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Monday, 20 December 2010
Friday, 3 December 2010
The most beautiful girl I had ever seen..!
The 28th of August 2008 was indeed an unforgettable day in my life. It was the day I was, for the first time, going to travel abroad. It was the day I was going to make my parents’ dream come true.
With my mom and dad’s blessings, my sister’s sweet hug and my best friend’s hearty send off, I was about to venture into a new and relatively unknown world.
‘Are you ok?’ asked the old English woman sitting beside me in the flight.
‘First time in the air, and I feel a bit nervous.’, I smiled.
‘Don’t worry, its safe as home. Just close your eyes and relax.’, She said and that was all I could do for most of my travel.
A long way up in the air, with clouds and oceans below, those were one of the most poetic moments of my life. Even after the bumpy take off and the frightening landing I felt proud that I was in London.
With all my gadgets switched off and unconscious of the time, I felt energetic at the site of the bright sun light that welcomed me outside the airport.
‘What time is it? ‘, I asked my niece who was there to pick me up.
‘Its eight o’clock’, she said and there it began. :-) Eight in the evening and the sun shining bright was indeed an interesting start to my tenure in London.
The jet lags, adding ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ every time, the ‘crime’ of by-passing queues, it did take a week for me to set in. And then, I did catch up with things in London.
I loved weekends in London. With my niece, a permanent resident in London for company, it never seemed difficult to navigate. My friends were scared at the pace I was sight-seeing in London. By the end of four weeks, London seemed to be just another place.
‘Where are we going this weekend?’, I asked my niece who was busy cooking supper.
‘London is almost done, Pete. I don’t think there is any place you have missed.’, She said with a slight sarcasm.
‘How about a movie this weekend then?’, I asked as there weren’t much of options.
‘So, back to your favourite hobby huh?’, She said.
‘We don’t have any other choice, do we?’, I said.
The Westminister abbey, Buckingham palace, London bridge, every place was seen and done for the maximum number of times possible. Even the wax models at Madame Tussad’s had become my friends. We really didn’t have a choice.
‘Just in a month, you say London is boring?’, she asked as we stepped out in to the cold Rayner’s Lane.
‘I hate to say London is boring, that’s why we are going for a movie’, I said with a wink.
After travelling a real long way in the Picadilly line and District line train services, we reached East Ham, the Hindustani-London. Walking for a few minutes from the subway station to the bus stop would really make you feel that it was just Bangalore or Mumbai or any other Indian city for the matter. From saravana bhavan to desi chat, from saambhar idly to aaloo paratha, you name it, you get it.
‘We take a bus here and it’s a fifteen minutes ride to Ilford’, my niece said.
That’s where you get to watch the home-made Indian movies.
We boarded the bus to Ilford and I, cheeky as usual, ran to the first floor of the bus with the free daily paper in hand.
The sun-sign for Gemini said, ‘If you are single, you will meet someone interesting’ which made me smile to myself.
The sophisticated British buses are not quite comfortable for the weak hearted. The bus journeys on the first floors really feel like roller coaster rides. The roads in East ham, with cars parked on both sides, ensured that it was once in a life time travel. And that’s how you reach God in East ham. :-) That’s in a literal sense, because that’s where the Murugan temple is.
That’s the last but beautiful place anyone would expect a Murugan temple to be. In the Church road filled with traditional England houses toned to the perfect Englishman’s taste and the beautiful dome of the temple set right next to it. That’s a beautiful sight indeed, absolutely mesmerising.
Though I had travelled across this place for more than a couple of times, the beauty of the setting really did have me mesmerised. This time was no exception. But, I was mesmerised only till I saw some one.
The glimpse of some one for just a second set my pulse racing.
‘Stop the bus..! please stop the bus..!’, I started shouting.
My niece was half expecting me to stand up and run down the moving bus pressing the ‘stop’ button over a dozen times.
‘Stop the bus..! Stop the god-damn bus..!’, I shouted without giving anyone a second to think.
The driver was confused and alarmed with the sudden panic I created. He stopped the bus with a sudden shrieking turn to the pavement. I jumped out of bus without sparing a second with the niece following me apologising to everyone.
‘What the hell is your problem?!! Have you gone mad?’, she shouted at me.
‘Its.. Its..’, I was grasping for my breath.
‘What the hell is it? Are you alright?’, she shouted.
‘It’s.. It’s.. It’s her..!’, I managed to say. ‘I saw here just now.’
To my niece ‘her’ was bit difficult to understand.
‘It’s.. It’s.. It’s her..!’, I was repeating.
It took a second for her to sink in. ‘You mean..?’, she began with a doubt and shiver.
‘Yes.. it’s her.’ I said bent over my knees.
‘It can’t be her..!’, she said.
‘I just saw her standing outside the temple.’, I replied.
‘It should have been someone else, you are mad. You are totally out of your mind..!’
‘It’s her.. It’s her.. It’s her..!’, I said over and over.
‘How could it, by god’s name, be her? She is not..’ she started shouting.
‘You stay here, I will be right back.’, I said and started running to the temple not even ready to hear what my niece was shouting at me.
