Contd…
And then I slid into a deep sound
sleep rewinding and watching the same scene of Alpana’s smile, when I had met
her two weeks back.
It had been a pretty hectic and
believe me, a pretty bad two weeks with the exams. There is always a specialty
of engineering exams, you never know how they come, you never know when they
come, and you never know “why” they come.
You always think you have covered every brightly printed word in the
book, you walk in with the confidence of a soldier, every question you read in
the paper makes you believe you have read the wrong book, you end up scratching
every part of your head, pressing every button on the calculator just to avoid
falling asleep, trying to find the most beautiful girl in the examination hall,
scribbling every technical word coming across your mind that helps filling up atleast
first few pages of the answer booklet, walking out with a confident 35 and
getting happier that the worst subject just walked out of your life!!
I was no exception and this repeated six times
with me in just two weeks. A pretty bad situation to go through for a nut like
me!
Opening my eyes suddenly I sat up
trying to realize where was I. The last I could recall was some dream I had
been enjoying in the Goa beach, but this was the white wall of my room. Rubbing
my eyes with some pressure helped me getting back to the real world as I heard
someone yelling out my name with the loudest voice. That was Ganesh. Damn sure
his loud voice.
Sliding the curtain of the window
I looked out and there he was standing with Shashi waiting for me. Before he
could yell again, I walked out of home towards the gate.
“Were you drugged?” Shashi asked
with a surprise in his tone and his eyes.
“Why? What happened?” I asked,
rubbing my eyes again.
“Look at your eyes. It seems like
you have been sleeping since days” he said.
“What the hell? I haven’t been
sleeping since weeks just to understand why those antennas need to have
different shapes and styles and you say I have been sleeping since days” I
yelled in anger.
He just shrugged his shoulder,
saying, “Atleast you know they come in different shapes, I skipped that chapter”
“Enough of your studies. Can we
now go out?” Ganesh said.
“Where?” I asked
“You dint tell him?” he asked
Shashi
“I did text him. But if he has
been sleeping like this then it’s not my fault” he said and relaxed back on the
pillion seat of Ganesh’s bike.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“We have decided a small get
together today evening in the park” Ganesh said.
“Cool. Who all?” I asked realizing
that my eyes opened up fully now.
“Our group. All 7 of us” Ganesh
said
“And the new girl, Alpana” Shashi
continued turning at me.
“Oh nice” I said trying to
control the small current that had passed through my body hearing her name.
“I guess now he will be ready”
Shashi said turning to Ganesh
“And that too before all of us”
Ganesh replied back. A small grin escaped out from both of their face.
“Tell me my part” I said, still
trying to be normal.
“Same part as always. Arrange the
food.”
“And that’s all is needed. Why don’t
you guys do that?”
“It’s your part. We just enjoy
the party”
“Get lost. I need my sleep back.
I will be at the park at exact 7 PM” I said trying to end the discussion.
“We thought this is the best
opportunity for to impress her” Ganesh said, a bit mildly, which was not normal
to him.
“First impression buddy” Shashi
continued.
“You both are rascals” I said
They just grinned happily and sat
back on the bike.
“Wait, I will freshen up and be
back in five minutes” I said turning back ignoring their wicked laughter.
The park was a small park mostly covered
with flower beds and benches everywhere. It was one particular bench in the
corner of the park where our group had marked it as the group’s official bench.
It was the nearest corner to the road and hence was the brightest with the
street light giving us a free light once Sun left the sky and went back to his
home.
As I entered the park from behind
the bench carrying a big bag, I saw three girls sitting on the bench. I could
easily make out the first two girls, Surabhi and Ankita. Then the third one,
sitting on the left end of the bench would be Alpana. She had neatly tied her
hair with a simple hairband, the color which I couldn’t notice. I almost
escaped missing the only step that separated the park ground from the street
just for noticing the color of a girl’s hairband. As I walked into the park a
bit more careful on my steps now, I saw Shashi sitting right in front of Ankita
on his favorite wooden stool. There were two more chairs and two more wooden
stools randomly placed in front of the bench.
“And here comes our hero. Our
food supplier” Shashi yelled rising from his stool.
“Ras..” I quickly shut my mouth
realizing Alpana’s presence and turned at her.
She had turned back, but quickly
turned away as I looked at her. The smile I had forced on my face went for a
toss.
