Truly Madly Deeply (4 page)

“O charming lady-love, why do you keep your eyes

Brilliant like dew on lotus flowers

So steadfast on the palace gate?

Bilhana cannot turn away from you, not ever!

He fell into the net of your impassioned glances,

You challenge the enticement of the goddesses.”

They climbed on the top berth of the double-decker bus which would drop them right opposite to the place of the event. He was just thinking of inviting her to sit by his side when Asif plonked down beside him, offering him peanuts from a paper cone. Trying to hide his displeasure, he declined his offer and looked out of the window as Jess and Seema made themselves comfortable on the first seat, right in front of the open window. As the bus caught speed, Jess' unmanageable curls started behaving wildly though her headband was in its place. Rahul who was continuously stealing glances at her through the corner of his eye, saw Seema whispering something in Jess' ears and almost immediately, Jess turned back to stare at him.

“Hey Rahul, want to exchange seats?” she offered unabashedly.

He thought he saw her nudge her best friend.

“Ah, I mean, can you please come here? The wind is spoiling my hair and I don't want to turn up at the gathering like Medusa,” Jess said a little bit more convincingly.

Rahul was only too glad to accept and happily sat down next to her. After a long time of trying to control his flapping heart, he managed to look at her, almost expecting her to reprimand him. Her light brown curls were windblown, casting shadows of gold as they kissed the sun rays. She suddenly turned to look at him and found him doing the same. The corners of her lips twitched upwards and a nervous response escaped his too. The smile rendered him incapable of speech, making firm knots grow in his stomach that climbed towards his throat.

As they finally reached the auditorium and took their seats, she sat four seats away to his right and felt her eyes on his presence. When he suddenly turned to the source of the disturbance, she awkwardly looked away, colouring the dusty rose of her cheeks. When the lights had dimmed a little and one of the scientists, a septuagenarian from ISRO started his address, Rahul had difficulty in keeping his head straight. As they approached the Q&A session, they were told to write down their questions on a chit of paper and hand them to the volunteers. They were assured that three of the best questions would be answered by the scientists after they were selected from the gathered pile by the volunteers.

Half an hour later, Seema was the one with the loudest applause as the volunteer read out Rahul's question to the scientists, who were in a sort of dilemma to answer his query about the ignition of a meteoroid in space. When he looked at her, she lessened the intensity of her enthusiasm and he thought she winked at him and looked away before he could even think of what happened. Her applause was even louder when he was called on stage to receive the award for the best question.

As the event ended, the group decided to take a walk near the sea face. He enjoyed walking half the shore with her as others led the way. Both of them, undeclared to each other, willingly lagged behind in order to enjoy each other's company – she, shying and he, blushing. Often catching each other's eyes while walking lazily on the promenade, they looked away. It was as if their minds were attuned to each other to stare into the depth of each other's eyes at the same time.

They hung out in the greenery of the park opposite Haji-Ali and as the others took their turns on swings and snacks, he plucked out a rose from the garden and handed it to her secretly away from the prying eyes of her friends. Later on, he saw her plucking the petals of the deceased rose, one by one. As he went near, he thought, he heard a murmur of ‘He loves me, He loves me not.' He asked her who the ‘he' in the story was and she shied away somehow making an effort to say a word which could not escape her lips.

They walked on the crowded Haji Ali promenade after exiting the park. He offered her bubble gum that he had bought from the paan-walah near the road that passed by the Haji Ali entrance.

“Let's go and visit the shrine and seek Baba's blessings,” Asif suggested, while they were lost in their just initiated innocent dialogue.

“It's so crowded,” Jess pointed, looking at the hordes of people passing by.

“Ah, I always wanted to see it from the inside. Nice idea! C'mon Jess,” Sapna literally pulled her in the direction of the shrine.

“All right, all right,” Jess agreed grumpily.

“Hey, Rahul, Seema, c'mon we're going inside the shrine,” Asif said, just when Rahul was telling her about his interests.

“Oh... ok, come. Let's go,” Rahul invited her.

They walked along the length of the path in the middle of the sea and just as they were about to enter the inside gate, Seema stepped back.

“Hey, what happened?” Asif turned.

“No, you people carry on. I'll wait for you outside,” Seema said.

“Hey Seemz, don't be a spoilsport. Come with us,” Sapna advised.

“Carry on, I'll be waiting right here,” Seema insisted and Sapna sighed throwing an ‘I know it is worthless to argue with you' kind of look her way.

“Now, what's wrong with you? Why have you stopped?” Asif said, noticing Rahul's leisurely pace.

“Umm... you people go ahead. I've a slight stomach ache,”
Rahul said, looking suddenly interested in a scribbling on the exterior wall.

Asif eyed him weirdly before hurrying up the white marble stairs and stepping inside the holy place. He quickly followed Seema as soon as the others disappeared out of sight. She did not turn back to acknowledge his presence. Somehow, he felt, she knew that he was right behind her.

He learnt later that she did not go in as she was wearing the school's trademark skirt, which was the girls' uniform that ended just above the knees, and doing so would have meant disrespecting the sanctity of the place. The other girls were also dressed in the same attire but they carried on with their plans, Seema stayed back and her respect in his eyes grew more after that. He made a mental note of taking her to the Haji Ali shrine in the future, making her wear a nice shalwar suit. He tried to tell her that but could not bring himself to say so.