I was running hard to see her and so were my thoughts. Too many things had happened in that very short span of time, that unforgettable span of time.
Two long years had passed after what had happened. Two years was a long time indeed. Two years was long enough to fix anything on earth except broken hearts and shattered feelings. Everything around me had slowed down except my thoughts.
My thoughts were racing to the 7th of August 2006, that’s when it started.
It was the Elliot’s beach bus stop, that’s where it started.
The sunshine was sweet that morning. It was extra sweet on that particular day, for two things. One, it was going to be my first day at work after training. The other, was something I totally wasn’t expecting.
It was seven twenty two in the morning. Feeling fresher than ever in my life, I was waiting to board the office shuttle for the first time with the ID card, access card, mobile, purse all set and accounted for. Having found no one around with similar ID cards left me curious if it was the right place to wait for the office shuttle.
I felt a faint breeze. A very faint breeze. :-) Just like the one in fairy tales when the fairy weaves her magic wand over you. The breeze brought a smile onto my face without expecting what I was about to encounter.
‘Excuse me?’, I heard someone and I was quite sure that it wasn’t addressed to me.
‘Excuse me?’, said the sweet voice again and in a reflex impulse I turned to see who it was.
Ever since I knew colors, blue was my favourite and yellow being the color I hated most. The least I would like to see is a person dressed in yellow. But, that moment, that one moment, changed it all. From that moment, trust me, yellow became my favourite color.
She was standing right behind me, the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life, in the most beautiful of yellow salwars, waiting just for me to react to her words. I stood there awestruck by the sere presence of her.
I stood there, just mesmerised, with a hundred violins singing the tunes of valentine. For a second, the world turned dark and only she remained bright.
‘Excuse me?’, she said again which brought me back to my senses.
‘Are you talking to me?’, I asked.
‘I certainly am.’, she said with a smile that would have brightened the darkest of nights and deepest of oceans.
‘Oh really, eh.. that’s interesting. How can I help you?’, I asked in the best of the slangs possible.
‘I work for Cognizant. Actually, I know you.’, she asked.
‘I work for Cognizant too. But.. eh..’, I began.
‘I know you from the training arena during the past weeks.’, she continued even before I completed.
‘Oh really, well, eh.. I am sorry to have missed you in the arena. And..’, I said ‘No, that’s ok.’, she completed before I did.
‘And.. I am wondering how I had missed you. Wow, you look beautiful’, I said.
Words, too many words just bumped out without even giving me a second to think. The first minute you talk to a girl and you say she is beautiful? That’s gonna be the last time she is gonna talk to you said the satan from behind.
‘Thanks for the compliment’, she said with such a cool. ‘You were the busiest person I had seen during the training and no wonder you would have missed me..’, she said with a pinch of sarcasm.
‘You got to be kidding me.’ I said with a silly smile of mine. ‘By the way, my name is Peter.’, I said. ‘You can call me Pete..’
‘Come on, I know your name, you were always famous.’, she winked. :-) ‘And my name is Mayantra. :-) You can call me Maya’.
‘Mayantra? Well, that’s one of the most beautiful names I have heard’, came the words out of my mouth without my permission.
‘It sure is.’, she said. ‘That’s our bus, na?’, she asked.
‘Yes it is. :-) eh, well.. Catch up with you later’, I said cursing the driver for bringing the bus on time.
To add to the driver’s blunder, there were no two seats vacant near one another. The small talk with her had to stay small that day.
I had read and heard the words ‘Angel Eyes’ but I had never understood the real meaning. Her eyes taught me the meaning. Those were really the eyes of an Angel. Those eyes, indeed, spoke to me. They spoke to me in all the kinds of emotions I knew. A second’s look at those eyes took my heart by storm.
‘You got to be kidding ’, I told myself looking at her from the last seat.
Love at first sight was only for movies and novels and not for life.
Really? No :-) not really.
Was this love at first sigh? Yup, it surely was.
‘God has created an angel somewhere just for you. All you have to do is wait for her’, my mom used to say. My heart immediately knew that this girl was surely my angel, the angel that God had created for me. My heart knew that the wait was over.
An anxiety swept through me when I started to office the next day. The anxiety rose with every step I took towards the bus stop. She was already there when I reached.
‘Hi, Maya’, I said.
‘Don’t talk to me Pete. I didn’t expect you to do this..!’, she said at the first shot.
‘Excuse me?’, I was confused.
‘How could you leave me just like that?’, she asked.
‘Leave you? Where? When?’, I asked.
‘Yesterday..! I was talking to you and you leave me to get yourself seated in the last seat of the bus? That wasn’t fair..!’, she said as if she had all the rights on me.
‘There were no two seats together, na?’, I said.
‘That’s why I was standing without taking a seat but you sir just went leaving me
blinking..!’, she commanded.
All I could do was to give back a smile and say, ‘Eh.. I am sorry Maya.’ ‘Don’t talk to me..!’, she said again.
‘I should have been a fool to do so..’, I said.
She looked angry for a few seconds and slowly smiled. The smile was the most gorgeous I had seen.
‘Your apology is accepted ’, she said as if she had expected the whole conversation to go exactly in the way it went.
