Hey guys,
I am really tired doing all the cleaning of my room, my back is aching terribly, 'dard main bhi kuch baat hain' amitab bachan's deep voice is booming in my ears, I need some moov ki garmahat, and I will get it now. In the morning, just a trivial thought struck me. I just started typing and ended up with the following.
Do read and comment!!!! A heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you who read and comment, the silent readers also, please do lend your support like this… …
My every story is dedicated to all my friends and readers here!!!!
It's just a 10 page story!!!!
ENJOY!!!!
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"Between Strangers"
Everything eventually comes to an End… Its like you start out life with an empty slate and then you keep writing and erasing stuff. You meet people. You do things. At times people surround you everywhere. At times when you would hear patiently for the slightest of sound… a footstep maybe… a laugh hopefully… but nothing… Not even a pin-drop…could be heard…Happiness overtakes you sometimes… only to be replaced by such intense raw pain that you wonder how you even survived… But you do. Live through it all. LIFE… a stranger before, a friend for a while, sometimes becoming even a best friend, eventually becoming a stranger again… Again and Again…
They looked at their life… amazed at how they could look at it… Totally detached… As if they were reading an autobiography or watching a movie… Everyone around them relegated to being just a character now… How important they were at that time in life before fading away… sometimes to turn up again… but eventually to fade into oblivion… seemed like even they were also playing the part of a character… A character that was alien to them... A stranger…
Was it coincidental or an epiphany that in the intimately secured minds of Two Strangers the same incoherent thoughts were floating in and out like clouds suspended in the realms of heaven and hell…
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Inescapably in love… …The words echoed out of the silence in her head, the darkness she was sitting in didn't help shield the image of those steel grey eyes from her eyes…
Wouldn't it be great, wouldn't it be just perfect if every morning you could see him, lying next to you, if every time you closed your eyes you could open them to him sitting by you. Wouldn't it be heaven if every time you were faced with hardship in life and he was there for you…The man with the steel grey eyes, the man whom she had known only for a short time made everything perfect, made her life complete…Inescapably in love… The hearts a wicked part of the human body, the one true thing that keeps you alive, the one true thing that she will lose her life for was LOVE…but…she sighed…she was dreaming too much, demanding too much, what she wanted was much beyond the scope of her reach… Never again was she to pin her hopes on such a forlorn concept such as LOVE, her truth, and her fate was now laid out before her in the form of two shards of a broken heart…she wondered sometimes that she was exaggerating things…reading between the lines of the thoughts formed in her mind…she was pitching to reach a place which was beyond her… …how could just a few hours spent could define her life, how those few hours have such tremendous impact on her mind, body and soul…she couldn't decipher…
Switching on the lights, Bani stood up…she was expected to be prim and proper, perfectly ready for a party, something which was not fond of…selecting her dress she went inside the bathroom…
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Every face he saw in the street reminded him of hers, every face in his dreams was hers, every confusion that now rampaged in his mind was in one shape or form related to her, the woman with the deep chocolate brown eyes…he was in love…Inescapably so…he wondered whether it would be sane enough to call it love, a few moments spent weren't love, it was something else but their memories didn't leave him since…it had been a decade since that incident but still he couldn't bring himself to forget it, it was as if it had become a part of him… …
He lived as though in a chambered nautilus, with each aspect of his life sealed off in a separate compartment…even the closest of people, like his family didn't know him precisely, he had modeled himself like that, being with everyone yet apart…very apart…
He kept his laptop aside, he was set to go for a party, a business party…his current girlfriend Roshni Chopra was coming along…Jai sighed and got up…
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Bani looked around with great disinterest; her eyes fell on her handsome fianc embroiled in a very serious and busy talk with one of his counterparts…she wondered whether he thought anything else except facts, figures, shares, stocks and all that business jargon…he couldn't even compliment her, she was wearing a sari for the first time, but he must have hardly observed her, she mused from where did her parents caught this unique specimen for her especially, it's not like he was bad, Tarun Sablok was a nice man but a typical male, he lacked even an ounce of sensibility… she groaned inwardly… …
