Ek Choti Si Love Story

It was a breezy morning. The winter chill had just started to settle in and was already showing signs of another cold couple of months. There was dampness in the fallen leaves signalling the return of the ever-mythical dew. The sun rays were cutting through the overcast clouds and emerging from the weariness of the night.

And that’s when I saw her…

The morning cup of tea from the local hawker on the sidewalk had never tasted better. I was just beginning to feel the colour returning to my pallid exterior. I was wearing my noise cancelling earphones and was slowly rocking to the tune of Lifehouse’s ‘You and me’. I felt a shove from behind. I turned just in time to see a pedestrian riff raffing through the early morning meagre crowd. I was about to shout an abuse when my eyes caught a glimpse.

There she was, about 50 yards away, the most amazing creation of God. Frankly I have never been a big believer in the term ‘love at first sight’ but at that moment my whole logic came crashing down. She was wearing a light blue coloured salwar kameez and had a serious looking file in her hand. As soon as I saw that I decided that she was the typical Indian girl who was modern yet uncompromising in her belief in the traditions. She was wearing beige coloured Kolhapuri sandals which were not only accentuating her freshly nail polished pink toes but also giving her an air of meticulous carelessness. The sun reflected something metallic on her wrist. It was a Titan Raga wristwatch. A fine taste in watches is one of the things I admire about in a woman and she certainly fit the bill. By now I was straining my eyes to search for the two most disheartening signs in a woman – the ring on the left ring finger and the small tinge of red on the forehead. I could find neither of those. An amount of euphoria was slowly making its way inside of me.

Suddenly she looked at me. Our eyes met. It was like a bolt of lightning had gone through me. I held the gaze. In one quick but graceful motion she put on her glasses. She started approaching me. I just froze. Was it possible that a goddess from heaven, sent on this earth to bring humility to all the other women, was walking towards me? I dismissed the thought as wishful thinking. The distance was rapidly diminishing and yet I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. It was almost like I was in the song that I was listening to. As she came closer I could see that there was just a faint presence of make-up which actually came as a welcome change from the sights I had been privy to lately. Not a hair on her black medium long mane was out of place. Inexplicably I visualized her combing the hairs of two little kids in the future.

She was now dangerously close to me. My heart beat faster with each passing moment until I saw her pouty lips coming together to form a smile. That’s when my heart skipped the clichéd beat. Could she be smiling at me? Could this girl be flashing her near perfect dimples at a simple earthling like me? These were the questions my mind was asking when she stopped in front of me. I could feel my limbs going numb and my tongue getting swollen inside my mouth. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. She did it again but still I couldn’t hear her. My mind was just too busy wondering to actually make sense of what was happening in front of me.

Then I saw her make a gesture to remove earphones from my ears. Although it was a mildly awkward moment, it felt like the most embarrassing moment ever. While I was busy falling unconditionally and irrevocably in love with her, I had completely forgotten about the blaring song in my ears. I immediately removed the earphones and apologized to her. She smiled and hesitated a moment. In those silent milliseconds, I was hyperventilating and I had forgotten to breathe.

She slowly said “Do you know where I can find Tagore Bhavan?”

What a bitch!!