It was December 31st of 2006, the whole world was waiting for the New Year to be born and everyone was in a party mood, while I was in my hotel room in Hyderabad packing up my suitcase to go back to Chennai. I had to take a train at 6.30pm and travel all night to Chennai.
I regarded this as my worst New Year celebration, to be sitting in the train, or probably sleeping, when all my family and friends were partying and welcoming the New Year. I got early to the station and got into the train, as I tucked my luggage up. I figured I have time for a cup of coffee, so I went out and had a coffee and came back to my place, to see a girl sitting just opposite to my seat. I wouldn’t say she was an angel, but to describe her… she was a beautiful painting that had come to life, or a bouquet of flowers in a woman’s body.
Even though all her movements and behavior was normal, it seemed as if they were in slow motion time freeze scene going on before my eyes. The way she looked outside in boredom, with her beautiful brown eyes. The hair that kept falling in her face, the fingers directing it towards the back of her ear. Which looked like a chocolate chip cookie, the chocolate chip being her earring.
So as time flew by, as I was admiring her for a while now. The train had started to move. For once I thought sooner and sensibly, I was 25 and not getting any younger, perhaps it’s high time for me to get into a good long term relationship which would probably end up in marriage. So I thought why waste time admiring her from a distance, when I can talk and know about her. So I started it, without any second thoughts.
I said, “Hi am Arun, what’s your name and how are you? “She replied “am fine” and kept quiet. So it was a sort of first move rejection. But I couldn’t give up, so I asked again, “what’s your name?” and there was a reply “Am Shalini”. I was so happy for that moment, as if I had accomplished something great. I had got to know my future wife’s name. So I then continued “so are you going to Chennai?” Before I could realize that was a dumb question, there was an answer “ya, I am going back to Chennai “. Luckily, I had got a thread now… “So you are based in Chennai. Me too, so what was your purpose of visit to Hyderabad? “. She replied “it’s personal”.
I thought it was a second stop for me and shut myself up and gave myself time, to slow down things and maybe postpone humiliation. But things changed immediately, she then started the conversation after a long silent time between us. She asked me “what was your purpose of coming to Hyderabad?” I didn’t even wait a second to reply, I said “I came here on a business meeting. I am a project manager in a biotech company in Chennai, Came here to meet one of my clients, a very official trip”. I didn’t stop there… “My company offered me flight tickets for the trip, but I prefer trains you see… it’s comfortable and safe.” She then kind of mocked “ ya, but u don’t have to be sitting here in the train on new year’s eve with a flight back home in 2 hours, you know train journey takes up lot of time”
Something came up in me and I said, “why would I worry about being here, when I have got company of a beautiful girl, it’s probably going to be the best new year of my life”. She immediately replied a bit annoyed “what? You think I am a good company? You hardly spoke to me for 5 minutes and this is going to be the best New Year’s Eve for you? How lame can that be?” The words, it was like a thorn to your private parts. It was kinda hard to come back from it, but I did…
I said “well, experts say that it takes 31 minutes exactly for a man to make an impression on a woman by talking. I am not an expert so let’s say I can make an impression on you in an hour? You want to try it out?”
She had this look on her face, which said either it was a surprise or am a desperate guy. She hesitantly replied “ahem… I don’t know what you are up to, but why not, let’s see if this so called theory works on me.”
So I thought it was my only lucky chance, so I started off with my most interesting thing about me, I said “ hey, do you know, I was born the day Halley’s comet appeared on sky ?” and it worked out.. She became interested. She was like “wow… that’s something I’ve never come across. You seem very special”
Then it began, our conversation went on for more than 2 hours. And I came to a certain belief that I had made a big impression on her by this time. I got to know lots about her. She was a software engineer from BITS, only daughter to her parents. She was a maharastrian by origin but born and raised in Chennai. Her likes and dislikes were contradictory to mine. It was almost like she was just the opposite of me, but in a good way. She was an intelligent, smart, beautiful, humorous, person, she is a bit short tempered and sometimes can be moody, But it was quite enough to handle and also, the stars matched… she was a Libran, the best compatibility for Aquarians.
It was dinner time, and she was a vegetarian, which was also inverse of me, since I am a meat lover. The more and more I talked to her, I felt myself pulled towards her. I was at any moment going to lose control and say “I love you” to her. Before some hours, I was sitting opposite to her, just admiring her beauty but now, I was sitting by her side with shoulder rubbing distance and having dinner with her in the train, already it was turning out to be the best New Year’s Eve as I said before.
To make the night, the most memorable ever something happened that I never thought would happen, when I boarded the train in the evening. It was almost midnight and we were still talking. The whole compartment had gone to sleep, lights were dimmed everywhere. So when it struck 12 midnight. I wished her “a very happy new year”. She too wished me the same and then came forward to hug me and we hugged. When I was about to come back from the hug, I felt an very high urge to kiss her, and I kissed… she too responded to the kiss and we were there kissing passionately, with our eyes closed and I felt blank, It felt like I was feeling the love, something I never felt before, when I had previously kissed. The kiss was to say, “Perfect” according to me.
Then, when we parted our lips, I was now in urge to propose to her to marry me right now, and I uttered the words “ I love you” but she had something else to say, she said “ I am sorry !, I shouldn’t have done this. Please don’t take it wrong, the kiss came in a spur of the moment and I can’t love you”. Needless to say, I was quite a lot surprised, my reply was just a “what “.
She then told me something, which she didn’t even care to talk about in 3 hours and more of our conversation, in her own words “I am sorry Arun, but I am getting married in two weeks, the reason I came to Hyderabad was to meet my fiancé who’s been there for past 3 months on a work assignment”
Those words fell like an Atom bomb on my garden of dreams. The girl whom I thought would be future Mrs. Arun was going to marry another man in 2 weeks, and I get to hear this after the most beautiful kiss of my entire life, with someone whom I thought was the perfect partner for me, an accidental love which had its death, even before birth.
After those words, I couldn’t help myself from cracking down, but I didn’t want her to feel sorry for me, so I went away from the seats and went near the door of the compartment and sat there, with a tear in my eye, trying not to think about what happened, but still thought about it the whole night.
We reached Chennai, very early in the morning, I didn’t want to even face her, but couldn’t help it, so saw her once, then said, happy married life and got down from the train. We parted our ways to our respective destinations.
The best New Year’s Eve turned into the worst start for a new year. ..!
