her password after all the romantic evening they enjoyed together! Didn't she say she enjoyed it as much as he did, later in the morning?

He was going crazy with the passage of every minute. He could not wait until Shreya returns from her office to find about the change in password, or worse, change in her mind perhaps! No, he does not have the guts to ask her. After all, it's not even 24 hours yet since they made their first love!

"How will I confront her? What is the strategy to make her tell the truth? Well, I need to compose myself first. Let me check my mail now" saying this, he typed his password, this time very carefully.

It was such a great relief for him to see the website opening up the inbox for the first time, after all the unsuccessful attempts he made earlier. He was so eager to check for the unread messages appearing in bold font. But it was only after a while that he cognized the welcome word "Hi Shreya!" that appeared on top of the inbox.