Chapter Vii

The moment i laid eyes on his speeding car in that rain ,a chill ran through my spine trying to decide whether to hitch a ride or not , the car did not stop , that moment faded away .

Again I saw the same car coming back the same road again this time slowing down as it reached me I could hardly make out the driver in the seat , the emotions that were cruising through me were everything but fear,something told me that I could trust him , all I did was dump my luggage in the back passenger seat and sat by him on the passenger side .

Moments passed in silence as he drove , I did notice he was checking me out , could also see the voyeur's thirst in his eyes ,but there was something that told me he was not the regular guy ,his eyes were having a sensual but uneasy effect on me , all I could do to let him know was to turn up the tuner to max volume.

The curiosity in me raised an eyebrow took over ,and I began to check him out ,his nervous attitude took over and noticing that ,my eyes scanned around the dashboard to make him relax noticing his wallet I picked it up and ran through its contents ,finding nothing of importance ,other than a few credit reciepts,seems to have caught him at a wrong time , fingers finding a neatly stacked cards I picked up one and read through, wondering if he was what the card said him to be , Then came out the words from him that showed his mettle ,it was not about what he said but how he said it ,"IT WAS ME " I found the voice as cold as stone with no regret of having lost an empire ,My heart skipped a beat ,telling me that I found not a common man , without hesitation my hands reached his mobile and began dialing my own number it was a reflex reaction not so much as a second thought .Saving my number into his phone My brain yelling all the while Swari "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?"but my fingers typing away at top speed .

Then it was time to say good bye never knowing if there will be another occasion or chance to meet him ,all that went through my brain was ,the need to say something the want to be in his presence.

The moment I reached home I just lay flat on my back,thinking of nothing else but Anvesh ,I wondered how I still remembered his face ,I lost the need to sleep though having lived through the worse,His thought seemed to have relaxed every sense in me.

Then I decided ,not thinking of right or not ,not bothering if its logical or not,not even bothering about his emotions or anything else ,all that mattered to me was that I need him to be with me .

Before the realization hit me the first lit was showering through my window ,I rummaged through my closet finding the most suitable entrapping attire ,I took a shower rethinking my whole strategy,like how enticingly a femina lures her mate.

I made a few calls to my informants finding what I needed took out my Matiz and drove to where he booked himself in ,All I wrote was “CNN IBN @ 10 AM” , smiling to myself as I left the hotel.I finished my scheduled report ,but all through the while was nervous if he received my note or not ,then came the call and my heart raced ,forgetting to be courteous ,Just asked him bluntly ”So you got my note”.

Chapter Vi

I could feel life sliding out of me , the feeling that the slow end was near ,did not make too much of a difference , I still could hear commotion around me ,Yet in all the craziness that was around me ,all I could make out was her face ,stained with tears ,everything else was slipping away into nothingness.

I was bleeding profusely ,her hand was pressed against my side trying to stop the bleeding,nothing mattered , I was past the point of pain of feeling ,there was nothing to regret about ,nothing to complain for,I lived my life for myself ,I never appeased to please anyone,yet the only thing that was pulling me back to life was her , the desperation she was showing to bring me back to life.

The journey we took through the past two years , reenacted itself before my eyes,every moment of it seemed to be repeating itself ,hazy at first but as the time passed through ,the memories were solid as stones to me, from the day we tied the knot ,the day my daughter Swapnika was born ,to the day Swarnisha said enough is enough time for us to be friends rather than be married ,to this day where I lay lost within her grasp ,everything went by in my mind.

Looking into her eyes ,I managed to smile and say ,"Don't be sad ,Bysun has finally been run aground ,Just promise me that ,you never will look back. I didn't even have the time to reach her hand ,it was the light for me,never to look back again.

Chapter V

"Is this some sort of a joke?" Those were the words , that ran out of my mouth the moment ,I came to my senses .

The shocked look, must have been stuck to my face ,for I saw a glisten of worry in her eyes, No I am not playing a joke on you ,neither I intend to treat it so lightly , but give me a chance to explain ,if still you feel the same , I will walk away.

