rendevouz

                                                                                                   Rendezvous II

A year later….

She could not believe it….she was doing it….she was at the metro station….going to meet him. Just the thought of it gave her goose bumps. She tried to envisage how her meeting had been almost a year ago. She silently prayed for everything to be right, this time for her sake. She contemplated if it was the right thing.

  She didn’t know if she should go. Was she taking things too far? What could she have said when he asked to meet up. The monotony of her thoughts was broken by the breeze which touched her face; she looked at the direction of the breeze and saw the metro coming. She looked at it while her mind was blank. In the hearts of heart she knew she had to meet him. When she had met him for the first time, it was curiosity, this time it was necessity. With that thought she clichéd the handbag and boarded the metro.

She tried to picture how it was a year ago, with her…..was she having the same feelings….the same thoughts? Her thoughts were broken by the blaring sound of Rajiv chowk. He had said same place, same time. As she came out of the metro she took out her goggles and put it on. Eyes always betray, she thought and smiled at her own thought. She climbed the stairs and started walking towards Mc.Donalds, without any understanding of what she was doing; but of late, things like that were frequently happening. She did things without realizing what she was doing; it was as if……as if…..it was all a nightmare.

She reached McDonalds in a daze. She hesitated a second and said a short prayer to all the Gods. He was there. She saw him the minute she entered. She led out a breath, she never knew she was holding. He was looking at her. As she went towards him, he stood up to greet her. Sweet! She thought. As she reached the table she smiled at him and said “baith jao, itna formal honey ke zaroorat nahi hai”. They sat across each other. There was an absurd silence. This can’t be it…she had to make it a memorable afternoon for her sake, she thought. She looked through her glasses  and asked casually “bhaut der se wait kar rahey the” he looked at her and said “agar der ka matlab ek ghanta hai toh…nahi, agar 20min. hai toh…. haan, aur waisey bhi larkiya der se he aati hai” she smiled and said “aur not so punctual larkey bhi der se aatey hai, jaisey ki last time” and burst out laughing. Their laughter together was musical, a music, soft and intense. After that they talked about what was happening and what had happened since they last met. He told her about his job, his family, his short trip to India, various marriage proposals, it was a de-tour, nothing much had changed in the last year just that she didn’t know. In her turn she talked about her life, her family, whatever she would have wanted him to know. While she was talking a tiny drop rolled from her eyes and for a second she was unable to speak. It was one of those moments when the heart is warmed by the flames of memories and love and the intensity of its heat reaches the eyes and makes it watery. It was then he kept his hands over hers, asking if she was ok.How she wished he would have done it when she had last met him. She just nodded at him. To divert her attention and his; she picked up a French fry to eat, which he had already nibbling.She saw a hand moving towards it out of nowhere and the fries instead of reaching her mouth were in his. He sat giggling, across her. She laughed and attacked the fries; he pretended to protect his fries while trying to attack hers. To an onlooker they would be two adults behaving like children but they were two children who had disguised as adults….two people who wanted to laugh and forget everything.

It was not long before they realized that 32 pairs of eyes were staring at them, which made them come out of their own world. She took his hand in hers and both of them walked out, hand in hand. It all felt so right, yet nothing was. She looked at both their fingers tangled together and knew that the gaps between the fingers r made to be filled by someone else. Probably she had found her someone but did not know. He tugged her hand, she looked up only to find him signaling towards the ice- creams corner. Ordinarily she would have said no but those inquisitive eyes were looking so pleadingly at her that she had no option. So both of them walked together towards the ice- cream stall and got an ice- cream, over which they fought and licked, digging into it and swallowing as much as one could get hold off.

The sun was rapidly setting or so it seemed. She had to leave. She knew she could not meet him without the goggles, it protected her from his gaze; it gave protection from the truth; from the pain. She had to leave, the decision had been made so she faced him and told him she had to leave. She wanted him to ask her to stay, she wanted him to see her pain, she wanted him to remember that day forever, she wanted him….but he did not behave out of character, and he did neither. Both of them held hands and walked towards the metro station in silence. She wondered about the silence they had shared in their last meeting.

Near the metro station they faced each other. He could not look into her eyes, the eyes he loved….the eyes he wanted to be shut but he knew it was not the time nor the place so he just hugged her long enough to remember her presence and short enough to want to do it again. As for her she closed her eyes and hugged him back. When he left her, she was nearly in tears. She almost ran down the stairs not looking up. In the queue she tucked her goggles in her bag and began to sob. She had an unexplainable desire to go back and tell him the truth.

She wanted to tell him, she was not the one. A year ago he had met his elder sister…..she wanted to tell him…that her sister was no more….she wanted to tell him, that there was one thing and only one that her sister regretted and that was not having a good time with him. She wanted him to remember her sister as she was….. beautiful, lively….. so she had to meet him. She closed her eyes and hoped that no matter where her sister was, she was happy, in the knowledge that the guy will remember her….forever….she had made sure of that.