I went to her to ask if I can give her a company. Looking at her the music in the background, making all the lads and ladies hit the floor was nothing. Her blue eyes and that red hair left open, hanging as if they were trying to touch her shoulder, her innocent round creamy colored face and smile that covered the upset face I had just seen. Everything of her was making me more eager to have a chit chat. I went near her,
‘Hey!’
She didn’t respond to me. And I ordered a shot with the barman. Took it in a breath and ordered one more.
‘Are you upset?’, she asked.
‘Yes’, I replied, ‘Coz you didn’t bother to reply to my hey.’
‘That doesn’t make a sense when someone unknown doesn’t respond to you doesn’t mean you have to get upset.’
By now she already had taken two more rounds of shots.
‘Are you…..’ as I was about to ask if she was upset she replied,
‘Why in this heaven will I be upset when my 5 years' long relation came to an end today.’
I could clearly see the emotions in her eyes that were saying she was really upset, her face was trying to hide it with a smile, she was trying to sound strong with a shaky voice. It wasn’t my first time talking to a random girl but I had never talked with someone like her. She was different. She then looked in my eyes as if it was a sign for one more round.
‘One more for both of us’, I said.
‘Two for me’. She looked at me as if I was looser and smiled.
‘Is it your first time in the bar?’, she asked.
‘No’
‘It’s my first’
‘What dragged you here?’
‘Happiness of the broken relation after 5 fucking years’
I could clearly understand that she wasn’t happy about being broken or might be cheated.
‘What made it to the end?’
She went silent and I thought I should not make her more upset. Her hair had already dried by then. She took out a hair clip and clipped her hair.
‘I would better have killed him with this’
I was in dilemma, talk about it, and ask why? Or just ignore it. I thought ignoring would be a bad idea and asking why would be even worse.
‘I am sorry, I dragged you off your mood’, she said.
‘No, it is me who came to talk to you. And I am completely ok. I actually came alone today. My friends, if they were here would already have driven me mad.’
‘Can we go somewhere apart from this bar.’
‘Whaaat?’
‘I am feeling completely down, even the shots couldn’t help me, can you walk some distance with me?’
I was eager to know what had happened to her.
We went out of the bar and walked along the road. The road was empty, she caught my hand and dragged me to the road.
‘It was slightly raining that day as it is today, the city was starting to close as it was already 6 in the evening. This is the place I met him for the first time 5 years ago. He was asking for a lift and was as upset as I am today. I don’t know what had made him upset but he was. He was tall with a muscular body, dressed well but upset. I asked him where he was going and he said where ever I took him. I was confused and asked him if I can drop him his home. He was not sure if he wanted to so he said anywhere but not his home today. I asked him about his family but he was in no mood of talking about it. I asked him about his job and where he is from. He was a to be the branch manager of one of the renowned insurance company and they were to establish a branch of it in our city. Talking to him I came to know that he has struggled a lot in his life to be the one he was that day and is today. He was living with his parents and a brother younger than him by a year and a half. They had migrated to the city 3 years back and his father was a government officer. His mother ran an NGO that looks after the children whose parents cannot afford their education. When he was saying about his brother though he was upset he had a smile on his lips and said my brother is more than my parents to me he helps me in each step in my life. His brother was studying Anthropology and was interested in talking to the random people he had never met before.’
We were walking somewhere we both didn’t know. She was holding my arms and was still upset and a bit drunk. As she was saying this, I was quite confused as it was as same as I have in my family. We migrated to the city 8 years back, my father was a government officer who has just retired and was helping my mother triumph her dream in NGO and me I have completed my master's in anthropology and was a year and a half younger than my brother is. I didn’t say a word nor asked the name of the guy she was talking about as we both were unknown about each other. I continued to listen to her.
