The girl in white dress.

The girl in white dress.

I was late today. Usually I left my office at around 6’O clock but today we had a client visit. I was waiting for 330-E bus and was enjoying Bangalore’s weather. It was at it’s best romantic note, thundering clouds and gusts of wintery wind made me furl my arms around my body. It was drizzling and the trafficless roads were reflecting the lights of vehicles coming time to time. Out of the falling drops a figure appeared, I had seen this girl before. The girl from next bay, in my office. I used to sneak her while she was busy solving bugs in the numerous lines of code or perhaps while she was busy checking facebook. 

She was running towards the same stand where I was standing, holding closed umbrella in her one hand and mobile in other. I still remember the red color of her mobile cover; it looked cute, but not as she was looking today, in her partially drenched white dress. As she approached the stand’s shed, I intentionally made a space for her by stepping aside and she too accepted it without any second thought. She was too close to me, I even saw the water drops on her face, and indeed she looked pretty. 

Only then she turned towards me and asked “What time is it?” “Sorry?” , I replied, with a question, as if I had not heard at the first place.”Kitna time hua hai?”( Translation: What time is it?) she asked me again and instead of replying to what she had asked, I asked her in return, “Aapka mobile time nhi btata?” (Translation: "Can't you check it on your phone?") she scowled at me and turned her face on other side.

Before I had made up for my mistake, she bellowed at me while pointing her finger at my wrist watch, “Ek baar time btane se aapki yeh watch nhi ghis jaati..huh!” (Translation: "Telling me time, wouldn't have harmed your watch.")and again she turned her face away from me. Her reaction had made me smile. 

”I am sorry, its 8:30”, I told her the right time. She turned back and looked into my eyes, “I am sorry, I had bad day. My cell phone fell down and now its not working anymore”, she told me with a sad face. 

This was the beginning of a long and beautiful relationship. I don’t remember how long that bus took to arrive, how two strangers sat together and talked like best friends. A fierce lightening and a loud thunder clap brought me back to the sound of rain. I was staring at the sparkling rain drops, in the yellow street light, from the balcony of my flat. I had tears in my eyes. From that closeness to these thousand miles of distance, I was far away from Bangalore. I had missed her a lot in these last ten months.