Kambakht!
The Love Trek
“But the fares have increased Sir”, the taxi driver said in his vocalized accent. “OK OK”, I said, as I handed over the 10-rupee note to that seemingly red amphibian of Red Sea. Sumit was sitting nearby, the first human on the planet to have reached the epitome of stupidity, talking with Smita. This is another one. I have always believed in the saying, ‘OPPOSITES ATTRACT’ and this was the biggest proof of my belief. Jyotika is such an intelligent and mature girl, how can her best friend be so contrary, I mean this girl goes to another college to line marr a boy. These are the kind of people who make my hackles rise.
While getting inside the college I was wondering whether my Yellow-Black combination was OK but was immediately comforted by one of my fans Ayesha. Her compliments are the simplest. She just says, “Hi Suraj, You have made my life.” There are some people who say something simply sweet every time you meet them and that makes you the king of the planet! Relieved after talking with her, I walked in front of the B.Com. 1st year gallery…and immediately, thousands of eyes sparkled (or is that too much?) OK OK not thousands, 10-12 eyes sparkled.
It is not easy to sparkle my eyes, only Jyotika can do this, and she was there to do so. She saw me and (not so immediately) raised her hand to say “Hi”, but Ankita was faster and wailed like the third witch of Shakespeare’s Mac Beth, “Hi Suraj”. Jyotika was quite cool and composed or that was how it appeared. After gossiping with her friends we sat at the cafeteria.
She was complaining to me for the first time. She said that she had bought such a beautiful card for me on the Friendship Day and I didn’t even care to call her. I said the 967th Sorry to her and bought the milky flavour Munch and a coffee to cool her down. We talked about studies for the next 1.28 minutes; the remaining 32 seconds of the 2nd minute were spent in trying to catch some adventure in the Nescafe product. You know both of us failed. The 3rd minute started with a bang:
“Why don’t you meet me often?”
“Well, there’s no particular reason…but we’ve met today and so let’s compensate our ‘judai’ by going out somewhere today…”
“Where?”
My confidence was sky high, so said, “Elephant Falls”
I was expecting a “pagal ho kya tum”(Are you mad?) from her, but she says, “Are you serious?”
“Main to hamesha serious hi tha”(I was always serious!)
“Oh really”
“So what say?”
“OK Lets go.”
“Are…hold on, it’ll take quite some time so you better go home and tell your mother about it.”
“OK”
“Take your friends along”. Actually I was interested in one of her friends.
“Why, am I that boring?”
“No, infact I thought vice versa”
“Haan tum bore to karte ho, par tumhare saath to bore hone men bhi maza aata hai ”(Yes, you do bore me, but with you, even getting bored is fun)
“Oh my God! What was that?”
“OK OK So we’ll move at 2 o’clock. Where do we meet?”
“Barik Point.”
“OK”
This was a very different Jyotika I met today. She was so ‘Surajic’ today. But I should not think much about it, or should I?
I reached the Barik Point 5 minutes before schedule (…and I’m sure I’m an Indian). I was waiting and thinking about the various dialogues that I’ll marr to her today. I WAS SO EXCITED . She was late as always and I had made 147 probabilities of her being late…
1. she’ll not come, badla for my not coming on F DAY
2. shingaar kar rahi hogi(should be making herself up)
3. accident!
4. uske gharwaalon ko maalum hogaya hoga!(her parents may have come to know about it)
5. karan mil gaya hoga!(that Karan should have met)
6. traffic jam
7. the taxi driver may have kidnapped her…(which police station was nearer? PB or Laitumukhrah?)
…………………….
…………………….
But she came at last. At that point of time if you tell me someone else can look as beautiful as her, I can argue with you in the Supreme Court. The Red she was wearing could brighten the dead eyes of any sanyasi!
“Itna late kyon kiya?(Why so late?) I’ve been waiting for half an hour”, I asked.
“Tumne wait kiya na ” (You waited right!)
Could I say anything? These are some of the things that strike me about her and make me “Jyotikakant”.
There was no one at the EF, so we mutually decided to sit at the stairs. It smelled boredom. So I asked, “So what are we to do here?”
“It was your idea.”
