Its been long since the last post and there was a nasty incident which wiped out about one and a half hours of typing in Jo'burg. I'm back and kicking in college again after a brief haitus at home and the addition of a few centimeters to my tummy circumference. I guess excess of Mom-Made sea food does that to you.
Anyway taking inspiration from Parikshit who recently posted a short story that he wrote, I am going to do the same. I guess what I really want is for the story to be read, coz quite unmodestly I must admit that I do write pretty well, its the criticism part which is difficult, not because I can't handle it or something, its just that not too many people get to see it in the first place to critisize it.
Here goes, and of course there is the standard disclaimer.  The story is a bit long, but hopefully its a good read, of course I expect a healthy dose ofcriticism. The story is actually a prequel to another story that I read by fredrik forsyth. The last line of that story amazed me and so I built up my story as a precursor to those events. In any case, if you have not read that story, doesn't really matter.

Disclaimer - All the characters in the story...... blah blah blah .... is purely coincidental. The story is set in London and the landmarks and the train stations and all that is made up. I have no inkling absolutely of what the stations are really named.

Copyright - This story may not be copied,published or used by any person/entity without the written permission provided by the author.

DO YOU BELIEVE???

                                                                  - Ketan Mohile

              He strongly believed that how a day began was hint enough for how it was going to end. And as far as bad beginnings went this one had all the makings of a bad day. At times like these when all he could see outside the window was the broken window pane that somebody who lived there had refused to fix for the last four weeks, he had to search hard for an answer… what he was doing there. He had been really keyed up when he heard that his firm was going to send him to London to work in the prestigious Marks and Mormon Constructions but the whole experience was turning out to be a catastrophe. It took him a good part of two weeks to get to know all the people and the work there was far from satisfactory. All they gave him were bits and pieces  ... a façade here, a library there, some stairs to design. He wanted to do one house all by himself so that they would know how his mind could break free of all that drab Victorian architecture.

But today it could all change he thought to himself. He had been given a garden house to design for some rich prick who made his money playing the stock market. It had finally been completed late last night when he toiled over the designs and now when he looked at them again he was suddenly having second thoughts. He didn’t know why but he was under the impression that all the rich pricks were a little nuts and so he had made the garden house more of a fantasy creation rather than an extension to the house and now he was sure that the tight lipped Norman Marks was going to hate it and kick him back to India on the first flight available. When he had left his Bombay office there was some hush hush talk bout the London firm looking for Indian talent but now he had absolutely no hopes of being hired in London.

                          The same day began with much doubt for her, in fact she had hardly slept through the night and the small guest room where she had been put up was really looking like a prison. She tried to convince herself that she was exaggerating it as she always did but then again her thoughts kept on going to whatever happened last evening. It made her really sad to play the same thing over and over again in her head. She knew what she wanted … a nice long walk in the morning cool to help her reflect and deliberate with what was perhaps the most important decision she was ever going to take. With a heavy heart she got up and made her way to the bathroom to rush through the morning rituals and put on the first thing that she found in her hastily unpacked bag which was a nice red kurta, she pulled over a sweater and made her way out.

Mrs. Singh would have been sleeping in her own shell away from all the harsh realities. She thought to herself if Mrs. Singh was certainly not what she wanted to become five years down the line. The London chill hit her as soon as she opened the door but most of her schooling had been done in Dheradun which got really cold sometimes. She thought of this day when it had snowed and it was really pretty everywhere and how she had imagined one day to have a house in the snow where a great fire would be burning and the house would exude warmth. Aimlessly she started making her way down the alley which turned on to the M23 which would then take her straight to the heart of London a good half an hour’s walk away. She didn’t see anybody else walking except for some teenagers on roller skates as they tried to show off some tricks on the sidewalk.

