Few Things Left Unsaid (8 page)

“You are very smart. I will not talk on this topic. Love you bachha.Miss you. Now shall I keep the phone down? I have lots of work.”

“Ok keep it.Bye. Do miss me.”

I went to my bedroom and relaxed on my bed. I wanted her beside me.

I could not sleep as I was thinking of her. This kind of love was new to me. It was true love. It made my stomach full of butterflies. I loved her a lot.

It was a special night. I wanted to be with her. I was experiencing the feeling of first love.I was not able to sleep. I was not able to concentrate on anything. Whenever I closed my eyes all the moments flashed in front of me. I was proud of myself to propose to her in a special way. I had seen many of my friends proposing. But I had never seen anyone doing this. I can assure that if anything went wrong between us in future we both couldn’t  forget this moment. It was something unusual. It was unique. We did not get time to hang out somewhere, but even the little time spent with her holding her hands and looking at her , staring at her was special. Today I realized what love was, why people used to say falling in love is always wonderful. I was feeling it today. You may achieve everything in your life , money ,status, power  everything, but it could not overcome the happiness of what it was to be with the one you loved.

16
^th
November. Midterms ended. We decided to go out somewhere. It was our first date. We did not plan for it though. We decided to go to a shopping mall.RMALL.We left college as soon as we finished our last paper. We were waiting for a train at Aerol station.Swapnil and Sameer were at the station itself.

“See how friends change when they get a girlfriend.”Swapnil said to Sameer jokingly.

“Oh cummon, Aadi has not changed. I told him to leave immediately after the paper.” Riya replied.  

“Now you take his side. Very good.”

“Stop it yaar, Swapnil. We are going to a mall.

The train came and we left.Riya was not used to train journeys. She stood close to me and held my hand tightly. I loved it. I loved the fragrance of her body. I was showing her the poster in the train that had the names of the stations of central railway. She gave me a confused look. She used to give this look often. It used to make me smile. Her innocence came out in look. She did not care about the world. All she cared for was me. I felt special to have her in my life.We had to catch another train to our destination.She did not like trains. I could see it in her eyes.

“Bachha 5 minutes and we will reach” she came close to me.

“This is frustrating. We could have come by rickshaw.” She was really frustrated by so much crowd.

“Leave it now, we are about to reach.”

We reached Mulund. It was a crowded station. We caught a rickshaw to reach R MALL. We were carrying a folder in our hand which had all the assignments and experiments. I kept it behind the seat in the rickshaw.

As the rickshaw passed, I came closer to her. I put my hand on her shoulder. She blushed.

“Love you.”

“Love you too.” I wanted to hear it from her always. It made me realise this was not a dream.

I got closer to her. There was hardly any distance between our lips. We were both staring at each other. There was silence. A sense of fear. A sense of love. Her eyes spoke a lot. They told me how much she loved me. She whispered the same in my ears and closed her eyes. I just could not imagine. I saw her when she entered the classroom. I talked to her. I flirted with her. I cared for her. I proposed to her. Our relationship was moving so fast that now 2 days after I proposed to her I was in a rickshaw with her so close that hardly any air passed between us. I was about to kiss her. Kiss her in public. Who cares? We both loved each other so much we never cared what was around us. We were deeply in love.

Her eyes were closed. I went closer to her. I remembered Nikita…

Will she be a better kisser than Nikita? Nikita was hot. Experienced may be. What if even Riya is experienced? I did not care. I loved her. However, she never told me about her earlier relationships.

My hand was resting gently on her cheek, while my fingertip slowly moved down her neck. She was breathing heavily but I was nervous. As I was listening to the sound of her breath, her hand began slowly to move up along my back. I felt the movement of her cheek. I began to inch towards her. My heart began to beat faster, and the closer I got, the more nervous I became. My hand moved around to the back of her neck and into her hair. As I reached her, I could hear my heartbeat echoing throughout my head. I backed out and my cheek came to rest on hers. I was disappointed with myself, but she turned her head towards me, gently encasing my bottom lip between hers. My fear instantly dissipated and I kissed back, leading to the most romantic embrace with both of us smiling between each perfect kiss. Our lips met. Our first kiss that lasted until we reached the mall. It was out of the world. I was a fool to compare it with anyone. It was almost nerve wracking.

“Please don’t leave me ever.” Riya feared that I might leave her.

“No my jaan I wont leave you. I cannot live without you now. I cannot get any one better than you. Infact I do not want anyone better than you. Love you.”

We got down from the rickshaw. The driver gave us a strange look. Maybe he was watching whatever was happening. However, such experiences are nice. I enjoyed it.
MY FIRST KISS TO MY LOVE.

We entered the mall. Food court. I ordered my favourite paav bhaaji.We decided to share it. It’s an out of the world feeling when your girlfriend feeds you with her own hand.Riya was looking more beautiful when she was feeding me. My love for her was increasing day by day. It was like wine. The older it gets the better it is. Romance was in the air. Each moment with her was like whisky. The more I spent time with her, the more I went out of my senses.

“Aadi... lets watch a movie.”

“Now, see the time. Its 3:30pm.wont we be late to go home?”

“I will manage. You also manage it. Now cummon. Please.”

“Don’t say please, let’s go. Let’s check the movies and movie timings.”

We went to R adlabs.There was only one show in next hour. It was 3:45pm.

“Are you sure, you want to watch this movie?”

“Yes, let’s buy the tickets.”

