Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com Ravinder Singh LI KE I T HAP P ENED YES TERDAY Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com Contents About the Author By the Same Author Also by Ravinder Singh Dedication 1 First Day, First School 2 Happiness in Little Things 3 My World in Black and White 4 Fear of the Needle 5 All for a Toothy Grin! 6 The Question of Birth 7 Life’s Greatest Mystery Solved! 8 I Have a Pen! 9 A Change of Schools 10 The Power of Chapter 10 11 Show and Tell 12 First Crush 13 One Dark Day 14 Fighting to Be There 15 The Annual Day 16 In Sadness and Defeat 17 Grand Finale to School Author’s Note Epilogue Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com Acknowledgements Follow Penguin Copyright Page Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com PENGUIN METRO READS LIKE IT HAPPENED YESTERDAY Ravinder Singh is the bestselling author of I Too Had a Love Story and Can Love Happen Twice?. Like It Happened Yesterday is his third book. After having spent most of his life in Burla, a very small town in western Orissa, Ravinder is currently based in New Delhi. He is an MBA from the renowned Indian School of Business. After working with a few Indian and multinational IT companies for more than eight years, Ravinder has finally taken up writing full-time. He loves playing snooker in his free time. He is also crazy about Punjabi music and loves dancing to its beat. The best way to contact Ravinder is through his official fan page on Facebook, at https://www.facebook.com/RavinderSingh.official.fanpage. You can also write to him at [email protected] or visit his website www.RavinderSinghOnline.com. I Love u Rachu Dear Frnds pls spread this msg until its reach to my rachu I thinks see knows my name Downloaded from EBOOK4IN.BLOGSPOT.COM Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com BY THE SAME AUTHOR Novels I Too Had a Love Story Can Love Happen Twice? Anthology Love Stories That Touched My Heart (ed.) Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com ALSO BY RAVINDER SINGH I Too Had a Love Story Do love stories ever die? … How would you react when a beautiful person comes into your life, becomes your most precious possession and then one day goes away from you … forever? Not all love stories are meant to have a perfect ending. Some stay incomplete, and yet remain beautiful in their own way. I Too Had a Love Story is one such saga. It is the tender and heartfelt tale of Ravin and Khushi—two people who found each other on the Internet and fell in love … until life put their love to the ultimate test. Romantic, funny and sincere, this heartbreaking true life story has already touched a million hearts. This bestselling novel is a must-read for anyone who believes in the magic of love … Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com ALSO BY RAVINDER SINGH Can Love Happen Twice? When Ravin first said ‘I love you …’ he meant it forever. The world has known this through Ravin’s bestselling novel, I Too Had a Love Story. But did Ravin’s story really end on the last page of that book? On Valentine’s Day, a radio station in Chandigarh hosts a very special romantic chat show. Ravin and his three best friends are invited as guests to talk about Ravin’s love story. But, surprisingly, everyone apart from Ravin turns up. As the show goes live, there is only one question on every listener’s mind: what has happened to Ravin? To answer this question the three friends begin reading from a handwritten copy of Ravin’s incomplete second book—the entire city listens breathlessly, unable to believe the revelations that follow. This highly anticipated sequel by Ravinder Singh is an emotional rollercoaster that bravely explores the highs and lows of love. Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com ALSO BY RAVINDER SINGH Love Stories That Touched My Heart Love–only a four-letter word, yet it’s so powerful that it can conquer anything in this world! We’ve all experienced the first flush of love and remember the lingering fragrance of it. For ages, love has remained one of the most cherished experiences that everyone wishes to live through at least once. Humanity, time and again, has coined many definitions to describe this beautiful emotion, but this small word is a feeling that can’t simply be defined. It has to be narrated … in the form of stories—love stories. Love Stories That Touched My Heart is a collection of such stories from readers who have a tale to tell; stories that they would like to share. Selected and edited by Ravinder Singh, this anthology—made up of the stories that touched Ravin’s heart the most—will make you believe that someone, somewhere, is made for you. Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com To my loving parents … Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com I Love u Rachu Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com 1 First Day, First School I cried. And I cried hard. I think I had never cried like that ever before. Till then I didn’t need to. It was my first day in school. I had been admitted to the nursery class. My father had held my left hand in the warm safety of his right hand. All I did was to keep pleading with him to not leave me alone. Till then, I had never been away from my family. And Dad was trying to do exactly that. I was scared at the very thought of being without Mom, without Dad. It didn’t matter for how long—what mattered was that the very next moment there wouldn’t be anyone around me whom I knew. Dad was going to leave me among strangers, many of whom were of my age and a few older. The anxiety I suffered was tremendous. I wanted to talk to Dad and explain to him what it meant for me to be left out of the family this way. But neither did I have the words in my mouth, nor was Dad prepared to listen. And even though I would have known what to say, I wasn’t sure how to express what I was feeling. All I could do was cry. So I cried, despite my heavy, wet eyes. I cried despite my leaky nose, and I cried till my throat became hoarse. For some unknown reason, I was hopeful that seeing my terrible condition, Dad would have some mercy on me. That he wouldn’t leave me but take me back home, to the soft cocoon—my mother. But he didn’t. Rather, he left me in that unknown place called ‘school’, which I began to hate with all my heart in the first hour itself. He handed me to two of the ‘ma’ams’, who grabbed me by the shoulder and dragged me away with them as I tried my best to run away. For a few minutes, I was hanging from their arms, above the ground, paddling my legs in the air desperately. I bit the hand of the ma’am who had grabbed my shoulder from the left, and succeeded in escaping her grip. I pulled up myself with full energy and slid out of the clasp of the second one as well. Then I ran straight towards Dad, who was about to step out of the classroom. I wrapped myself tight around his right leg and clutched his white pajama in my hands. In the grip of my front teeth was the corner of his kurta. I was ready to tear it apart but not let it go. But Dad didn’t stop. Instead, he began to walk faster so that he could escape my hold. But the fear of not being able to survive without my family made me cling stronger to him. The louder I cried, the heavier I panted—I had succeeded in creating a scene in front of everyone. And I was absolutely not ashamed of it at all! Downloaded from www.freebooksplanet.com It happens—this shameless display of emotions, when you realize your worst fears are about to come true. At that time, I was merely a child. I have seen grown-ups creating a scene too, when faced with their worst fears. Well, I kept holding on to my father with all my strength, so much so that, when he dragged his leg ahead, my little body got dragged along with him. ‘Nahi, Daddy … please mainu chadd ke nai jao … please, Daddy,’ [No, Daddy … please don’t leave me alone … please, Daddy] I wailed loudly in Punjabi. But it seemed to have quite the opposite effect on him. Being older and stronger, he scolded me in his loud, angry voice and stretched out his palm as if he was going to give me a slap. Then he yanked away my little arms to release himself and handed me back to the teachers, who were more cautious this time about holding me. I saw my father walk away from the classroom. I couldn’t do anything. At that very moment, I hated him. And now that I hated my father, I loved my mother much more than I ever did. So I started missing her. I was left sobbing in the class. The sound of my crying lasted as long as it could. When all my energy had been drained, I became quiet and went to sit in one of the corners of the classroom.