She came. He did not say a no, but was definitely worried how to tackle a growing girl. She was eighteen, he was twenty seven. Their relation remained undefined. They never tried to put it in mere words. They were happy, they weren’t confined.
She was a bright and vibrant Bong teen. She was good in her academics, extra as well as co-curricular. She won over hearts wherever she went. She thought she displayed dual nature…She loved the latest gadgets and gizmos, kept track of latest in cricket, hummed American numbers, she also loved the mountains, the Himalayas, the brooks down the hills, the reddened peaks in bright sunlight, the silvery snowcaps in the moonlight, the mountain tunes and dialects. She read the latest by Stephen Hawkings, the contemporary IT centric stories by Chetan Bhagat, also read Tagore and the Atharva Veda for its mystery basically chemistry. She was a juxtaposition of realms. Everybody loved her yet she loved very few – herself, her parents and nobody knew this but her God.
He was a hardworking lad, who knew nothing but work, work and only work. He was what one calls a successful IT personnel changing from Hewlett Packard to Microsoft. He had no mother, only a father whom he loved, admired and respected. He lived in an all equipped apartment in a posh Bangalore locality, was all given to his profession. He had a zeal, a zeal to reach the top, not stop and search for something higher than the highest. This took him forward. No girls in his life so far, no serious ones that is what he said. He was considered quite handsome, a man of attitude and he looked as good as a young Richard Gere in a two piece jet black tuxedo !
She had to leave the city of joy and move into the city of opportunities, future beckoned. She had a dream to fulfill. She was all lost in the new city of which she had read lots and dreamt hard of being in. She knew no one but one. Its he she knew for the past 2 years. She had met him in a crowed yahoo chat room. From there onwards all that happened between the both of them – numerous emails, few yahoo chats, pretty many smses n 3 phone calls. In Bangalore she gave him a call.
They met for a few times, she was staying in the girl’s hostel. Then came the all important moment, she moved in to live with him. Her higher education was on bank load and she still had further studies to do, to some extent there were financial causes behind her decision to move in, the rest remains unknown, perhaps they knew.
He was eager to help her in every possible way but couldn’t mould himself into this new situation so suddenly so kept a little constricted. But it was an innate quality in her, she made him her everything. She gave him the feeling that she felt comfortable in there in his three room flat, he settled in as well. She was working three nights a week in a BPO which paid her good. He was a rich dude that is sure but never let his money stink. It was going good for the both of them.
They hardly slept. He had work, she had her job and on nights when she did not go to the BPO she had college work to complete. They were busy bees – jobs, college and a tiny family of two heads. She didn’t know how to cook, their fooding habits were vastly different yet they managed quite well with a lion’s share of instant coffees, 2 minute maggis, fruit juices and pizza’s for sure.
However late she slept, she got up latest by 5.30am every single day. She took a bath before heading to make breakfast. Now this early morning shower had a great significance. She believed it washed off all the weariness of her previous day and prepared her to start afresh. She preferred water which was cold, shampooed her hair everyday, conditioned it, played with the soap bubbles, splashed water at an imaginary him, hummed continuously, sometimes bollywood numbers, sometime earthly rustic tunes, sometimes songs from the great man Tagore, sometimes English numbers… She stretched her arms as is dancing in a ball imagining he was dancing with her. She imagined him splashing water at her, as the shower did its job. All this when she perfectly knew that he was fast asleep in the next room.
But…
He stood right there, the door separating both of them. He woke up everyday, standing infront of the closed door, listening to her singing. She was a perfect singer, her voice different from all others he had heard before. There was something in it, as soon as he heard her sing, he could almost see the gleam in her eyes, her wet hair on her bare shoulder. Her voice mingled with the strong aroma of the shampoo created an aura he could have never imagined of before, one staunchly of feminine presence. He could make out if she hummed English numbers, but sometimes it was all greek, he knew it was ‘bengalee’…He had a strange feeling, he felt she was signing for him. He missed a lot about her when he is away for work but this part is what he missed most. When she put of the shower, the sound of the water splashing receded….he went straight back to bed pretending t o have just gotten up. She never found out that her songs never remained unheard !
