She stopped mid-way for something,
I slowed my pace, still moving towards her.
“Everyone freeze for a moment”,
she announced. I stopped mid-way.
“I want you all to meet a very
special in my life, he’s probably my everything and this has been the longest
period after which I’m meeting him, presenting to you-‘Rahul Sharma’”.
That came to me as a blow, I
stood there numb with my spine going cold all of a sudden. Everyone stood up to
greet Rahul Sharma, as Rahul and Tishani walked up to the lunch table. They
passed by me, with Tishani dropping a ‘hello’, to which I could not even
respond. While Mr Rahul met everyone, I
stood there shocked and heart-broken. Well this was certainly something I
didn’t plan for. Why didn’t it ever occur to me that her side of the story
might be completely different? A girl so deserving in terms of relationships, should
definitely be in a prospering relationship. I was ruined, didn’t had a word to
console myself though. Though I thought it was good that Rahul came just at the
right time, had he been 5 minutes late, I would have embarrassed not only
myself, but Tishani too. That was the only thing which served as a drop sized
relief in the ocean of agony and heartbreak. I left the place then and there.
Tishani’s room was next to me.
All through the afternoon I could hear Rahul and her laughing aloud and singing
to the full pitch of their voice. I tried not to hear, but all that I tried to
resist Tishani, was not just sufficient.
In the evening she knocked my
door and introduced me to Rahul. He appeared to be a nice guy, a six-feet
frame, a perfect physique, charming smiling and down to earth attitude, seemed
good enough for her. Tishani informed that everybody were to leave for the city
tour, I tried to pull it down as I was in no mood, but couldn’t refuse on her
insistence.
Rahul accompanied us on the city tour.
He was very well acquainted to the city. For all information about the places
he presented to our troop, he seemed to be our tour guide for the day. His
presence in the group created the same effect that Tishani’s presence used to.
Giving me an all new reason as to why they were together.
We returned to our hotel at
night, and I chose to order my dinner to the room. I didn’t have any strength
to face anyone. Tishani however didn’t return to the hotel. From all I knew,
they had some other plans together. All night I lay on my bed, lifeless,
waiting for the trip to end soon.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Day 6
I got up late. My phone had a few
missed calls from Tishani and a text.
‘I tried waking you up, you were
seemingly in deep sleep and didn’t pick up. I returned this morning and left
with everyone for the market. Join us when you are up. Rahul is with us to help
at marketing.’ her text read.
I felt all the more hopeless
reading the last sentence of her text, and was in no mood to step out of my
room.
I didn’t reply to her message because I didn’t know what to. I stayed in
my room till evening trying to revert myself back to the set of movies I brought,
which I could not. My mind was playing a never-ending slideshow of my moments
with Tishani. I could not get myself out of those memories.
By the evening, everyone came
back. I was invited over dinner, and gathering all the strength that I could, I
somehow managed to join them. Everyone was discussing the tour nearly coming to
its end, how they’ll cherish the tour for their lives, exchanging each other’s
contact number, sharing photos from the tour. I replied to the questions that
came my way in the best possible way I could wearing a fake smile, trying to
hide my plight.
Post dinner, I moved back to my
room and heard a knock. Tishani it was.
“Hey, where have you been all
day? I was expecting you at breakfast
followed by shopping, but you didn’t turn up; didn’t reply to my texts either.
Why? Everything alright?”, she asked in a go.
“Umm… yeah sort of…”, I replied
lamely.
“Hmm, you seem a bit stressed, I
have something that’ll cheer you come. Come with me.”
She walked up to the bed and sat
crossing her legs, asked me to sit by her side. She had her digicam held in her
hands. She started showing me the tour pictures right from the first day. It
was a sort of total recall journey. A few pictures of day 1 had me wandering
alone, caught giving funny expressions unknowingly. Brought a smile to my face.
She commented and gave me background of every photo that she showed me. Then
followed day 2 and 3 and 4. We had a few pic where both of us shared the same
frame, few of the sorts that I would have loved to get enlarged, printed and
framed to my room’s walls. Sitting so close to her, I could feel her fragrance
spreading all over me. The fragrance that she carried was ever so fresh as her
face and smile. She scrolled down to the next day, day 5. I was hardly in any
pic. I seemed to be replaced by Rahul. The issue that seemed to elude my mind
for the past half an hour made a haunting comeback. I tried to control myself
as hard as I could from breaking into tears in her presence. She left my room
in the next fifteen minutes after making sure at her end that I was all good
and back to normal.
The night then ran its course.
…………………………………………………………………………….
Day 7
I got up early, packed all my
bags and went down for supposedly the last community breakfast. Greeted
everyone with a smile and morning wishes; tried to maintain distance with
Tishani as far as possible, to avoid letting my heart down again. And we all
left for the airport and boarded our flight to India.