                  He was already getting really late and Mr. Norman hated it when people walked in late and it would be make a really bad impression if he walked in late on the very day he was supposed to make his presentation but there was nothing he could do now. The damm alarm wasn’t as loud and irritating as it needed to be which had made him oversleep and now as he was almost about to get out of the house he remembered that he needed a jacket today as well as there would be a formal meeting. He went in and picked up one of the three jackets he had got along and ran out of the house. He still had a long way to go. A ten minute walk to the bus stop and then get down at the tube station and catch the tube to Milton Keynes and then walk another five minutes. The train ride was the longest part and more than that he dreaded waiting at the station for his train to show up, an earlier experience had left him stranded at the station for a good twenty minutes and he certainly didn’t want that to happen today. It seemed funny to him that back home in Mumbai he didn’t give a damm as to how long he would have to wait for a train as practically everyday there was some problem or the other with the trains and the local trains had become an easy excuse for the occasional late entries into the office. Right now he would have given anything to get back to the crowded train in Mumbai crushed between people, but at least they were people you knew or at least recognized.            

                    She couldn’t control her thoughts as they started drifting over to last night’s incident. She didn’t expect something like this from the person she was going to marry next month. Kunal was always a little on the hyper side and did tend to get angry over really trivial matters. She did remember one or two incidents back home where it did bother her how she was going to manage his anger once they got married but back then she was too busy getting swept off her feet. The evening had begun quite nicely and they found themselves in a nice restaurant where they had already booked a table. A small quartet was playing some strings and some couples were dancing quietly in the center. They sat there for some time listening to the music and making small talk when Kunal asked her to dance with him there. She was not a nice dancer and in fact could hardly move her feet and so she politely refused. But Kunal just wouldn’t listen and kept on insisting making himself heard above the noises in the restaurant. She was adamant though as she really hated making a fool of herself in front of others but then all of a sudden Kunal told her rather angrily that she always played the spoilt sport and even now had ruined his mood. She told him to calm down and lower his voice and not make a scene to which he got up from the table and banged his hands on the table and shouted that he was indeed making a scene and it was all because she was never ready to do anything and left angrily leaving her there. Tears welled up in her eyes as she remembered how she sat there in the restaurant looking like a fool with all those people staring at her. Later that night she had called him up and he did answer the phone but on the phone also he had told her gruffly that he wouldn’t be talking to her the next day just to make her feel how it felt to be left alone. She had banged the phone down feeling sorry that she had come all the way to London to watch all this happening. But now as she thought about it with a cool head she knew that it was the right decision to come to London to spend some days with Kunal who was going to come down to Mumbai directly for the wedding. Her father had suggested that she go there and spend some time to know what kind of a person he really was, he had even made arrangements for her to stay at his old college friend’s house. At that time she had felt it to be an unnecessary exercise but now she was thanking her dad.

            He practically ran down the steps onto the sidewalk and blended into the morning rush looking just like another one of those yuppies. He looked around and smiled to himself when he saw that everybody almost looked the same walking in the same stride towards the single minded goal of reaching the office on time and do whatever they were paid so much to do. No body had the time to look around and watch the leaves falling or the pigeons flying or anything on this gray morning that London seemed to throw up with amazing regularity. But then again in the next moment he was one among them worrying if his boss was going to like his design. He mentally started making the presentation in his mind while he waited for the bus next to someone immersed into the latest obsession of the English tabloids. He desperately hoped that the rich prick who owned the house would be there so he could speak to him straightaway rather than explaining to his boss why he did what he did. He nervously started glancing at his watch after about five minutes on the bus stop and still there was no sign of the bus. He thought about taking a taxi to the office but it would cost him almost twenty five pounds which was way too much even if meant angering his boss instead.  

           The problem with Kunal was not that he really lost it in the restaurant but what he did afterwards. It was like he was almost punishing her for whatever she did and it didn’t even constitute a punishable offence and even if she did he was supposed to work a way out and not punish her like a school kid or something. She tried to think what she would have done had she been in his place instead. She knew she would never have done something like what he did. She would have made her discontent obvious but getting up and leaving someone alone was certainly something she didn’t agree with. Her aimless walk had bought her to the outskirts of the commercial district and she could see a park nearby and thought about going in and just sitting there looking at the kids playing, but she decided against it and kept on walking because she just wanted to see people around … even strangers would do but she just didn’t want to feel so alone at that point of time.

