My half-hour relationship
“Ye palampur ki bus kab ayegi bhaiya?” bus counter khaali dekhte huye maine conductor se pucha.
“Aadhe ghante mei aa jayegi bhaiya” he replied in his usual pitched voice.
I was at the Hamirpur bus stop waiting for the Palampur bus. I had heard a lot of stories from travelers that Palampur will give me internal peace and to be honest I wanted that pretty badly. After studying hard for my metric, it was time to get some rest. Not only physically, but, mentally too.
So, I was at the Hamirpur bus stand. I sat down in the complex and turned on my BoAt Rockerz 400 to listen to some music. What more could I expect at that time, I had music, I had my bus ticket and I was going to Palampur. It was like a Maja in Life moment for me. My bucket of happiness was ready to spill and then something heavenly happened. I saw her. Was this “love at first sight” that people talked about in the movies? Oh hell, yeah!!
She was wearing a pink tank top with black jeans. Her wavy black hair flowed in sync with the wind or was it just me? Hard to say. She also had on a pair of BoAt Rockerz 400 and she appeared ready to start dancing then and there. What I wouldn’t have given to know what she was listening to right at that moment. She looked like a strawberry ice cream walking directly towards me. I wanted a scoop of it.
“Ye Palampur ki bus kab ayegi bhaiya?” she inquired while unwrapping a piece of gum.
“Sorry? I ain’t conductor here. Do I really look like a conductor to you?” I spewed back at her while thinking “I would definitely be the conductor if she were to be my bus.” Wow, what a disturbing analogy.
“Lol, sorry. Serious much?” she said with a mischievous smirk.
Her smirk had my heart doing somersaults. God help me, please. Her smirk changed into a half-grin showing her snowy white teeth. She had something special about her grin too. It was just the right amount of cuteness and mischief to walk away after making trouble.
“We are Headphone buddies,” she said pointing at my BoAt Rockerz.
“Are we now?” I asked back with a smile. “Well, have a seat by your headphone buddy then.”
“Gracia headphone buddy,” she said sitting down. The conversation died down for a minute.
I spoke with a little hesitation “My name is Pratap.”
“Hi Pratap, I am Divyanshi. Nice to meet you” she replied with yet another grin. All I could see were her gleaming eyes, perfectly shaped lips, and me marrying her. Don’t laugh at me, you will see when it happens to you. Time seemed to have paused. And I was totally willing to pay any amount that I didn’t have to have time frozen right at that instant forever.
“How did you know that I am going Palampur?”, I asked to keep the conversation going.
“Duh! You are sitting right in front of the bus counter for Palampur”, she replied with an unamused face pointing to the board saying Palampur at the counter.
Damn! Why didn’t I think of some other line? That was so freaking simple.
“I could have thought of a better line to break the ice, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, try again”, she urged me with a twinkle in her eyes.
“Divyanshi, do you know, your smile is absolutely enchanting, say, what toothpaste do you use?” I said with seriousness in my voice.
She looked into my face for like ten seconds straight and then burst out laughing.
“Single I assume you are, huh?.” She squeezed out while continuing to chuckle.
The conversation went silent once again. Thinking I had flunked it, I turned on my headphones and was putting them on when she finally spoke up.
“I have heard that Palampur gives inner peace to the visitors who seek for it. It gives a gift of happiness to every visitor. Is this true?” She was looking into my eyes in hope of looking for an answer.
“I am here to find out as well. A couple of first-timers or so it would seem. I heard the same stories, that’s why, I am going there”, I said.
She just nodded at me and put her headphones on. I, too, did the same thing and we waited for the bus to arrive. The only difference between us was that she was listening to music and I was just pretending to be listening to music while stealing glimpses of her face once in a while. How could someone look so cute and hot at the same time? I kept thinking of ways to continue the scene forward. Should have I asked her, why she’s looking for inner peace or why was she so serious about finding inner peace? A loud horn broke my meandering line of thoughts. We both stood up, exchanged small grins, and boarded the bus. The bus was practically full. We both got our respective seats and the journey started.
