She still couldn't be a witness for other things that he had warned her of , but the blasted rain as he had said , really hadn't stopped. She knew they had to be prepared for such delays considering the monsoons were here. And now while she sat on the porch in front of her room as the evening dampness set in, she could only wait for the next day. It hadn't rained since the afternoon and that was a little hope. Though there was no certainty but now there was an anticipation for tomorrow. She saw Joy coming out of Jha s' office, a wide smile on his face and voluntarily her face also brightened.
"Little luck. But something is better than the nothing of the last two days. The reserve forests, we still can't venture into. Though we will be going for the grasslands in the Corbett Park tomorrow morning. Here..", he handed her the necessary signed paper for the permission.
She went through it and nodded at him with a light smile. "Can't wait."
"Will meet you at the dinner. Till then take plenty of rest. We have got a long day tomorrow, kid."
She smiled some more. It was on these occasions that he affectionately addressed her so. Joy was evidently very happy. Sharing the common interest, so was she. She went back to gaze over at the river cradled in the valley ahead, the calm green around a stark contrast to its restless swirling water.
Joy was already stepping away to leave, when he stopped as he remembered something. "There is an informal get-together some distance away tomorrow night. A personnel has gotten married so just a small dinner. They anyways are a family for each other in the middle of this forest with no one else with them here. So we too are invited. And besides, he says..", he pointed towards Shyams' office, " that he would be glad if we feel like a family for the months we will be here." He smiled cheekily while Khushi rolled her eyes and waved a hand as Joy left.
Later in the night, her gaze unseeingly resting on the ceiling of the room, she blinked. The window s' enlarged shadow, fell across her and around, against the streaming moonlight as the source. While the sound of crickets was clear, the tiny occasional splash of water, sometimes near, at other times distant, on the quiet tiny puddles, required no effort to be heard in the silence of the night.
Involuntarily, her thoughts acknowledged him. And she realized, he was in there in her mind, all along. She hadn't seen much of him in these past two days and like everytime, when she wasn't occupied with anything else, this urge to be around him rose again.
She had all her nerves fraying when she had seen him here after years. Now that she thought of it, his stance that clearly didn't suggest if he was affected by the nature of their last interaction or that if he even remembered it, caused pain to balloon inside her.
And that lead her to think again as to why is he here now? Away from his family, the city job he had been in , when she had last heard of him from a few friends.
No sooner had her train of thoughts travelled further down the memory lane that she heard the whirring of a Jeep s' engine as it came to a stop outside. Moments later with his footfalls over the wooden passage outside her room, opening of the door to the room next to hers' and his consequent going inside, she leaned her head back again on the pillow, which she had raised a little when knowing that he has arrived.
A few minutes later, she heard him come out of his room again, his being much more relaxed now as she felt it. After putting up her non-chalance for a couple of minutes, she gave up and moved out of her bed. She walked to the window that was covered upto half of its length with a curtain, its edges stretching over an iron string, the upper half of the window uncovered. Rising on her toes, she peered out and saw him sitting lazily on the bonnet of his Jeep, his back resting against its glass shaft, an arm draped across its edge while the other one found its place over his raised knee with the foot of that leg too over the bonnet. The muscles of his bare arms flexed as he leaned back his head and looked over at the dark cloudy sky and closed his eyes.
And just like that, suddenly, she wanted to be there, beside him. She walked back to the side table near her bed and took hold of her camera. Coming out of the room on soft steps, she found him still sitting in the same way. Moments passed and she couldn't tear her gaze away from his being, the inexplicable feeling his stance gave rise to, not letting her. Focussing the camera on him, she clicked his picture. Bringing it down gently as she looked over his image and caressed it with her finger, she tried to control this weakness. With pseudo determination, she closed her eyes as that same finger now hovered over the delete button.
Her resolve had broken long before she had even made it and she raised her head only to find him staring intently at her.
Arnav coolly jumped down from the Jeep, the corners of his lips lightly curved and turned around to face the brook. In a matter of a couple of minutes, he heard her padding upto him to stand beside. He spoke as he looked over at her from her bare legs to the cream shorts and a light green tshirt that she wore, "Don't be so aptly covered at a place like this! Insects will die out of hunger for the blood." He pointed a finger from her head to toe.
This man can rile her up within seconds, she thought, her mind working furiously to think of a retort. "Learnt from the best." she came up with, gesturing at his own vest covered chest. He smiled amusedly and she huffed at having the last word. They stood in silence some time, the calmness of the night, soothing. "You weren't around here much..", she stated and hastily added, thinking better than to leave the observation at just that, "Have there been any more incidents of smuggling around? Did you catch hold of anyone?"
