There were these strange moments..when out of nowhere like a bolt of lightning..no, actually it was never that harsh..like a flash of light..as if he was being enlightened..he would think of her. Not when he was with his friends discussing girls and football and stuff..things that boys talk about when they gang up (I can't help with this, not being a boy or having known boys so closely). Anyway, no..., that was not when he thought of her. He did not look at her ever in class or otherwise. He never had to...
Physics class..Sajid sir explaining something which I never understood..and in any case don't remember at the moment..that was a very unlikely day..It was late August...afternoon..it should have been hot..so that all of us would have a natural reason to be sleepy and lethargic. Surprisingly none of us were..we were all up though you couldn't call us upbeat....and the day wasn't hot...it was breezy..there was no sun...it was going to rain and we knew it...the soothing yellow light that suffused the school ground promised us that. Then all of a sudden he thought of her. Just like that. He didn't know that he had ever observed her lashes so closely. He was surprised that he remembered them so vividly. They were long and thick..Not as long or thick as Aeshita's though. He liked her. He wasn't sure but he thought Aeshita liked him back too. He was going to ask her out this Saturday...
Yes...it was the most unlikely day. Sajid sir let us off early, which was something that had never happened till then and never happened again. We had almost half an hour to kill before we went back home. Not that any of us wanted to...it was the last year of school. And in that year people get close like never otherwise..each moment becomes special. As the grown ups of the school we had certain powers that made life very sweet. At the same time there was this terrible...unarticulated sense of fear. None of us admitted it. We ween't even aware of it, I guess. But the sense of community that such a feeling created in us was strong...deep. Going away from school was like getting a taste of the world which we weren't sure we were ready to enter..and for my part I wasn't even sure it I wanted to enter...
He took this opportunity to talk to Aeshita. He was right. She did like him. And when ten minutes later he asked her out she said yes. The latest of the tens of couples that had sprouted on the first floor of the old wing of the school in the last two months. But somehow this didn't seem as unlikely as some of the others though...they were kinda like the jock and cheerleader couple in the teen movies...who seem perfect with each other...of course the cheerleader had to be bad and the jock would inevitably fall in love with the girl who had loved him all year and the goodness of whose heart wins her her love at the end after the jock realises how gorgeous she looks at the prom night...that does not happen here. Aeshita was not a friend. But she was not a bad person. And the story does not end like the movies...well, not exactly.
And what she, and I don't mean Aeshita here, doing? She was staring out of the window. She wrote poems. But she was not writing one at the moment. It was too soon..then she started talking to her friends. They always seemed to have a million things to discuss. My romantic heart wanted her eyes to flit in his direction once in a while...for them to betray a tinge of bitterness...But today was not the day for it. It was the most unlikely day.
He had a cousin sister. He loved the little thing more than any other in the world. She had the chubbiest of cheeks. And they reminded him of her. Not her cheeks. Just her. I wish I could say a little more about this. But I can't. Because there is nothing more to say.
It was very weird....I assure you.
The next summer all of us passed out of school. Aeshita and he were still a pair much to my annoyance. That was not how it was meant to be. But there was no helping it also for they were clearly in love with each other. It seemed like the only one whose heart was broken was mine...I had hoped for so much. It was just strange that things didn't work out the way I wanted them to. I was so sure that he liked her and she liked him in some deep mysterious way. They weren't like the best of friends or anything. They enjoyed each other. And yet they were never together. Theirs was a relationship that was so subtle that nobody knew of it....it lay so deep that it was hardly visible..
Or so I'd like to think!!!!
Physics class..Sajid sir explaining something which I never understood..and in any case don't remember at the moment..that was a very unlikely day..It was late August...afternoon..it should have been hot..so that all of us would have a natural reason to be sleepy and lethargic. Surprisingly none of us were..we were all up though you couldn't call us upbeat....and the day wasn't hot...it was breezy..there was no sun...it was going to rain and we knew it...the soothing yellow light that suffused the school ground promised us that. Then all of a sudden he thought of her. Just like that. He didn't know that he had ever observed her lashes so closely. He was surprised that he remembered them so vividly. They were long and thick..Not as long or thick as Aeshita's though. He liked her. He wasn't sure but he thought Aeshita liked him back too. He was going to ask her out this Saturday...
