Umbrella

Mirpur must be one of the smallest railway stations in India. It had only one small platform with just one bench and no shades. Only short distance passenger trains stopped there. He was waiting for one of those trains at almost noon in the month of may. The sun was over his head and he was using an umbrella to protect himself from the sunlight. It would have been one of the hottest day of the year and hot summer wind made it even worse. He was holding the umbrella with his right arm and was trying to read a Ved Prakash Sharma novel to kill time while he was waiting for the train. It was difficult to concentrate on reading with wind blowing the pages. Suddenly a strong wave of wind blew his umbrella and he ran to catch it, holding the book in one hand. He managed to catch the umbrella at some distance, where it got stuck on some dead wood.

When he was coming back towards the bench holding the umbrella in one hand and the book in the other, he spotted a girl standing near the pillar covering her face with a veil and holding a bag in her hand. She was probably standing there for a while but he did not notice. May be the novel was too captivating to divert his attention anywhere else. She was trying to hide behind the small shadow of the pillar to cover herself from the sun, but her efforts were all going in vein. There was no one else on the platform. He walked up to the girl and offered her his umbrella, "ye le lo. bahut dhoop hai." She nodded rejecting his offer. He insisted, "le lo" and handed over the umbrella to the girl. She accepted the umbrella reluctantly. "tum chaho to wohan bench pe baith sakti ho" he said pointing towards the bench. She nodded in negative. "theek hai, jaisi tumhari marji" he added and went back to the bench.

He tried to continue reading but could not. All he could think of was about the girl. Who she was? Why she was alone? Where was she going? Why had he never seen her before? Was she from Mirpur or just visiting someone? So many questions in his head about the girl were not letting him concentrate on the book. Afternoon sun was also not being very helpful. He held the book over his head to cover himself from the light. While he was busy thinking about the girl and trying to figure out the answers to so many questions in his head, he realised she was standing behind him holding the umbrella above him covering him from sunlight. He looked at her and pointed towards the bench. She sat beside him holding the umbrella. Her face was still covered with the veil that she was holding with her teeth. He could see only half her face and he could tell she was remarkably beautiful. Nothing like he had seen in all his life.

She was feeling uncomfortable sitting with him and he could sense the tension. He spoke, "hum Sitapur ja rahe hain. hum wohan patakhon ki factory me kaam karte hain. tum kahan ja rahi ho?" She was shy but she answered, "hum bhi Sitapur ja rahe hain. humara ghar hai wohan." Her veil fell from her face as she spoke and he could see her remarkable beauty. That made him nervous. He did not know whether he was sweating because of heat or because of nervousness. He tried his best to speak, "to tum Mirpur ki rahne wali nahi ho. tabhi main sochun, maine tumhe pahle kabhi kyon nahi dekha. chhota sa gaon hai humara yahan har koi ek dusre ko janta hai." he continued, "hum har 3-4 mahine me ek baar gaon aate hain apne ghar walon se milne." He waited for a moment expecting her to say something but she did not speak. He kept on talking, "Mirpur me kiske yahan aayi thi tum." "Banwari Lal" she answered. He was not very pleased, when he heard the name, but he tried his best to not let it show on his face. "Banwari Kaka. Kaise hain Banwari kaka, tabiyat kaisi rahti hai unki aajkal. pichhli baar mila tha to chalne firne me takleef hoti thi unko" he enquired trying to look genuine. "theek hain abhi" she answered. He could not imagine anyone so beautiful anywhere even remotely related to Banwari for the kind of man he was. He was the local moneylender and everyone hated him. He asked, "tum Banwari Kaka ko kaise janti ho?" She hesitated for a moment, then replied, "hum unki biwi hain. pichhle mahine hi humari shaadi hui. humare babu ji ko paison ki sakht jaroorat thi aur Banwari lal ne humare babu ji ko 50000 rupaye diye humari shaadi ke badle me." She was almost to tears when she said those words. His heart almost sank, he could not hear the sound of the train coming towards the platform.

First Date

He reached the Barista at exactly 6 pm as agreed and checked his watch to make sure he was on time. Before entering the coffee shop he pulled his phone out of his breast pocket and made a call. "Hi" he said, "I have reached Barista. Where are you?...ok, I am going in. Don't take too long...I am wearing a black trouser, a blue shirt and a yellow tie. In fact right now I am the only one dressed in formals in here, so you will easily recognise me." He scanned the almost empty shop and found himself a place to sit near the window, where he could see the traffic on the road. He sat there watching the traffic and scanning the menu with lacking interest. He was more interested in the traffic, it always fascinated him. He was looking at the moving vehicles going in opposite directions. Some old, some new, some ordinary, some extra ordinary, some slow, some fast all of them with their varying qualities and abilities survived on their own without colliding into each other. Yet there was one thing common among all of them, they all served the same purpose. The ride in some would have been more comfortable than the other, some would have reached the destination faster than the other, some would have used more fuel to reach the destination than the other but in the end they all were working on the same purpose. When they decided to cross paths, may be in the hurry to reach the destination faster or may be in proving themselves better than the others there were collisions and when they collided most of the time it was the weaker one who took more damage. Somehow he could relate all this to life.