Still, I managed to send a signal
to Shashi from my eyes and took a chair farthest from Alpana, which I did
repent after sitting, while Vinay, who had been with me to get the food took a sit beside me.
“Where are others?” I asked
turning to Shashi
“They must be coming soon. They
are getting the coke and the plates” he said opening the bag of food.
“You are always interested in
food” Ankita said moving away the food bag from Shashi and all three of them
laughed mildly.
“So what’s special today?”
Surabhi asked me.
“It’s the same, my favorite” I
said grinning at her and then slowly, I turned at Alpana and tried stealing the
best look from the corner of my left eye.
She was wearing a green half
sleeve Kurti with a red border. The red colored lines were crossing each other
everywhere on her Kurti resulting in a weird yet cute design of neat little
diagonal boxes. The lower border of the long Kurti carried a blue circled
design that resembled a very old and very complicated rangoli design. She had
crossed her legs and the blue design was right on her right knee neatly displaying
the design of the Kurti. In the two seconds that I got to steal a look at her,
I deduced that she looked marvelous in that Kurti, just like a model posing for
that Kurti’s commercial.
I was still building up more
thoughts on her when Ganesh and Harsha walked in laughing on some useless joke creating lots of noise
in the silent park.
Then followed a brief chat on how
the exams went and then few random chats. It was then, when everyone was busy
chatting and all the voices were getting mixed up disturbing the sleeping
flowers, I took a break and turned, slowly, at Alpana. She had been bit quite,
trying to settle down in the new group, limiting her talks.
As I turned, my eyes crossed all
the faces making sure everyone was busy occupied in their chats. The bright
yellow colored street light was glittering on her right cheeks, yet the group
of few hairs that had let themselves loose and neatly, beautifully, had fallen
across her right eyes had made sure their shadow fell on her nose and the dark
shadow on the bright nose made sure the looker noticed the brightness of the
cute little sharp nose. Her lips parted now and then while she talked and
quickly closed back, but made sure they spread wide into a smile when closed.
The right cheek glowed brightly while the left cheek managed to hide quietly in
the dark. She then slowly raised her right hand and with her soft fair hand she
held those few naughty hairs, sliding them back and tucking them behind the ear.
It was then the little earring in the shape of a small silver colored water
drop moved slightly with a small glitter, but not brighter than her cheeks. I
guess I was concentrating at her earring, a bit more than needed because as my
eyes moved back to her cheeks from her earring, I noticed her eyes. In normal
light they would have twinkled but now were in dark, hard to twinkle, yet had
the same power, and they were staring at me. I blinked my eyes, in confusion, actually,
in lots of confusion.
As I looked at her looking at me, her face was
blank. It was very hard for me to confirm if she had caught me staring at her
or if she thought it to be a coincidence. As the milliseconds passed, missing
few heartbeats, I noticed a slight movement in her pink lips. They were slowly
widening and yes, my heart started beating again. The lips widened replacing a
blank look in her face with a sweet smile. The smile was followed a small
change in the way her eyes now looked. They still twinkled, much to my
surprise, in that darkness. The eyebrows neatly arched up and the cheeks glowed
again.
I never knew how, but a small
smile had escaped my mouth and was dancing on my face celebrating with the
eyes, on their first communication, a sweet one, a successful one, a one that
would continue. Those few naughty hairs again fell loose from behind the ear
and neatly placed themselves on the right corner of her right eyebrow, just as
her smile widened more, continuing the communication.
It’s truly said, “It all starts
with one sweet look!”
Teri kaale kaale aankhon mein
hai chupa kya
Iss dil ko bhi bata de, yeh kare
toh kare kya
Jab muskuraati ho tum kuch apne
hi andaaz mein
Kyun lagta hai mujhe, khoya hai
dil aur kho gaya main
Bebas hai jaan, bekhabar ho gaye
hai saanse meri
Jabse khel rahe hai hawa mein, udte
huwe zulfein teri
Kyun yeh nazre mil gaye aur kyun
yeh chehre khil gaye
Bin bataaye dil dhadak gaye, saath
kuch lamhein guzar gaye
Na jaane kab hum tum ho gaye,
tum hum mein kho gaye
Aur yun hi, kuch haseen yaadein
ban gaye…
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Vishal...
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