And then, it drizzled.
‘I have a problem with people.’
‘I have a serious problem with people.’
This was mostly the answer he gave when questioned about being a loner, keeping things from others, being depressed and lots and lots of other questions.
‘I have a problem with people. I have a serious problem with people.’ he always said.
Today, the 13th of February 2008, was going to be one of the most important days in his life. The words that he was going to say this day were indeed going to change his life. He was on his shuttle to office, the usual third seat from the last. He was unusually not reading his novel. He was playing his whole past in his mind, trying to figure out what went wrong. He had his eyes closed trying to figure out what really went wrong. He wasn’t able to figure it out. But this day, could change all that.
A few years ago.
He had an extraordinarily happy childhood. He had wonderfully loving parents. He made people laugh. He could sing any song he was asked to. He could dance to any of the tunes. He was good in studies, to a certain extent, of course. He, though was good in languages, wasn’t too keen on sciences. This ranked him well behind others who opted for engineering. He finally settled for a seemingly unknown course. His parents were ready to spend on a wonderful course and a superb college. But he was too proud to make his father spend.
From day one in college, he decided to achieve and make his parents proud. He did, off course, but the road to his success was unfortunately bumpy. It was made bumpy by the very people studying with him. It was made bumpy by the very people around him.
Sincerity was his forte. He took extra care in whatever he did. He tried to be every bit sincere in his studies, his friendship, in almost everything. His sincerity was the bench mark set for others. He was adored by his teachers. He was the typical front-bencher in the line of achieving something great down the line.
He never hesitated to help anyone. Whichever course he or she was in, whatever help they wanted, he never said no. He did everything he could to every body who asked for help. He was theoretically the best person around.
But practically, his fun loving class and college mates slowly started avoiding him. For the very reason of being sincere, he was being left alone.
‘You are going to be alone if you continue to be like this. You are going to be alone for the next four years’ they warned him. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and thought about his parents and his goal. He replied only with his silence but it made things very clear. He was here with a goal and these cheeky issues were not going to affect his work. At the end, he was left alone. He was left really alone even when among hundreds of other students.
At least he was happy. At least he was happy with this life, until she stormed into his life.
It was sometime during the second year she came into his life. She had come to his class from another unknown college. She wasn’t too beautiful but she was very friendly. He felt her friendship to fill the void that others had created. He liked talking to her. He, indeed, liked her friendship. He helped her in every thing he could, her studies as well as personal life. She used to say, ‘If it weren’t you, who else would help me.’ She made him smile. She made him live life when she was around.
But there was always a line she maintained with him. She had many other friends who were more important to her. He was there for her whenever she needed anything but he, at times, felt something missing. He spoke to her straight and made things clear that he really needed her friendship. She smiled and said ‘I am your friend’ but he always felt he was her least important friend.
Slowly, this started causing a psychological drift in him. He started yearning for her friendship. It came only in parts but never whole-hearted friendship. This started building up a serious feel of sensitivity in him. This made him sensitive and emotional. His concentration was fully shifted towards her. She was in his mind than anything else. He started longing for her and one day the frustration got to its peak and she said ‘Yes. You are least important to me! I have lot of commitments in life and commitments with others. I cannot be how you expect me to be!’
‘Why not?’ he asked.
‘Because you are too sincere. Sincerity and seriousness can help in studies. But definitely not friendship. Definitely not in life.’ She shouted back.
He stood there stabbed by the words. He was controlling his anger. He was controlling his tears. He didn’t know what to speak. All he could ask was, ‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, it’s difficult to make you understand but, mark my words. Sincerity helps you in studies. Sincerity might help you at work. But, you are too sincere to be a good and caring friend. This hyper sincerity and hyper sensitivity is going to make you a loser in life.’ She didn’t even wait for a second, but turned around and walked away.
He just stood there for hours in the scorching sun in tears and sweat. He was left stranded. He was left alone. He just stood there for hours. It took days, even could say weeks, for him to recover from what had happened.
His dad’s words helped him recover. ‘One thing, hard work and sincerity never let’s you down.’ his dad had said when he had left him in college. He started working hard again, with the same old sincerity. He worked hard and hard to achieve what he wanted to. To add to his work, tears were there for his company now.
He was left alone again. But now, he was not happy. There was an unspeakable void left within him.
Days became weeks. Weeks became months. And, years rolled on. He made his parents proud by achieving a much deserved medal and award for studies. He got himself a job in a reputed firm, to much of his parents’ dreams and happiness.
Years rolled on. It was almost three years since he had come out of college, and he had not visited back since. Three long, busy, sincere and hard working years had rolled on. He hadn’t made many friends. He was scared to mingle with people and try making friends. He was scarred and scared.
‘I have a problem with people. I have a serious problem with people.’ he always said.