Yes...it was the most unlikely day. Sajid sir let us off early, which was something that had never happened till then and never happened again. We had almost half an hour to kill before we went back home. Not that any of us wanted to...it was the last year of school. And in that year people get close like never otherwise..each moment becomes special. As the grown ups of the school we had certain powers that made life very sweet. At the same time there was this terrible...unarticulated sense of fear. None of us admitted it. We ween't even aware of it, I guess. But the sense of community that such a feeling created in us was strong...deep. Going away from school was like getting a taste of the world which we weren't sure we were ready to enter..and for my part I wasn't even sure it I wanted to enter...
He took this opportunity to talk to Aeshita. He was right. She did like him. And when ten minutes later he asked her out she said yes. The latest of the tens of couples that had sprouted on the first floor of the old wing of the school in the last two months. But somehow this didn't seem as unlikely as some of the others though...they were kinda like the jock and cheerleader couple in the teen movies...who seem perfect with each other...of course the cheerleader had to be bad and the jock would inevitably fall in love with the girl who had loved him all year and the goodness of whose heart wins her her love at the end after the jock realises how gorgeous she looks at the prom night...that does not happen here. Aeshita was not a friend. But she was not a bad person. And the story does not end like the movies...well, not exactly.
And what she, and I don't mean Aeshita here, doing? She was staring out of the window. She wrote poems. But she was not writing one at the moment. It was too soon..then she started talking to her friends. They always seemed to have a million things to discuss. My romantic heart wanted her eyes to flit in his direction once in a while...for them to betray a tinge of bitterness...But today was not the day for it. It was the most unlikely day.
He had a cousin sister. He loved the little thing more than any other in the world. She had the chubbiest of cheeks. And they reminded him of her. Not her cheeks. Just her. I wish I could say a little more about this. But I can't. Because there is nothing more to say.
It was very weird....I assure you.
The next summer all of us passed out of school. Aeshita and he were still a pair much to my annoyance. That was not how it was meant to be. But there was no helping it also for they were clearly in love with each other. It seemed like the only one whose heart was broken was mine...I had hoped for so much. It was just strange that things didn't work out the way I wanted them to. I was so sure that he liked her and she liked him in some deep mysterious way. They weren't like the best of friends or anything. They enjoyed each other. And yet they were never together. Theirs was a relationship that was so subtle that nobody knew of it....it lay so deep that it was hardly visible..
Or so I'd like to think!!!!
3 comments:
one doubt. does the narrator change at the end? It seems like the "she" is talking here.
one point-do we have the term "cousin sister"? I know we do use it off and on...but is it the right usage? I really liked the starting. and the points where he refers to the girl. You overdid some points where you talk as if suddenly you have reached britian or the us, with prom nights and the like. I feel you should stick to one terrain...its upto you to chose which.
was nice reading this though...
cheers
very nice idea.... i like ur endin and ur beginning.... like ur style also.. jus one little piece of advice... i think u ramble a bit... some sentences need to be better placed....especially in the middle..
i especially like the way you write as though u r talkin to ur readers...
enjoyed the read... ciao!
@ vrinda
thanks for the comment. this is coming quite late..but anyway..
-there is no change in the narrator
-i don't know if there is anything called cousin sister-i just wanted to make it very clear that the cousin was a female!
-the prom nights entered majorly coz i have been watching too many teen flicks. somehow its become a part of my reality..
@ Anon..Mind Bedouin rather!
first of all i love the name. very exotic!
i know you have been very consistently asking me to stop going all over the place..i guess i am beginning to see the problem at least at times. i will pay a lil more attention to that. but i also think that for this particular piece a little rambling is needed.
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