She sat near the rocks to the right of the main entrance of the dargah, surrounded by hawkers and he took the place beside her on the damp ground, noticing a particular boulder opposite, on which couples had engraved their names. Rahul fought an urge to carve their names on that stone. He watched the breeze gently fluff her silky hair and the waves throwing little droplets on her face as they crashed into the rocks. In his heart, he made a prayer near the divine place; he closed his eyes to let the prayer come from his heart. When he opened them, she was looking at him, a smile on her lips. He wanted to say that she had a beautiful smile but his heartbeats would not let him phrase the words.

“Seema,” he whispered her name in his heart and she looked at him almost at the same time and quickly looked the other way, turning a shade of red.

Twice they caught each other's eye looking at each other's faces, the third time they held their gaze. Words unspoken, emotions unfurled. Silence has its own language and in that silence he found words within himself; words for her, words for him and words for them. The words percolated in his heart and stayed there. He thought he could stare at her the entire day, his entire life even, such was her grace, such was her beauty. The others crept upon them from behind, silently laughing at their intoxicated mannerisms and Seema almost screamed as Jess poked her in the ribs. She chased her playfully, ignoring the hawkers and passers-by and Rahul laughed seeing the child in her.

They went to the old Crossroads mall but seeing that they were dressed in a school uniform, the security guards did not allow them inside and so they settled for a quick lunch at the McDonalds attached to the frontier of the mall. He went to place the order and as a true gentleman that he was, carried the trays to their respective tables.

She sat at his table with Jess and Asif as Sapna occupied the neighbouring table. It was the first time she had been to the fast food chain and he started explaining the self-service process to her. She nodded, all the while appreciating his knowledge
and courteousness.

“Fast-food is actually not good for health but still most of the Americans live on burgers, pizzas and fries. A day without McDonalds or Starbucks is like catastrophe. Imagine the same situation strikes us Indians but with Vada pavs, Dhoklas and Samosas!” he said, biting a particularly long stick of fries as she laughed at his comments.

“They are misers when it comes to money. By the time they are dead at fifty, their lifetime debt is more than some of our state's income,” he continued.

“Why so?” Seema asked, grabbing the burger with both her hands.

“Plastic money, dear! They even have trouble carrying small change and use credit cards wherever they go,” Rahul answered.

“We're slowly becoming like them. It is for all to see. I hate this fast-food stuff for making us like them. Americans are so insensitive sometimes; pretty careless about relations and people. They don't have any established beliefs, so many of them are taking up Hinduism and Buddhism after visiting India; but one thing, they are control freaks. They interfere through mediation in all the world matters and think they are doing nations like India a huge favour. They sure know how to control everything, including the world,” Rahul said.

“You seem to know a lot about America. Are you going to settle there?” she asked him with a twinkle in her eye.

“Ha, not in the worst of my dreams, my uncle puts up there though,'' he shook his head vigorously and gagged as the long stick went down his throat. Seema laughed harder. He pretentiously glowered at her and she coughed to cover up, extending her water flask his way.

“That's rude,” he rebuked softly.

Then Asif began talking about some school matters and the others took off from there discussing the program and the upcoming school events. They remained silent till Rahul attempted another conversation. He asked her about her favourite movies, actors and subjects. He wanted to know her idols, the teachers she doted and hated and of course, if she had a boyfriend. At the last question, she looked at him and shyly said “No, I don't!” He wanted to say something more but her face made him forget what he had framed in mind.

On the way back, they waited for the bus for half an hour.

“Who all are at your place?” Rahul asked while the others were laughing on silly jokes.

“My parents and their three children including me...” she began.

“Oh, five people? Not bad...”

“...my uncle, his wife, their two children and my grandparents.”

“Oh, not bad... not bad at all...” he said, trying to hide the surprised look on his face.

The bus came and that too at the wrong moment just when she was opening up to him as he was recounting a particular adventure he was involved in.

“Seema,” Rahul whispered her name from three seats behind. The bus was not much crowded and the seat next to him was empty. He wanted to call her next to him and not having a helping friend next to him made it all the more difficult.

“Seema,” he tried again, his voice fumbling.

Nothing.

“Seema,” he said a little louder. Jess who was seated next to
her turned.

“What?” Jess asked in an irritated manner.

Rahul shook his head nervously and she resumed her earlier conversation with Sapna, who was a seat ahead of her with Asif.

He rolled a piece of paper lying down and threw it ahead but got his aim miscalculated. It disappeared in a sleeping lady's bosom, which stopped heaving almost immediately. She woke up so suddenly screaming out her lungs that Rahul decided to look out of the window for the next ten minutes, all the while cursing his luck.

“Seema!” he shouted at the top of his voice, not able to handle his brooding disquietude. For a second, he thought the bus had braked abruptly because of him as all eyes turned to look at him and those seated behind, bore their vision into his back. He saw the signal and relaxed.

“Huh?” Seema turned.

He let out a nervous smile and patted the empty seat next to
him. He could see the others stifle an almost uncontrollable urge to laugh.

“Yup, so where were we?” he asked as she elegantly sat down
beside him.

“You were telling me about this time when you patted a tiger at the zoo,” she said.

“Yeah! As I said, no one was allowed beyond the safety point and that particular day the guard was quite a distance from the tiger's cage. He was a white, handsome fellow ...”

“Who? The guard?”

“Why the hell would I call the guard handsome? The tiger, of course!”

“Oh, ok... hehe.”

“I stepped ahead when I saw the tiger circling near the cage. His skin shone as he paced back and forth tirelessly in a regal manner. There and then, I made up my mind I had to touch this fine fellow. Ignoring the warning sign, I jumped on the other side of the safety bars and just when the tiger had turned its back, I put my hand through the wide iron squares of the cage and patted his
moving back.”