A Holi..... I Wish

“Train kitne baje hai?”

Her sweet cattish loud voice echoed in this relatively quiet cafe outlet. The cafe was fairly filled with customers some were even foreigners. I was never a fan of such places, probably more because it made me feel suffocating and it forces you to control your voice decibels. This was a habit I was never able to adapt to as most of my hangouts were chai tappirs and roadside stalls back in Nagpur. And i being a Nagpurian just could handle this controlled and Hippocratic environment.

Especially if you are sitting and talking in a place like Starbucks it was like breathing without oxygen. As simple as chocking out and dying was what i felt in such places a reason why i didn’t like to visit such places. But she was habitual to such conditions maybe because she had more experience about such places than me. She once told me that she lived in Mumbai as long as she remembered, and was the only reason why i did eventually come to such places and waste my time and money. But i really found it worth sometimes.

“What?” I said as she threw crushed tissue paper at me to interrupt my memory.

 “Aree... Train kab hai tumhari?” she again shouted.

“It’s at 9:50 pm tonight from Panvel”. I hurriedly replied trying to get back to my memories while playing with my mocha coffee trying to look busy.

I was pushed back to past with her question. I recall the last time when a girl had asked this question to me. It was a long time back and I never thought something as silly as this could trigger anything.

Woh koi aur thi...and she almost had a mental break-down after this. All the more because that time too my answer was very similar to this. She busted into tears and was uncontrollably sobbing in the middle of a coffee house. I can’t tell you how embarrassing it was. It made me look like a villain at an Indian coffee House outlet in Sadar Nagpur. It is one of the oldest coffee houses in Nagpur. A place were senior citizens and intellectually sound people would gather, talk and discuss on all the unimportant issue to that didn’t affect them in anyway. And in the middle of their discussion they heard a girls crying and a funny guy sitting in front of her did manage to turn a few head towards us. I was been looked to as crime master Gogo type convict by them.

It was one of those weird situations when a certain company call you to join in 3 days and you are so messed up getting the documentation done that you forget everything else. More so if you are waiting for an opportunity, as a matter of fact any opportunity to get a job.

This was such moment and in excitement and frenzy during which I forgot to tell her.

“You are leaving tonight and you are telling me now??” she said.

I could barely understand what she was trying to say.

“See either you talk or you cry, you sound like an ape when you do it together” I said and her cries grew a bit louder. I tried to control my laughter and barely managed to do so.

“Now you sound like a older ape” I said but by the end of it just couldn’t control my laughter anymore. Both our voices were just loud enough to again turn a few head towards us.

“You always make fun of me” she said wiping her nose.

“Yaa especially when you cry... hai na?” i said

“Hmm” she replied.

“Do you mean I bully you always?” I asked.

“You never tell me anything and you always bully me and make me cry” she said and again started another round of crying.

“Aree meri maa....cry slowly...pitwayegi kya aaj mujhe” and again laughed.

This was the last time I had seen her. After that I never got a chance to get back to Nagpur. I don’t remember much of that conversation. Someone rightly said ‘if you knew a meeting would be your last you would surely remember it for a long time’

.........................

Suddenly this forgotten bit of conversation that reminded me how funny i was at times brought an unexpected laughter on my face. Now I was again fired up with this question. The face was different even attitude and nature was different.

But now the unwanted attention we were receiving was not because of our voice but because of our because of our appearance, we were all clobbered up in colour and the spirit of holi was shouting out of us out loud.

“Does that coffee looks funny to you?” the present lady asked me. It was really amazing how these Mumbai girls behave. Sometimes they behave like most graceful and well cultured lady even while standing at a ticket queue and sometimes they make a lavish Starbucks cafe ambience look like their living room.

She asked this question with her eyes popping out of her bluish, greenish and pinkish face.

“Not as funny as we are looking right now”. I replied and we both giggled out.

After a few steers to my coffee i said “after a very very long time someone has asked me this question, kisi ladki ne ... ki train kitne baje ki hai?”

“Why? I shouldn’t have asked this question or what?” she asked

“The more important question now is should we be here right now ....like this” I said with a naughty accent.

Following to which she leaned forward on the small coffee table on which we sat facing each other and said

“Husne ke gamm ko rang me na chuppa, Nigahon ke rang hal-eh-dil bayan kar denge...

Gunah jhoot ka humse kar loge but khuda-eh-mirror ko kya explaination doge???”

She banged the table as she completed it like a professional.

“What the hell was that? You totally ruined it? Shit yarr that pathetic....is that the best you can do?” I replied.

“Ok Mr. Expert beat it if you can” she leaned back on the chair as if she tossed a challenge to me. Suddenly something my mind recalled. Something that I had said last time in a similar situation, something that I had somehow forgotten, something that when I uttered filled the listener to whom it was intended with faith and happiness and stopped her from crying making her believe that all thing do eventually come back in your life. I know what the lady sitting in front of me now was trying to do but it just didn’t clicked.

I took me sometime to remember the exact words but I did eventually recall it.

 I copied her build up and leaned forward on the table and while maintaining a straight eye contact said. Something I had said long time back to a crying girl.

“Meri nigahon se khud ko dekh fakir,

Feheristh-eh-dua me tu he sarparast hai.”

 I ended up facing a stunned girl.... Again.

It’s rightly said sometime all it takes is a sentence and sometimes even a life time is less to convince your love.

Hope this Holi fulfills all your dreams and wishes. And do wish me Happy Birthday on 12th.
feedback and suggestion are welcomed.