7.40 am…..
She glanced at her watch and thought oh shoot!! I am going to miss my usual train! And now am going to get late for my exams. Nervously she kept on reading from her textbook, trying to cram up whatever she could till she reached the railway station. The old rickety rickshaw that was taking her from her home to the railway station had no intention of catching up any speed… it kept on going phut phut phut. Whenever she glanced up from her book to have a look at the road outside it seemed to her like as if all the other rickshaws, scooters and even school children on their bicycles were going faster than her. All this only added up to her nervousness.
I’ll be there for you- (the title track of FRIENDS) started playing on her mobile phone. Must be Kads she thought. She started searching for her mobile phone from her fake louis vutton tote bag which she and Kads had recently got on their trip to colaba causeway. One advantage of having a tote bag was, you could dump everything in it. But the major disadvantage was not finding the right things at the right time. The phone kept on ringing, but every time she thought she had got the mobile in her hand, it turned out to be either a lipstick, or a hairbrush, or compact powder. The only way to locate her mobile phone was to empty the tote bag on the rickshaw seat, which risked something even falling off the rickshaw. She emptied the entire contents on the seat, trying to be careful to not let anything fall off the seat or even off the rickshaw. And there it was blaring in shrill volume, her Samsung QWERTY.
“Hullo….Kads,……yup am still in rickshaw and the way this rickshaw-walah is driving, I think its gonna take 10 more minutes before I can reach the station yaar……………Ya pure bad luck re. The bus I was traveling in broke down midway and then there was a mad scramble for the rickshaws. I somehow managed to get one yaar………….No no you don’t wait for me re. You go ahead. I think even if I catch the 7.50 train I might be in time for the 8.15 exam. Waise bhi from Thane to Mulund, its just 7 mins by train. Yaar this Chatto must have cursed us for not attending his lectures. That’s why this problem re. …………haan phone was ringing for some time na……ya I couldn’t locate the phone in my purse. arrey these coll authorities are so stuck up on nonsensical rules yaar, only salwar kameez during exams…..if I would have been wearing jeans, then there would be no problem to find it na………. Oh cool u got pockets in ur kurtis!! Nice yaar. Chalo I will hang up now and pester this rickshaw-walah to go a bit faster.”
Saying so she turned her attention at the rickshaw-walah. “bhaiyya zara jaldi chalao. Exam ke liye late ho raha hai.”
He said “madam hamari gaadi ekdum tej hai. Ekdum full espeed main chalti hai. Aur ek baar chalti hai toh bas…..ekdum smooth hai….kitnon ne kaha hai humko hehehe!” saying so he adjusted the side mirror such that he would get a good view of her. In a place like Mumbai, a comment like this always had a double meaning. On any other day she would have given an earful to the driver and even changed the rickshaw, but today she just wanted to reach as soon as possible. She just adjusted her dupatta so that he wouldn’t see anything to ogle at her. Men….. she sighed…. I could be wearing a burkha and still they will try to ogle, wondering what lies beneath!!! She turned her attention at the book once again.
The minute she reached Thane railways station, she jumped out of the rickshaw and ran towards the platform. She had kept the fare on the seat, so that she wouldn’t get more late.
Aah!! Thank God the 7.50 local hadn’t arrived yet. Thinking so she smiled at herself. Maybe Chatto isn’t so angry with me after all!! The minute she saw the train approaching the platform, she tied her dupatta in Jhansi ki Rani style so that it wouldn’t get in the way when she got into the train, clutched her tote bag really tight, so that nobody could snatch it from her and finally made a place for herself in the middle of the crowd so that she would be automatically pushed into the ladies compartment by all the other ladies surrounding her.
Making her way through the crowd she finally reached the compartment. Hardly had she got into the train when it started to make its way out of Thane. She tried to push her way to other side of the compartment, coz that was where she would have to stand to get down at Mulund. A few more seconds and almost all the ladies had made a place for themselves, sticking into each other.
The lady in front of her was shorter than her, and had pinned up her hair in a roll which kept on grazing her nose……damn she thought, this is the problem when u get late by 10 minutes. You get peak hour rush. She sighed and looked at her watch. 7.54…. another 3 minutes and she would be in Mulund. It was at that time that she thought somebody was staring at her. She could feel it. The back of her neck started feeling hot. She realized it must be some guy who was staring at her. It always happened to her if a hot-blooded male gave her looks. So she scanned across the wired mesh that separated the ladies compartment from the gents. And there he was. A tall, well built, decent looking guy. He had an open book in his hand, but clearly he wasn’t reading it. And yes, he was staring at her. She decided to look him in his face and give him one of her ‘how dare you look at me’ looks. But he still looked at her, in fact even gave her a half smile. Look at his nerves she thought!!!! She turned the other way round, so that he wouldn’t be able to see her. But she could still sense him staring at her. She turned a bit irritated to glance at him, and there he was again, smiling at her.
