Ek Akeli Chatri me jab aadhe aadhe bheeg rahe the... (Two bodies, One umbrella, Half a Love Story)

The day was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Black dark clouds covered the morning sky. It had rained last night. I was in no mood to work, but I reached office with the hope of seeing "Nisha" there. It was 9:57 AM. I checked the time thrice every minute. It was as if time had stopped. Seconds ticked away like hours. My ears strained to listen to her foot-steps. I kept checking my phone if she had messaged. There were none. She was always on time. But today was an exception, 27 minutes after 9:30 yet, Nisha was not there.


I checked my emails. Typed her email ID in the search bar and re-read our chat conversations. Suddenly a
whiff of her perfume filled my heart with joy. My heart went bonkers. I could hear her in the distance cheerfully chatting with everyone she met on the way. "Good morning Ravi, please get me a cup of hot tea, it's so cold today" I heard her footsteps nearing. The very realization of her in office sent nervous chills down my spine. Yes, I was in love with the girl. Her freckled face, her below average height, her curly hair, her more than usual chatter was stamped permanently in my mind from the first day I lay my eyes on her.

She came up to me and flashed a toothy grin. Somebody tell my heart to behave normally around her. “Good Morning Jitu”, she said. I was staring at the computer screen as if I had not noticed. I looked up, smiled and wished her the same. “Awww… so boring. You sound as if you are not happy to see me”  she said. “Arre no Nisha, I was just thinking about something else.”  I said. “I thought you would not come”, I continued. She gave me a mischievous grin and said, “I know you were secretly praying that I would come… weren't you?” I looked at her with a blank expression. My heart still thumping against my chest. “I am an atheist, remember?” I replied. “Liar!!! Anyhow, I think we should leave early today. Trains were pretty late and looks like it’s going to rain like crazy. Look, I am all drenched.” She said.

She was barely wet. But I loved hearing everything she said. I would often have imaginary conversations with her for hours together, but now, she was right there in front of me and I was tongue tied. I watched her adjust her yellow dupatta. She had worn a white chudidhar suit. She looked like an angel, only prettier. She brushed her hair with her hand. Droplets of water landed on my hand. Suddenly my mailbox notification beeped. It was a mail from our office Admin. We were asked to leave the office due to heavy rains and news stating waterlogging in many areas. Train services would be affected. I told her the news, she squealed with childish delight. "Lets have tea and leave. Lets go to Raghuleela mall," she suggested.

I couldn't think of a appropriate response. "Okay" was all I could manage. "Cool,it will be fun. Let me get tea for us" she said and disappeared after dumping her bag on my desk. I turned off my laptop and prepared to leave. Nisha came back with two piping hot cups of tea carefully balancing them so as not to spill any. She sat down on the chair right beside me. She started chatting about various topics. My responses were limited to, "hhmmmm, okay, thats great, really?" I smiled a lot when she was around. Nisha had the power to make me forget the world. She spoke with her mouth, hands and eyes. It wasn't difficult to figure out when she was happy, sad or lonely. Although her words seemed full of enthusiasm, I could easily make out when she was faking it. She always said, "Why bother people with your sadness when they have their own sadness to deal with". She was pretty.. not just on the outside. We left office. It started to rain. She had not brought her umbrella. We tried to make best use of my umbrella which by no means could accommodate both of us. We walked trying to avoid the puddles of muddy water. The rain was relentless. She walked on my right.


My left sleeve of the shirt was completely wet. She tried in vain to avoid the rain. She was getting wet too.

She snug in close to me and held my hand. Her touch was magical... Electrifying... soothing. My mind started singing, "Ek akeli chatri me jab aadhe aadhe beheeg rahe the... aadhe sukhe aadhe gile..." I could not recollect the rest of the words. This felt perfect. Just Nisha and me walking in the rain. I wished it would rain forever and that this moment would never pass. It did. An auto-rickshaw pulled up near us. She quickly said to the driver, "Bhaiya, Raghuleela le chalo naa please. Bohot baarish hai." (Please take us to the mall, its raining heavily). Her tone of voice was so melodious that the driver could not say no. We reached the mall soon enough. Time flew quickly. Her jokes were childish yet funny. My jokes made her laugh hard. She often touched my arm while laughing. It felt nice. Soon it was time to say goodbye. We were in Archies, looking at the merchandise. I was browsing the greeting cards section. The love cards were sickeningly sweet. I bought one for Nisha which said, 'Friends forever'. I didn't want to be JUST friends forever, I wanted more.. I had always imagined her as my life partner. What would I not give to spend my lifetime with her. I had to tell her someday. But I could not muster enough courage. I handed over the card to her. She flashed her most radiant smile. It was genuine. "Awwwww... that is so cute" she said. She tightly gripped my hand. "Thank you so much. now even I have to get you something. What do you want?" I smiled."Promise me you will be mine forever," my heart screamed. "Ice-cream?" I said.

"You know, I was just about to suggest that. You know me so well." She almost screamed. Some elders turned towards us with a 'keep-it-down' look. She didn't care what the world thought, neither did I. She got two ice-creams for both of us. The rains had stopped. We walked towards the railway station. She kept talking about various flavors of ice-cream and some funny incident about a time when melted vanilla ice cream spilt over her jeans. Suddenly she stopped and looked at me, "Hey, what happened?" She asked me. "What? Nothing.. Why?" I asked. "Your mind is elsewhere," she said. "Stop imagining Nisha, I was listening to you and watching you eat the ice-cream. You look so adorable," I said. I had to fight hard to curb my hand from going to the side of her lips where the ice-cream smudged. I smiled at her and pointed to the little smudge of ice-cream at the corner of her lips. She wiped it off.

We stood at the bridge waiting to go our separate ways. Her face looked worried, as if she was in a moral dilemma. "What are you thinking about?" I asked in a serious tone of voice. "Is something bothering you? You can share anything with me, you know that" I continued. She looked at me with a blank expression.

"Will you tell me something honestly?" She asked.

"Have I ever lied to you? Ask..." I say.

"When I asked you back at Archies shop, what you wanted, tell me honestly, what were you thinking? What did you REALLY wanted to ask?" She was serious. There were only a handful of times I had seen this way. I stayed mum. I could not look at her. My heart wanted to blurt out all the secrets... all the fantasies... all the desires... the pain... the dreams. But I could say nothing. I stole another look at her. She was staring at me with hope that I would say something.


Slowly, she placed her hand on mine and said, "I would have loved to be yours forever Jitu... Only if I had not met Suraj before you. You know I love him and would be nothing without him.." 

I stood there dumbfounded  My head hurt, my heart hurt, my knees felt weak.

I wished the pain would go away... but it never did.Nisha gave me a brief hug. "Bye, see you tomorrow. Take care." I am still unable to speak. I watch her cross the bridge. I wish she could turn and look at me one last time. She does not.

As my eyes well up with tears, thunder strikes and it starts raining..!!