We talked every day on our way to office. She talked with such sweetness that I was wondering if there could really be such a sweet person in this world. Her voice was sweet. Her choice of words was sweeter. Her convent slang made it the sweetest.
Whenever I spoke to my friends, somehow or the other, Maya found her way into the topic. ‘Hey hero.. whats happening?’, my best friend used to tease whenever I talked about Maya.
She slowly occupied an important part in my daily schedule. She was always a part of my thoughts, a part of my words, a part of my writings and a part of almost everything else. She slowly became a part of my life.
Blog spaces, bikes, music systems, movies and novels in my collection shelves, all of them should have been angry on me now. After meeting her, I had left these little friends of mine unattended for a while.
All I had time for was to talk to her, talk about her and think about her. Those beautiful eyes, that gorgeous smile and those sweet words were the only things running over and over in my mind.
‘Pete, you have known me for more than four months now. You like me don’t you?’, she asked.
The smiled like a silly kid and said, ‘yes I sure do’
‘What is that you like me for?’, she asked.
‘Well.. eh.. that’s a difficult question. eh.. may be you make me feel that.. well.. you are sweet, that’s why.’, I said finding it difficult to correlate the words.
‘That’s a cheeky way to escape the difficult question, huh?’, she said with a wink.
A silence grew in for a few seconds and I, to break that curious silence, asked, ‘How about you?’
‘I like you too Pete. ’, she said without hesitating.
‘And how would you like the answer the difficult part?’, I asked.
‘You have a heart of gold Pete. That’s why I like you’, she said without even waiting for a second.
‘Excuse me?’, I was as usual confused.
‘You are one of the most dignified persons I have seen in my life. J You are decent, helpful, caring etc etc. You name the good quality, you got it. Its hard to find a person like you around.’, she said without a stop. She left me wondering :-) literally. Some one has this sort of an opinion on me? I was surprised. She left an uncomfortable pause and slowly began.
‘And, there was one day, one unforgettable day during the training.’, she said.
To me, there were lot of unforgettable days in my training and that left me wondering.
‘You ran all around the training arena to help admit a girl in hospital.’, she said.
I was slow to nod my head. It had happened long back and I hardly knew who it was.
‘Remember? The girl who had badly broken her leg falling from the stairs?’, she asked.
That was not a big incident to remember but I did. I nodded.
‘And you donated blood even though you were allergic to seeing blood.’, she said.
I didn’t understand where this conversation was going but I kept nodding.
‘The rare blood group. :-) you saved that girl’s leg that day, the operation was critical as she had lost a lot of blood. You did it never expecting anything for what you did and never even knew who the girl was.’
I could see that she was getting unusually emotional on this one and I couldn’t see the reason. To me, all I did was a help to whoever it was and hardly even remembered the details.
‘Maya..?’, I began.
‘You helped me walk again Peter..!’, she said in a low voice almost to herself.
‘I.. what?’, I asked.
‘The girl was me Peter..’, she said with a smile her face and a small tear at the corner of her eye. ‘The girl was me.’
The rest of the day left me wondering if I was really qualified for the words she had said about me. Was I really the dignified person she said I was? The guilty conscience always crept in at moments like this but I was careful to keep it away.
There was something confusing in the way things went for a few days. I had spent sleepless nights thinking about her but the days after the conversation were different. I was feeling strange every time. I wasn’t quite sure if the way I understood was right.
The thoughts were running bizarre. The thoughts were really confusing. Where was this leading me to? I really didn’t know.
‘I need to talk to you’, I finally said to her.
‘Permission granted Sir..! :-) Hello? We have always been talking talking talking and suddenly you ask permission?’, she asked with a smile.
‘Maya, if you wont mistake me, can I ask you something?’
‘Hey you are sounding stupid today. :-) talk..! ask..!’, she said with her usual sweetness.
‘Will you marry me?’, I asked in a tone which even I was unsure about.
The next fifty odd seconds was the most horrible time of my life. Every second felt as if it was a year. Those fifty seconds, my word, I felt as if I was standing on thorns. I felt like I was on standing on fire.
‘Pete.. well.. are you serious?’, she asked in a such a doubtful tone, the tone that I felt to be sarcastic enough to test me to the max.
With my heart racing, I didn’t know how to prove my seriousness. Jump off the bus, cut my wrist, chew my tongue all the typical Indian movie options were the only things coming to my mind.
And suddenly I was there with my phone in hand dialling my dad’s number.
‘Dad, I would like to marry Maya’, I was saying without even the slightest of my knowledge. That, I felt, was the only way to prove my seriousness.
She was staring blank at me for a couple of seconds and there came in a slap right across my face and all she said was, ‘I love you Peter.’
I was staring blank at her. It took me at least a couple of minutes to come to my senses after the slap.
‘I love you..! I love you, you idiot..!’, she said again in loudest of her voices. We were the centre of attraction to every one there.
I took sometime to react. And I did react with a bang..!
‘I love you Maya..!!’, I shouted and said it over and over and over till my lungs gasped for breath.
Those moments were the happiest moments of my life.
Those moments were the happiest moments of our life.
