***
Go
grab that hand that has been extended to you; go grant that hug which your
lover awaits; go smile at that stranger who is smiling at you. Don’t think;
act! Life is beyond thought ~ Anonymous
***
When Krishna met Meera
It was turning out to be one of most boring and
uneventful journeys back to the BITS-PILANI Hyderabad Campus for me.
Here I was standing alone in the Thumkunta
bus bay sipping a cup of coffee, waiting hopelessly for an auto for a
freaking thirty minutes now.
“You won’t find any autos today, sahib”, the guy
in the tea stall announced. “They are all on a strike”
“Gone are the days when this place was untouched
from the auto strikes. This time around the Telangana agitation found its way
into a place as far as Thumkunta”, he said.
Suddenly I realized he was true. I had read about
the bandh somewhere in the newspaper.
Meanwhile a 211 pulled over a couple of feet away
and a girl got down. I knew her. She was Meera. In fact ‘knowing her’ is an understatement. I had a crush on this girl a
couple of years back. I still remember the day I saw her for the first time: it
was in Sumithra Mam’s tutorial for Chemistry-1. I never dared to go and talk to
her. She was a beautiful girl, to say the least.
Back then, the mere thoughts of Meera robbed me
of my peace of mind. It was the time when I had to shut it off, let it go, and
said it's not going to happen. I had learned to unlike her. It was tough, but
not impossible. And I was successful; well almost. Little did I know that once
you have feelings for someone, those feelings will always be there.
I could notice the dismay in her face when she
reckoned the absence of the autos near the bus bay. She then looked around
hoping to find a familiar face. Around a couple of feet away she found a guy,
who looked strangely familiar, stealing glances at her. That was me.
I threw a weak smile that came all wrong. I
cursed myself.
Emotionally, I’m done. Mentally, I’m drained.
Spiritually, I'm dead and yet physically, I smile..!!!.
Unexpectedly, she returned the favor by letting a
faint smile dance on her lips. It was like a symphony with a million pianos,
playing in the background. I instantaneously turned back, half expecting to
find Beethoven along with his crew giving a live performance on the streets of
Thumkunta just to celebrate my imaginary love story. I couldn't make out what
she was wearing. She looked like a princess to me, though: A Princess, who
alighted from her Palanquin just to bless Thumkunta with her very presence.
I took a few fumbling steps towards her.
“Hey; hello!” I said trying to start a conversation.
“Hello” she replied, trying hard not to make an
eye contact.
An uncomfortable silence followed.
After a while I couldn’t bear the silence. I had
to say something.
“How do you intend to get back to the campus
now?” I asked.
“I have a contact of an auto wala. I’ll try and
call him”, she said, sounding nervous as hell.
“Don’t bother to call him. Apparently they are
all on strike”
“Then how are you planning to get back to the
campus?” she returned my question.
“I’ll walk all the way. I don’t see any other
option”.
“You can join me if you wish”, I offered.
She bore a blank expression as if doing some deep
calculations.
“Have you tried asking for lifts?” she suggested.
“Yes, but no luck. There are hardly any vehicles
travelling”
“Hmm…okay then, let’s walk”, she concluded.
I was about to cross the road, but she objected.
“Can we avoid the shortcut? I have heard it’s not
very safe after sunset”, she said.
“Sure. Let’s take the highway then”, I smiled.
It’s going to be one hell of a memorable walk for
me.
***
A
walk two-gether
None of us
spoke in the first five minutes of walk. I kept looking at her “casually” like
every 7 seconds. Meera was conscious of me staring at her.
“I am Krishna,
and friends call me Krish”, I said.
“Meera… Meera
Sharma”, she said with a faint smile which vanished immediately.
I noticed that
something was not right in her otherwise flawless face. It was her expression.
She was not smiling. Let alone smiling, she bore an expression which I related
to that of a child who was denied a chocolate at a candy store.
Frown never
looks good on a girl. A smile suits them better.
“Is anything
bothering you?” I asked.
“Everything….Absolutely
everything, about this day”, she retorted, still not making an eye contact.
“It all
started with me losing my purse on the way to Thumkunta. I had all my cash and
phone in it”, she exclaimed.
I’m sorry…were
you saying something? I couldn’t help but to see how beautiful you really are!
