Thank you all soooooo much!! Love your comments and really appreciate them!! Sorry, my comp went haywire so I couldn't post earlier...
Recap: Mumbling an excuse, he exited from the room and went to the elevator, towards main floor and exit. As he reached it, the emptiness of the elevator felt odd to him. Did he actually expect the stranger to be there again? With a deep sigh, he leaned into the wall and closed his eyes… only to see that one pair haunt him again…
Part2
A bottle of some classic imported alcohol sat on the table infront of him... while some filled his glass, from which he obliviously took small sips occassionally... It had been weeks since the incident, but those eyes flashed before him in vivid detail.. that voice, it made him crave for.. something. He just couldn't understand it all. "On, off, on, off" the other hand touched a button and the lamp flickered a dimmed light... and then let the darkness seep in once more...
He had overheard Massi talking to Dadi about his behaviour of late. She had commented that he had changed since the day he had returned from the big conference that had been of such hype in the newspapers... She had later come to him and tried to ask him... but he had no answer...
"Tick... tick.. tick..." the clock formed the only sound in the room... He lost track of time... For so long, he sat there... him and his tanhayee... Just like the stranger had noticed... He pushed back into the leather sofa. The cool touch did not startle him, but he shivered nonetheless... His eyes closed momentarily, the glass now sitting on the table... Half full... He didn't require the alcohol... his senses had already been numbed... the eyes flashed before his closed eyelids... so real they were... that odd glint. It made him curious... and for a reason he was unknown, anxious. Suddenly he flipped open his... as if trying to get a grip on reality... but it was too complex a task...
He gets up and his feet lead him towards the huge bay window in his dark room. His eyes trailed to the crammed road, trying to follow the movement... but in vain. Somewhere down there.. in that crowd... Jai Walia had gotten lost... he too walked the street... alone... even with the crowd surrounding him... His eyes turned to the sky... a storm was on its way... Mumbai was such an oblivious place. It was filled with people, but the people knew only what they wanted, where they needed to go... He turns to leave and as he did so the faint sound of rain droplets accompanied the stranger's voice in his ears... and then came the thunder.... indeed... a storm was near...
The room was dimly lit and silence blared in the still room... Somewhere a window was obliviously left open and a breeze flew around freely... It hit a pile of papers carelessly laid on the ground, while the owner, sitting next to a large window looked out into nothingness. As the wind played, it took the attention of the stranger who made no attempt to gather the remanents of the relationship captured in pictures... The pictures showed a petite female and a young man smiling... The female had big, innnocent kohl layered eyes... which revealed an odd sorrow... Now as the owner of the pictures unravelled herself - from the snail shape she had formed sitting with legs brought up and arms protectively surrounding them - she turned towards the clutter on the floor...
Her mother and father had left her long ago... just when childhood memories were forming... and then he had come into his life. What was his name?... Pushkar. She picks up one of the pictures and holds it before her.. the side showing her face was darkened by shadows... She had so long thought that their friendship was something more... something much more... He had come into her life, misplacing the "tanhayee"... but then a moment flashed before her eyes. "Bani, isse milo... the love of my life and my hone wali wife, Pia..." She had been shattered... her life was all a mess, like the papers on the floor. But then after days passed aimlessly, she came to realize that he was never there really... Tanhayee had always accompanied her... everywhere, tirelessly... She rethought it all and the question hit her, "Did she really love him?"... The thunder roared and she looked out the window. Rain stained the glass... but her vision was already blocked by tears stinging the edges of those eyes...
Hopefully I didn't bore you guys!!
Cheers,
dc