Love was in the air..! Happiness was written for us..! Just for the both of us..! :-)
But, then came the real problem.
Parents!
My dad and mom were the best in the world. They would have never said a word against my love. If they would have said so, then that would have been the day when the sahara desert was in floods.
The real problem was her parents. They were the typically strict orthodox ‘girl’s parents’.
‘I am going home tomorrow’, she said unusually sad.
‘What are you sad about?’, I asked.
‘I am going to talk to my dad about you tomorrow. I am going to talk about us.’, she said.
That was indeed a difficult thing for her to manage now. Even I was scared about it.
‘Don’t worry Maya, things will churn out just fine.’, I consoled her. The truth was that I was even more scared.
She went home, out of contact and out of touch for longer than expected. To me, every single minute counted like a decade. Everyday, I expected that she would come back. Everyday, I expected that she would atleast give a call. But days went on and on without a message.
After nearly ten days, she returned looking worn out, tired and pale. Though she was wearing the beautiful yellow salwar that she was wearing on the day I first saw her, she looked dull.
‘Are you alright?’, I asked her when I met her.
‘Sort of. I think it’s the bad flu I caught at home’, she said. I could see that it was not the flu. But it was something else that she was worried about.
‘Well, did you talk to your dad?’, I asked after a few minutes. I was curious than ever.
‘Yes’, she said with her face down.
‘What happened?’, I was turning mad every second.
‘My dad..’
‘Please spill it out Maya, this has been killing me for days’, I said.
‘My dad is against love marriage Peter’, she said.
Well, it was what we had expected. My heart sank and I had no words to speak. That uneasy silence grew in again.
‘Maya..’
‘Peter..! My dad is against Love marriage’, she said again.
‘Maya..?’
‘He wants my marriage to be an arranged marriage..!’, she said with a dull and monotonous voice.
‘I knew it. Well..’, I began.
‘He wants my marriage to be an arranged marriage you idiot..!’, she said with a totally different voice and hyper energy.
‘Maya..?’, I was more confused than ever before.
‘He wants to talk to you and your parents..!’, she shouted in jubilant voice. The
sweet voice I had ever loved in her.
‘You mean?’, I was searching for words.
‘When did you turn this dumb? :-) Yes, I mean.. He said YES!!! He accepted..!!!’, I could not believe that this was so easily happening..!
Her dad had accepted our love..!!!
There was no one against our love..!!!
Those few minutes we were together, we felt like kids again. :-) feeling like kids who had got the Christmas presents that they had asked for. This was not a gift for Christmas.
This was the gift for life..!
This was the gift of Life..!
‘See you tomorrow Pete..! Oops..! sorry..! See you tomorrow my man!’, she said with a wink as she got into the bus.
‘Give me a call once you reach your hostel. Ok?’, I said with the usual concern.
‘Yeah sure. Should be in another hour.’, she said as the bus started moving.
And exactly after an hour as she had said, my mobile sang her favourite song waking me up from my nap.
‘Hey girl..! reached hostel?’, I asked immediately. There was no answer.
‘Hello Maya?’, I said into the phone again but there was just silence at the other end.
I checked the network, my mobile showed full signal.
‘Hello?’, I repeated again.
‘Hello..’, said an unknown voice on the other end.
‘Who is this?’, I asked with a sudden panic.
‘I am sorry sir, this is the Police. I am dialling this number from the last dialled list.’, that was a male voice on the other side.
‘You got to be kidding me. Who is this? Where is Maya?’, I said expecting some one to say this was just a joke.
‘Sir, the lady hit and run by a truck is identified to be Mayantra, five feet seven inches, fair, wearing a yellow salwar. I am dialling the last number she had dialled from her mobile.’
It took me a few seconds to realise what was happening.
It took me a few minutes to realise that the girl of my life was no more.
The most beautiful girl I had seen, the sweetest voice I had heard, the purest love I had felt. The gorgeous smile I had got. Maya. Mayantra.
I wanted to see her face once more, just once more. I wanted to hear her voice once more, just once more. I wanted to see her smile once more, just once more.
But, it was all too late. I started running to wherever my Maya was. Running blank out of thoughts.
Two long years had passed after what had happened. Two years was a long time indeed. Two years was long enough to fix anything on earth except broken hearts and shattered feelings.
I was running hard to see her and so were my thoughts.
The most beautiful girl I had seen, the sweetest voice I had heard, the purest love I had felt. The gorgeous smile I had got. Maya. Mayantra.
She was standing there outside the temple, just where I had seen her from the bus, in the salwar of my favourite colour. Just in the way I had seen her for the first time.
I stopped ten feet away from her gasping for breath with my niece running behind shouting at me.
‘It can’t be her..!’, she said.
‘How is it possible?’, I was asking myself.
‘She is not alive Peter..!’, shouted my niece behind me.
‘But..’, I was talking to myself.
I knew she was dead. I remembered crying over her dead body like never in my life. I remembered watching her face till they buried her in the cemetery. I knew she was not alive. But, she was there standing a few feet away from me.
I was not able to comprehend this at all. The world looked gauzy for a few minutes. I felt dizzy as if I was going to fall dead in the next second.