“Hey do you
mind if I make a call from your phone to mine?” she asked.
When I gave
her my phone I noticed how beautifully manicured her hands were. While she was
dialing the most beautiful permutations of the ten digits, I found myself
envying my phone in her hands.
“No one’s
answering the phone”, she said almost personifying the sad emoticon which we
use on facebook chat.
It took us
twenty minutes of a rather uneventful journey to reach Alankrita.
“Are you
hungry?” I asked.
“Not quite”,
she lied.
“But I am
starving. Would you mind giving me company?” I asked.
She agreed.
Wow! I am
about to dine with a Princess.
***
Sugar, spice
and everything nice
“Is this like
a date or something?” I asked myself as we took
our seats in the restaurant.
I had
butterflies the size of dinosaurs in my stomach.
“Do you come
here often?” I asked.
What kind of
question is that? I hate myself.
“Not quite
often”, she replied.
I felt that
she looked at me for a second (and maybe she really did).
I am going to
heaven just because she saw me.
We finally
placed the order and I noticed that Meera ordered the cheapest item on the
menu: a clear soup.
“I can afford
a dinner,” I teased her.
“Order anything
you like”.
She blushed,
beet root red.
“Thank you,
but I’m not really hungry.”
Suddenly, I
felt my heart vibrate, quite literally.
I am falling
in love. Maybe this is how it feels when Cupid’s arrow strikes you
I half hoped
that Cupid had two arrows and he aimed the other one on Meera.
Much to my
dismay I discovered that it was my phone that was vibrating. I had received a
text from an unknown number.
It read: Meera’s
phone is with me. I’ll ask her to call you back as soon as I meet her – Shruthi.
I couldn’t
make the head or tale of what the person was trying to convey.
It must be a
silly prank by one of my friends. But how on earth would anyone know that I was
with Meera.
Suddenly I
realized that the message could have been from Meera’s lost phone. I crossed
checked the number with that of the last dialed number and it matched.
I was proud of
my “detective-like” brain and wondered if I could give Sherlock Holmes a good
run for his money.
After
redialing, Meera realized that her purse slipped into Shruthi’s baggage.
Shruthi was apparently her friend who accompanied her to the city earlier this
morning.
I could make
out one thing from Meera’s expression: Her purse was safe and she would get it
back as soon as this girl called Shruthi returned to the campus.
The night of
dismay finally abandoned Meera’s face, paving way to a new dawn of smiles.
Man! Look at
that girl…I have never seen anyone more beautiful…and so smart too…a
combination to die for…..she is just my type…I didn’t even know I had a type.
My breath went
out of me at the sight of her smile. She looked like someone who just escaped
from a fairy tale. Meera watched my reaction to her with amusement.
He fancies me.
But he is oblivious to the fact that I like him too. He had me at “hello”. Why
can’t he see it? Boys are so naïve. Meera thought.
“Still don’t
want to eat anything?” I asked.
“I am
starving”, she confessed.
“Let’s place
the order”
I believe when
you are dating a Princess; you let her choose what she wants to eat. I thought and passed her the menu card.
“Don’t bother
with the menu card. I can eat anything…I am a vacuum cleaner when I am hungry”,
she winked.
As we were
waiting for the arrival of the food, I covertly studied Meera. She was a
hauntingly beautiful girl, pleasantly innocent but cautiously smart. I wondered
how many guys must have asked her out. The very thought of imagining Meera with
other guys was disturbing…very disturbing.
Love should be
like Volleyball. You call “mine” and everyone backs off.
But apparently
my life was neither written by Mills and Boons, nor was it a movie directed by
Aditya Chopra.
When the food
arrived, we closed in on our feast.
Before the
dinner was over, I decided that Meera was much more than a beautiful girl. She
was intelligent, had a sense of humor and was skilled at making me feel at
ease. I had a feeling that she was genuinely interested in me. She asked me
questions about myself that no one had ever asked before. Calling what we just
had, “a conversation” would be an understatement; for me it was a
“conver-sensation”.
I was having
mixed feeling. I don't think I ever felt that good and that bad at the same
time in my life.
Good: for I was dining with the most beautiful girl I had ever known.
Bad: for I knew she was too good to be called mine.
“It was
absolutely scrumptious, Krish”, she said. I wondered if she was referring only
to the food.
