Parfait rendez-vous d'amour !!

Not every story has explosions and car chases. That's why they have romance.
I was on time, for a change. That was a good start. I hate making people wait but always end up getting late anyhow. I adjusted my belt, scuffed the shoes on the back of my pants, took a deep breath and walked in the gate to ring the bell. Despite all the times I have talked to her, the visit to her place for first time was making me nervous. It was frustrating to know that the nervousness was unreasonable, but it was also exciting.

I rang the bell and waited for the footsteps to pad up to other side. I was unsure if she will use the peephole, yet I caught myself trying to catch the tell-tale darkening on the other side of the glass eye. A door opened somewhere inside and I heard curtains being drawn as she walked towards the door. I remembered that I had not switched off my phone and furtively reached for it. The last thing I wanted was to be caught searching my pockets when she opens the door with beautiful smile. Even worse would be for the phone to ring when I will be with her, it could destroy the magic. I managed to deal with the damn thing just as I heard the door click open and there she stood.
She was in red top with a bead necklace, as if a cosmopolitan drink with an olive topping. I was busy staring at her while she locked the door and puzzled me about the place. I reminded her that we are going to a bar in old town. We started moving and it was a small walk from her place to the final place. Throughout the walk I was stealing the moments to look at her face and was churning my head to come up with a real ice breaker. But nothing was coming out as my brain had stopped working and all I could do was to look at her. After a long silent walk we finally reached to the place. It was warm inside and crowded which was usual on Friday evenings.
We got a table in the corner. Soon, waiter came with the big grin on his face and took our orders. Once again I was lost looking at her when she finally took the initiative to start the conversation. In a while, I got my beer, she got her wine, and the conversation started. I have always believed that conversations are the lifeblood of any relationship. They could be magical, mundane, melancholic, merry, mysterious, and mischievous or anything. But as long as you could talk the night away, you are onto something. And with her the conversations was intensely engaging. I spent hours throwing my thousand views of the world at her and she would always show me a side to it that I had never thought about. I was already in love with her words, her tone, her language, her voice. Everything else seemed to fade into insignificance when the two of us got started. Drinks and ideas were infinitely refilled. Time became insignificant for us. But I think even the destiny got green-eyed and soon our thrilling conversation abruptly ended by start of shouting of a drunken group. So finally we took off from there to our way back to home.
We were outside in a small street of the old town. It was almost 22h. We were walking down through a silent part. The light was soft, and I could hear people chatting and walking but they could not see us as we were passing behind a small stone wall.
Magic was in the air. I was growing more and more animated with the way our thoughts were moving. I was continuously looking at her face, lit up by the moon light falling on in a jealous way as it was envy of her. I was looking at the way her lips were moving, the way her hands were making the gestures and I did not wanted to stop her. But ignorantly (or willingly) I reached to her hand and softly grabbed it. She paused and stopped walking and started staring at me. I could see in her eyes that she was waiting for it. I pulled her towards me and grabbed her back with one hand while clearing the hairs from her face with other. Her breath got heavier and her cheeks went red. Her eyes were piercing my eyes trying to hint that they cannot lie. I broke the silence to whisper...
I wake up every morning with a thought of you and smile on my face.
I feel your love in my sleep and dream of your embrace
Although I have never met your body, your heart I do feel
Anytime I have loved before has never felt so real
She was still staring at me quietly. I could hear her heart beats pacing with nervousness. My dark eyes landed on her and on her soul and then our two bodies got closer and from us a new light appeared sweet and bitter because tonight our souls became one.

The Carom Board Story

There are events in life which seems to be of immense significance but actually don’t impinge on us in long run. Then there are events which are of minuscule nature but change our life forever. Serendipity, Luck and Coincidence play a larger part in our lives than we realize.

This is a story of such a petite event. This is a carom board story. As every good story has a central prop to culminate the climax like a shoe or a sock, or may be an umbrella mine have it too and it’s the carom board.

Let me wash your presumptions, It’s not a Cinderella story of how two love birds met but it’s story of how I met my friends.

Guys it starts like this when I was young (did I just say that…I said ‘when I was young’ ….nooo… I am still young) ok let me start again. This was my first route to the college. After more than 20 hr of train journey, I stepped out of the train on the longest platform of the world (yup Kharagpur railway platform claims to be world’s longest platform, 1.7 km long) filled with the exhilaration and fervor. But this enthusiasm soon changed to anxiousness during the cab drive to institute. This happened so when my cab driver told me that we are passing through the main streets of the city answering my query that what are the hang out points in the city. There were only fields and trees I could see out of the window from the cab. I got really distressed with the idea of spending next five years in this jungle. Soon we arrived at the institute and I got my room keys of the hostel. None the less even the Institute campus was an extended jungle with some buildings here and there.

After the long run of registration from the whole day and unpacking my bags I decided to go out to find a phone booth to call home. I came downstairs (my room was on second floor) but then I realized that I forgot to bring my purse so shedding the idea to call home I moved towards the common room (recreation room) of the hostel. Voilla!! This was the fate playing its part. The whole room was packed with unfamiliar faces and when I turned my eyes in the corner I saw three guys standing on a carom board table. I moved there to join them over the game and to fulfill the gap of the fourth player. From that point onwards Kharagpur never remained a jungle for me and those five years I can easily say were the best time of my life.

On that day at that table I met Neel and Nirav, few of my best friends for rest of my life. Later we three got a whole group (names of members of this group are still written on the wall of B224 RK Hall of Residence).

When I look back I can say I have met all my friends because of this one event. This whole thing that was such so unnoticeable in domain of life decided the whole future .And It just so happened because I took one of the many paths at that precise moment in life. It just happened so because I forgot to bring my purse and decided not to go back to room. It just happened so because no one in that room filled with people bother to play carom board other than four of us. It just happened so because it was meant to happen so.

Time is always a factor of nature that can never be predicted or chagned. No one ever really knows what it could bring and they can only wonder about what has happened in past.

P.S. Earlier on that day I had the lunch at a restaurant sitting beside Neel and I did not notice him there and did not had the idea that soon this guy is going to be an inseparable crime partner.