He shook his head, still insignificantly looking over at the valley shrouded in the darkness, "It's not running after a pickpocketer , Khushi.."
"Do you suspect anyone around here? You know.. like.. the possibility of any of the members of the forest department involved..I read it the newspaper..".
She stopped as he turned to her, his face now serious, a frown marring his brows. "I suspect each and every person around me right now..Even you as a matter of fact. Now stop with the interrogation."
Her eyes widened even as he looked away from her. Exasperated, she said, "If you are forgetting, I am an environmentalist. It's as much as of a concern to me as it is for you. And moreover, I have just arrived here. How do you propose I must have been smuggling the wood? ", she folded her arms across her chest, now fully turned towards him.
He too followed the stance and said, expressionless, "Exactly. You have just arrived. After your last failed attempt to smuggle out the teakwood. To realize why it happened so. Isn't it?" And she didn't realize when he had stepped closer to her.
Moments passed but none said anything even as her anger somehow ebbed away. His face seemed so soft too, she thought. His eyes looked right into hers intently, they held the power to make her believe anything right now. Maybe..she was a smuggler? She thought distractedly even as her lips parted, her vulnerable face, ready to follow anything he said.
"Isn't it?" he repeated, in a soft voice and even before she could have nodded to accept her 'crime', a drop of rainwater fell on her warm cheek, breaking her trance.
Panic assailed her senses, as her insides plummeted thinking of the extent to which she had been lost. And when she saw utter amusement lighting up his eyes, his mouth already quirked up in a grin, she turned to make a dash for her room. His fingers barely were able to brush along the length of her arm before they caught hold of her right hand. "Tell me before clicking me next time. I want to look into the camera when you do that." With her heart thudding wildly, she shrugged off his hand and sprinted away, his low laughter behind, rumbling through her being.
Morning arrived pretty soon with sleep coming easily to her as the night was pleasantly cool and the sound of rainfall a perfect rhythm to lull her to sleep. Though she won't deny, she had spent quite a lot of time thinking again and again of all that had transpired before that. She walked out of her room, dressed in a red, blue and cream checked shirt and a blue jeans, her light brown bag slinging on her shoulder and took slow, lazy steps on the rocky trail, looking around, waiting for Joy. She saw Aman hastily walk into Jhas' office and furrowing her brows, she hesitantly walked there on a whim. A window was partly closed, on the other side of the office, a little gap between its panes to give her a hindered view of the inside. Though she realized she was able to hear their voices clearly.
"There is a discrepancy in the number of trucks that had been given the legal permission, Sir..", Aman said and continued, "Two more have been spotted in the north-western buffer area of the reserve forest. Same where the last time they were located while fleeing."
With much shock, she noted the tone of dismissal in Shyams' voice, "We will get into it, Aman..You may leave right now."
"Sir, but.. I think we should let Raizada look into it. I can accompany him there."
"Which part of You may leave, right now, is not clear to you , Aman!", he bit out. Aman nodded, with a troubled expression and took his leave from the door.
Her heart thudded in a quick pace at having stealthily witness the interaction. With wide careful eyes, she decided to take a few steps back before quietly turning around. She had just begun moving away when her back hit a muscular chest. Her breath hitched while her body stilled. Haltingly, she turned around and faced him while he met her with a blank expression. She spoke with apprehension evident in her tone,"I..I came to ask about tonight. W..We have to be there on time ,right? Can't be late..So I needed to ask about that and how far is the place so that I can work out how early I leave from here..". She breathed deeply.
"Are you informed of it now?", he questioned.
"Huh?"
"I asked if you are informed of it now.?"
"Yes..Yes ofcourse.." she smiled awkwardly, not able to believe she had him convinced.
"There's a door too, to come out of, instead of this." He pointed towards the window through which she had been peeking in.
Irritated at his mockery, she said," I came out of the door alright. I had just been looking around the place."
At that moment, they heard a third voice and saw Shyam walking upto them. "Khushi..Arnav? . Without waiting for them to respond, he pleasantly asked, "Morning, Khushi! did you need something? You know you could always come into my office if there's any problem."
She knew she'll squeak if she tried to reply, so she just shook her head resignedly, trying not to look at Arnav s' face. "Well, Joy is looking for you there. And Arnav I need you to come with me." He left after saying that.
Rooted to the spot , she waited for him to leave. Instead she felt him taking slow steps towards her and instinctively, she moved away with similar backward steps till her back hit the wall. Her face still turned away from him, she heard him say, as he leaned over her, resting his right palm on the wall beside her ear, "I'll pick you up at 8 tonight from your room." And with that he left while all the tensed lines got wiped away from her face as she stared after him.