While he was busy in his thoughts still staring out of the window, a soft female voice distracted him from his thoughts. "Vishal?" she said as he looked up enquiring about him name. He nodded in affirmative and she continued, "Hi! Shefali. I am sorry I am late." He checked his watch it was 6:15, she was 15 minutes late, but he didn't seem to notice the delay because he was busy in this thoughts. "Hi! It's alright." He pointed towards the seat across the table in front of him, "take a seat." She sat on the chair. "What will you have?" he asked while passing her the menu. He noticed she was looking very pretty in the white dress she was wearing. Her long black hair falling over her shoulders made a wonderful contrast. She was not wearing lot of make up, which he liked. She looked up for a moment and noticed him staring at her face. It made her nervous so she again started looking at the menu. He also noticed it and realised his foolishness. He smiled like a little child. He could sense the tension and the nervousness, so to lighten the mood he spoke, "I will have a Cappuchino. Have you decided what you will have?" he waited for her to speak for a moment and when she did not say anything, he continued, "I would suggest you have devil's favourite, it has a lot of chocolate and ice cream in it. I hope you will like it. If you want to eat something, they have very nice brownies." "I would go with devil's favourite. I like chocolate and ice cream," she said it with a smile. "Great" he said while standing from his chair, "I will just place the order and be right back."

She was watching him standing at the counter talking to the waiter. They both were smiling while talking as if indulged in some friendly conversation. He was tall, well mannered, polite, had a good dressing sense. He was punctual, was nice to her and above all he was being nice to even the waiter. To top it all her parents also liked him, otherwise why would they insist her on meeting him. Overall she also seemed to like the guy. She was still busy in her thoughts, she noticed him coming back looking at her. She smiled and he smiled back. He joined her on the table and spoke, "I hope it didn't take long. He will call when our order is ready." She had the urge to know more about the guy but she was not sure how to start. She was too nervous to ask him any questions, besides she has never been much of a talker anyway. He somehow sensed what was going on in her head and tried to control the situation. He asked, "so, what do you do to survive through the day?" She understood what he meant and liked the way he asked the question. She answered, "I am a writer. I write short stories for Readers Digest currently." He looked impressed and said, "wow, that's nice. It must be interesting creating your own world and playing around with it. You must feel like God at times." She liked that he found her work interesting and had a reason to believe so. Now it was her turn to ask, "what about you?" He answered promptly as if he was expecting the question, "well, my work is not as interesting as yours but it's somewhat similar. You play with characters and I play with numbers. I am a financial analyst for an investment banking firm." he continued, "It's not as interesting as it sounds but I like the work." Their order was ready and he stood to get it from the counter.

They kept on talking about their work, families, hobbies, likes and dislikes while sipping their respective drinks and after almost an hour they decided to leave the place. He offered to drop her home but she said she had got her scooty and would be able to go. She however did not forget to thank him for the offer. They both bode farewell to each other and went their separate ways with a promise to meet again. They both liked each other. While riding her scooty on her way back home she was thinking about Sameer, who she wanted to marry but the idea of marriage never seemed to cross him mind and whenever poked he would try to change the subject. She had to take a decision now. On one hand was Vishal, who seemed like a perfect man and was chosen by her parents to marry her and one the other hand was Sameer, who she liked despite all his shortcomings but he was not ready to marry her. She had to choose between waiting for Sameer to change his mind about marriage but did not know when that day would come, if ever or go by her parents choice.

PS: try and link it with the Hero story I posted earlier.

Come with me

"Come with me" she asked and I started walking the path she took me to. I did not ask where we were going or how we will reach there because it did not matter. It did not matter because I was walking with her and that made me happy. We walked together to a path where I could see no future, but was sure she did. I never asked her what she saw. I trusted her judgement, so we walked. We walked for days without seeing the destination, but we enjoyed the journey and that kept us going.

After walking for many days together I realized she was no longer there by my side. I stopped, turned and looked back. She was there, standing, not sure about the path anymore. She did not want to go further. She did not tell me why and I did not ask her. I did not have to. I just raised my hand towards her hoping she would come as I did. I waited for her to come, but she did not. I was disappointed, but I knew what I had to do. I continued my journey further.

Now I am alone, still walking the same path. Still not sure of the destination. Yet I am walking because I know it is the path she had chosen for me and I know she would have wanted to see me reach the destination, wherever it leads. I don't know why she gave up halfway, she would have had her reasons. I will not give up. I will complete the journey. Her journey. Our journey. My journey.