He liked a lot about her. Perhaps for this reason their staying together was frictionless. He lost his mother at a tender age, he hardly had ever felt the feminine softness. But all of a sudden he was kind of mesmerized by her presence. This is crazy but the first thing he noticed about her were her nails. They weren’t coloured but they were long and well shaped with the extended portion perfectly white. There was something crazily refreshing about them, she never cared how they were…she had short hair, not straight, not curly, a perfect mingling of both. She wasn’t slim, she never wanted to be. She had a slight dimple on her left cheek. She was fair. In totality she was beautiful but most prominently she was different and never spent hours in front of the mirror. Whatever she wore she looked elegant in it. Her simplicity was her charm he thought. She had her values intact, she didn’t preached those, just followed silently. Being with her wasn’t a bore even for a millisecond, she could cheer you up always…She valued money…but no ones perfect isn’t it?...She lacked patience. If one paper went bad she would go on bothering him about it, apprehensive of the low marks it would fetch. She always wanted to do the best and do it in the shortest possible time.
She never believed in the fact that a girl needs someone to cling to. She took this living together a s a surprisingly refreshing break from her more or less single status. Though she knew this was transient, they would move on, separately…she didn’t want that moment to come. They were walking lonely roads, suddenly happened to meet each other and decided to make their roads meet. She made every relation out of him, she would keep her informed bout her marks…in Kolkata she kept her dad informed. He would be the first person to know if a guy in college asked her out. She knew not what to do when he came home dehydrated or with slight temperature, but tried out whatever silly stuff she could. Can’t say if it cured him but he forgot about the illness totally ! She loved to make coffee for him, that is what she could…mixing Nescafe cappuccino and hot steaming milk in his favourite coffee mug. On Saturdays, during her breaks, especially if the weather was cloudy she put on tender numbers and served cotffee on bed, he got up and at once knew that the day was going to be great.
He had never known that rains could be so great an experience. All that he did on a rainy day was to grumble that he missed a chunk of his important meetings because of these idiotic rains. But now he craves for a long rainy season in Bangalore because rains made her extremely happy. Previously he cursed the makers of his apartment for keeping an open air balcony because the rain water seeped through into the rooms but now he wanted the entire apartment to have an open and close roof. Occasional rains made her day, especially if it rained in the evening and she didn’t not have the BPO to go to, she at once made a call and asked him to drop home cause she was planning to fry pakoras.
“You are the new Chief Programming Analyst”, said the Boss. He didn’t actually know how he could measure his happiness, if there was an instrument it would shoot out of its limits. But he at once knew what he badly wanted to do, call her and tell her about the good news and what it in turn meant. “Yup, tell me”, came her voice from the other end of the phone. “I did it. I’m flying.”, told he. “Congratulations, I’m proud of you my boy”, she teased. He so loved the way she said that…he wanted to come home, hug her tight. He jumped into his car, stopped by at some restaurant to pack some food n drinks for the night, also brought her favorite flowers, with them she made his house home…and he drove as fast as he could to reach home. Up the stairs, doorbell !...No one answered. He craved to see that beaming face of hers. “Open the door”, his heart shouted silently. No one answered. He took his set of keys out, got in, she was not there, some of her things were missing too. He found a note on the table saying “He and She, an Unfinished Tale !”. Suddenly a thousand realizations started rushing into his mind. He would fly to New Orleans, where would she stay if he left this apartment…She had joined her job newly just fresh recruitments from the college campus, was a 2 year contract…She had to be here…He never asked her to fly with him, but he knew he badly wanted her too, he had never thought of this moment before…always thought let it come then…
He was onboard his flight to New Orleans. Lunch was served. He hardly ate. The thought of her leaving so suddenly bothered him, pricked him every moment. In the excitement of it all, he had managed to forget she lived and loved him. She took herself away, so that he could go ahead, be the man he wants to be…but he needed her badly. He put his hand inside his pocket to find that note, that handwriting he loved…
Perhaps he wanted to go back.
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