The early morning rays and a nice breeze with a tang of rain woke me up
from a pleasant dream and a refreshing nap. When I turned my head, I saw a
beautiful half-smile playing over the lips of Jahnavi. She had pulled up her
legs and was crouching in her seat. With her chin thrust out and her face
looking up at me, she looked just like an angel to me. Within moments I was in
a state of déjà vu without understanding what it was.
When she opened her eyes, her hazel eyes just made me want to get lost in
them. I could go on and on describing her beauty. If only I knew how to write poems,
I would sing all the time about her. To my eyes, she looked like the most
beautiful maiden on Earth. I just wanted to wrap my arms around her. I felt
that I owned the world if only I owned her.
The moment was completely ruined by the coarse voice of the conductor
announcing our arrival within 15 minutes. Man, give me a knife that time and I
would surely have stabbed the guy through his heart!!!
Anyways, we stirred from our places, packed everything we had opened and
got ready by the time our bus rolled into Majestic. We got down the bus and
decided to meet the next day at the same place. We walked to the auto stand and
I helped her into an auto. Oh, the desperate feeling I had when the auto pulled
away cannot be compared to anything but being pierced with a needle. But the
pain lessened when she leaned out of the auto to wave at me.
The whole day was a whirlwind of activity in the office, but I was going
through the motions mechanically while I waited with bated breath for her every
message. I never let my cell out of my hand and the whole day I was typing
away. It never occurred to me that she might be busy nor did she ever stop
replying.
As the day wore on, my colleagues got tired of my incessant typing. One
of them wrested my mobile from my hands and all of them together kept it away
from me no matter how much I pleaded. All my appeals, warnings and tantrums
fell on deaf ears. By the time they returned it to me, there were nearly
sixteen messages and three calls from her ranging from discontent to anger to
sadness and crying.
I could not bear the bitterness in the words of her last message and
called her to explain what had happened. That’s when I came to know how many
swear words she knew. The way she scolded my colleagues and me, I didn’t know
whether to laugh or cry. I felt happy that she cared so much for me and sad
that I had made her go through this.
It took me more than one hour to calm her down and then she only cooled
down because I promised to buy her a Cadbury® Silk the next day. After dealing
with so many sisters and girls, I had understood that nothing works on a girl
like an offer of chocolates. I went to my friend’s place and spent the night
there.
The next day, my office colleagues had planned a farewell party in my
honor and I could not talk to her much due to the festivities. But telling her
beforehand did help to make things a bit cool. But all thanks to my naïveness,
I was back in hot water again. When a few of my colleagues (including females)
said that they would like to come and see me off, I happily agreed with them.
When I reached the pickup point, Jahnavi was already there. Her luggage
was too much so her relatives had come to drop her. She introduced me to them
as a friend and I put on my most impressive mantle and turned on my full charm
on them. By the time they left (which was just 15 minutes later), they were
pretty sure that I was a very good guy.
All this was well and good, but when my colleagues came things started
getting too hot. After working together for six months, there was little
restraint in the way we talked or behaved with each other. But I failed to
notice the effect it had on Jahnavi. Though she was smiling and talking, I felt
that something was wrong yet ignored most of it as it was the last time I would
be spending with my colleagues.
I knew I had made a big mistake when we had settled down in the bus. Half
an hour after the bus started she had still not said a word. I could not stand
her silence and tried to talk to her. But she won’t speak. When coaxing her
with the Silk also didn’t work, I started getting worried.
Only after we had stopped for dinner and I had ordered her favorite Butter
Naan and Palak Paneer (my favorite too!!), did she speak. It was nothing short
of a police interrogation except torture. All through dinner she asked me about
each and every person who had come there. She patiently listened to my
descriptions about each and every one of them asking specific questions about
the girls.
By the time the bus started again we were in a heated argument about each
and every action and reaction of mine with my colleagues. At that time, I wasn’t
thinking straight, but later that night I felt happy that she was so possessive
about me already.
The day ended with a big lecture from her about how I should behave with
girls and how I should be treating her. But then she made it up for all that by
sleeping with her head on my lap.
Comments