Not knowing how to respond to her ,I sat quiet waiting for her to respond.She began , all my life I came across too many men ,who saw me for what I was and panicked about their individuality,finally leaving me lonely,but last night you saw me at the worst possibility and still admired me in your own element.that meant a lot to me and for the first time really brought out the woman in me .the feeling that i wanted to be with someone ,if not for anything else just to be there and enjoy the company,Anvesh I just cant get that feeling out of my head neither do I want to lose it .The moment you left me last night ,i felt a sudden emptiness which I could not handle well,so the first thing I did today was to convince myself that, its you that completes me ,and so I am here asking you ,no! begging you to marry me . Saying that she lowered her head and spoke again,I know its being pushy but I would appreciate it if you would consider it ,and neither have I done this with every man that I came across.

In the silence that followed all I could do was smile and to say I was thinking would be a lie ,but the words rushed out of me as if I have been possessed ,I dont know how in the first place to react to this ,but to be truthful ,you could have a million men million times better than me and , I have not done a thing to deserve this honour ,Its like God appears before you granting every dream in life to be turned true,All I have to say is you do not know about me ,I have always been a hawk flying the skies free,I never really knew what or who I was,not an aim in life a wanderer to be exact .Even after this brief description of me if you think I am worth it ,what man could say no to heaven if God is offering it without qualms.

She looked up grinning and in the middle of the session came to my side ,landing a small kiss on my forehead ,saying two words which "I Do".

From here started the journey, my journey , We got married by the time the calander turned over and , to this day I never regretted to what or where our relationship led me to.

CHAPTER IV

I heard her say ,"thought you would have come to understand who I am ,but still seems you need me to assure you, so how about I do it over a cup of coffee." still in schok I agreed to meet her ,all I heard was good 3 pm ,the lobby of your hotel, and the line went dead.

Still hazy , from the conversation I had , I tried to find some sensible conclusions , to all the events that happened , and all those that will happen. With not much to do I went to the bath and took a long shower.

As the water dripped over my body, the recollection of the night came to me, every time I tried to find some sort of an explanation, all I could come across was a blank.

After the shower, I ordered some coffee and turned on the tube ,they were showing a rerun of her telecast ,the more I looked at her ,the more she enticed me .

Never knowing when I fell asleep ,I woke up to the grouchy bell boy announcing the entrée of the lady, as I shooed the fellow off he reciprocated with a disgusting look .

The same woman appeared to be different now, the aura she cast was pulling me out of consciousness, and step by step as I walked to her the feeling grew stronger. I couldn’t place my finger on what was happening at that moment but I knew it in every nerve of me that ,I am linked to her for life.

The moment she looked at me and smiled ,all that was me vanished into a never seen mist ,and I was hers totally, and then she spoke “So is this look better than the one I had last night? ‘,grinning big I settled down in the chair by her, all the while never missing an opportunity from taking everything that she was into me scanning her intoxicating look ,the magic wouldn’t have been there if it was just the way she looked for she was like every other woman I ran into ,but the ingredient that held me to her was her attitude ,the way she spoke the way she carried herself ,she was childish at one moment but grew up to being a intellectual in the next moment. Noticing that I was staring and gaping at her she took the opportunity to embarrass me more by ordering the coffee ,as the waiter went to fetch the order.

The moment the waiter was out of hearing range , she spoke the words that changed my life forever.I dont know what you think of me Anvesh for what I am about to tell you may be taken by most of the society as insane but it doesn’t matter to me ,I was still in cloud nine when she pulled me down to reality with something she said, pardon could you come again Swarnisha,thats when I heard her say I am an orphan but am a self made woman, I know there is some bond between us ,and I will be selfish enough to hold it for life ,”Anvesh WIll YOU MARRY ME ?” ,all I had left was a dumbstruck look on my face.

CHAPTER III

I woke up to a rude knock on my door ,noticing the watch ,surprising myself of having slept this long through the day ,I rubbed sleep out of my eyes and opened up to see who it was to find a bell boy handing me a note, leaving the note besides my wallet ,I drew out a twenty note and handed him ,after which he left without a smile showing his open displeasure, I went to freshen up and came back to the task on hand, the note, all it said was “CNN IBN @ 10 AM”, whoever wrote it had confident strokes and the floral twists showed that a woman wrote the note.

