“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 10th 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
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.
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
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.