September 2007.
It was decided. He was being sent on-site for a short term negotiation. He was to be in the
He was finishing his formalities at the airport entry when a girl crossed him in a hurry. She resembled the unforgettable girl of his college life. It made his heart beat faster. He felt as if he re-lived a terrible dream but it was not her. It took a few minutes for him to calm down.
This girl had a radiance that made everyone turn around to grab a look at her. She looked traditional. Exactly the way he liked. He just smiled to himself and moved on.
He was surprised to see her enter the same flight as his. The seat near him was empty and for some unknown reason, he wanted it to be her place. She walked near him, stood near him for a second, and moved to the seat in front of him. To add to this, a brilliant talkative old lady occupied the seat beside him.
She was trying to push the things she carried into the overhead stow. She was trying so hard that her handbag tripped over and fell on him. He was so much carried away with his thoughts that he was startled when something heavy fell on him.
‘Sorry, Sorry, Sorry. Very sorry, I lost the hold of it.’ She said and he just nodded his head in acknowledgement.
This girl’s face lingered in his mind for a few moments and to escape the crap his neighbor was talking, he fell asleep. He woke up after sometime to see every one around him to be sleeping. With a little curiosity, he lifted up his head to see what she was doing. He was confused to see that she was comforting a baby in her arms. He was baffled for a few minutes when he looked at the scene. He wasn’t sure if she had brought a baby with her. The power nap had relaxed his mind so much that what happened in the beginning of the journey was not that clear now.
To him, no doubt, she was cute. Her traditional looks, her cheeky naughtiness to make the kid laugh, her smile, the way she had did her hair, everything was interesting. Without his own knowledge, he was admiring her. Rest of the journey, though was silent, he kept himself watching her play with the kid. A couple of hours later another lady came to her seat to get the baby. Finally, he was happy that it was not her kid. ‘Happy that it was not her kid?’ Why should he be? Well, he himself didn’t know why.
The flight landed and all of the passengers were waiting for their baggage to roll out on the conveyor. His big blue trolley was the third to roll out. He grabbed it without wasting even a second and started walking.
A few seconds later, he heard ‘Excuse me! Hold on for a minute! Excuse me!’
He turned around to see that she was running towards him pulling her baggage behind her. His mind was racing with a lot of thoughts.
Amidst her heavy breathing, ‘I think you got my luggage’ she said.
He was confused. ‘Well, I brought just one blue trolley and its mine’ he said.
‘I think that’s the confusion. I’ve got a similar blue trolley. It’s yours! You have mine.’ she said with a childish sarcasm. He had taken the baggage in a hurry and missed to see the name tag. He had taken her baggage wrongly. He looked like an idiot without knowing what to say.
‘Sorry, Sorry, Sorry. Very sorry, I got confused.’ he said.
‘That’s Ok! It happens. J’ She said. She gave him a big smile and bid him adieu.
He just stood there with his eyes transfixed on her. After a very long time, he seemed to like someone. When she was out of sight, he remembered that he had not even asked her name. He almost cursed himself on missing out on this.
The very next day, he got himself immersed into his work and kept himself busy. Her face was bright in his mind. He occasionally smiled thinking about her. He didn’t know who she was but felt attracted.
January 2008.
It was two weeks since he had come back to
One fine day, when he stepped out of a book store, he spotted her. She was standing right next to his car door talking to a guy. He felt the energy level rise. He crossed the road and walked fast to his car and she saw him coming. She moved giving him way and showed no signs of recognition. His energy level dropped immediately.
After a couple of seconds, she suddenly turned to him and screamed, ‘Hi!!! How are you, eh, Mr. Trolley?’
He gave out a clumsy look adjusting to the situation and said, ‘Well, seems you remember me after all. I am fine. And….’ Just then, to bring his energy level further down, he noticed her wearing a toe-ring.
‘Eh, how are you, eh, Mrs. Handbag?’ he asked.
Both of them looked surprised a bit and exchanged names. ‘And, it’s Miss and not Mrs’ she added.
‘I thought I just noticed you wearing a toe-ring.’ he said.
‘It’s interesting that you noticed that. :-) Well, yes I do. But, it’s on the third toe not the second. I wear it for good luck. I am not married yet.’ She said. He felt relieved. He felt very much relieved.
‘When did you return from the
‘A couple of weeks back. I have actually switched company now. Will be taking charge in my new company next week.’ she said.
‘Which company are you moving to?’ he asked.
She said something but he thought he heard her wrong. She said the company name again. He waited for a second to absorb it and he said, ‘Well, I have been working in the same company for the past three years.’ She seemed to be genuinely happy to hear this. He was happy as well but he didn’t know if to call this Luck. ‘Call this luck?’ why should he? Well, he didn’t know the reason for this too.
