Thursday, May 1, 2008

Drops Of Jupiter..

I step into the train for forty minutes of agony, the impetus coming from daily routine. Haggard and brought down by the endless load, my eyes refuse to stare at the afternoon news I picked up. Today must be lucky, for I have a seat. Today must be lucky, for I have a pretty girl sitting opposite me. Her hair, assembled across her forehead, the length of which delights is further braided into prose. Her eyes barely capture her lovely face and she barely smiles. All the while looking out, she firmly settles herself closer to the window. My thoughts hover from her nonchalant gaze to the reasoning behind her not being in the ladies compartment. The engines pull.

The weather is ameliorated by her presence and she only observes me with a quick glance, wherein I see no sense of disapproval. I implore myself to words but without success. Everyone around becomes inconspicuous to my lost mind, despite the whole cacophony in revelry. Her office skirt is dark blue while she isn't too indignant to all those staring at her, for I guess that is why she chose that seat. I detach these earphones every instance her head tilts away from the window, Incubus to infatuation. A movement in her lips breathes conversation and I believe the dark circles represent ache. Her earrings are silver and her feet agonizingly close to mine. Close such that a strike might lead to an exchange of sentence. Her phone suddenly rings, and much to her amusement, a half dead lot of the homeward bound Bombay working class tunes in. She removes the sound from the brown bag and slips it through her fingers, her words faster than this train.

She eventually senses my inability at conversation or else she needs information. My nearly dry throat botches up a reply, my face ever cumbersome. The moment of truth begins sourly but ends with an exchange of well framed lines. I come to know her exit is the same as mine and I begin to brace myself in hope for a happier expresso today. We get up in chorus as the train leaves the penultimate stop and manage to reach the gathered crowd for Santa Cruz. While the men make space for her, I am peculiarly, or maybe typically left behind by three rows of sweat. I can hardly jostle to move ahead by telling them I am with her, so I stay back. As the train slows, twenty push to drop out and I face an incoming barrage of people getting on before I can finally manage to stifle myself onto the platform. I brush my shirt, check my wallet location and look up to find her missing. After an unsuccessful few moments, I do see her already off the stairs and moving towards the East. I am too tired to run and catch up with her, I would not shout for fear of being admonished and because I have no name due to my not being pedant.

Her frame in my sight subdues as I make way towards the West, slightly calm, tranquil, and with the smugness of having done a pleasant train ride.

No comments: