I Found Her!!!

Late… Again late… Man, this had become a habit with me… If my dad knew that I was reaching the Station exactly about 5 mins before scheduled departure, he would give me a piece of his mind for sure. I checked the platform number and ran into the station huffing like a bull.

Finding S8, I jumped onto the stairs and pushed through the people, waving away at their families, searching for my seat. A small wave of relief swept through me when I sat down in the window seat allocated to me. Of all the berths in the train, I always liked and preferred the Side Lower Berth as it gave me a kind of freedom.

Noticing that the seat before me was empty, I wondered who could be sitting with me through this journey and how they might be. Train journeys always gave me a new experience as I got to meet new people. Sometimes, I tend to ignore everyone if I don’t like them much.

But today, I didn’t have a novel and I had lost my earphones recently. Thus, I had no other way to pass my time except prodding others. And so, as the train pulled out of Bangalore, I eagerly waited and hoped that it wasn’t some old man who would talk only of politics.

I settled down in my berth and opened a pack of Lays®. And as I was munching through the chips, I saw everyone returning from the doors and taking up their berths. And then, in the midst of them I saw one girl. Long hair, big beautiful eyes, lovely smile, a dimple on the right cheek… What we call slim but not thin… Wow! She was perfect!

When she saw me, she stopped and stared as if looking at a diamond or something. Well, I didn’t exactly understand her stare but I sure didn’t feel uncomfortable with her staring. I stared at her just drinking in her looks and wishing for a miracle. And the miracle happened. Someone pushed her and she came out of her stupor to come sit right beside me. And yet, we stared at each other without a word.

We didn’t know how long we stared at each other when the TT came and asked for our tickets. Oh! How hard it was to take my eyes of her! And to my surprise, both of us had pulled out our cell phones to show him the I-Ticket message. Later, we settled down and ordered on board meals.

All through the meal and almost till 12AM, we talked. I told her about my job, how I was about to go for MS and about my family. She told me that she was undergoing coaching in Android Programming in Bangalore while living with her relatives. She also intended to pursue MS. She was going to Hyderabad to rejoice her being selected. I do not know whether it was coincidence or destiny but many of our tastes, hobbies and ideals matched. We had been selected in the same University too.

As we went on talking, we did not notice when we stopped talking and just stared at each other. When it was too late, I offered to swap places and take the upper berth though I wished I could stay for some more time. Yet her pull was so great that I could not go to sleep. I turned onto my chest and looked down at her from the upper berth. I was a bit surprised to see her looking at me.

In the morning, I woke up first. Instead of waking her up, I got down and sitting beside her wondered at her silhouette in the shadow. She was exceptionally beautiful. And at that moment, in the train, I knew that I had finally fallen in love. And one look in her eyes told me that it was the same with her.

When the train stopped at Hyderabad I asked her two questions that I wanted to ask her the moment I saw her. One was her cell number. The second question, which was more important to me, was her name.

She said, “Jahnavi.”


Click here for Part 2 !