Intrigued I checked my watch showing it was 9:50 AM ,I turned on the box , surfing to find CNN IBN ,all the while I felt like this morning another recession analysis by a female was not necessary ,I was sodden enough with enough of depressive analytical reports to last me until I found myself another post. The news reader just announced the next exclusive story about a human trafficking operation that had been unearthed ,and the main kingpin being a high level Political leader. When Pratk Patel passed on the oration to someone called Swarnisha ,I was almost out of the chair to get to call reception for some coffee. The moment I saw her I was numbed out of senses , thoughts ran through my head pushing me into comprehend whether it was really her ,trying to remember every feature of a different looking person , she was completely different from how I had her printed in my senses.

When I proved to myself that it was her ,I went to my phone going through the dialed list finding her number which was first on the list I dialed it as a zombie ,all through the three rings my senses seemed to have numbed to everything else around ,then her voice came on.”So you got my note”, as if by reflex I asked how she knew where to find me ,to which came a giggle.

CHAPTER II

I knew not when the voyeur in me woke up but constantly my eyes scanned her obscenely feasting her glistening skin in the highway light flowing in ,She turned up the audio to its maximum wattage bringing me to senses ,but not before I noticed a single anklet on her leg and I conceptualized a full vision of her being nothing but a high class call girl.

While I was judging her she has concluded my degradation through the look she gave me, embarssed enough I drew my senses back to the road, silence that could be cut with a knife filled the cramped cockpit of my car.

As if she knew ,I was uneasy she took her eyes off me and began to scan around the dash , finding my wallet and mobile on the dash ,she took the wallet without the hint of hesitation and began scanning through the contents until she came across stacked cards of mine a sojourn memoir of the once successful man ,showing it to me with a questioning look ,all I could do was and open up conversation by saying IT WAS ME ,and almost wanting to add before the dream shattered. Then a stunning smile came on which hooked me to her for an eternity. In a moment she had my mobile in her hand and began to pull her mobile from her purse .She stroked the keys of her mobile ringing mine immediately ,placing her phone on the dash she saved the number into my mobile , with the thought of losing the number in the lot of numbers I never did bother calling ,I drove through entering the city limits.

I dropped her somewhere in the middle of the city and booking myself into one of the hotels that could be afforded still. Caught between wanting to remember or wanting to forget I lost myself to sleep within no time.

CHAPTER 1

The night was husky, with moon peeking through clouds, in between brief recesses of rain. Highway that was soaked by rain seemed to be a halogen worm with the trailing traffic with their hi beams on. It seemed as if a page has been torn out of the old forgotten novella

About me nothing other than the obvious can be said that I am one of the drifters of life , who has been forced to take rake the broken IT dreams and drift around trying to find the next juncture, opening in the over burdened fast paced run to downfall. In simple sense I was the victim of my own obsessive attitude to take things for granted.

From the top paid person in the industry of advertising to the mere benched person in matter of two weeks, it happened before anyone can get the grasp of what happened, a empire built over trust through decades lay in shatters, leaving all but the guy responsible in ruins.

My name being Anvesh ,maybe like it means maybe I was meant to be a seeking the gist of life all through its paths and alleys ,never knowing what next turn will bring up or where the coming alley will take me to.

Noticing a Green road sign showing measures to four quizzical places I have not heard through time not letting anything other than its queer green glow affect me, I sped past it letting my thoughts drift off with the speed of the car.

As rain spattered over the windshield wipers trying hard to give a clear view to the hazy road, I tuned the tuner to a frequency where a non coherent voice was blaring out sarcastically at a point blank situation of having a bullet through his head. Not knowing why or when I swerved through next “u” skidding through a puddle ,All that went through my head was the need to find the one single marker I overshot ,eyes crazed to find it, when they did find it ,heart and car both caught the speed involuntarily ,with heartbeat seeming to be transmitting through the car’s audio ,I got the car on to a high gear and took another “u” ,speeding at a break neck pace the last quarter of mile .

“I knew you would come back” that’s what her look said, pure arrogance is what showed in the green of the neon. She stubbed out the last of rain soaked cigarette dumping her baggage in the back seat she climbed in to the passenger side without a hitch I got the car into gear and drove through the rain as if getting a no verbal command which passed more through her eyes than her lips.