The Start Of The Voyage!!!
The phone kept ringing inside while it was raining heavily outside, and after sometime the phone gave up.
Rains. Balcony Floor. The Dark Sky.
I so love doing this - While it is raining outside, sitting on the cold floor in the balcony. Losing myself into the beautiful nature with hands resting on the cold metallic railings and face rejoicing the pure contact with the cool-moist breeze flapping my hair. Looking from outside, I might appear lazy and inactive, but from inside I am too much engrossed talking to myself and lost in my mind. After a good amount of time that I had spent in conversation with myself, my self imposed exile was broken because of a sudden loud noise of transformers breaking down, I guess. I was forced back into the same worldly life - Randomness, noise and frenzy everywhere. It made me a bit unhappy coming out of that tranquility, but I stood up and went to the kitchen to have water, wondering how much time had I spent there lost in my thoughts.
After quenching my thirst, while coming out of the kitchen, I realised that someone is knocking the door. I went ahead to open it pondering who would be coming when it is pouring so heavily outside. I opened and, to my surprise, I found Akarsh panting heavily and bustling frantically inside shouting, "Dude, the results are out. I have been calling you but you are not picking up the phone. I am too scared this time. I am going to flunk for sure." I calmed him down saying, "Let's go to college and check the results." He threw himself into the bed.
Who Is Akarsh?
He is my best buddy. Akarsh and I became friends on the very first day of college. I was sitting alone in the open-air-theatre when this guy appeared from nowhere and asked if I was from the first semester. He told me that he was planning to live outside and asked me if I could join him. We discussed and later moved to this new house where we live now. He couldn't study well during the last semester i.e fifth semester because he somehow got embroiled in this I.P.L betting thing. He had lost heavy amount of money. And, in trying to compensate the loss, he started getting trapped more and more into the cobweb. By the time he told me everything, it was already too late. He was under a huge debt. But somehow, with the help of other friends we took him out of that shit. We have been great friends, and I can trust him anytime.
Going To The College. The First Encounter.
I donned my T-shirt and jeans, pulled Akarsh out of the bed and proceeded to the college campus. We had only one umbrella and ,somehow, we managed to travel the distance. At the college gate, disappointment marred us. The guards asked us for our ID cards. Damn, this thing really kills at times. None of us had had the cards. The guards knew us very well but they would not budge. We started having an argument when suddenly a group of 4 girls from our batch (but not from our department) came in walking. We lowered our voices and paused the argument just to present ourselves as nice guys. They all had their umbrellas and to our surprise, they all had their ID cards too. I realised that girls are really better prepared and better organised at whatever they do. They were allowed. We were not. The Rain had stopped by now.
My First Sight Of Hers. Myself - Embarrassed And Dumbfounded.
As soon as the girls moved, we started pleading the guards. This time our voices were low because of embarrassment. The guards were not budging. Still, we were trying our luck. Suddenly, in the middle of this, someone nudged me on the shoulder. As I turned back, I saw a girl standing there. She asked me if she could help us. I was speechless. I stood there frozen seeing the placid beauty in front of me. Before I could have uttered anything, she moved towards the guards and had a conversation with them, finally winning the case. We were allowed to move in. Akarsh, I don't know why but he refused to come in and said he would see the results later. I tried persuading him to come with us but to no avail, and he ran away at a lightening speed. I reasoned that the bad results that he was expecting kept him from coming with us. We moved in - She and I.
Our Very First Walk Together - After The Heavy Rain.
We walked down the alley leading to the examination department. The distance was around 200 yards and this very walk is something I cherish to this date.
The air was cool with a tinge of petrichor (smell of the earth after the rains), sky was a mixture of black and grey clouds. Trees looked greener, the walkway looked cleaner and the chilly light breeze that was blowing made her hair continuously go over her face. I could guess that as her hands kept going over her face to adjust the hair elegantly behind her ears.
I, at this very moment, introduced myself hesitatingly, "Hi, I am Arjun. From E.C.E. Thanks for all the help."
She replied, "Hi, This is Myra from I.S. I have seen you during fests in college. You seem to be in the organising team. Right? "
"Yes, I enjoy organising and managing events." While my voice was a bit trembling, hers was calm and composed.
"So, don't you think, you should have brought your IDs? We saw you both arguing with the guards when we were coming."
