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It was the season of calm love and colourful flowers.
It was a season of long days and dark and cold nights.
It was the season of snow falling noiselessly in the nights.
Hearts crying soundlessly in the pillows.
It was the season of memories piling together and coming out in the form of melancholic songs.
It was the season I met her.
I did not meet her. No, I didn't.
She had appeared before me.
Out of nowhere, she had come.
It was the coldest night of the month of November. The lights had been all switched off sans the lamp at my bedside.
I don't exactly remember what I had been doing. I might have been thinking or reading a book. I could have also have been busy fantasizing and pleasing myself.
For a better effect, I would tell you that the owls might also have been hooting, the crickets chirruping and I think I must also have heard the neighbourhood dogs howling and fighting among each other.
Whatever task I had been busy with, a knock at the main gate had distracted me from my activity.
The knock was faint at first but soon it became persistent and noisier.
Snuggled under huge layers of blankets, I did not wish to get out of my warm bed.
But since the knocking would not stop anytime soon I was rising from my bed when someone knocked at my bedroom door.
"Saheb...May I come in?"
"What is it Nakul?" I asked pulling the shawl around me.
"There is a lady at the door, Saheb."
"A lady?" I asked surprised.
"Ji...Saheb. Aurat hai. Jawan aur khubsurat bhi.She tells she wants to meet you."
I looked at the digital clock standing on my bedside table.
Nakul's eyes moved to the clock as well and he quickly informed me.
"Raat ke dhai baj rahe hai , Saheb."
It had been only two months since I had shifted in this town. I didn't know many people. Forget about nights, no one paid calls to me even in the bright day hours.
Who could it be, I wondered?
The floor felt cold despite my socks glad feet and I immediately slipped into my chappals.
"Where do you go Saheb? Do not meet her!"
I stopped on my way and turned to him.
"Why?"
"Who knows why she has come here. I tried to shoo her off but she will not go. What if she has come with an agenda? To dishonour you? To sling mud over your name? Aurat jaat ka mamla hai... badnaam ho jayenge saheb."
I thought it about a while. Nakul was right. There was risk in meeting an unknown woman in this dark night at his place. I could get in trouble. But then I was curious too.
"Nothing of that sort will happen. I am not alone. You are with me. Aren't you?"
"My wife and daughter are sleeping in the next cabin," he grumbled to himself. "We are not alone."
I went to the main door with Nakul trailing behind me.
I opened the door.
And there she was standing in front of me.
And my heart fell. And then it rose. And started shouting of its existence. I am. I am. I am.
"Do you hear me?" It said, "I am."
A tall and lithe figure wrapped in a plain cardamom yellow sari stood before me. She had been wearing a cardigan. Her hair was haphazardly tied at her back.
Her eyes, in which she used to carry the whole world's emotions, she raised those extraordinary orbs to meet my ordinary ones.
Breath caught in my throat, I stood there motionless.
"Maan," she had whispered.
"Geet," I had answered.
And it was all the reassurance she he had needed.
Edited by Nimfo_Maina - 7 years ago
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