Jai Walia plastered a couth smile on his devilishly handsome face hearing to the stupid conversation of Roshni and some other associates, he got himself another glass of drink when Tarun approached him, they had completed their MBA from abroad together…
"Hey Jai…" tarun said…
"Hey Tarun, how have you been, long time…" jai replied…
"I am fine, tum batao…"
"Never better…" jai grinned…just then a sweet voice disturbed them…
"Tarun…" bani called out form behind…tarun turned around…
"Arre, bani, meet Jai, Jai Walia, we did our MBA together…" he said sounding too proud as if he had conquered the Everest…
"Jai, this is my fiance, bani…" tarun said…
Jai kept looking at the woman standing before him, she was exceedingly familiar…and so was bani who kept staring at him without blinking…as if she had known him forever…
"Hello…" jai said unmindfully…
"Hello Mr. Walia…" bani said coming out of her trance…
"I must say Tarun, you are a lucky man…" jai said…
"Well, thanks…" tarun said
"So what do you do Bani" jai asked looking at her intently… he could sense her nervousness…before bani could open her mouth tarun spoke up…
"Oh!!! Nothing, she just into literature and all…" tarun said dryly…
"I teach English Literature Mr. Walia…" bani said firmly…jai could sense the tension…
"I would love to be taught by such a beautiful teacher like you, bani…" jai said with a smile, bani blushed a bit…
Roshni came around, taking jai by his arms…
"Jai, honey, Mr. Manchandani wanted to meet you…come…" roshni said
"Ya, excuse us tarun, I will catch you later…" he said…
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Bani stood at the window, far off from the mob of glittering people, the cool evening breeze touched her face… …
"BOO…" jai shouted in her ears…bani jumped hearing his voice…he saw jai staring at her…
"Mr. Walia, you almost scared me…" bani said, slightly flushed…
"Jai would be better bani…" he said…
"What are you doing here?"
"Thought of giving company to a beautiful maiden…"
"Well…"
"This party is boring na…"
"Hmm…"
"Let's go…" jai almost dragged her holding by her hand…
"Jai, are you mad, let go off me…" bani said embarrassed as well as confused…
They reached the elevator…punching the ground floor button jai leaned against the elevator wall looking at her…
"Jai, where are we going, Tarun must be looking for me…" bani said quite irritated by his high-handedness…
"He is certainly not looking for you bani…" jai said giving her a knowing look…bani kept quiet for a second…
"Your girlfriend must be looking for you…" she said
"I am trying to escape her…" he said with a grin…
"Jai please let's go back…"
"Common bani, we don't like the party so we going somewhere else, we should always listen to our heart…"
"Okay, you win…" bani said smiling…
"That's better…"
The door of the elevator opened…
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Jai and bani sat in the car enveloped in complete silence… bani kept looking outside even though she was with a complete stranger, but still she felt as if she knew him since a long time…
"So you teach in school or college…" jai asked casually…
"College, St. Thomas…" bani said turning her attention towards him…
"Wow, you look too young to reach such grown ups…must be a hard time…"
"Not much, my students are nice…"
They fell silent again…
"You look very similar bani, as if I have seen you once…" jai asked suddenly halting the car…jai looked into her chocolate brown eyes…
"I don't know…" bani said unsurely…glancing at his steel grey eyes, yes they were similar, very similar… …
"Come let's go, the party begins now…" jai said excitedly…bani came out and looked a the surroundings, it was the Juhoo Beach, the beach was hustling bustling with people…this was the last place she expected him to bring her, he was surely a man full of surprises…
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Bani gulped down the panipuris with delight, she had almost finished two full plates, while jai stuck to a simple bhel puri…finishing off her third plate…
"I am done…that was brilliant…" bani said drinking water…
"I can see that…" jai came close to her, bani felt a tight knot in the pit of her stomach, he took out his kerchief and wiped the water at the edge of her lips…
"Chalen…" bani said…moving aside… …jai smiled and rolled on his pants, he had already left his coat inside the car… …
They kept walking along the wide stretch of the sterile sand…talking about all the possible things, the hullabaloo in the background had reduced a bit…bani was slowly nibbling onto the sweet sugar candy…it was surprising how two strangers were so comfortable in each others company…their future unfolded before them like the stars appearing in the sky above… they talked, they laughed… they were like two pieces of a puzzle that fit together perfectly...it seemed as if they complemented each other…Together they were one, one heart beating, one life living, one soul in harmony...
"Are you happy bani…" jai asked in between their normal conversation… …
"What do you mean?" bani asked confused…
"Are you happy? Yes or No…simple…" bani kept staring at him…looking away she said…"Of course I am…"
"Really…" he said amused… As she gazed into his eyes, she felt herself losing grasp of the twisted rope of inhibitions she had so desperately clung to out of fear of falling…
"I don't' know…" she said sincerely… …
"You are not happy bani…" he said
"And you…" she asked…
"Neither am I…" he said with a sigh...