*
"Erythrinia indica"
She felt him whisper in her ear as if he was actually there and it was just a matter of time when she'll turn about and find him smiling, full of himself. She gazed at the scarlet red flowers that she had captured in her camera. The Jeep ran along the vast grassland's and there was still time for the evening to set in. They were done with their work for the day and were on their way back. Joy and the local guide sat in the front and she was at the back.
She hadn't thought even in her dreams that she'll come across him here. A forest, the last place on the Earth she could have expected to find him. And now that she has, he was meddling. Meddling with her heart, mind and her sanity far more than her liking. The reasons, the memories came flooding back to her mind.
She had been gazing at these same flowers then, trying to recall its name, when he had appeared out of nowhere. Arnav had been a senior to her at the college, some nine years back. And while, she tried not to think much of his stepping in her way every now and then in the college, troubling her, her heart altogether was a different matter. And she couldn't have helped it.
In his last year at the Forest Reserve College, Dehradun, the college had arranged for a forest study tour. She still remembered the joy on his face, whenever he trekked faster than the others, the beaming peacefulness as he took in a lungful at some riverside, the way he campaigned around about a rare species of birds in that tour. She remembered each and every emotion of his vividly , involuntarily admiring each and every action of his. Added to that this never before inexplicable feeling that she felt around him, it was hard not to fall for him.
He had barged into her room at the lodge one evening.
"Why did you complain about me to the Professor?"
"It was a restricted area. You were trespassing."
"I had told you it was just a matter of minutes before I would have been back!"
"Yes, you had. But this was the only opportunity I had got to get back at you." She answered with a straight face, her back turned towards him and when she faced him, she found her glasses in his hand. He smirked.
"And now I'll when you will tire your eyes out without these while making todays' report."
"Give them back to me, Arnav."
"Take them back, Khushi." he raised his hand towards her with her spectacles in it.
She stared at him for a few moments, trying to decipher the innocence in his eyes. Sighing, she walked upto him and just before she could lay her hand on it, he jerked his hand back. Riled up, she lunged at it, missing them again and again, as he was too quick for her.
Breathing heavily, she halted and he followed. "I am not into playing childish games Arnav!".She tried but caught air again when he held her object of interest above their heads.
While his face was laced with mischief, he grinned at her expense before he wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her more closer to himself. "This is not childish..".
All her anger vanished and a different emotion took hold of her, her eyes registering a shift in his gaze too. Her palms rested over his chest and she found it hard to hold onto her semblance of control. His warm breath fanned her cheeks lightly as he gently put her glasses back on the table before bringing his hand to her face, running his fingers from her temple to her hairline and then threading them through her long hair. And in the next moment his warm lips were on hers. A long lingering kiss that was just a meeting of mouths before he drew back. She could see it on his face when he decided to move away after momentarily realizing his action. She tightened her hand that was on him, wordlessly stopping him and then rose on her toes to take his upper lip in between hers. His response came naturally before he took over.
The Jeep skidded to finally come to stop around their lodge. She hated to note the dull pain in the region of her heart. Saying her abrupt goodbye to Joy, she took quick steps to her room, refusing anymore memories to overwhelm her further putting a mental block on their free flow.
*
Khushi was in two minds about attending tonights' dinner but then thought the better of it. Joy will be worried and then these people here had really helped them a lot. They hardly had anyone around and its only done if she partook in their happiness. They will feel nice. And then her not going will mean that she is affected by his presence. She absolutely refused to give him that importance, she thought as she applied a light dab of gloss on her lips. Running her palm over her midnight blue kurta, she adjusted the waistband of her dark pink leggings and glanced over at the watch. She was looking fine and had done a decent job at getting ready considering that she had no lights around and a few candles as her helpers.
As she heard the Jeep s' engine just outside her cottage, she controlled her legs from running out and on calm feet came out of the room. Clouds had been thundering all the evening and wind too merrily played with whatever it could.
Arnav saw her come out of the room, blending into the night and still vivid for his eyes, her hair curling just around her nape. She fingered her earrings, looking anywhere but at him and the familiar rhythm his heart knew around her, started again. She walked upto his Jeep and when the clouds rumbled again, both looked up. She held an uncertainty in her eyes when he spoke, "It won't rain. Relax..". She nodded at that and ascended.
He adjusted the radio frequency and the inaudible muffled song that had been playing, still low enough in the volume reached her ears, the cool breeze only helping to somehow make her cheeks warmer.
Bheegi bheegi raaton mein
Meethi meethi baaton mein
Aisi barsaton mein
Kaisa lagta hain?
Aisa lagta hain tum banke badal
Mere badan ko bhigo ke mujhe
Ched rahe ho, chhed rahe ho...
Edited by Anupama. - 11 years ago
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