Still cold, she returned to her seat on the bench on platform 19 A. She opened the Deccan Herald dated March 11; tried to read about the glories of Akhilesh Yadav and his chances of becoming the CM of the most populous state of the country...
“What the hell am I doing here,” she kept asking herself. “Why did I agree to meet him?” Deep inside she cursed herself for this wild idea of meeting a guy she’d never met before, on this bizarre platform in the city’s biggest bus stations.Lost amongst the madly racing crowd, she sat there. It seemed as the whole world was passing by staring at her eyes...People on either side of her seat kept changing. Old ones left and new people came, waited for their turn to hop onto those crammed buses that took them somewhere far...she wondered where.
With all her mind and vigour, she struggled to focus on the paper and the stories it had to tell her. But it didn’t help. Without her consent, her eyes would wander off...wander off in either direction...piercing through the crowd, to see if she could catch his face....a face whose appearance she wasn’t really sure of.
It’s been a few years... and a few online conversations. He was a friend that just came her way, but special in a way...she had forever evaded a meeting, for reasons only her foolish mind knew but perhaps couldn’t unravel the mystery behind. She always knew she thought different, felt
different and lived in a fantasy of her own. But this was a little over the edge.
Every second of the next hour counted....and then the clock struck one.
She doubted if she had missed him. She had seen enough of his photos with “unshaven bit of attitude” and many more on social networking platforms, but doubted how he’d look when he walked out of that virtual world behind the screen.
It was not long before she recognised him, standing in a corner, scanning his phone with the same grave look which she could recognise from somewhere...
A deep breathe...And she walked towards him...
The rest was a fairytale...magical…special, adjectives seemed to fall short.
They walked...on the footpaths and busy city streets, walked aimlessly through shops that sold books, ethnic clothes, handicrafts, read horoscopes, ate together and continued to wander. They observed, made fun of people, commented. Topics never ran short...and much more was spoken in intervals of silence.
Hours passed...but they found reasons to stick around and talk, places to stroll around, places to sit for a while and places to stand and stare.
It was a feeling of having known each other forever, not a trace of unease...not even when he stood close, not when she would look into his eyes, not when he held her hands, not when she patted him on his back and joked…It was full of life…each “exclusive” moments like never before.
It was time. She had to leave. It seemed like the ‘Cinderella moment’ where the clock struck 12. The magic would soon come to an end; coaches would turn back to pumpkins, coachmen into rats!!
Time couldn’t be pushed forward eternally...they were back on 19 A.
She knew she couldn’t go...it was like pull by planetary forces....a great conflict…an internal battle...to leave or not to leave...what to say? There were still lots to be said.
She gazed into his eyes through his glasses which he never took off whole day...and she knew he too could feel the conflict, the pull of heavenly forces...his lips would curve into a smile...which seemed helpless.
Lost in the moment, they talked again...probably trying to push time forward; hoping time would crawl or even freeze.
But the battle had to be lost...a hug marked the farewell.
“Bye,” she said and walked away, promising herself not to turn around and look...but she did.
He was gone. As she pushed herself through that mad crowd, her eyes turned around and raced through trying to catch a glimpse again.....But he was gone...
It was magical, she knew as she smiled on her bus journey back home.
There was much more to be said....a feeling lingered around and all the craziness in her couldn’t define that feeling.
Some things are better left undone, unsaid...some moments are captured onto a time frame in our minds; we shut them out in a secret corner or a treasure box hidden away...and forever it remains locked and treasured.
Will she meet him again? No.....hypothetically?!!
