The AIR anchor named 24

“Good evening to those who have just started their vehicles for the pubs, good night for those who just completed their dinner. For the rest lovers sitting outside the girl’s apartment- beware of Indian Police. A dog’s bite is curable; a landing in jail is non-bailable!” The mysterious anchor of the 9 p.m. show on Shimla All India Radio welcomed his listeners.

The mysterious anchor calls himself ‘24’ these days. An odd name right? When he started anchoring he used to call himself ‘22’. In the last two years, add a few more months to justify the math, 24 has gathered a good number of admirers. His show called “the eternal lovers” encompass beautiful poems- few copied and mostly his own. His show is a must at the drinking joints in Shimla, his show is a must at various college hostels of the north, his show is a must in various homes of Shimla and his show is a must at SBI Asst. manager apartment where Trisha resides.

“Oh, in sweaty shimmering summer spree

To this lovely landscape people flee.

The lovely couples just into love

As beautiful doves reach this cove.

Should I wish you for days to come?

Wishes will be handy for a group of some.

Take my wishes of better luck

And some be warier with best of luck!

Love is a path that always demands a price,

Some pay the managers with hard earned buck,

The rest pay their life with beads of cries.

The summer of twenty-zero seven

I stumbled the hill called lovely heaven-

Some call it love for the sake of fun.

Her eyes bright, her hair short

Her ruddy lips with a tint of mole

Nerved are gods for their implicit role

And frenzied are damsels adorning the court.

Her lips part, to flaunt a smile

Waste is a matchbox that can spark a mile.”

Trisha had been listening to this mysterious guy since the last couple of months. He used to remind her of Sahil during college days. Sahil and Trisha were classmates in 2007-2011 batch of NIT Hamirpur. Sahil was a poet, a magician with words. It was rumored in the girl’s hostel that Sahil was in love with Trisha, and as girls usually are- she was confused. Trisha was confused to whether she should give up on her school time long friend Pratik who had proposed her in class 10^th and not called for the last six months, or give a go ahead to Sahil. Whenever Sahil spoke Trisha replied, however fearing emotions of betrayal to Pratik she never initiated a conversation.

On the contrary Sahil never knew when to give up on Trisha. There were moments when he would sense the non-reciprocity and get hurt. He would stop talking to Trisha for weeks, only to find compelled by his own thoughts, coerced by his own feelings to ping her ‘hi’ on gtalk. Four years of engineering passed away like a tuft of wind that originates somewhere in the trees, and comes with a gusto crashing on your face. Trisha never overcame her confusion, and Sahil never gave up on Trisha. On every Valentine’s Day and on every birthday of Trisha he used to find himself occupied in a smoke filled room with a pen in his hand penning down poems for her. He used to gather the courage to send it across to her, travel till the post office, stand in line and chicken out at the counter.

24 broke the thought train of Trisha with his words, “I wrote this piece when I was in final year of my graduation for a special girl who became a part of my life. I would like to share it with you, and just in case, if she happens to be listening always remember my words- it is never too late.”

“Was it the standing with you in admiss’n line

Or the play of the Sun on your hair that shine?
Was it the playful dent when you smile

Or was it the desire to walk you for a mile?

I fell in love when I was a kid at heart

And saw you on a day spilling tart.

I asked for a date which you smilingly refused

In spite I cracked jokes to see you amused.

How long can eternal love be on hold,

Waiting for you in my arms to behold?

The Sun, the Moon, and the lovely hills

Wait for the moment when love spills.

For years I have been fighting with my abandoned fate

Cajoling my heart - it is never too late!”

Words play a powerful role in our lives. Words conjure memories; words resurrect the dead and reflect them as tears in our eyes; words bring back our forgotten loved ones and rip our hearts making us yearn for them. Somewhere deep within Trisha’s heart, some deep and calm voice transpired. The voice made her believe 24 could be none other than Sahil. The voice called out to her, “Despite years and miles of distance between you two, he has still not lost hope. What is that which makes men love women with such absolute passion, regardless of how detrimental this passion is? It cannot be lust I am sure of that. Lust is a flesh worm that burns in the night and is finished by the morning. Lust is the temporary solace which Tulsidas mistook to be love. Love is eternal, all encompassing- omnipresent, regardless of where the physical bodies reside. Sahil has crossed the boundary of loss and gain, and he has accepted the universe where he is bereft of your presence. He might not have stoically accepted your absence, yet he has hopefully accepted your absence. He has gained solace in the fact that beyond this mortal world there is a parallel world where purity of thought is respected and responded to. Why bereft this man of the same happiness in this mortal world. Don’t you wished to be loved by such a man; don’t you wish to be loved by him? Aren’t you affected by his poems? You are the source and you are the end of his words!”

Trisha picked up her car keys and ran for the garage. She started her maruti alto and sped her car towards Ambedkar Chowk. On reaching Ambedkar Chowk she cursed “to hell with traffic laws” and snapped her car door shut. She virtually tripped herself while entering the AIR building; giving a slip to the security guard she managed to reach the recording room from where the mysterious number 24 was telecasting his today’s episode.

24 was indeed Sahil.

In matters of love the heart doesn’t wait to add two and two. Adding two and two is the work of the brain, the task of the heart is to pour it out to someone and be a cause of happiness. Without thinking of the consequences and results Trisha barged into the recording room and stood face to face with Sahil. He was in the middle of a poem when his eyes shifted from the page to be locked in the black eyes of Trisha. She had put a thin lining of Kajal in her eyes which was now starting to fade. Her eyes were moist and tears were on the verge of overflowing the brim.

“With hopes we meet--

In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive

Into the room you barge

Where my heart dwell.

Send word to the church,

Ask them to ring the bell.”

Trisha ran to his arms and after smudging the left over kajal on his shirt, spoke in the mike, “Hi, your anchor whom you know as 24, I am his miss 24. We wish to grow as Mr. and Mrs. 100...”

The rest of the hour was utilized by Trisha to entertain the audience with anecdotes of what all Sahil used to do to impress her in college.