She had an answer to everything. Verbal answers as well as silent answers. Sometimes silent answers are more effective than the verbal ones. I remember once I was teasing her (or trying to tease her) by referring to her as my wife in front of her friends, she didn’t give any verbal response but her silence made me wonder about my future!
We sat there for about 5 minutes talking about the plight of Biharis by the hands of the militant groups like ULFA in the North East India. It is saddening to note that the youth of these places get so easily motivated by hatred-that is spread by God-made evil forces having a human face of terror. Now they are against the Biharis-who infact are the wheels of any state’s labor force. Even Marwaris are North Indians, drive them away if you can! But if they do so…all the economy that is left in Assam will be finished. At this fine stage of India’s development it is the duty of every young person to educate himself about the superlatives of the benefits that he is bound to receive rather than engaging in hateful forces inclined towards destroying India’s Unity.
There is one more evident threat, that of illegal immigration. The border that India shares with Bangladesh is a great contributor to India’s population. Any other contribution by them is only troubling, like cheap labor offering competition to the Indian labors, particularly Biharis, dirty lifestyle, etc.
The Governments are equipped to tackle them, but their political interests come in between. Infact they give them voting rights and pray to vote for them, promosing them Indian Citizenship.
But I’m with Jyotika today. I should talk about the chirps of sparrows and the music of the waterfalls and not about the dumbness of Bangladeshis!
“Ah, my pen has fallen down there”, I said as my pen fell off my hands as I was playing some game with it. “That’s my lucky pen I should go and get it.” I crossed the bamboo separating the waterfalls and the stairs and finally got the pen, but I was enjoying there, enjoying the closeness, the closeness with the falling water, the blowing wind and the difference between life and death. I was thinking, one wrong step could end my life and another (right or wrong that’s for you to decide) could lead me to the laps of Jyotika.
I finished enjoying the difference between life and death and crossed the wooden barriers to sit next to sexy Jyotika (my ideas change a bit too fast naa!).
After settling down, both of us started looking for something to talk about. I knew she was very bad at this. So I had to think of something. What a beautiful drizzle it was, as if God was blessing both of us to live happily ever after with 5 sons and 8 daughters.
Another possible topic was the sound of the waterfall and the ‘thandi hawa’ generated by it. It was all quite pleasant. I had to start, “How do you like the scenery, the sound, the whole atmosphere here?”
As if I had woken her up from a deep sleep, she opened her eyes faintly to liven the atmosphere with her ‘Jyotikaness’ and opening up to the enlightening discussion said, “It’s wonderful. I always think of this place and places like this when I’m thinking about myself and about my life. Life is so short and God has given us so much to enjoy in this short life.” What a thought!
Sometimes I also think, life is so short and we so very often find ourselves wasting time in useless pursuits. There is so much nonsense in the world, like I’m never able to understand what difference would a temple or a mosque make to Ayodhya, would gaining Kashmir make Pakistan the most prosperous country in the world, would occupying Iraq make America richer? NO, still human nature defies all thought, and it is different at different places, like even when India was a rich nation in the past, it never became imperialist (and so much more is there to judge about India in the way it got independence), the Chinese president does not know English and the Indian President does not know Hindi (This is the saddest thing about India. How can we ever expect unity in such a nation where the President himself does not know the national language!), the blood of the Palestines may be a bit darker than that of the Israelis, that’s why they are always fighting (I cant make out any other reason.) What I feel is that Indians are good both at mind and at the heart, but we could not progress as much due to the lack of correct co-ordination between the two. The mind and the heart have always conflicted and the wrong one has always won. Actually no one is ever right and no one is ever wrong. They do their job and finally it is for the person to decide what action is to be taken. I always believe there is a third force in our body, which is superior to the mind and the heart and thus governs us.
Aghast! Just one statement of Jyotika makes me wonder about the correct co-ordination between the mind and the heart (just imagine!!)
So we talked about life and its beauties (though I don’t need to talk about it, I see her and understand everything.) When she talks about nature and life, you realize the difference between Jyotika and any other human being.
“Rita talks a lot about you these days”, Kya bataaun yaar, ye baat uske pure andar se nikli thi, (How do I say man, this came from such a depth!) but she was pretending as if Suraj is a creature of Mars and a fellow human of the earth had asked her about this strange creature. How stupid she is!!!
