"Ragini, listen to me"
Ragini turned around to find Sadhana standing behind her looking slightly worried. She ignored Sadhana and started walking ahead. But, Sadhna was fast, as she caught up with her pace, and swung Ragini around as muttered, "Ragini, listen to me first"
She observed Sadhna for a minute before she answered back "No, I don't want to! It's not going to work out that way".
Sadhna paled as she heard these words out from her best friend's mouth, and Ragini did feel a bit bad, but whatever Sadhna was being unrealistic and she ought to realize it.
With a quick goodbye, Ragini turned on her heels and walked out the doors leaving a shattered Sadhna behind.
********
The old lady smiled as she placed the cup of coffee on the table. Ragini smiled back, then grabbing the cup she turned to look outside at the wet snow, which fell on the sidewalk like a blanket.
She noticed a bunch of children were playing ahead in the snow trying to build a snow man and that brought back all the sweet memories of her childhood, which were still embedded somewhere in her mind behind all those bitter dark memories of last month.
For a second she was lost in her thoughts, before her heart shielded itself from the pain and screamed at her to stop. She did not want to remember that incident at least not today, so instead she chose to look at a little girl about the age of five sitting in the snow with a young boy, about the age of ten, who was throwing snow on the girl's face. It was just an awful sight.
Her heart went out for the poor girl, she ran near the window and stood there trying to yell at the boy move, and when she got strange looks she realized her blunder.... Hastily she left all her belongings behind and ran outside to stop that little brat.
Ragini pushed the door open in hurry, and almost slipped on the slate, but luckily some guy saved her in the nick of time. She thanked him without once bothering to look at his face and rushed out to stop the monster, who was troubling the little girl.
********
"Sister" was the first word Sadhana heard before she could say hello. She turned around with a smile and replied, "Yes, Karan how did you find the time to call me?" some nurse was calling her, and she just motioned the lady that she will be there in a minute.
However, she frowned as she heard him mention about bumping into Ragini at Tim Hortons. She argued with him, as it sounded ridiculous that Ragini was at Tims, but he sounded positive.
She rushed to Liz and informed her to take up her duty, as she had to leave urgently without bothering to hear Liz's response she grabbed her purse and rushed out the doors to catch Ragini.
Karan looked at Ragini, she had lifted this Asian girl and was scolding a 10 year old. He wanted to go and talk to her desperately, but he withheld this thought, as he noticed her engrossed into the argument.
He shrugged his shoulders and turned around to face this gorgeous young lady, and he openly started to flirt with her not once caring about his surroundings.
********
Sadhna stared in horror as she noticed Ragini with a small kid in her lap. Before she could say a word, Ragini noticed her and immediately placed the kid on the ground, and then she yelled something that sounded like "if you do that again I will hunt you down" and made her way back to Tims.
Sadhna ran behind her, and yelled, "Ragini, wait... we really need to talk" it sounded more like she was begging.
This time Sadhana was pleased to see Ragini turn around and nod with approval. She asked, "Want to go for a walk?" while Ragini just nodded her head and they began to walk.
It had been so long since she (Ragini) had been out with someone for a walk. She could literally see little kids everywhere and she wondered why she had never noticed them before. She lived in the area since three years, and yet she never noticed so many kids. Perhaps, a new amusement park opened somewhere near by, and she made a quick note to check it out sometime.
By now they had walked for quite a fair distance, when she heard Sadhana clear her throat to break the silence.
"Ragini", Sadhna said, then with a bit of hesitation, she continued, "You need to talk to him".
Ragini took a deep breath, and replied coolly, "No Sadhna".
Sadhna looked really unhappy and she added, "But, he has the right to know about it, and before you answer no again, please think about it!".
Ragini noticed this cute little boy dragging his mother to the candy store, while the mother refused and with a cute puppy face he asked her again and again, when finally the mother agreed and gave it to him.
It sounded strange, but Ragini was happy for him. She had never felt happy for someone especially for something like this, but today as she stood there she felt immensely happy for the little kid.
It was the waving of a hand that brought Ragini out of her thoughts, someone was waving her hand in front of Ragini, and yelling "Ragini". She turned to face Sadhna and immediately answered, "Yes".
Sadhna looked at her for a while before she asked, "Did you hear me?" Ragini looked at her blankly and replied, "Remind me where we were again?" and noticed Sadhna turned red in anger and yell, "From the past five minutes I have been trying to tell you something and you are lost somewhere else. I have no time to give you free advise....I am leaving" and with those words she walked away.
Now, surely Ragini really couldn't afford to loose a sweet friend like Sadhna, a friend who had been with her all her life. The only thing that was annoying about Sadhna was that she wouldn't leave her in peace until she (Ragini) listened to her.
She couldn't avoid Sadhna for so long, so she walked as fast as her legs could carry and immediately apologized. Sadhna remained silent, then when Ragini promised her that nothing would distract her and she would pay full attention to Professor Sadhna, for the first time that day Sadhna smiled.
********
Anupamaa
Bengali Shows
