JOURNEY

Journey

I was recently appointed on a new project that demanded me to travel 40 Kms from my house every day. Since the distance wasn’t that huge, I decided to do up down. It was the month of May and it seemed as if the city was situated in the heart of the sun. It was so damn hot that one could feel the sun draining away all the fluids from the body. As if to compliment the heat, it was very very humid. Any clothes you wear would stick to your body and amplify the effect of the heat.

Though I loved my job, yet I hated the heat. My workplace was completely air conditioned, so was my flat (that’s another reason to come home daily. I could sleep peacefully) the only time I could feel the wrath of the sun was during the journey from home to office and vice versa. The most convenient method of transport for me was the bus and it was always crowded. The time of the day doesn’t matter, buses would always be packed. It often made me wonder where all these people come from. There would be a bus every 5minues and all of them equally packed.

Every day the journey would be the same. I come out of my house happy and clean and by the time I reach my workplace, I am drenched in my sweat as well as the passenger sitting beside me. But one day, the one hour journey to my office became worth it.

By the way, I am Arun and this is the point where an unexpected twist happened in my monotonous life. It was Monday. That day I was unfortunate firstly because I didn’t get a seat and secondly because I was already late, so I was standing and praying when the journey will be over. Just two stoppages away from mine, a girl boarded the bus. The moment I looked at her, she looked at me and I could hear the clicking of some puzzle of nature.

She was beautiful, too beautiful. Her eyes like the ocean, her hair like the darkest clouds, and her smile like blossoming flower and I became a poet. It was after a moment I realized that I had been staring her the whole time and staring at a girl was still in the bad manners list. She looked as though she was not affected by the sun like the models in sunscreen ads. She stood beside me…

After that day, every day I took the same bus, which meant every day I reached my office exactly 15mins late, but I didn’t mind that because every day I got to see her. Some days she would be in a good mood and would wear vibrant colored clothes, some days her mood would be off. Those days she preferred black and wouldn’t smile. She would regularly listen to music. On my lucky days she would sometimes smile at me. But that was that. I had noticed a whole lot of things about her. She had become my one good thing about the journey. On those days when I would miss the bus, I thought about her at the office.

One day I saw her aboard the bus with a guy, she kept talking to him the whole time and I was burning up. I noticed them coming together after that day, till the day she came alone. That day (Tuesday) she sat beside me, lucky for me, she had didn’t had change for the bus fare and I paid for her. We talked for the first time, for a whole hour!

“Thank you. I am Priya” she said with a smile.

“Hi. Arun here”

Then I came to know that she on training for her new job and that it was going to be over this week. Also I came to know that the guy wasn’t her boyfriend but a friend (phew!). On hearing the first news I was sad, but extremely happy for the 2^nd one.

  That day I kept thinking that after this week I would probably never see her again. It hurt. So I thought I would take a bold step and ask her number. The next day she didn’t come, the day after that I had to reach office early. So we arrived at her last day. Though I had to reach office early, I took my chances.

She sat beside me. “Hi Arun.”

“Hi.”

We talked for some time. I tried to ask her number a hundred times, but failed. Just a stoppage before mine, I said, “Priya I know this is highly inappropriate to tell you that too in a bus, but since it’s probably the last time we are meeting, but I would really like to see you again, this time not on a bus but some place nice. Would you please consider that and grant me one meeting? I really like you”

I said the whole thing in a go and waited for her, perhaps to slap me. But she didn’t say anything, didn’t even look at me. It was a long shot, I knew. Defeated I got down from the bus at my stoppage. I came near the window where she was seated for one last look. She didn’t look at me but started doing something. The bus was about to leave when she looked up and called me,

“Hey Arun… I never returned the money you paid for me that day” she said with a frown and shoved a Rs. 50 note in my hand through the window. I had no option but to take it, a memento from her. I chuckled. The bus left so did I.

When I took it out form my pocket, at office to keep it in my wallet, I saw something else except the smiling Gandhiji.

“You never told me where we would meet… text me the place”

Below that was a ten digit number followed by a smiley.