            He got down at the University Tube Station a good half and hour later than he expected. He was already dreading the worst that his boss was going to kick him out of the office even before the presentation was made and as far as hopes about making a good presentation were concerned, it was almost down the drain before it started. Rich people certainly didn’t like not so rich people wasting their time. There was some accident at this junction near his house; some guy riding a cycle was knocked over. He must have been one of those new age freaks who thought riding a bicycle to work was saving plants and people but now look at what happened to him. His thoughts shocked him, was a month enough to undo all the lessons you had learnt from the beginning he thought. But now all he could think was why the escalator was taking so long to take him down to the platform. He finally reached downstairs and became another face waiting for the train. It was time when he was supposed to reach office and right now even if the train did come on time he would be forty five minutes late.

               She saw an underground station and suddenly she knew where she wanted to go. There was this lake she had seen once when she was on a bus. She had loved it when she had looked at it the first time itself. It even had this island in the middle with trees on it and all around the lake were benches that were mostly empty because it was bang in the business district and people there didn’t have time to eat food let alone sit on lakesides. She looked at this tourist map and figured out what train to catch. She luckily had some spare change in her pocket and got herself a day ticket on the tube and headed underground. Her destination was on the outskirts of London and that meant she had to take a train that went to Highbury which was a ten minute train journey. She found herself on the platform sitting on a bench which was empty as everybody was going the other way for their offices. There were hardly some other people with her and most of them were reading books or just listening to music. Nobody seemed to be in a hurry to catch the next train to boredom and confinement and most of them looked content listening to their favorite radio station.

                Then she knew in a flash what she really wanted. It wasn’t living with someone where you would have to rush all the time to catch up or else risk being left behind forever without second thoughts. She pictured herself sitting at home looking after the kids and making some pottery which she absolutely loved to but didn’t find the time to.  She smiled to herself as she tried to remember if she really knew what love was. She had always thought these questions were for stupid philosophers who had never been in love and tried to figure out what it was from an objective point of view. But love was so subjective she thought, her love would never be the same as somebody else’s love. She knew it wouldn’t be all that difficult to tell Kunal about the news and somehow it made her heart feel lighter when she knew she had taken the decision. Her parents wouldn’t even ask her why she took such a decision, she just loved her parents she thought as she heard some train announcements made in the background

                He was almost on the verge of a breakdown when he heard the announcer say that the train had just left the earlier station and would take another two minutes. He knew he was almost an hour late and the minute he entered he would have to hear a big lecture on Indian inefficiency and how had just wasted an hour of a reputed client’s time.  His entire stay in London flashed before his eyes and he knew it had all been a waste of time and energy. All he wanted to do right now was to catch the next flight home and sleep in his bed while his mom made him coffee. He could feel his eyes getting all misty and he smiled at himself that thought of his mom still got tears to his eyes and he knew he would reach office and tell them that he was done for good and head back home. But still it pained him to know that he had failed and he just kept staring into oblivion and that was when he saw her.

               She seemed to be so much at peace. I wish I could be like her, he thought. He saw this girl sitting on the opposite platform wearing a kurta. Her beautiful hair and graceful features left no doubt in his mind that she was Indian and he just kept on staring at her while she just looked down at her feet all the while smiling not on her face but he envied her because he knew that her heart was smiling. His gaze was suddenly matched when she looked up to find him staring at her and when their eyes met, they just looked at each other speaking unspoken words. Their meeting was rudely interrupted by the train breezing through. He was jolted back to reality by the rattling of the train and when it stopped all those desperate people waiting to get to work just rushed past him pushing him almost inside the train and he knew that this train was the last hope of getting at least an hour and a half later than time but he knew what he would do. He knew it even before the train had stopped. The train closed its doors trapping all its people into their daily lives and it left without him. He was the only one standing on the platform as people started making their way out of the station. He tried to jostle his way to the front of the platform to get a view of her and when he had done pushing through there she was still sitting there and looking at him with that same contented look on her angelic face.

              People ask me questions like if I believe in love at first sight. At time like those I tell them this story, and how do I know it was love at first sight? The last time I told this story was at the tenth wedding anniversary of these two lucky people.