"Okay, so you were in that group in which everyone had their IDs and umbrellas like a marriage band-party. For us, it works differently - We share. It is how it works for boys."
"So, that's why even when coming to college, you share the same fate - Not being allowed....Hmmm". And, she said this smilingly. Yes, with a smile on her face and a spark in her eyes that had such a synergism that made her look even more enthralling and captivating. Someone has rightly said that - Smiling girls are the prettiest - and she was no less anyways.
I found this an apt time to look at her. I looked into her face. She looked beautiful. Beautiful in her green top and blue denim. Strands of hair still strewn over her face which I think she least cared of by now. Her glasses were accentuating her doe eyes. And, her gentle soft smile on the lips made every other thing look amazing and beautiful. There are times in your life when you wish you had the button to stop the time and dilate the ongoing, so that it never comes to an end.
I was still looking at her face, when she aroused me to my conscience saying, "Hey, we have reached the examination department. Do you intend to look at the results or go somewhere else? I hope you have come to see the results. Aren't you?"
I said, "Yes. I have come to see the results."
Who Wins: Heart Or Brain?
But things hovering in my mind were totally different. Exam-results were light years apart from my mind and thought. Her sheer presence had taken away the alacrity to know my results this time. I was sure that I was going to pass, which gave me the chance and leverage to think things beyond percentages and points. Since the time she had smiled, I couldn't care less of the results. My brain was in a full-throttle mode. It was judging and answering many questions at the same time - How rational would it be to tell her that she was looking stunningly beautiful, should I talk more or less, should I smile or not, is this the correct time to ask for her number among many others. Trust me the brain starts processing millions of questions per second so much so that, at times, it gets exhausted resulting in erratic and broken behaviour. These are bizarre and destructive times. It presents real example of war within our body. The war that happens between the brain and the heart. The dilemma when you are stuck between what the heart wants and what the brain commands. Yes, it happens with guys too.
And suddenly the words that poured out (I must say on its own) from my mouth were, "Do you know that you are very pretty....". And then the unending silence gripped my body and soul. I swear it was something totally involuntary. But, yes, it came out like a lava through a volcano which can't get hold of it anymore.
I was astonished, astonished at myself, but thanks God that I did say.
After few seconds of discombobulation and unending war within my body, she replied, "Thanks!!!", and, then came that sweet blushing smile on her lovely face. To me, it was like an oasis to a lost wanderer in a desert. I was much, pretty much relieved.
And we both moved into the department to know the results.
Result That Didn't Matter Much Now.
I had got 7.27 point and she was way above mine notching 8.85. I congratulated her for the good results but she seemed low. Her other 3 friends who were there itself came to us where we were standing. They introduced themselves to me and asked Myra about her result. It came to me as a surprise that she was not happy as she was expecting something around 9.
I said, "8.85, how can you still be unhappy? See I've got 7.27, still I am so happy that I can't tell you." Truly, my happiness had no connection with my results. It has its origin in something else, you know.
It was getting difficult seeing her poignant face. I wanted to see the same Myra which I had witnessed during the walk, smiling and all so vivid. Though I truly wanted only Myra to be by my side, still I asked everyone to come to the newly opened Nescafe Coffee outlet in our campus.
Let me make it very clear that I don't like coffee much, but I was ready to have it this time. And, who knew that it was worth having.
Many a time you do things in life that you don't like to do, but you do only and only because it brings smile on someone else's face. And that smile is what you really care for. That smile that you can, anytime, die for. When your happiness is rooted in someone else's.
You don't love someone for what he/she has and how he/she looks, but you love someone only because how he makes you feel in his presence. Every time things might not be said. You have to, at times, sense and understand when someone is unhappy through his/her small acts and gestures. Moreover, what matters is how hard and how well you try to bring that pretty smile back to that beautiful face - where it (smile) belongs to and where it has got its real worth.
This is how we - Myra and I - met for the first time. Many things still under the carpet, why did Myra come back to help us enter the campus if we were unknown to her, how did the things unfurled further, the twists and the turns, the trivial quarrels and the sweet appeasements, and how did we become the best of friends and still continue to be - All coming in the next parts. Until then keep guessing and keep smiling, for someone else might be needing it.
They rightly say:
Until you fight, until you fail and until you fall, you don't get things worth dying for!!!