Shocked and unsure, I took a step to see her.
After two years of her death, I took a step forward to meet the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life… again… and… ALIVE..!
With my mom and dad’s blessings, my sister’s sweet hug and my best friend’s hearty send off, I was about to venture into a new and relatively unknown world.
‘Are you ok?’ asked the old English woman sitting beside me in the flight.
‘First time in the air, and I feel a bit nervous.’, I smiled.
‘Don’t worry, its safe as home. Just close your eyes and relax.’, She said and that was all I could do for most of my travel.
A long way up in the air, with clouds and oceans below, those were one of the most poetic moments of my life. Even after the bumpy take off and the frightening landing I felt proud that I was in London.
With all my gadgets switched off and unconscious of the time, I felt energetic at the site of the bright sun light that welcomed me outside the airport.
‘What time is it? ‘, I asked my niece who was there to pick me up.
‘Its eight o’clock’, she said and there it began. :-) Eight in the evening and the sun shining bright was indeed an interesting start to my tenure in London.
The jet lags, adding ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ every time, the ‘crime’ of by-passing queues, it did take a week for me to set in. And then, I did catch up with things in London.
I loved weekends in London. With my niece, a permanent resident in London for company, it never seemed difficult to navigate. My friends were scared at the pace I was sight-seeing in London. By the end of four weeks, London seemed to be just another place.
‘Where are we going this weekend?’, I asked my niece who was busy cooking supper.
‘London is almost done, Pete. I don’t think there is any place you have missed.’, She said with a slight sarcasm.
‘How about a movie this weekend then?’, I asked as there weren’t much of options.
‘So, back to your favourite hobby huh?’, She said.
‘We don’t have any other choice, do we?’, I said.
The Westminister abbey, Buckingham palace, London bridge, every place was seen and done for the maximum number of times possible. Even the wax models at Madame Tussad’s had become my friends. We really didn’t have a choice.
‘Just in a month, you say London is boring?’, she asked as we stepped out in to the cold Rayner’s Lane.
‘I hate to say London is boring, that’s why we are going for a movie’, I said with a wink.
After travelling a real long way in the Picadilly line and District line train services, we reached East Ham, the Hindustani-London. Walking for a few minutes from the subway station to the bus stop would really make you feel that it was just Bangalore or Mumbai or any other Indian city for the matter. From saravana bhavan to desi chat, from saambhar idly to aaloo paratha, you name it, you get it.
‘We take a bus here and it’s a fifteen minutes ride to Ilford’, my niece said.
That’s where you get to watch the home-made Indian movies.
We boarded the bus to Ilford and I, cheeky as usual, ran to the first floor of the bus with the free daily paper in hand.
The sun-sign for Gemini said, ‘If you are single, you will meet someone interesting’ which made me smile to myself.
The sophisticated British buses are not quite comfortable for the weak hearted. The bus journeys on the first floors really feel like roller coaster rides. The roads in East ham, with cars parked on both sides, ensured that it was once in a life time travel. And that’s how you reach God in East ham. :-) That’s in a literal sense, because that’s where the Murugan temple is.
That’s the last but beautiful place anyone would expect a Murugan temple to be. In the Church road filled with traditional England houses toned to the perfect Englishman’s taste and the beautiful dome of the temple set right next to it. That’s a beautiful sight indeed, absolutely mesmerising.
Though I had travelled across this place for more than a couple of times, the beauty of the setting really did have me mesmerised. This time was no exception. But, I was mesmerised only till I saw some one.
The glimpse of some one for just a second set my pulse racing.
‘Stop the bus..! please stop the bus..!’, I started shouting.
My niece was half expecting me to stand up and run down the moving bus pressing the ‘stop’ button over a dozen times.
‘Stop the bus..! Stop the god-damn bus..!’, I shouted without giving anyone a second to think.
The driver was confused and alarmed with the sudden panic I created. He stopped the bus with a sudden shrieking turn to the pavement. I jumped out of bus without sparing a second with the niece following me apologising to everyone.
‘What the hell is your problem?!! Have you gone mad?’, she shouted at me.
‘Its.. Its..’, I was grasping for my breath.
‘What the hell is it? Are you alright?’, she shouted.
‘It’s.. It’s.. It’s her..!’, I managed to say. ‘I saw here just now.’
To my niece ‘her’ was bit difficult to understand.
‘It’s.. It’s.. It’s her..!’, I was repeating.
It took a second for her to sink in. ‘You mean..?’, she began with a doubt and shiver.
‘Yes.. it’s her.’ I said bent over my knees.
‘It can’t be her..!’, she said.
‘I just saw her standing outside the temple.’, I replied.
‘It should have been someone else, you are mad. You are totally out of your mind..!’
‘It’s her.. It’s her.. It’s her..!’, I said over and over.
‘How could it, by god’s name, be her? She is not..’ she started shouting.
‘You stay here, I will be right back.’, I said and started running to the temple not even ready to hear what my niece was shouting at me.
I was running hard to see her and so were my thoughts. Too many things had happened in that very short span of time, that unforgettable span of time.
