An Armed Adversary

Past

9.15. As usual I reached the station just on time. My dad’s incessant ranting about going early to a place never had any effect on me. At 25, I still managed to do things only at the nick of time. School , college , exams , work , bus, train, even flight ! I was never a bird to do a thing in advance. Wait till the last moment and struggle to complete a thing or reach a place ! gee !! when am I going to get out of it ?

I walked swiftly to S6. I wanted to reach the seat as fast as possible, keep the baggage, take the book and start reading it. So far there has just been a mention of Anna as Stiva’s sister but she hasn’t yet made her appearance in the world of Stiva, Dolly, Levin or Kitty. If she were so important to be named as the book’s title, where was she – the all important Anna Karenina? I had a feeling that I could see her soon and that was the main reason for all the eagerness. People would want to shut off lights by 11. “Damn! Yes , there are moments in a man’s life when he yearns for a private coach!”

I reached my berth , kept my baggage and immediately immersed myself into ‘Anna Karenina’.

As it always happens, when I least want it, my mobile rings. It rang. Siju ! what did he want ? gosh ! he’d said he’s coming to chennai. For some interview or something. Anyway he’d be staying at my place. will talk to him then. Let me go back to the book. I waited for the ringing to die , changed the settings to silent mode, turned off vibrator, kept the mobile back into my pocket and resumed with the book.

I’d read read a couple of pages and I found the book being snatched away from me. There he was – the all smiles chap Siju. He had the book with him.

“eda, aval evide undu”
(“She is here”)

“aaru”
(“Who”)

“aval.”
(“she”)

“bullshit! ” There was this girl whom he was going behind. He had completely fallen -was obsessed with watching her in the morning while she went to her office and in the evening when she left it. He never got tired of watching her. He had taken a snap of hers using his mobile and used to look at it for hours. But unfortunately the sad soul hadn’t mustered the courage to speak to her.

“No, This is not like earlier ones. I know she is the one for me. There will be no looking back.”

“Ok. Go ahead. Why should I come? ”

“She is sitting with another gal whom you know”

“ME ! who is that ?”

“Priya”

“My classmate in Christ College? the fattie?”

“Yes. You just go, speak to her. Get introduced to my girl. Then..”

“Then the hero makes his appearance ! poyi pani nokkada. Give me my book.”

“Please.. please.. she’s a beauty, man. I wont be able to sleep tonight.”

“Ok. I’ll go. I’ll start the talk, then you come and when you are talking with them , I’ll withdraw taking my book. Ok? ”

He brightened.
“wokay machha. romba ok. Pokalam , pakkalam”

“where are they ?”

“S1”

We walked towards S1. I glanced at the people in other bogies. Surprisingly most of them were young. There were many girls – good looking ones that too. Yeah ! my book reading passion had made me miss a lot of things. Wouldn’t it be good to be sitting with a girl and talking ? forget it ! a talk today and she is gone tomorrow but a read today and the characters live in mind forever.

The train of thought was stopped by Siju holding my hand.

“The next one is the compartment” he whispered.

I stopped. Took a breath. It had to be natural. “walk straight , glance this way and that way casually and then suddenly look surprisedly towards her” I told myself
All credit to me. I did exactly that!

“Hey! Rups. It’s a surprise. how’re you ? what takes you to chennai? What’ve you been doing all these days? Howz your dad ? the one and only premanand ? you’ve thinned down yaar. I can no more call you fattie. I guess the credit goes to the rigorous med school schedule.”

“Seban, you haven’t changed a bit even after all these years. You still ask too many questions”

We laughed in unison.
But as always, she did answer to my queries. It was 6 years since we’d met. She had finished her MBBS and was doing post grad. She immediately started filling me with the happenings of past years. How life was tough for bright kids who did MBBS and how it was very simple for engineers who get job easily and make more money.
While we talked, the other girl just sat there neither uninterested nor interested. She didn’t show any impatience at being left out in the conversation. She sat there listening silently to our conversation. But I was getting impatient. The intent of coming was not being met. I had to break in! I gave Priya a good smile , glanced towards her friend and asked
“This is? class mate ? ”
Priya suddenly stopped, turned to her friend - “oh ! sorry. Seban, this is Celin. Close pal. Was in Christ. Our senior. Commerce batch.”
I extended my hand “Sebastian”
She shook my hands “Celin”
It might be the way she said her name. Suddenly it brought me back a flurry of memories – of college days. Yes, I had heard of this name - 'Celin' during college days.
“Are you Celin Chacko ? One who was our college magazine editor. One who used to write a lot of articles on college news letter ?”
She smiled.
“Yes”
“Cool, I used to love your articles. You know , you were brilliant. I particularly liked your movie reviews and book reviews. Let me remember some , yeah - ‘Forrest jump – hank leaps far ahead of competition !’ , ‘Gone with the widow’ .. many more. I wish I could recollect them!”
She laughed . “Oh my god ! don’t be so flattering. ”
At that very moment Siju came into the cabin.
“Hi Siju”
“Hey Rups. This is Siju. My friend. Was in also in Christ. Siju, this is Priya, this is Celin”.
I didn’t want to go. But I had given my word !
“Folks, just give me a second. I think I have left my bag open. Let me atleast close it, if not lock”
I took the book from Siju’s hand and left back to my seat, slept as I was reading it.

