Trick

Trick

Girl: Hey!! Something has been changed. 

How come you are always happy these days?? 

Whats the trick?

Boy: I have stopped dreaming.

Brave girl

 Brave girl

She hailed from a lower middle class family in Haryana and was the toper of her class. Her teachers, neighbors and principal had praised her on almost all occasions. She had participated, organized and had received many prizes at various events. But all waste, she was diagnosed with cancer and had only one and half year more. Her father was running a general store and his earnings were just sufficient to feed his family well. Today they were in Delhi, some agent had called them and had promised for getting them help from an NGO. But it was just a hoax, he asked for 1 Lakh rupees advance, for mere a promise of getting them help from a famous liquor manufacturer, who was also trying his luck in elections. They look lunch at a small restaurant outside ISBT bus stand. This place was not very clean, smoke of frying oil, flies and heat of chilling summer had made it worst; they finished it fast and moved inside bus stand. 

She saw tears in her father’s eyes, while waiting for the bus. She wanted to ask her father for stop trying. She was neither sad nor afraid, not even from the thought of dying. But instead of spending her last one year on her treatments,  she wanted to do so many other things. Mount Everest was always on the top of her to do list. She wanted to visit China, Pakistan and few European countries as well. She wanted to be a biker as well. She still had a poor memory of her first failed try, when she had got her hand fractured two years ago. She woke up with bus horn and saw her dad picking their bags and rushing for seat. Its always a struggle to get a bus seat at Delhi. Her dad managed to get only one seat. Bus was full. After 25 minutes bus was on the outskirts of Delhi, she was sitting and her dad was looking at a salesman who perhaps had a pain in his throat but was still trying to sell some home made oil, with his best efforts. Bus stopped and so many people came rushing in the bus. A girl in her twenties came and stood near her father. She was wearing goggles, had ear phones in her ears, chewing gum in her mouth and a smart phone, probably an android based. She was smiling while typing something on her phone. 

Barely an hour had passed, most of the passengers were taking naps, few ladies on the back side were chatting; two siblings, a boy and a girl, both less than 10, were fighting for the window seat. Amidst this silence, there came a tight slap on that man’s face. Whole bus came to consciousness. That girl was shouting at that man who was in shock and was unable to comprehend the situation. The little girl stood up and started pushing that girl away from her father. Soon all the passengers were either participating in this or were enjoying the free show. Driver had stopped the bus and was shouting at few youngsters who were recording the whole incident. Conductor asked and pushed that man to get down from the bus.

After ten minutes that man was standing on the road with her daughter, tears rolling down his cheeks. He was too ashamed to look into the eyes of his daughter. To break this silence, her daughter said, “Dad, I know you have not done anything. Just remember the problems never come alone and tough times are the tests that God takes.”

They were standing at a deserted place on NH 1 and bus was out of sight now. Somebody had given a seat to the brave girl. But just two seats behind that girl, two young boys were happy at their luck today and were scared for what could have happened to them today.

A Sad Girl.

A Sad Girl.

She had deleted all the photos, except this last one. She stared at it for while. She knew it from the start;  but still, she had some hope, and now she was sad, disappointed and felt very depressed. Infact it was hurting her. A tear rolled out on her cheek. She finally made her mind and deleted the last one too.

She always failed at taking selfies.

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.