Two long years had passed after what had happened. Two years was a long time indeed. Two years was long enough to fix anything on earth except broken hearts and shattered feelings. Everything around me had slowed down except my thoughts.
My thoughts were racing to the 7th of August 2006, that’s when it started.
It was the Elliot’s beach bus stop, that’s where it started.
The sunshine was sweet that morning. It was extra sweet on that particular day, for two things. One, it was going to be my first day at work after training. The other, was something I totally wasn’t expecting.
It was seven twenty two in the morning. Feeling fresher than ever in my life, I was waiting to board the office shuttle for the first time with the ID card, access card, mobile, purse all set and accounted for. Having found no one around with similar ID cards left me curious if it was the right place to wait for the office shuttle.
I felt a faint breeze. A very faint breeze. :-) Just like the one in fairy tales when the fairy weaves her magic wand over you. The breeze brought a smile onto my face without expecting what I was about to encounter.
‘Excuse me?’, I heard someone and I was quite sure that it wasn’t addressed to me.
‘Excuse me?’, said the sweet voice again and in a reflex impulse I turned to see who it was.
Ever since I knew colors, blue was my favourite and yellow being the color I hated most. The least I would like to see is a person dressed in yellow. But, that moment, that one moment, changed it all. From that moment, trust me, yellow became my favourite color.
She was standing right behind me, the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life, in the most beautiful of yellow salwars, waiting just for me to react to her words. I stood there awestruck by the sere presence of her.
I stood there, just mesmerised, with a hundred violins singing the tunes of valentine. For a second, the world turned dark and only she remained bright.
‘Excuse me?’, she said again which brought me back to my senses.
‘Are you talking to me?’, I asked.
‘I certainly am.’, she said with a smile that would have brightened the darkest of nights and deepest of oceans.
‘Oh really, eh.. that’s interesting. How can I help you?’, I asked in the best of the slangs possible.
‘I work for Cognizant. Actually, I know you.’, she asked.
‘I work for Cognizant too. But.. eh..’, I began.
‘I know you from the training arena during the past weeks.’, she continued even before I completed.
‘Oh really, well, eh.. I am sorry to have missed you in the arena. And..’, I said ‘No, that’s ok.’, she completed before I did.
‘And.. I am wondering how I had missed you. Wow, you look beautiful’, I said.
Words, too many words just bumped out without even giving me a second to think. The first minute you talk to a girl and you say she is beautiful? That’s gonna be the last time she is gonna talk to you said the satan from behind.
‘Thanks for the compliment’, she said with such a cool. ‘You were the busiest person I had seen during the training and no wonder you would have missed me..’, she said with a pinch of sarcasm.
‘You got to be kidding me.’ I said with a silly smile of mine. ‘By the way, my name is Peter.’, I said. ‘You can call me Pete..’
‘Come on, I know your name, you were always famous.’, she winked. :-) ‘And my name is Mayantra. :-) You can call me Maya’.
‘Mayantra? Well, that’s one of the most beautiful names I have heard’, came the words out of my mouth without my permission.
‘It sure is.’, she said. ‘That’s our bus, na?’, she asked.
‘Yes it is. :-) eh, well.. Catch up with you later’, I said cursing the driver for bringing the bus on time.
To add to the driver’s blunder, there were no two seats vacant near one another. The small talk with her had to stay small that day.
I had read and heard the words ‘Angel Eyes’ but I had never understood the real meaning. Her eyes taught me the meaning. Those were really the eyes of an Angel. Those eyes, indeed, spoke to me. They spoke to me in all the kinds of emotions I knew. A second’s look at those eyes took my heart by storm.
‘You got to be kidding ’, I told myself looking at her from the last seat.
Love at first sight was only for movies and novels and not for life.
Really? No :-) not really.
Was this love at first sigh? Yup, it surely was.
‘God has created an angel somewhere just for you. All you have to do is wait for her’, my mom used to say. My heart immediately knew that this girl was surely my angel, the angel that God had created for me. My heart knew that the wait was over.
An anxiety swept through me when I started to office the next day. The anxiety rose with every step I took towards the bus stop. She was already there when I reached.
‘Hi, Maya’, I said.
‘Don’t talk to me Pete. I didn’t expect you to do this..!’, she said at the first shot.
‘Excuse me?’, I was confused.
‘How could you leave me just like that?’, she asked.
‘Leave you? Where? When?’, I asked.
‘Yesterday..! I was talking to you and you leave me to get yourself seated in the last seat of the bus? That wasn’t fair..!’, she said as if she had all the rights on me.
‘There were no two seats together, na?’, I said.
‘That’s why I was standing without taking a seat but you sir just went leaving me
blinking..!’, she commanded.
All I could do was to give back a smile and say, ‘Eh.. I am sorry Maya.’ ‘Don’t talk to me..!’, she said again.
‘I should have been a fool to do so..’, I said.
She looked angry for a few seconds and slowly smiled. The smile was the most gorgeous I had seen.
‘Your apology is accepted ’, she said as if she had expected the whole conversation to go exactly in the way it went.
We talked every day on our way to office. She talked with such sweetness that I was wondering if there could really be such a sweet person in this world. Her voice was sweet. Her choice of words was sweeter. Her convent slang made it the sweetest.
