Everyone else was fast asleep, but I preferred staying awake and watching her sleep. It was an hour past midnight. After an hour more the world seemed to stop and she along with her family left. She saw me and gave me that last Goodbye smile and I went on to sleep finally…..
I hate traveling in Non-AC sleeper coaches but during the summer vacations getting a reservation done in the AC coaches that to in the only train from Howrah to Pune is quite impossible. I therefore wasn’t very excited of my journey from Howrah to Pune in Non-AC. But I had no choice as I had to appear for a competitive exam in Pune.
The First day was as boring as expected but also irritating as I was greeted by a bunch of Irritating and annoying Co-passenger kids. I hate traveling with kids. No sense of Privacy and definitely no sense of Noise pollution. Cry cry cry all day, and if not that Jump around from one berth to another. God! I was freaked out!
But the next day with the morning light came an angel to my rescue. Yes, She was gorgeous and damn cute. Though she had this noisy family around or infact families. The train halted at Raipur station early in the morning from where she and her family boarded the train. Actually it was her family and another family along with them. I knew this would be exciting right away. They had some seats in front of my berth and some behind.
Two hours passed and her family had nicely settled down. They were playing Antakshari making a lot of noise which was irritating me. I finally decided to let go of my excitement and leave her alone as I lost my interest. I went back to my upper berth, removed my mp3 from my handbag and started listening to much better tunes than her family’s antakshari. After half an hour I decided it was time to lose some weight and Inspect the sanitary conditions of non-ac coaches. I stopped my mp3 and heard a much better voice than that of Avril Lavigne whom I was listening to on my mp3. Wow! It was that same girl who was singing a bollywood song and she was really good.
After losing some weight I decided to check her out and sit right in front of her. I didn’t have the guts to talk to her as she was guarded by her brother and father on each side. 15mins later she noticed me noticing her and then I noticed that she was actually getting irritated of my noticing of her. She waited for a couple of more minutes for me to stop but I guess I was too much into noticing her curves that I just couldn’t stop. She finally decided to go to the upper berth and lie down there. After a couple of minutes I moved up to, to my upper berth just opposite to hers.
Wow! She was one beautiful lady. She had a round face, light brown eyes, smooth lips and beautiful hair which seemed to be silky soft. I wish I could have touched her hair. She wasn’t slim but neither bulky, she was kind of medium you can say with perfect composition and features. I kept staring at her shamelessly.
She now was more irritated and thus she shifted to the upper berth behind my berth to escape my vigil inspection of her. It was afternoon time and was really hot. She slept on her berth and I unfortunately had to sleep on mine, alone! I kept my cap on my knee and bend my legs while I was lying down. From her side it looked as if someone wearing a cap was noticing her. She didn’t realize that before but as soon as she did, she woke up in a shocked way making some noise. I woke up too. She was atleast content that I wasn’t cheap enough to check her out while she was sleeping. She went down the berth and I faced towards her and kept staring at her. Now it was her turn to inspect the sanitary conditions. I gave her silent signs that I’ll be waiting to see her come back after inspection. She didn’t smile back but just walked away. The train stopped at a station and she got down and came from the opposite side so as to avoid me. For the first time a little shame grasped me when I saw her coming from the other side and I went to sleep. What was I doing! What was I thinking! I must have really irritated her! I went to sleep deciding to stop my act of cheapness and let her travel in peace. My eyes were closed but I was awake listening to her family’s conversation from which I figured out that they weren’t going to Pune but to shirdi, to a temple and they would get down at a station that would arrive at sometime by midnight. Two hours passed by and I hadn’t seen her once till then.
Finally I decided to face her being embarrassed and I came down my berth like a shy bride. I sat right in front of her but looking at the beautiful scene outside the window and not inside. After some minutes I got a glimpse of her and to my surprise she was staring at me now. At once I looked at her and realised that now she was constantly staring at me with her eyes seeming to apologize to me for something that I didn’t know. I didn’t understand first but then I realized that she might have felt that I was angry on her for coming from the other side of the compartment trying to avoid me. Wow! And I was feeling that I irritated her, nice huh! She removed her hair band and let her hair free. She moved some hair off her face so as to give me a nice view of her face uninterrupted by a single hair. She smiled at me and wanted me to watch her. I was totally confused. I didn’t know what to say or what to do. This was completely not as I had expected her to treat me. Then I decided to live in the moment and I started watching her again, complete paradise. It seemed as if we were playing Eye-fight. Eye to eye, face to face, smile to smile. That was undoubtedly the best moments of my journey. After a few minutes she moved her lips and gestured to be sorry and smiled. I smiled back and gestured that it was okay. It was okay! Huh! It was awesome. I thought I’ll tell her that I wasn’t angry after all but then I chucked the thought of it. From then onwards till night, may be for 3 hours, we smiled at each other and watched each other smile back. Not for a minute did I take my eyes off her. We didn’t even think of the fact that we were just co-passengers and soon we would have to split ways. I guess we both believed in living in the moment and not thinking of the future. I guess that’s the right way of living and “enjoying” life.
“What’s life with the sorrows of the past and tension of the future without enjoying the present.”
Everyone else was fast asleep, but I preferred staying awake and watching her sleep. It was an hour past midnight. After an hour more the world seemed to stop and she along with her family left. She saw me and gave me that last Goodbye smile and I went on to sleep finally. I didn’t even notice which station did she get down on. I cherished each moment that I spent with her. Now I was dreaming about her. Did I fall in love with her? Did she love me? What was this, just attraction? I asked myself all these questions, but I had answers to none. Then I suddenly woke up and started smiling…..
Damn! I didn’t even get to know her name….
---Dipronil Mondal
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