Siju’s shaking woke me up.
“we have reached chennai.”
“OK. Let me just wash my face. how long has it been since it stopped ?”
“5 minutes. I saw them off. Priya’s uncle had come to receive them.”
“Who. Ok. Those girls. ok”
I looked at him. He was smiling a sheepish smile. I know what he would’ve done. Would've talked at least for an hr trying to impress both gals. I had to admit. This guy had a flair with girls. The only problem was he never stuck to one.

We talked on the way to my room. Thiruvanmiyur was 30 minutes from here. He filled me with all details. Celin had come to work here. She had done her MBA and just got into Sify. By the end of the journey I knew all about her – her family , her likes , dislikes, ambitions – everything. But I just listened since he was telling me. I was least interested. Wished he could tell if she had stopped her writing or what she was reading now. I wanted to ask him , but didn’t .

“Well ! forget it.how does it matter ? I wont be seeing her again.”

Siju finished his interview and went back to Bangalore. I carried on with my work.Celin and Priya were forgotten amidst Arrays, threads, interfaces and other java programming buzzwords.

It was Onam and they had made a floral arrangement at the ground floor. I wanted to see it. Went there during lunch. I was admiring the ‘pookkalam’ when someone said “Hi”. I looked back to see – Celin.

“I forgot your name. You are Siju’s friend , right ?”
I smiled. Siju ! mone ,kudos to you !

“Sebastian. Siju is in touch with you, is he ?”

“He mails me often. Too good a chap. Don’t you agree ?”

“Yeah. a gem.” Yeah ! he hasn’t mailed me for past 2 months.
“Do you still write ?” I asked.

“No yaar. Not much. I don’t get time. Somehow find time to read. Sqeezing in reading amidst all this work is quite a tough task. But if I don’t read, I’d feel as though I am missing something. You’d read my articles. You must be a reader yourself. What do you read?”

“Yeah. That’s the only thing that I do. I sqeeze in work in between my readings and dreaming.”

I said it earnestly and seriously. But she laughed.
“You are humorous ! tell me what you are reading now.”

“ ‘Tess of d’Urbervilles’– Thomas Hardy . I like classics.”

“wow ! I too love classics. I’ve read Tess. It is so tragic you know.”
There was no stopping after that. We spoke for almost 5 hours.I went to office, took my bag and left for home.

That was the beginning.
We met often. We discussed nothing but books. Dialogues , favourite moments, the purpose , the characters. We read books together , tried to predict what would happen in the next chapter , talked about alternate endings. We wrote poems and sang them , wrote plays and played them – sometimes she would be a queen , sometimes an executive , sometime a tough mother-in-law , all as per our plays. A play today we might convert to a short story tomorrow or a poem or sometimes it would happen just the other way.

Siju called. He was coming to chennai. He was worried that she wasn’t writing to him. I said it might be because she is busy. He said there was a happy news which he wanted to share. I asked him what it was. He said he would say it once he came there.

I went to the office. My mind was not in work. I wanted to complete the article that we were writing , one about today's children not bothered much about festivals. It was titled – “Moan ! It is Onam”. That moan was an anagram of onam made me smile.

As I was smiling and writing, my manager came to my seat
“Sebastian, Could we have a word ?”
We went into a meeting room. He talked for 15 minutes in a high-pitched voice, shouting this and that, about me having missed all deadlines. Something .. I dont remember. I heard nothing except for the last sentence – “either you be more attentive to work or resign. I have no use of dreamers. I want doers.”
I felt as though I had lost sensitivity.
“ok. I’ll resign. This is far from the job that I want to do or can do. Bye. If you want me to serve the notice period, I’ll do so.”
I wanted it to be over. Wanted to get back to what I was writing.
He was furious.
“Get out. By tomorrow get all the formalities done.”

Siju came in the next day morning.

(To be continued..)

Seeking Heaven

She was an interesting girl, lovely, completely lively. One could just sit with her and time would just fly away. I was happy – happy to be completely yielding myself to her continuous gibbering. She talked about everything under the sky – movies , moviestars, songs, singers, jobs, India, bangalore, kerala, Malayalam, church, English, her family, her childhood pranks, school, college and what not! It didn’t matter to her that we’d just met. She spoke to me as though she had known me for years. I too felt as though I had known her all along.

She wore a smile that made one instantly happy. It was not timid smile which struggled to come out of a shy person, nor an innocent smile which melted your heart but a radiant one and it just drove all sadness out of you.

When she laughed you knew that it came from the core of her heart. It was a laughter which seemed to vibrate her whole persona. The surrounding seemed to vibrate too. And you laughed with her – of course.

My days were numbered but with Leena taking care of me, I knew I would die a happy man.

(To be continued..)