EK LADKI KO DEKHA
TO AISA LAGA
It was her eyes that first attracted him towards her.
Dark, wide expressive eyes with eyebrows uniformly sized and beautifully
shaped. In spite of the familiar overcrowding in the bus, that was characteristic
of a 5B, he was able to get a fairly good look at her. His immediate instinct
told him that she was something ‘special’, a cut above the rest. He started
looking closely at her. She was not particularly fair but her complexion was
wheatish white. It was ages since he had seen such a nice well-cut face just in
proportions - not even in Saarang. Her lips were what it exactly should
be-neither too wet and sloppy nor dry as a desert with cracks all over-a nice
pair of kissable lips. Just as this thought was running in his mind, ‘they’
parted – perhaps, a centimetre or two. But lo behold! He got to witness a
smile, so sublime, so sweet, so serene, lending a glossy glow all over her
face. His excitement couldn’t be contained and he uttered a mute ‘Ah!’ which
made his immediate neighbours to look at him as if he was a polar bear kept in
Guindy National Park.
Soon, the reason for her smile became clear. It was a
girl almost of her age boarding the bus and waving her hand moving towards her.
He took a quick glance at the other girl and concluded that she was kind of ok
types but far behind ‘his girl’ by any standards. Immediately on entering, the
other girl started a conversation and seemed to be very bubbly. He strained his
ears to at least make out the language. But all he could hear in the din were
two words- Kausalya and Sandhya. Among the two, he liked Kausalya and he
assigned it to ‘his girl’ and Sandhya to the ‘other girl’. By this time, he had
made up his mind to follow her, no matter where she was going and if possible,
exchange a few words.
But, by some divine grace Kausalya got down exactly at
the CLRI stop. “So, she must be somewhere near”, he thought. He started merely
following her. She was wearing a churidhar, sky blue in colour interspersed
with some dark colours. It fit her slender figure with ease. It was not flashy;
nor was it very sombre. It was, what he thought, unobtrusively elegant. “Yeah!
The right choice baby!” - was what he wanted to tell her. Her slim body was
walking in front of him without much effort. No unwanted body movements, but
one, that befits a beautiful girl like her. Before he could finish a complete
‘analysis’ of her, he sensed that he was in some familiar surroundings. He
stopped for a moment only to realise that she was leading him to his own place,
the iit. This brought joy as well as
fear in him. Joy, since she was after all near and fear because she could be
some Prof.’s daughter. But one thing was sure, she couldn’t possibly a
Saruyite. Unfortunately, a bus was waiting just in time for her and she boarded
it. He immediately dashed to the stand and took his vandi and readied himself
to follow her and the bus. He found it quite difficult to slow down when the
bus stopped and at the same time make it seem natural. The iit bus as usual was
moving like a mammoth elephant taken out on a ceremony. But slowly, it went
past all the residential quarters and reached GC.
At this point, he thought there could be only two
possibilities. One, she was a visitor of a so and so; two, she was a Tarams
girl. The second possibility, he never wanted to be. But then, she did not seem
to get down at any of the hostels. Finally, the bus reached its terminus and he
saw her fascinating face once more, but this time, there was a ray of doubt and
confusion in it. Before, he could realise, her eyes met his and she started
moving towards him. His heart started palpitating and his hands could no more
remain still. “Can you please show the way to Alakananda, please?”, she said.
“Yes madam, that is precisely where I’m going. If you please, I could drop you
there”. This was what he wanted to say, but, ended up just showing his hand
towards Alak. She quietly left with a sweet thank you. His curiosity in her,
made him race past her towards Alak. Within a minute she too arrived.
The thought of her being a girlfriend of someone in
his own hostel made him boil with anger. But once again, she came near his now
familiar face and asked the way to room number ‘***’. Bedazzled as he was, went
straight to the PA system and announced “Room number ***, visitor waiting”,
three times, faithfully. The security who then arrived at the scene allowed her
to go inside showing her the way to the room. It was only when she was leaving
the gate, that he realised ‘***’ was a number which seemed to be quite familiar
to him. He quickly ran thro his memory and to his utter dismay recollected that
it was indeed his own number. He was totally perplexed and didn’t know what to
do next. He searched for his room keys but they weren’t there. He had just
latched it while leaving. “Oh! What if she opens the room? There is my Nancy Friday in her Secret
Gardens lying just on my pillow”. Now, he was truly in tension. He gathered
himself and ran as fast as he could towards his room. But, by the time he
reached there, the door was opened. He cursed himself hazaar for falling to
cheap temptations and thus losing a potential girlfriend who just seemed to
have descended from heaven. Anyway, he went into the room and for the first
time made himself face her and said that he was sorry for the room being not
very clean. “It is ok sir”, was the short reply – but it was not a very sweet
voice, in fact, it was a jarring baritone. Not seeming to take notice of this,
he ventured further,”Kausalya……Sandhya”, not really sure of her name. Precisely
at this moment there was a smack on his butt and the same baritone returned
“Nee Yabha! After having bunked two slots and still in bed, what on earth makes
you sing Subrabadham at 10’O clock?
Machha you must be a …..”
- #120,
Kitchu