Truly Yours..

Friday Aug 7th, It was another chill early morning in Hubli and I was in deep sleep at 5 A.M.

‘Wake up Mahesh, its 5 already. Come on, get out of bed and get ready. I will prepare tea for you meanwhile’, said mom lighting up the gas burner.

I was travelling to Bangalore to meet couple of my friends. Train for Bangalore leaves at 6.20 from Hubli railway station. Intercity express. Thousands of people board this train every morning and it’s always full and leaves sharp at time.

‘Alright mom’, I said rubbing my eyes coming out of bed. The previous night I slept a bit late and I knew that I would not complete my sleep anyways. I thought I will sleep in the train later.

I brushed my teeth quickly and took bath. Got dressed up and mom was already waiting for me with a cup of tea. I refreshed myself with tea, sprayed some cologne on my clothes. Meanwhile I cross checked my baggage in case I missed anything in hurry. Since my stay at Bangalore was only for 2 days, checklist was pretty short. I hugged mom and she wished me safe journey.

I walked to the railway station. The road to station was almost empty except for few people. Some were carrying bundles of newspapers and other people wearing sweater were sipping hot tea at a stall by the footpath. I walked briskly to the station and got the ticket. Meanwhile I could hear the train arrival-departure announcements.

‘Intercity express from Hubli to Bangalore will be departing from platform number three at 6.20 A.M’

I took the over bridge route to the 3^rd platform and started searching for a vacant window seat. Since I had arrived couple of minutes before time, I could find lot of empty seats in the compartments. I moved a bit further and got into the compartment. There were hardly 2 or 3 people. I took the window seat and dumped my backpack on the top shelf. The platform was almost empty towards the engine and the chill wind from across the station tousled my hair. I pulled down the glass window shutter, wore a woolen cap and kept myself warm.

It was almost the departure time and I heard the announcement that train will leave in a while. People rushed in the train and took their seats. Train started moving in few seconds and gained speed as soon as it moved out of station yard. I pulled my cap to cover my ears, took a deep breath and within seconds I dozed off.

The train passed through few stations, I couldn’t realize as I was asleep. Sometime later I could hear lot of noise. I opened my eyes to check if everything was alright. The bogie was full, and still some people were moving in the passage to find a seat. The two seats next to me were also occupied and there were no vacant seats in the compartment. The train left the station and gained pace again. The person sitting next to me was old man, aged somewhere around 55-60. He had a small hand bag which he had kept on his lap. Looking at the handbag I guessed that he was travelling somewhere near and will get down soon. I turned myself to the window and enjoyed the view of every passing object.

Couple of minutes passed and I realized I was hungry. I ate almost every kind of breakfast that I got and sipped a hot cup of coffee and felt relieved.

I opened my bag to get my iPod but I couldn’t find it there; I had left it on my bed in Hubli.

‘God, how will I pass time now’ was my next reaction. When you are travelling, you either need a good company or soothing music. When you don’t have both you ought to get bored and do nothing.

The very next station was Davangere and both the persons sitting beside me got off the train and a fat woman sat on the adjacent seat leaving a seat vacant between us. The train left Davangere in a while. I looked around. Two guys were standing at the doorway and I also noticed a girl, almost of my age in the opposite seat on the corner. I think she must have come aboard at Davangere. She had a bag pack and looked like a student. Every single person around her was staring as if they had never seen a beautiful woman before. I looked at her for some time until she got conscious and looked back at me. I felt embarrassed and sat back comfortably on my seat gazing at the window.

‘Can I take this seat?’ she asked to the old lady sitting adjacent to me. She wanted to sit right next to me. I got a bit conscious. She dumped her backpack on the luggage shelf and sat right next to me. The old lady sitting next to her had occupied almost one and half seat and hence we had to adjust in the rest vacant place available. Now that she is sitting right next to me, I couldn’t even look at her. She kept her legs on the footrest, rested her head on the seat and closed her eyes may be to take a nap.

To describe her, she was maybe two or three inches shorter than me, her skin tone was tan, black hair with a hint of curl, brown eyes and very clear face without any marks. I am not sure if she had applied any lip color, but it looked very natural. As she was sitting right next to me, every time she moved, I could feel her baby-smooth arms and the smell of her perfume was driving me crazy. She wore three gold bangles (Kada actually) and had a ring on both of ring fingers. Her ears were pierced and had small earrings on. She was wearing a light blue salwaar-kameez and was looking absolutely beautiful.

Alright, coming back to where I had left. She woke up in some time coz she had sneezed. Once… Twice… Thrice… and then I stopped counting. I think she sneezed almost a 100 times.  I thought she was feeling cold because I had kept the window open.

‘Do you want me to close the window miss?’

‘Oh no, it’s alright’ she said and opened her bag. She took out something, bought it near to her nose and inhaled. It must have been some kind of medicine, to stop her from sneezing. Then she pulled out a paper napkin and cleared her nose. I turned back to the window thinking about what she was doing. I took my bag from the luggage shelf, pulled off my cap and kept it inside. I kept gazing outside the window.

‘Do you work somewhere?’ she asked.

‘Yeah I do.’ And I continued to tell her about where I work. She must have seen the company name printed on my bag I guessed. Well, that is how the conversation started. It’s hard to believe, but in some time we conversed as if we knew each other for long time. She had these beautiful eyebrows which I noticed only after the conversation started. Every time she spoke something, she moved her eyebrows up and down. I was really getting attracted to her simplicity and the way she conversed.

We talked for hours. I had to get down at Yeshwantpur station as my cousin was supposed to pick me up at the station.

‘Alright, this is where I am getting down. It was nice talking to you’

‘It was nice talking to you too’, she said.

I just got off the seat, and said goodbye to her and stood in the passage. The train was yet to halt at the station. At that very moment I thought, ‘That’s it? All this nice conversation and I am never going to meet her again? Should I ask for her contact number?’

The only way to meet her again was if I could contact her. I had a bit of hesitation and lot of such questions in my mind. I was in dilemma whether to ask her number or not. I wasn’t sure if she would like to see me again. What if she doesn’t want to see me again and refuses to give her number. It would be so embarrassing. But if I don’t ask her, I would never get to meet her again. I thought it was worth a try. It was the ‘Never get to meet her again’ thought which made me ask her number.

‘Hey, Can I have your number?’ I asked keeping my fingers crossed.

‘Yes, Sure’ is what she replied. I passed a sigh of relief. I took her number and got down at the station with a big smile on my face.

Thanks to her sneezing, my company bag and of course my iPod which if I had not left it back in Hubli, the conversation would have never happened.