3:45pm   Tajmahal   screen 2.

I wondered what these girls think. Maybe they just want to spend some quality time with us. Some private time. But Tajmahal was too much. We went into the theatre.

“Stand up for national anthem”

I hate it. I really did. Not because I hated the national anthem but because few people never respected it. They just sit on their chairs eating popcorn. Moreover, the national anthem should never be played in a closed room. The movie started. It showed some king Khurram, Mumtaaz and Shahjaan. I ignored them all. I was just glancing at the innocence in Riya’s eyes. They were charming.

“How much do you love me” she asked

“A lot (ati)” I said

“I love you more than that (ati peksha ati)”

It was so sweet. I kissed her hand. She gave me a smile. We just looked at each other. This was the first time I touched her. I could clearly tell there was definitely a connection. I felt many butterflies in my stomach but when I touched her, they all flew away and we actually had to stop because both of us were smiling so much. I just couldn't stop smiling. Throughout the movie we were engrossed in cosy moments. I never thought my first date with her will take us into a deep passionate relationship. I could sense the fear and excitement in her. She was bold. She was sweet too. Very rarely does a girl have both qualitites. I was lucky to have them in Riya. We did not exchange a single word but our eyes said it all. As the lights were on, we realised the movie was over. I just knew the few characters of the movie. Apart from that I knew nothing.

“What will you tell your friends? We watched Taj Mahal. And if you say so dear, what story are you going to tell.” I teased her.

“Shut up.” she had a blush on her face.

“Tell them that it was a silent movie with all passion in it. The actress was rather bold and the actor feared her boldness. The actress had sharp teeth too.” I again continued teasing her.

“ Stop it aadi. You are very naughty. Lets leave. Its late.”

“ I am like this from childhood. But I really love you a lot now. Always be with me.”

We smiled and as I left the mall, I realized I had left the folder in the rickshaw. Those moments were so intimate that I totally forgot that I had kept the folder behind the seat.

“Jaan, I left the folder in the rickshaw” somehow, I managed to tell Riya.

“What? Are you serious? You are so dumb yaar. Now what?”

“I don’t know. We have lost it. I can not think what we will do now” I was worried.

“You screwed it man; you should have realized it earlier at least.” She adjusted her bag and looked furiously at me.

“Now what?”

“We have to write it again and submissions are 6 days away. When will we complete so many write ups? How could you forget it?” she was almost in tears.

“Leave it jaan, I will write everything. I will write for you also. Dont worry. You are such a passionate kisser that I forgot everything. I could only feel your lips.”

“Be serious Aadi. Some times at least.”

“Ok fine, seriously I am telling you I will handle it. Trust me.”

Even I was worried. How will I be able to write so much? If I had shown that, even I was nervous she would have started crying. I did not want to end the day crying. I just consoled her. But what next? Each subject has almost 7 to 8 write-ups and 5 subjects. It means almost 35. Moreover I said I would write Riya’s write up also.That made it 70.Impossible.I was screwed. Why on the earth did I have to keep it behind the seat?

I went with her to drop her home by bus. She was worried and I could see it. I tried to make her laugh and smile by re-collecting all our memories from the day we met. She smiled finally. Now my day was made.

We got down from the bus. Walking together during the night with your girlfriend is romantic. We walked till the rickshaw stand. She left. I reached home. Submissions were going to be the worst, I said to myself.
Good start to engineering life.

All that made me happy was that I had met Riya. Nothing else was good. It was terrible.70 write-ups in 5 days.

                     
TOO FAST  TOO CLOSE

                                          L
ectures were over. We had leave. Study leave. We call it PL.Submissions remained. Classes had to finish the prescribed chapters. It was already mid November. Exams were declared on Dec 7. I  was writing all the assignments for Riya and me. Riya was also helping me. We had classes almost every evening. It was difficult for us to meet now. Our classes were different. Therefore, we decided to bunk classes and meet in the evening. The syllabus had been almost covered.  Not many important topics remained. We decided to meet in central garden near our class. Not everyday but alternate day atleast.

Central garden was one of the famous grounds in central Mumbai. During the daytime all kids played cricket and football. Mostly cricket. And it became lovers point in the evening after sunset. Couples used to hang around, used to get close to each other. People who used to walk on the roadside could not see anything on the ground clearly due to darkness. That made couples go beyond their limits.

We also decided to meet there after 6:30pm. She came by rickshaw from Aerol,Navi Mumbai. I must say she was looking most beautiful since I had known her. So hot that any one could lose control. She was wearing a black top that revealed her cleavage. And, a white long skirt. I appreciated her beauty. She gave me a naughty smile. We went to the ground. We sat there and talked. I asked her about her family and where she had studied earlier.

“Ameya, my brother is in 7
^th
standard. He is in Xavier’s School in Aerol itself. We shifted here a few years back due to my father’s business. I do not have many friends here just 3 to 4 friends.1 is from our college. The rest are from my neighbourhood. Actually I really hate staying in Aerol.But I do not have any option. I got admission in this college through management quota. It’s a boring life here in Aerol. Western Mumbai was much better. We used to have a lot of fun there. All my friends are there. We used to go shopping, for movies and had an awesome life there. But due to dads business in Navi Mumbai we are here.”

“Ok.I must thank your dad that he took the decision to settle here in Aerol.If he had not taken that decision we would not have been sitting together here.”

She smiled and I kissed her forehead.

She asked me about myself.