Whenever I spoke to my friends, somehow or the other, Maya found her way into the topic. ‘Hey hero.. whats happening?’, my best friend used to tease whenever I talked about Maya.
She slowly occupied an important part in my daily schedule. She was always a part of my thoughts, a part of my words, a part of my writings and a part of almost everything else. She slowly became a part of my life.
Blog spaces, bikes, music systems, movies and novels in my collection shelves, all of them should have been angry on me now. After meeting her, I had left these little friends of mine unattended for a while.
All I had time for was to talk to her, talk about her and think about her. Those beautiful eyes, that gorgeous smile and those sweet words were the only things running over and over in my mind.
‘Pete, you have known me for more than four months now. You like me don’t you?’, she asked.
The smiled like a silly kid and said, ‘yes I sure do’
‘What is that you like me for?’, she asked.
‘Well.. eh.. that’s a difficult question. eh.. may be you make me feel that.. well.. you are sweet, that’s why.’, I said finding it difficult to correlate the words.
‘That’s a cheeky way to escape the difficult question, huh?’, she said with a wink.
A silence grew in for a few seconds and I, to break that curious silence, asked, ‘How about you?’
‘I like you too Pete. ’, she said without hesitating.
‘And how would you like the answer the difficult part?’, I asked.
‘You have a heart of gold Pete. That’s why I like you’, she said without even waiting for a second.
‘Excuse me?’, I was as usual confused.
‘You are one of the most dignified persons I have seen in my life. J You are decent, helpful, caring etc etc. You name the good quality, you got it. Its hard to find a person like you around.’, she said without a stop. She left me wondering :-) literally. Some one has this sort of an opinion on me? I was surprised. She left an uncomfortable pause and slowly began.
‘And, there was one day, one unforgettable day during the training.’, she said.
To me, there were lot of unforgettable days in my training and that left me wondering.
‘You ran all around the training arena to help admit a girl in hospital.’, she said.
I was slow to nod my head. It had happened long back and I hardly knew who it was.
‘Remember? The girl who had badly broken her leg falling from the stairs?’, she asked.
That was not a big incident to remember but I did. I nodded.
‘And you donated blood even though you were allergic to seeing blood.’, she said.
I didn’t understand where this conversation was going but I kept nodding.
‘The rare blood group. :-) you saved that girl’s leg that day, the operation was critical as she had lost a lot of blood. You did it never expecting anything for what you did and never even knew who the girl was.’
I could see that she was getting unusually emotional on this one and I couldn’t see the reason. To me, all I did was a help to whoever it was and hardly even remembered the details.
‘Maya..?’, I began.
‘You helped me walk again Peter..!’, she said in a low voice almost to herself.
‘I.. what?’, I asked.
‘The girl was me Peter..’, she said with a smile her face and a small tear at the corner of her eye. ‘The girl was me.’
The rest of the day left me wondering if I was really qualified for the words she had said about me. Was I really the dignified person she said I was? The guilty conscience always crept in at moments like this but I was careful to keep it away.
There was something confusing in the way things went for a few days. I had spent sleepless nights thinking about her but the days after the conversation were different. I was feeling strange every time. I wasn’t quite sure if the way I understood was right.
The thoughts were running bizarre. The thoughts were really confusing. Where was this leading me to? I really didn’t know.
‘I need to talk to you’, I finally said to her.
‘Permission granted Sir..! :-) Hello? We have always been talking talking talking and suddenly you ask permission?’, she asked with a smile.
‘Maya, if you wont mistake me, can I ask you something?’
‘Hey you are sounding stupid today. :-) talk..! ask..!’, she said with her usual sweetness.
‘Will you marry me?’, I asked in a tone which even I was unsure about.
The next fifty odd seconds was the most horrible time of my life. Every second felt as if it was a year. Those fifty seconds, my word, I felt as if I was standing on thorns. I felt like I was on standing on fire.
‘Pete.. well.. are you serious?’, she asked in a such a doubtful tone, the tone that I felt to be sarcastic enough to test me to the max.
With my heart racing, I didn’t know how to prove my seriousness. Jump off the bus, cut my wrist, chew my tongue all the typical Indian movie options were the only things coming to my mind.
And suddenly I was there with my phone in hand dialling my dad’s number.
‘Dad, I would like to marry Maya’, I was saying without even the slightest of my knowledge. That, I felt, was the only way to prove my seriousness.
She was staring blank at me for a couple of seconds and there came in a slap right across my face and all she said was, ‘I love you Peter.’
I was staring blank at her. It took me at least a couple of minutes to come to my senses after the slap.
‘I love you..! I love you, you idiot..!’, she said again in loudest of her voices. We were the centre of attraction to every one there.
I took sometime to react. And I did react with a bang..!
‘I love you Maya..!!’, I shouted and said it over and over and over till my lungs gasped for breath.
Those moments were the happiest moments of my life.
Those moments were the happiest moments of our life.
Love was in the air..! Happiness was written for us..! Just for the both of us..! :-)
But, then came the real problem.
Parents!
My dad and mom were the best in the world. They would have never said a word against my love. If they would have said so, then that would have been the day when the sahara desert was in floods.