He seemed to like her from the first sight. But still, deep in the corner of his heart, he was scared. Too many things from the past still haunted him. He was still scarred.
They would have talked for almost thirty minutes. He didn’t know he could talk this much. He was surprised with himself.
‘Can I have your mobile number? Hope you would not mind if I called you on your mobile.’ she asked after the long chat.
‘Sure not, it’s 9940201530. Anytime, any help, just give me a buzz’ he smiled.
‘I didn’t believe till this moment that you could smile.’
He held his smile for a second. As far as he knew, it was the first time he had smiled in years. For the first time in years, he had really smiled. 
‘Neither did
Then it began. And then, it all began.
February 2008.
It was a few weeks since she had joined her new company. Having him there made everything simple for her. She liked him. She liked to talk to him. So did he.
He seemed to understand Einstein’s relativity theory when he was with her. Days went on like minutes. He stepped out of his shuttle every day eagerly to see her waiting in the lounge for him. He walked in to the cafeteria to see her waiting for him at the counter. He felt once again in his life that someone had come to fill the void in his heart and life. This time he felt it was something more than friendship. He sure it was something more than that.
It was the 09th of February and he was there at the railway station to send her off. She was taking a couple of days off to meet her parents. She was to be back on the 13th. He didn’t want to make a typical cinematic scene at the station by opening his heart to her. He had decided to do it when she came back. He would tell everything to her on the 13th and ask her to convey what she had decided on the 14th. He wanted to know her decision on the Valentine’s Day. He was sure that she was his one.
Today, the 13th of February 2008 was going to be one of the most important days in his life. The words that he was going to say this day were indeed going to change the upcoming days in his life. He was on his shuttle to office, the usual third seat from the last. He was unusually not reading his novel. He was playing his whole past in his mind, trying to figure out what went wrong. He had his eyes closed trying to figure out what really went wrong. He wasn’t able to figure it out. But this day, could change all that.
She was not there in the lounge as usual. She was supposed to be back from home today morning he thought. She hadn’t called for the past four days and he was seriously planning on what he had to say and do this day. He tried reaching her on her mobile but it said, ‘the number you are trying to reach is currently switched off.’ He was worried and waited there for a few minutes but to no avail.
He walked to his cabin. He was sure to meet her sometime today, during the break or lunch for sure. Unfortunately it didn’t happen. He decided to go to her place and see if she was in today. Her project was at the other end of the campus. At that time, he was called in for a quick meeting. The quick meeting dragged and dragged for hours together. His sincerity didn’t allow him to concentrate outside the meeting. The time was 6 pm.
The minute the meeting was over, he ran outside to meet her. He didn’t miss picking up the small gift that he had bought for her. The security outside the door said that there was a visitor to meet him a few minutes back. It was her. She had come to meet him, waited for twenty minutes and had left just ten minutes back. He started running like crazy to meet her. He was almost going to enter her project floor when he met her friend. She informed that she had left just a minute before. She was going to take the shuttle.
He ran in the pathway she usually took but she wasn’t to be seen anywhere. It looked too dark for 6 pm. He looked to the sky to see dark clouds gather close.
He ran faster not to miss her. He hadn’t run like this for a long time. He reached the shuttle area. His eyes searched for her wildly. But, she was nowhere to be seen. He reached the shuttle but could not find her inside. His heart was yearning to meet her. He got down from the shuttle, very dejected. He bent down with hands on his knees to calm down his heavy breathing.
He stayed like that for sometime and due to some instinct he lifted his head up. There she was. She was walking right towards him. She seemed to be walking in his dream. But she was walking towards him in reality. A flash of lighting behind her made her look like an angel walking towards him to show a miracle.
‘I am very, very sorry.’ She said. ‘I left my mobile at home. :-( The train was late and I reached office very late. The schedule got hectic and was not able to meet during lunch. I wanted to meet you from the morning. I came to meet you but you were busy.’
‘I wanted to meet you from the morning too.’ he said.
‘Yeah, I just met my team mate. She said you came running to meet me. What is it about?’ she asked curiously.
‘Well, Ladies First!’ he said with his usual etiquette and dignity.
‘No, its ok, you go first!’ she said.
‘I can wait to hear you first.’ he said with a smile.
‘Well, ok! As you wish’ she said.
She dug into her bag for a few seconds to bring it out.
‘I have been trying to see you from the morning to give this to you.’ She said.
She handed him what she had taken from her bag.
His heart started beating faster than it actually was. All he could do was to close his eyes and try to figure out if it was for real or he was dreaming.
She, then, told him what she was trying to tell him the whole day.
A very, very, very bright lightning flashed followed by a banging thunder.
And then, it drizzled.