"Why…why are we not happy jai…?" she asked sounding desperate…
"Probably we are searching for something…something we have long lost…" he said…
They kept walking silently…bani's mobile rung…
"Tarun…" bani said to jai…jai shrugged his shoulders…not budging from his position…
"Hello tarun…" bani said
"Bani where have you been, main tumhe dhoondh raha tha…"tarun said…
"Mera sir dard kar raha tha toh main ghar aagayi…" bani said blatantly lying, while jai looked at her making funny faces, she felt like giggling…
"Theek hain, bye…" tarun said and ended the phone…she kept looking at the mobile screen…
"Usne yeh bhi nahin poocha ki tumhara sir ka dard kaisa hain, so what if it was a fake head ache…" jai said, bani hit his arm…
"Tarun has always been like that, too serious aur dimag se sochne waala…" jai said…
"Can we forget tarun…" bani said irked…
"I was thinking the same…" he looked at bani flashing a smile…
"What if you girlfriend called…" bani asked pretending to be curious…
"I have switched off my phone…" he said
"Very smart…"
They kept walking in silence…they sat on the sand…engrossed in the realms of their past… …was it true that they were searching for something they had long lost… …?
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10 years ago…
Goa…
Bani stood in awe of this most beautiful place, the golden goa beach, the bright light house at a distance, the crashing ocean waves, the slight foam crowning the waves touching her bare feet…she had come for an outing with her few friends, it took a lot convince her parents, but she had successfully accomplished to get a permission, of course sending a 16-year old all alone, they had their fears and apprehensions… she had just made a call to her parents that she would be leaving Goa tomorrow morning…
The wind rolled back playing with her hair…As night began to fall; the darkness extinguished the warm amber glow… The coolness turned to cold… The gentle breeze became a biting wind… The soothing sounds of the enchanted ocean waves filled her ears... tomorrow she would be leaving this magical, mystical place and sadly return to the real world…
She heard herself being called by one of her fiends, the y had organized a beach party on the last night of their stay here…she quickly walked towards the group…
Jai was watching his friends go berserk dancing, he sipped on his alcoholic drink, he was all set to leave for America by tomorrow evening's flight, to finish his MBA, he was just 21 and he had a long way to go to take over his father's business, he and his friends had decided to have a full blown party before they head in different directions in pursuit of their dreams and ambitions, and what better place than Goa to have a fun filled blast…jai shook his head as most of his friends were busy flirting with a group of young girls who were certainly enjoying all the attention…he drank another glass of the smelly alcohol…the strong acid was showing its effect slowly…his eyes spotted a cute little girl standing a bit aloof watching her friends dancing, her angelic face was lit up with a dimpled smile and she was clapping beaming at her friends, he felt the whole world dissolve into shards of minute particles, he could only see her, only her in the white dress, he had never felt so wonderful seeing a girl, he kept looking at her with an intensity unknown…
Bani was happily enjoying the loud music, she never really liked heavy beats but the atmosphere was so peppy that she couldn't help but tap her feet…suddenly she felt something amiss as if somebody's eyes were on her… she turned her head to see a young man watching rather ogling at her intently…she felt strange at first but then something about the way he looked touched the innermost depth of her heart, she looked at him with a soft expression…she knew one thing that she had never seen such eyes, they were an abyss of emotions, and she couldn't read them at all…she was drowning in them like a magical spell had been cast upon her…even before she could register the jarring music had gone mute and she had stopped clapping standing like a statue… …
On their journey of the eyes…no words were exchanged... There was no need for words… Words couldn't begin to describe the blissful innocence they were experiencing…they kept looking at each other over a countless period of time… …
Jai took a unsteady step forward towards her, bani suddenly jerked out of her revive, she felt nervous, not knowing what to do she ran away…jai kept looking at her back…he blinked his eyes…
The next morning both of them left the place for their respective destinations… safely carrying the sweet memory of that starry night buried beneath the layers of their hearts…
They both knew what we shared that night was a fantasy and fantasies couldn't exist in the real world… Outside that starry night they knew their brief time together could be no more than a most treasured memory…
Since then they haven't been back to that special place… they have forgotten neither. They did fall that starry night…They fell helplessly and hopelessly in love...Their fall sent spiraling down into the depths of depression and despair. The loneliness, emptiness and pain was at times almost more than they could endure. They clung to the hope that some day they would meet again. They were soul mates destined to be together. Their paths seemed to have crossed at the wrong time throughout this journey called LIFE… …
They took comfort in knowing that they shared the same sky, sun, moon, and stars. More importantly, they shared the same precious memory of that special place and time... …
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They both came of their thoughts, bani looked at jai, Yes, he was the same, the very same…she averted her gaze… …jai turned to look at her, it could be only her, there was no ounce of doubt about that… the splashing waves touched their feet…jai playfully threw the salty water on her…bani screamed…and before they realized they were throwing water at each other, playing like two little naught kids standing in the sea wetting each other… …
"God jai, I am completely wet…" bani complained as they came and stood on the dry shore…
"Let's go home and you can dry yourself…" jai said suggestively…
It was just a ten minutes journey and they were standing before his house…
"You stay in a pent house…" bani said quite surprised…
"Ya, why…" jai said opening the door…
"No, I thought, you would be living in a mansion or something…" bani entered looking around…it was beautiful with minimal furniture…
"After my parents' death I moved here, I visit my family at weekends or some occasion…"
"Oh!!!"