Oh God….no!!!!!!!! Not today….urrrgh I have to concentrate on my exams and here these lecherous guys are staring at me even when am wearing two sizes too big for me salwar kameez!! She stole a glance at him to see what book it was that he was supposed to be reading…. Guys could be so horrible that they wouldn’t mind ogling even at a porn magazine in a crowded train. She saw it was Managerial something. A few seconds later she could read the whole title …. Managerial Communication for MBA Part- I. Thank God atleast he is not some sadak chaap romeo ogling at girls. Just then a few ladies started gathering their purses, tying up their dupattas or hiking up their sarees. That’s when she realized that she must be nearing Mulund station and thanked God that this ordeal would finally end.
He had been engrossed in his book when he was disturbed by the jostle of his fellow passengers. Since he had not got a seat today, any push made him loose his balance. Aah it was such an ordeal to stand. How did people do it everyday?? He was not in his usual train which was 10 minutes later than this one. But as he had reached early on the station he decided to get into the train, a grave mistake which he realized only after entering the train. Only a single seat available!! He had got a chance to sit when he got into the train at Kalyan station but voluntarily gave up the lone seat available to an elderly looking man. But now when his feet were being trampled upon he cursed his kindness thinking, why hadn’t anyone else offered a seat. He vowed that he would never again give up a seat, however old and needy anyone looked. He peeped through the window and saw that they had arrived at Thane station. Oh no…. another station that had a peak time crowd coming in. He straightened up and braced himself for the sea of crowd that was about to enter.
After the crowd had come in and settled down all in a matter of a few seconds he decided to get back to reading his book. With one hand holding the handle to avoid him from falling onto the very gentleman to whom he offered his seat, and the other hand holding his book, he decided to start reading.
Just then he caught sight of a tall lissome girl from across the wire mesh in the ladies compartment. At the time he could only see her head, and that too from behind. But there was something that made him look at her again. All of a sudden she had turned and was now facing him. And that’s when he thought…. I don’t know what it is about her, but I can’t stop myself from staring at her. She was tall, about 5”6 he guessed, had a lovely honey coloured skin, flawless complexion, sharp features, an athletic built. Not to thin like the size zero that was in fashion, nor too fat. Just perfect! And her hair…..aah they were henna coloured wavy hair, a welcome change from the poker straight hair that all his female friends had nowadays. And her lovely dove shaped black eyes seemed to be searching for something. She was almost model like. Or was she a model?? That he didn’t know. But he was just mesmerized by her beauty. He would enjoy looking at some good looking girls, but he never ever stared hard at anyone. It was then that he realized that she too was staring back at him. He didn’t know but something prompted him to smile at her. The moment he had done that, he thought gosh what is she going to think of me?? That I am one of those lecherous guys who sizes up a girl from head to toe!!! Inspite of that he couldn’t stop himself from staring at her again. She turned again to look at him and he could make out that she was terribly irritated with him. But something forced him to smile back at her again!!! Just like an idiot who has seen his dream girl right in front of him, and couldn’t stop grinning from ear to ear. But he was not like that!! He never believed in love at first sight……wait was he thinking love??? Something was surely wrong with him and the pretty girl, no his dream girl, must have surely understood that by now. But come to think of it, why had he given up his seat? Why was he standing today? And why had he boarded a train 10 minutes earlier than his usual time? Destiny had planned it that way. Just the way Anandita, his best friend in his MBA college had told him two days ago about her love at first sight. He had laughed and scoffed at her. He had even gone on to say it was infatuation.
But look at him today. He was believing in love at first sight! He, the Mr. Practical of his gang of friends. Just when he was thinking about all this, he realized that the girl was readying herself to get down at the next station which was Mulund. Oh no! She would get down there and then how would he find her again? It was too late now to go to the door to try and get down. He was at the other side of the compartment. And even if he tried to he wouldn’t be able to get out. His dream girl was going away from him and he didn’t know how he would find her again. Not unless some miracle happened.
