Love Story ?

It was just another mundane Monday morning (it alliterates!!!) after a languorous weekend of sleeping, eating and more sleeping. He wondered whether there is excitement surrounding everybody else’s lives or is it that grass is always greener on the other side. He as usual got up late, knew was going to be late to the office and also knew that he was going to miss a meeting. That thought dint trouble him much but what did bother him was the extreme boredom he had been inflicted with. He managed to drag himself out of the house and was on his way to the uninviting office.

He had to cross a road to reach the bus stop and every time he thinks of crossing that road he just wishes that the signal is red so that he doesn’t have to wait. It’s a simple wish at times it gets fulfilled at times it doesn’t. Today it was not to be. When ever he is stuck in such situations he bides his time by watching people around him. He likes doing that. He likes to read their faces and surmise what is going on in their minds. There is a whole gamut of emotions he notices - excitement, boredom, irritation, anger, preoccupation etc.

He saw her. He couldn’t have missed her rather. She was on the other side of the road waiting the same way as he was. He remembered the phrase “thunder bolt” from the book The Godfather by Mario Puzo. He just couldn’t help himself staring at her. He glanced at the signal timer, 156 seconds to go before the signal turns red. Then as he turned back towards her, he caught her looking at him. She looked away immediately.

He looked at her more closely now. She was wearing a black designer salwar with white print on it and a white bottom and a white chunni. There was nothing flashy about the dress probably he would have seen thousands of women wearing similar ones but never noticed. But looking at her wearing it, he felt as though it was tailor made just for her. She wasn’t wearing much make up either, he had always hated women wearing make up especially lip stick. Her lips were of perfect size not too big not too small and had a perfect shape too. There was a mole above the upper lip towards the left side. He had seen moles defiling faces before, but never seen a mole embellishing a face as it did in this case. Her nose was ok, in the sense it dint draw any particular attention. The timer showed 129 seconds.

His gaze now shifted to her eyes. His first impression was they were unreal. He had seen many eyes before (his own included in the mirror), that’s the first thing he notices when he meets or sees a person because he had always believed that eyes cannot belie one’s personality. Her eyes were all and nothing at the same time. They were like a mirror which shows you nothing of its own but only reflects. They were like a hologram which when viewed with different angles show different pictures. You can find joy, angst, love, hatred, indifference absolutely anything depending on what you want to see. He was so lost in her eyes that he dint notice her looking straight at him. He looked away from the eyes that were keeping him in a trance hoping to break the spell. The timer read 93 seconds.

He knew it wouldn’t be long before he would look back at her. When the timer read 80 seconds he casually turned in her direction. To his surprise she was still looking straight at him. She was taming the one strand of hair which had gone wild in the pleasant morning breeze. She had short hair which suited her face. She refused to look away this time. He was finding it very difficult to categorize the kind of look she was giving him. It wasn’t of pleasure that she was attracting looks, neither it was of anger that some guy was rudely staring at her nor it was of indifference for he fully knew that she was looking at him. He looked at the timer which read 48 seconds. He had never been curious as to what other people thought about him but it amused him when ever they told him what they thought. But this time he was curious to know what was she thinking about him. He would give anything to get a snapshot of her mind at this moment.

He knew time was not on his side. It wouldn’t be long before they crossed each other and would be gone forever. He thought of giving her a smile perhaps if he had any luck she would smile back and he wanted that picture to remain in his memory forever. But again he was apprehensive what if she finds his smile to be rude and change her look to some thing disgusting and he didn’t want that image to remain in his memory. When he was pondering over his indecision he saw movement on his side and the timer read 178. When he looked back at her she was already moving towards his side of the road. He too reluctantly moved ahead. When they were a couple of yards away from each other their eyes locked and he felt as if she was smiling though there was barely any movement of lips. He smiled back. They crossed each other. He looked back. She didn’t. He looked up at the heavens and thought to himself if God ever existed he must be a romantic.

P.S – This was guy’s side of the story. If some body wants to attempt the Girl’s side of the story go ahead and do it and I will post it on it on my blog with due credits.

Update (31/07/2006) - Soliloquist had written the Girl's side of the story, you can read it here