But I’m stupider…
“Fida hogayi hogi mujhpar”, (She may be dying for me) I replied after revinding my mind to the compliments that the Smitas, Rekhas, Ushas and Anamikas had given me.
“Shakal dekhi hai apni aaine men”(Have you seen yourself in the mirror?)
Time for some heavy-duty stuff, “Aaina kaun kambakht dekhta hai, hum to apne aapko aapki aankhon men dekha karte hain”(Who the hell sees the mirror, I see myself in your eyes)
She blushed and laughed and blushed and laughed.
Jyotika looks most beautiful when she is pretending to be angry. I remember when I didn’t meet her for a full week (case of ego) and she was unwillingly trying to avoid me. That was the most beautiful Jyotika I had seen. But beauty is limitless, and I see a more beautiful Jyotika today.
If God appoints me the Minister of Natural Resources and asks me to show a sample of his creation, I would NOT show Jyotika, because God may not return samples!
She had something more to say, “Raja proposed Anita again and she accepted”
“Mereko bhi phirse propose karna chahiye tha na…”(I should also have proposed you again naa…)
“Tumne kiya hi nahin”(You did not.)
“Agar Karta to tum haan karti kya?”(Would you have said YES if I did?)
“I don’t know”
“Should I propose you now?”
“Try karo”
I got the shock of my life.
I count Nov1 (the day I had first proposed her) as the dark Saturday of my life. I had marked Saturdays as the Dark Day of the week, I avoid tests on Saturdays, am extra careful about my looks on Saturdays, kala teeka laga ke ghar se nikalta hoon etc.
But this is another Saturday and my God is asking me to propose her.
I readied myself for the mission.
The pant was a bit loose, but she doesn’t mind.
The shoes were dirty, but she doesn’t mind.
I had forgotten to shave near the nose, but she doesn’t mind.
She doesn’t mind anything; she loves me (just like God loves everyone…NO)
So having made all the physical adjustment possible, I went down three stairs and looked into her eyes.
She is the sunrise, she is the sunset, she is the day and she is the night. I mean there is so much purity and glow in her that you feel all the goodness of the earth is in front of you. You get her you get all, you loose her you loose all.
I kneeled down on the stairs and raised my hand. She was steering through the world and I could see the deep ocean inside her eyes. Her hair always provoked my jealousy. It was drizzling lightly; even the sound of the falls had become softer, the pines were moving patiently.
I let out my hand towards her and gave hers as if crediting all of her into me.
And slowly, I managed to utter, “Jyotika, I propose you.”
I was waiting for my Report Card and she was laughing and blushing as if she had got the biggest Khusi of her life. After she had laughed her heart out, nodded her head indicating a YES.
Thus we started our first date and for the next half and hour I saw the best of life.
Two ducks had come to the EF Lake and were playing with each other. It looked as if they were two from earth and God had sent them here as a reward for their good-doings.
“Time to go”, she said in her charismatic voice. I was silent just blindly looking at her. “Chalo”, she said again.
“Abhi na jao chod kar…”(Don’t leave so early…)
And she replied,
“Sitare jhilmila uthe, chirag jagmaga uthe,
bas ab na mujhko tokana, na badh ke raah rokana,
gar main ruk gayi abhi, to jaa na paaongi kabhi,
yehi kahoge tum sada,
ki dil abhi nahin bhara…”
(The stars have started shining; the lamps have started burning,
Now don’t stop me, don’t stand in my way,
If I stop now, I can never go,
You will say so ever,
That don’t leave so early…)
She had to drag me out of the paradise.
We didn’t have to wait much for the taxi, infact we got a brand new Maruti 800 for a taxi and in it was playing the song, “kuch tum socho, kuch hum sochen…” Both of us could actually see red hearts flying in the taxi. Infact we tried to catch some of them!
We reached Shillong at about six. Coming out of the taxi she said, “Its already dark.”
“Abhi kahan, raat ko to tumne apni zulfon men qaid kar rakha hai”
(Not yet, as you have caught the night in your hair )
SKS
surryakant@gmail.com