After a couple of stops, I felt a gentle tap on my right shoulder. I looked back and to my unexpected expectations, it was Divyanshi, my smiling angel Divu herself. Aah, I had missed her. I should have really sat in the back of the bus for obvious reasons. She asked whether she could take my window seat. I, more than, gladly complied with her request. Now we were sitting by each other with the sweet hill breeze blowing in through the open window.
I was sitting next to my crush. We both continued listening to music and I was smiling quite oafishly for some reason. Everything was cool until a tiny drop of wetness hit my cheek and upon looking I saw tears in her eyes. Maybe the music was hitting her hard and proving to the world that my mom had raised a gentleman, I reached inside my backpack’s side pocket and conjured up a tissue.
“I am sorry”, She said, accepting the napkin.
“Hey, I am not saying anything. We all have our reasons to tear up”, I said with I don’t give a f* attitude in my voice.
Actually, it’s a good thing. When someone is crying next to you and you don’t know what else to do at the moment, just try not to be bothered by the crying person and pretend like it never happened. I did the same.
“I am just having a few rough days. Don’t want to cry again, so, please don’t ask.” She said wiping her tears and doing her best to make it look light and did I detect a hint of a smile there too?
“Nobody ain’t asking nothing,” I replied a little too fast.
After this little incident, we both went back to our music world and the journey continued. I didn’t realize when I fell asleep, but, after waking up I squeezed my hands and exhaled deeply. That’s when I realized that I was holding something in my left hand. My eyes snapped open. I was holding my co-passenger’s hand in my left hand. And what else, our fingers were intertwined. Isn’t that how a couple holds a hand? As it so happened, she also appeared to have dozed off. And now, we were holding hands. Holding her hand didn’t seem strange at all either. It felt right. I didn’t want that moment to end and therefore, didn’t wake her up to question how our hands ended up intertwined together. I slipped back into the realm of dreams holding her hand in mine.
When I woke up, she was also up and looking out the window.
“Had a good nap?”, I asked rubbing my eyes.
“Yeah, it was quite refreshing”, she said without looking at me.
I took that as a gesture not to speak any further. I turned my head towards the conductor and asked about the ETA of Palampur. It turned out to be the next stop only. The bus stopped at Palampur bus stand and we got off. So, there it was, the time to stop stealing glimpses of her serene face was here at last. My heart felt a little heavy. My mouth felt like sandpaper. My throat seemed to have closed up. I hoped it all didn’t actually show on my face.
“Thank you! Headphone buddy.”, she said suddenly. “Thanks for being a stranger and not a strange guy.”
“Sure, sure,” I blurted back. "Did you forget my name though?", I said smiling sheepishly.
She smiled. Not a grin, not a smirk, but an actual smile. My heart did one last set of somersaults.
"Guilty as charged", she admitted. "What was it again?"
“Pratap aka Headphone Buddy for you Divu”, I announced with a wink.
We shook hands and shared one last pair of crooked smiles and turned away from each other to go our separate ways. I wanted to ask her where she meant to go from there and if I could tag along but at the same time, I didn’t want to appear like I was invested in her in any way. Was this my chance at making something happen with a girl? Maybe. Maybe not.
After walking a few paces away, my brain started thinking if I should have asked for her number. Should I have given her mine, just in case she needed it. Should I have asked her about the reason behind those tears? I know she told me not to ask but isn’t that what girls do? Should I turn around and do these right now? She is still right behind me.
“Aah darn it!” I cussed and turned."Hey, listen…"
There was no one behind me. How much time did I spend thinking over all this? She was just here and now she isn't.
I had just arrived in Palampur and I already felt like I have had found inner peace in the 30-minutes long bus ride. The journey is more valuable than the destination indeed it seemed. The stories of Palampur were true.
Divyanshi was my inner peace which I had sought to find in Palampur. With this thought, I walked away with a massive oafish smile on my face listening to my music.
Labels: Story