The real problem was her parents. They were the typically strict orthodox ‘girl’s parents’.
‘I am going home tomorrow’, she said unusually sad.
‘What are you sad about?’, I asked.
‘I am going to talk to my dad about you tomorrow. I am going to talk about us.’, she said.
That was indeed a difficult thing for her to manage now. Even I was scared about it.
‘Don’t worry Maya, things will churn out just fine.’, I consoled her. The truth was that I was even more scared.
She went home, out of contact and out of touch for longer than expected. To me, every single minute counted like a decade. Everyday, I expected that she would come back. Everyday, I expected that she would atleast give a call. But days went on and on without a message.
After nearly ten days, she returned looking worn out, tired and pale. Though she was wearing the beautiful yellow salwar that she was wearing on the day I first saw her, she looked dull.
‘Are you alright?’, I asked her when I met her.
‘Sort of. I think it’s the bad flu I caught at home’, she said. I could see that it was not the flu. But it was something else that she was worried about.
‘Well, did you talk to your dad?’, I asked after a few minutes. I was curious than ever.
‘Yes’, she said with her face down.
‘What happened?’, I was turning mad every second.
‘My dad..’
‘Please spill it out Maya, this has been killing me for days’, I said.
‘My dad is against love marriage Peter’, she said.
Well, it was what we had expected. My heart sank and I had no words to speak. That uneasy silence grew in again.
‘Maya..’
‘Peter..! My dad is against Love marriage’, she said again.
‘Maya..?’
‘He wants my marriage to be an arranged marriage..!’, she said with a dull and monotonous voice.
‘I knew it. Well..’, I began.
‘He wants my marriage to be an arranged marriage you idiot..!’, she said with a totally different voice and hyper energy.
‘Maya..?’, I was more confused than ever before.
‘He wants to talk to you and your parents..!’, she shouted in jubilant voice. The
sweet voice I had ever loved in her.
‘You mean?’, I was searching for words.
‘When did you turn this dumb? :-) Yes, I mean.. He said YES!!! He accepted..!!!’, I could not believe that this was so easily happening..!
Her dad had accepted our love..!!!
There was no one against our love..!!!
Those few minutes we were together, we felt like kids again. :-) feeling like kids who had got the Christmas presents that they had asked for. This was not a gift for Christmas.
This was the gift for life..!
This was the gift of Life..!
‘See you tomorrow Pete..! Oops..! sorry..! See you tomorrow my man!’, she said with a wink as she got into the bus.
‘Give me a call once you reach your hostel. Ok?’, I said with the usual concern.
‘Yeah sure. Should be in another hour.’, she said as the bus started moving.
And exactly after an hour as she had said, my mobile sang her favourite song waking me up from my nap.
‘Hey girl..! reached hostel?’, I asked immediately. There was no answer.
‘Hello Maya?’, I said into the phone again but there was just silence at the other end.
I checked the network, my mobile showed full signal.
‘Hello?’, I repeated again.
‘Hello..’, said an unknown voice on the other end.
‘Who is this?’, I asked with a sudden panic.
‘I am sorry sir, this is the Police. I am dialling this number from the last dialled list.’, that was a male voice on the other side.
‘You got to be kidding me. Who is this? Where is Maya?’, I said expecting some one to say this was just a joke.
‘Sir, the lady hit and run by a truck is identified to be Mayantra, five feet seven inches, fair, wearing a yellow salwar. I am dialling the last number she had dialled from her mobile.’
It took me a few seconds to realise what was happening.
It took me a few minutes to realise that the girl of my life was no more.
The most beautiful girl I had seen, the sweetest voice I had heard, the purest love I had felt. The gorgeous smile I had got. Maya. Mayantra.
I wanted to see her face once more, just once more. I wanted to hear her voice once more, just once more. I wanted to see her smile once more, just once more.
But, it was all too late. I started running to wherever my Maya was. Running blank out of thoughts.
Two long years had passed after what had happened. Two years was a long time indeed. Two years was long enough to fix anything on earth except broken hearts and shattered feelings.
I was running hard to see her and so were my thoughts.
The most beautiful girl I had seen, the sweetest voice I had heard, the purest love I had felt. The gorgeous smile I had got. Maya. Mayantra.
She was standing there outside the temple, just where I had seen her from the bus, in the salwar of my favourite colour. Just in the way I had seen her for the first time.
I stopped ten feet away from her gasping for breath with my niece running behind shouting at me.
‘It can’t be her..!’, she said.
‘How is it possible?’, I was asking myself.
‘She is not alive Peter..!’, shouted my niece behind me.
‘But..’, I was talking to myself.
I knew she was dead. I remembered crying over her dead body like never in my life. I remembered watching her face till they buried her in the cemetery. I knew she was not alive. But, she was there standing a few feet away from me.
I was not able to comprehend this at all. The world looked gauzy for a few minutes. I felt dizzy as if I was going to fall dead in the next second.
Shocked and unsure, I took a step to see her.
After two years of her death, I took a step forward to meet the most beautiful girl I had ever seen in my life… again… and… ALIVE..!
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