‘Together’ was no longer a word for them. It was an emotion. An emotion as simple and yet complicated like sadness or elation. Standing in the rain outside her house he whispered the three words that meant a lot to him. She received them with a smile, not a grateful smirk or a faithful grin but a simple smile as if she knew what was coming. She knew he would say it. She knew it would mean a lot to him .She knew it would rain.
The perfect thing about rain in Kerala is that it rains so much that for once people are busy.. They stop poking their noses into other people’s daily attempts at life. For once they are concerned about their ‘mundu’ getting dirty in the rain or their ‘sarees’ loosing color to the drainage water. They have their ‘Popy’ umbrellas and their “lunar’ slippers which are older than the ruling parties promises though equally charred and compromised. For once when the couple stood holding hands in public ‘they’ didn’t bother.
They had been friends for too long now. He founds a happiness that he couldn’t find with anyone else. To go with her on long walks across the city dodging people, to stare at a distant cloud and wonder if its going to rain, to watch her play with her hair as she told a story about some fisher man who lost his arm and to listen to her breathe away to sleep in his cell phone.
He couldn’t pass in exams while she couldn’t fail. She couldn’t bear movies while he could. They were different though not entirely. He wouldn’t lie and she couldn’t. He would drool around waiting for her to get into his bus and then pretend not to see her. She would pray that he was there. They both would act surprised and busy reading old text messages in their cell phones.
A rain bearing cloud ignored the moment when she said that she had enough of him. That was a long time back. It was for something unimportant. He wouldn’t let his ego go for he believed that ego is all that we have. She wouldn’t let herself go. She wouldn’t enjoy the moment. She planned. Planned about studies, about life and about retirement.He was like a log in the stream and she was like the stream itself..
And before they knew they were two different people in two states. He went to clear all his failed exams and she went to the busy MNC life.He befriended the cigarettes while she found happiness in the malls. He had new friends and she had co-workers.He wanted to call her when he passed all his back-papers but something inside him told ‘she wouldn’t care’. She wanted to cry to him when her boss made a move on her but he had changed his phone number. He wanted her to find if there is a vacancy in her company but his ego wouldn’t let him. He took an old copy of her resume and edited it to make his new one. He got a call from the company. He didn’t perform well. The company hired him anyhow. He didn’t want to join. He didn’t want to run into her in the same city.
He saw her at the multiplex twice with a chap half his size. He walked away. She saw him in the railway station once but she had to catch a train.
The valentines days never used to be special when they were together. It was like any other day. But this time it was different. She wanted to meet him. He got her number but wouldn’t call. She left a mail in his old email
He was excited. “Will there be a future ?”. She was scared. ‘Will there be a future ?”.
He saw her across the street in her yellow salwar. He knew the feeling never died. She wanted to smile. For once he let his ego take a step back..He said, “How are you ?”
She replied “ I am fine”
He smiled. He wanted to hold her hands and he did. She smiled again. Was it love or an old flames charm?
A few men came running out of nowhere. One of them bore a sword and the other a videocam. He held her close to him. A man wearing a saffron scarf knocked him out into the pavement. He got back on his feet and found himself on the ground again. They stubbed turmeric on him and on her. “jai Sree Ram” they shouted.
“Didn’t you see the warning ?” one of them shouted. She cried. He spat blood. One of them recorded all these.
The guy with sword stood like an old maharaja’s statue.
“No dating, on valentines day” the man shouted again. They took a ‘rakshabandhan’ out and handed it to her.
“Tie it on him “
She resisted. HE slapped her. She fell on the payment. “tie it on him”.
She stood up and said “ I love him”.
The man with sword moved…. .
(http://www.bibliofaction.com/read/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?news=df1c6f47-4361-43cf-bb84-3005741ac0ca)
http://www.pakistan.tv/videos-incidents-of-hatred-on-valentines-day--[8bZizjLfeuc].cfm