It was 22A, my seat number, this
time. And I remembered how I made my first ever conversation with Tishani 6
days ago, how the roller coaster of events started, how her deeds and presence
made me a better person in just 6 days, and how my heart broke. 21A was occupied
by Uncle George and 23A by Aunt Mary.
Uncle George started the
conversation, “So young Man, taking everlasting memories from the tour.”
“Yes Uncle, certainly.”
“She said a ‘Yes’ then?”, Aunt
Mary enquired.
“Aunty, I didn’t propose.”
“What?, she literally shouted, “O
Gee…Why didn’t you?”
“Aunty, I was all prepared to
propose her the day Rahul joined us, but I guess Rahul is the right person for
her and I didn’t want to be the third person in their relationship. They seem to
be happy and I didn’t want to embarrass them. Thus I retracted.”
“Rahul… you know who he is?”
I looked at her in surprise and
anticipation.
“He’s her maternal cousin idiot,
he lives in Bangkok.”
The announcement came to me as a
thunderbolt revelation. I took few minutes to think over it all once again,
everything seemed to make perfect sense now. Why he joined us at Bangkok, why
she appeared to be so close to him, why she made those announcements, why he
was so well acquainted to the city, and why she didn’t stay at hotel that night,
because she must’ve been invited by her aunt, Rahul’s mom. As my thoughts
cleared, I uttered aloud, “Oh my God, what have I done?”.
Aunt Mary and Uncle George stared
at me in amazement and anticipating my next move. “Uncle, Aunty, we still have
an hour left before we get down at Mumbai airport. I want to do this now…
should I ?”
“Yes ofcourse son, go ahead,
we’re with you”, they said in unison.
I walked upto an air hostess and
tried to describe her in brief what I wished to do. She arranged for a few
things I asked her to. I went to the washroom, glanced at the mirror to check
if I looked perfect for the event, stared myself in the eyes and reassured
myself, “Go for it Aman”.
I tucked in the pocket microphone
that the kind airhostess agreed to lend me. I stood at the entrance of the compartment,
took a deep breath and started,
“Attention everyone, I am Aman
Sinha. Exactly six days back, I took the very same flight for the tour. I was
an utterly idiotic and loner kind of a person; unaware of the earthly culture
of relations and socialisations and its importance. These 7 days, have somehow
changed me significantly and now I am a very happy person. I feel complete at
an emotional level; I feel to have achieved everything. The girl sitting right
there at 42A, Tishani Joshi, is the one whom I attribute this change in me to.
She made me realise on what I had been missing all these years. Tishani, will
you please come here”.
She looked at me in complete surprise. She
started taking steps towards me and when we were a mere 2 steps away, she
paused.
I continued, “Tishani, you are
the sole reason for the 360 degree change in me, your deeds inspire me to live
a better life, you have opened up a completely new horizon for my thoughts and
relationships to prosper. Your presence completes me. These seven days have
been so awesome for me, I wish to make the coming seventy years and more
awesome for both of us, I present to you every bit of my 5 foot 4 inch frame,
will you be with me?”, I completed and bent down on my knee holding a yellow
rose that the air-hostess managed for me, awaiting her answer.
She looked deeply into my eyes
for a few moments. There was a pin drop silence in the flight, everybody
staring at us, anticipating a happy ending.
“Mr. Aman Sinha, your aren't a
loner and definitely not an idiot, dare you use those words again. Aman, you
make me feel complete too. I wish to make the coming years awesome for us
too.”, she said with moist eyes. She took the yellow rose from my hand, held me
by my hands and got me up, followed by a hug, which was my first hug, so I
didn’t know the proper protocol, but holding on to her tightly seemed
appropriate. I could hear fellow passengers cheering us with their blessings
and applaud, as we hugged.
“Why didn't you propose me at
lunch that day?”, she whispered in my ear. “I wanted to, but then Rahul
appeared all of a sudden and I was intimidated by his 6 feet framed structure”,
I answered jokingly, holding her tightly. She giggled in my ears saying, “No
need for such intimidations, there is just one Aman Sinha whom I know and have
fallen in love with for life”, she reassured me. “Miss Tishani, let’s not say
you’ve fallen, let’s say we’ve risen in love, gives me the winning feel”. She giggled
again and finally said, “Yes, I’m with you, for now and forever”.
Everybody chanted, “Love is in
the air, Love is in the air, Love is in the air”.
………………………………………………………………………………
That’s my love story. Five years
have passed since I made the memorable tour. We married a year ago. It seems
unlikely, how the seven day tour transformed my life drastically and shaped my
life for better. But this is how destiny plays its part. Hard to believe, but
true. And as they always say,
‘When it happens, it happens’.
……………………………………………………………………………………………………….....................
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