"Yeh kya hai!! Ispe koi kaise baith sakta hai? Pagalpan hai yeh Kria!" Rey managed to gulp out.. Now he was 100 percent sure Kria Ghai was insane. Who in their right minds did something like this?
"Rey, Aapke chehre pe likha hai aapko kitna darr lag raha hai! Ab ro mat dena please! Yahaan aas paas jaante hai log mujhe.. Kya sochenge?" She teased the already tense guy even more..
"Plus.. Yeh 100 percent safe hai naa! Kuch nahi hoga! Sacchi!!" She added..
"Accha.. Safety certificate kahaan hai?? Belts tak nahi hai!! Woh dekho! woh aadmi gir jaata abhi!!" He still was as frightened as he would ever get..
"Nahi girne wala tha woh aadmi! Please please pretty please Rey!! Mujhe baithna hai columbus pe.. Aap bhi chalo.. bahot mazza aaega!" Kria chirped.. Again trying to convince him to take the ride with her.. She loved such rides and had been taking them all her life.
Rey looked up, again at the boat like structure that went to new heights everytime it swinged sideways, and felt colour leach away from his face a little more. Was she serious? Why did people of dehradun feel the need to face death to enjoy? Couldn't they just go to a restaurant on a normal date? Why the bloody "Vaarshik Mela"??
He sighed and gave in.. It was him after all.. Whatever Kria wanted, he would always give. FOr all 3 years of their relationship now, that's what he had done always. And this evening would not go otherwise.
She ran around, one ride after the other. Lord forbid, some included water too.. And with every ride they took, Rey felt a bit more queasy by the end. But he held on. Like he held on her hand throughout the crowd, afraid, to lose her again.
She chirped again, this time it was for cotton candy. He smiled at her. How old was she again? Almost 20... And yet screamed and ran towards the cotton candy guy like a 3 year old.
He followed her. Silently. Revering in her innocence as she struggled to keep the cotton candy from sticking around her lips. He gaze lingered on those now dark pink lips a bit more than it should have. how could he be blamed? They looked delectable. But there were too many people around them. And he couldn't just gather her in his arms and kiss her breathless, as much as he wanted to. So he sighed, and just absorbed the view, at least that was allowed.
Whoever thought Kria Ghai was just mad for rides, was utterly completely mistaken. She was mad for everything around. She was mad for those dumb balloon bursting pellet guns. She was mad for chana jor garam. She was mad for the soap bubbles. Hell, she was even mad for the oh-so-obvious fortune tellers. Yet, he pampered his princess as much as she wanted to. Even as it got more and more dark, and finally his feet began to ache...
"Kria.. Ab hum ghar chale? Tumhari mom wait kar rahi hogi.." He asked her, afraid that she might throw a tantrum, for all the childish antics she had pulled today.
She stared at him for a while, and then answered, looking up in the sky somewhere,"Rey, bas ek last ride.. Fir chal denge.."
"Kaunsi ride baaki hai Kria? Aur koi baaki hai toh chalo abhi.."
"Nahi.. woh thoda wait karna padega.. Abhi andhera nahi hua.."
Nightfall.. He silently shuddered. The rides in this fair gave him the chills in broad daylight, what kind of a horror would it be in the dark.
Still, he waited. Well, he had waited for a whole year for her didn't he? What was a damned ride gonna do to him?
Slowly came the night. And she took him to the biggest ride there. The humongous Ferris Wheel! He seriously needed to do something about his attention span. Why had he not noticed this steel monster the whole evening?
She silently led his hand into that cabin. She suddenly looked a lot serene, maybe she had finally gotten tired of the hypernova behavior all evening.
The ferris wheel started to move, and all Rey could focus on was the altitude he was covering, and how far the ground started to look..
She was speaking something, What he couldn't focus on.. He was just too scared, when she suddenly called out, more loud than he had ever heard her.
"Rey!!!"
He jerked his head in her direction, for the first time taking his eyes away from the ground.
And that's when he got lost.
The moon reflecting on her face made her look like she was a real heavenly creation..
She smiled and moved towards him, while he was as spell bound in her beauty as he could get..
"Rey, I always dreamt of being here with someone special.. Doesn't the moon look big? As if you could gather it in your hands?"
Right now, all Rey wanted was to gather her in his hands. And that's exactly what he did.
He held her in his lap and kissed her..
Longing there on her lips..
Breathing in her soft sweet fragrance..
Cherishing her for the angel she was..
Forever and always...
His.. Only his..
CID
Anupamaa
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
9