“Yaar, the automata subject…what is it on Earth?”, began Veena.
Nisha chuckled at Veena while Jenny sighed and shrugged. “Perhaps, we might have to check out the Stephen author textbook tomorrow in the library. Shall we come earlier to college tomorrow morning, Veena?”, suggested Nisha.
“Go dude, who will get up early?”, refused Veena, shaking her hands vigorously. Nisha chuckled again.
It was back on the warm evening of November 1991 that Nisha, in a dark green salwar, stood with two of her friends, Veena, in a grey salwar, and Jenny, in a blue frock. There were gangs of five, including both guys and girls, standing hither and thither in the bus stand. They were engrossed in their conversations; some expressing smiles on their exhausted faces while the others frowning, as they discussed their study plans.
Jenny wished, sharing, “How I wish we could always access a good instructor anytime we had the mood to study! I wish we had a great teacher around us who could clarify our doubts then and there…”
Veena and Nisha nodded at her. “But only in your dreams!”, mocked Veena.
What a pity! There was no YouTube back in the 1990s!
Jenny and Veena began entangling themselves in their own worlds of inside jokes and conversations. Nisha faked a smile and turned towards the road. She felt a little left out by their intimacy.
May it be a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, a couple of years, or even throughout one's life, relishing the most beautiful feeling on Earth-the love, it still matters.
While most couples are almost near the silver jubilee of their wedding anniversary, Alok and Nisha are just about to begin their love life!
Love at any age is love. Why not a middle-aged love story?!
“Hi, Nisha!”, she heard a soft guy from behind. She, at once, felt Alok’s hand patting her shoulder. She smiled at him appearing in front of her. His vast gang of friends gestured for him to arrive at the other end of the bus stop. He nodded and waved at them. They walked away. He neared her and stood closer.
“Are you waiting for your bus?”, asked he, rolling his light brown eyeballs at her. He grinned while she shook her head, with her high pony shaking along. She chuckled, refusing, “Not at all! It just came but I wasn’t in the mood to board it. So, I ditched it and am still standing here! Hahaha!”
She closed her mouth with her hand and laughed her heart out. He narrowed his smile. She shrank her eyes and caught her ear.
“Sorry...I wasn’t rude…I was being sarcastic…”
He laughed. “Sexy! I too am sarcastic, most of the time…”
“Nois!”, she exclaimed, at which the two burst out a round of laughter.
“Which bus do you go by?”, he investigated.
“600”, she replied. “Ooo! Do you go till Fazalganj depot?”, enquired he.
She shook her head. “Nah! I get down at Jai Dev Hospital before that!”, replied she.
“What about you?”, asked she.
“I generally take the Bakarganj bus. But, today, I need to go to deliver sarees. So, I will take the Panki Pandav bus”, he revealed.
“Why is he telling me all this? Isn’t it a little personal?”, she wondered, shrinking her eyes, yet nodding normally. She added to herself, “We aren’t even close enough to share such delicate details. We have always been random classmates to date. He is a private person who tells everything only to his very very close friends…why me, then?.... None will anyways share such personal matters with a random batchmate…We have always only been discussing doubts pertaining to studies…Didn’t he just share a small secret with someone not very close to him?...”
“Perhaps, I was already in love with you. Perhaps, that's why I felt like sharing something personal with you”, recollected Alok, wiping his tears, at the contemporary moment. “You must have wondered why I was kind of pulling you into my personal space.” He chuckled, as tears accumulated in his eyes. He realized, “Hardly did I know that I loved you. But, you caught what was running in my heart. You considered my unintentional and innocent talks as clues to expose my love. Hmmm! Love you, Nisha medam!”
Back that evening in 1991, they heard a bus honking and nearing the bus stop. He turned back to see the local red bus having a whiteboard of ‘600’ written in dark green on it.
“Oh, your bus!”, said Alok. Nisha nodded and waved at him. They chuckled at each other. Nisha followed Jenny and Veena into the bus.
While her friends found a seat beside the back door, her eyes went over a little girl, of around three years, in a pink fluffy frock, with red roses on it, sitting on the second seat on the left. “Aye!”, she exclaimed, patting the kid’s shoulder. The girl smiled at her. Its mother too smiled at Nisha.
“Sister, can I put her on my lap and sit beside you?”, requested Nisha. “Ok!”, agreed the graceful young mother in a traditional yellow sari with the pallu on her head. Nisha grinned. She took her seat as the lady put her daughter on her lap.
“No, I will manage. It was I who took her seat. Why should you strain, sister?”, asked Nisha, with her hands on the little girl. She smiled, making the girl sit on her lap. Her mother thanked her. Nisha kissed the kid and hugged her. She hugged her tighter and swung along. The kid too chuckled along.
“What's your sweet name?”, she asked her. “Gauri”, squealed the girl, in a tone, sweet and high-pitched.
“Aww!”, Nisha admired her and kissed her cheeks. She then happened to see outside the window only to catch Alok smiling at her.
“Fuck! He saw me kissing the child. Oh Ho!”, she chuckled at him.
“Hmmmmm!”, he sighed long, to himself, as he nodded at her. She folded her tongue to the left corner of her lips. “
Bye!”, thought she, waving at him who waved back, as the bus started moving.
Jumping back to reality, Alok smiled at Nisha in a green patient dress, through the observation window. The surgeons around were busy operating on her. He then stared at the dark red bulb still on above the ward.
“You used to love kids a lot, right? I’m so sorry that you could never become a biological mother for you were busier longing for my love…Now, do I learn how deep love, the emotion, is? You taught me love, Nisha medam. I was a very bad decision-maker back then. What the hell made me reject you and choose a wicked and cunning woman who used your genuine emotions?”
He knelt in front of the ICU. He closed his eyes. He swallowed his tears.
“I won’t even pester you again but please don’t leave me and go. I love you, Nisha. I love you very much. See this as my response instead of my rejection back in January 1994…”
He smiled at the ICU lights fading away. He stood up calmly with his meek and hesitant eyes on the bulb. “Nisha!”, he called.
Will Nisha survive? Is she at least out of danger now?
Dear readers,
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