‘Listening to him I assumed he was a good guy, he still is. I took him to my home as my mom and dad were out of the city that week attending a function of a relative. I prepared a coffee hoping it to refresh his mood. He asked me if he could smoke and I took him to the balcony, which gives the breathtaking view of the city, even more in the evenings. I don’t know if it was the coffee, the cigarette, or the balcony but he seemed to be refreshed. ‘Birds returning back their home, reddish and yellowish horizon, the buildings of this city’, he started talking. ‘It’s a view not to be missed. Do you come here every evening?’ I was already lost in the imagination of that guy, even when he was by my side with a cigarette in his hand and talking about nature. He repeated, ' Do you?’ oh sorry I said and he laughed so loud that it is still the best moment of my life. Then he started flirting with me. ‘A young and handsome guy by the side in the balcony of the girl’s home with her parents out of the valley met for the first time and the girl lost in her imagination.’ He started again, ‘Can I know what I did in your imagination?’
I was stunned by the way he talked. Frank and interesting, the type of guy I have been long waiting for. I was already in love with his frankness and his way of talking. Before I could say anything he started again, ‘Albert Einstein once said, Imagination is more important than knowledge, but he denied the factor only if imagination has a purpose of something good.’ I could do nothing nor could say anything. I then started, ‘Life is amazing, people you have been with for longer period have no intention of asking about what is going on in the mind but you, we had met just a few hours earlier and is frank enough.’ He started again, ‘That’s what my brother says, bonding can happen in silence but one has to break the ice to make it lasting. And it’s the same thing I am practicing now. You just said people who have been in touch for a longer time deny the small factors. That’s the weakest part of humans. They value things only at the beginning and as time passes by the same thing that possessed high value becomes valueless to them. People forgot to live each day as a brand new day. They say the sun is setting but deny the factor that the sun can rise again only after it sets, they keep focusing on the thunder and rain but deny the factor that after each storm comes sunshine. If anything bad happened to any of we human being, we keep focusing on those bad things. We keep thinking about what it may do in our lives and deny the fact that there are hundreds and thousands of other things going completely well. I don’t mean we shouldn’t focus on the things that are going out of track but the only thing we can do is try our best to bring it back in the track. If it does not come back, worrying will do nothing. I was a little upset by then, yesterday was my brother’s birthday and I couldn’t make it home so I had planned for a surprise party for him today. After everything was planned I called him and everything overturned as he had already gone out of the valley in the early morning. I wasn’t upset for the reason that I couldn’t surprise him but because I have been so careless that I didn’t have time to talk to him and know what is going in his life.’
I was totally lost in his words, I asked him to call his brother and say him you had planned a surprise but you couldn’t make it and tell him that you love him and you care about him. We people, as you said deny the small factor but we don’t know how much changes the smallest factors can bring in one’s life. We know we love them but at times we forget to express and tell it. Even the three words, I Love You can make their day. He laughed and said,
‘Are you saying I love you to me?’
‘Someday I might’ I replied with a smile. But now do call your brother and say him you do. He dilled his brother's number but it was unreachable. ‘Oh! I forgot his phone will be off for the next two days.’ He then texted him
Dear Brother,
Your elder brother is totally out of mind and is missing you at the very moment. I am sorry that I couldn’t make it home on your birthday. I actually have planned a surprise for you today. I am sorry I forgot that you have said to me you will be going out of the valley the next day of your birthday. Do you remember I had called you in the daytime to ask where you were? I actually have called to come to the office as soon as possible so that I could give you a surprise. Then after I was upset and I was walking along the road. And you know what I met a beautiful lady, it has only been a few hours but I am already in love with her. I haven’t expressed it to her. And one more thing is she asked me to call you and say you that I LOVE YOU. I hope you know how much your elder brother loves you and cares for you.
Your elder brother,
BJ
She was still holding my hand and we were still walking in the road, as before to the destination we both didn’t know. I had already guessed so, I was not that shocked. The text that she had said, my elder brother had sent it to me 5 years back on the next day of my birthday. The name she said at the last was the name of my elder brother, loving and caring. I had a screenshot of that text as it was the best text I had ever received in my life. I took out my phone and opened the screenshot.
‘I have to show you something.’, I interrupted her.
‘what?’
I then gave her my phone that had the screenshot of the text. She went through it and hugged me tightly and said,
‘YOU ARE LUCKY ENOUGH’.
1 comment:
Uni ani Ma.... mailay chinya Unilai
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