“I’ll visit
the washroom and be right back”, she said and left.
***
Alone in the
restroom, Meera studied her face in the mirror on the wall. She had no
illusions about her look. She found herself staring at a disturbingly tired
face. The hectic day had sucked out the entire glow in her face. Nevertheless
she felt she was interesting-looking. Nice eyes. A good figure. She drew nearer
to the mirror.
“What had
Krishna seen when he looked at me?” she asked herself.
Do you really
like me or are you just flirting in good faith?
If you want
me, show me. If you need me, tell me. If you have me, show me off. If am worth
it, fight for me.
***
The
greatest battle lies within.
“Sorry for
keeping you waiting” Meera said after returning.
No issues, I
have been waiting for a girl like you since 20 years.
“Never mind”,
I said by default. We then ventured on a walk which turned out to be both
exciting and interesting.
A scrumptious
meal and a memorable walk have nothing to do with the food you eat and distance
you walk; it depends on the company you keep. In my case the company was Meera,
the girl who was turning out to be the most important and interesting person I
had ever met in my life.
Meera told me
about her family and her schooling life in Ahmadabad.
She is a
Gujarati girl! Are all Gujarati’s so beautiful? I wondered.
It was by far
the best walk I had ever had. I could feel her trespassing into my world. A
world which was peaceful was now infected with the virus called love. It was an
unfamiliar emotion.
I want this
walk to go on forever; I thought as we walked
past DOMUS.
I fancied
Meera in my first year, but at that time she was just a crush. She was just
another descent looking girl, who managed a second stare from a guy. Now she
was growing into something more malignant. I had never known anyone as
bewitching. I wished I had befriended her much earlier.
There's always
that one girl... no matter how long you don't talk to, no matter how long you
don't see each other, and you always come back to her & fall in love all
over again.
Meera was
saying something about her life at BITS. The way she enjoyed it and all… but I didn’t
pay any heed. I was lost in my thoughts.
I looked at
Meera who was walking a couple of feet ahead of me.
Who is this -
this amazing creature before me? She is like a butterfly: she goes wherever she
pleases and pleases wherever she goes.
Just as they
say: “Good things in life always come in small packets”. The walk was inching
towards an end as we were just a few minutes away from reaching the campus.
Tell that girl
you love her. Life is too short to keep everything to yourself because one day
you’re going to wake up and wonder, what if…
“But how do I
let her know that I like her?” was a million dollar question.
How can you
fancy a girl so much that you don’t know how to tell her?
The thoughts
in my mind reminded me of a line from one of the Spiderman movies: “The
greatest battle lies within”. It was finally making sense. I could have
sworn Peter Parker was referring to the feelings he had for Mary Jane Watson.
Meera is a
Royal Princess who deserves an equally royal and handsome Prince Charming but I
have to ask her out before she finds one. After all, you need not be a Prince
to get a Princess.
Suddenly, I
knew what I had to do. The only way to catch an uncatchable woman is to go on
your knees.
Meera was
walking a couple of steps ahead of me. I stopped walking and called for her. She
turned and looked at me square in the eye. It didn’t make me feel any better. Her
stare had brutally murdered my confidence.
“Meera; I
absolutely and utterly adore you and I think you're the most beautiful and interesting
girl I have ever met and more importantly; I genuinely believe and have
believed for some time now that we can afford to know each other more”, I
blabbered.
Don’t say we
aren’t right for each other, the way I see it is… We aren’t right for anyone
else. I thought of saying, but the words didn’t
materialize.
Meera was left
perplexed.
“Meera Sharma;
are you free this Saturday?” I finally asked.
Geez it’s
easier scheduling Arab-Israeli peace talks than asking a girl out for a date!
Meera found
herself thinking: Are they any more beautiful words in English dictionary
than: “Are-you-free-this-Saturday?”
Yes! I am
free for the rest of my life. She thought of shouting.
An affirmative
nod with a half smile was all she could manage.
The pure
happiness of that one moment when you act your heart is simply bliss! I looked
up at the girl standing before me. Dressed in a drab tee and matching denim,
her face bruised with sweat and fatigue, Meera Sharma still looked beautiful.
“I promise,
the next date won’t be like this. I’ll arrange for a better transportation next
time”, I winked.
***
an art, by
Shashank.