"Here is the bathroom…" jai pointed…handing her a soft towel…
"Thanks…"
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Bani kept staring outside the huge glass windowpane overlooking the now quiet Arabian Sea…jai came in and saw her engaged in her own bounded, unbounded thoughts…
"Do you know something…" jai asked resting his shoulder on the plane cream colored wall…
"What…?" bani said still looking outside…
"This was the first time I have been to Juhoo beach…" bani looked at him with disbelief…
"You are kidding…everyday you can see it from your room and you have never been there…"
"Everyday I only see it through this glass window, it reminds of someone…"
Bani gazed into his eyes…
"It reminds me of someone too…" she said softly and kept looking at him…jai languidly approached her…and held her moist waist gently…pulling her closer… …
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The threads of modesty and shyness unraveled and flowed to the ground like satin scarves in the wind. She closed her eyes and held her breath. His lips touched hers, first softly and then fiercely…She crawled to him, like a moth to the flame, the sensation of their bodies intertwined together, so magnetic, and the forces surrounding them as if they were meant to be here and now. His lips glided along her neck; he heard her heavy panting in his ear… She held her lower lip, delicately, between her teeth and lay back against the velvety satin…He kissed her slowly at first, pulling away in between kisses to view her intimately… he ran his fingertips along the natural curves of her body as if she was his easel and he were the artist. He gently stroked her, looking deep into her eyes letting her know that he was hers and she was his... Shortly thereafter, she was on his side, or he on hers, everything blurred quickly… She was in his arms…breathing had become a thing of the past, something they were both so incapable of…Afterwards they fell back wheeling with the immense intoxication of love, they lay together entangled, half asleep, half awake, drifting into unconsciousness… …
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Bani opened her eyes gingerly, she looked aside to see his sleeping profile…she felt a sudden urge to kiss him…suddenly she realized her state…she quietly sat up, she was about to get out when she felt a strong grip on her naked waist…pulling her…
"Don't do you dare run away again Bani…" he said hoarsely, pinning her down under him…
"You…remember…" bani said quite shocked…
"Of course I do…just like you do…" he said and plopped himself next to her…
"I…well…I…" she struggled for words…
"I felt foolish thinking that the night I saw you, I fell in love, but I now believe it was indeed Love and nothing else…" he said looking into her eyes…bani let out a small laugh…
"I can't believe this…" she said amazed… …
"You better believe it…"
They fell silent for a moment…letting the fact sink in…
"Marry me bani…" he said entwining her fingers with his and kissing the back of her palm…bani looked at him surprised…
"We…I…we hardly know each other…and tarun…"
"There is a lifetime to do that bani… and leave that dunderhead tarun to me…"
"Are you sure…"
"I have never been so sure in my life, and anyways don't you think 10 years is a long long wait…I am not a very patient man…"
Bani just hugged him…
"Can I take that as a yes…?"
"Hmmm… … …" she whispered hiding herself in his chest… …
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The End… …
God bless
Dhani
P.S: I have a 10-day holiday break (I hate my college) so I am quite free, have to a lot of things though, any idea or anything you want me to write feel free to PM me, anything interesting and different I will try to write it.
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