Time Long Past

The flight was at 3 pm. She was getting her son ready, who is only 10 and he kept running and she kept following him, finally she got a hold of him and made him wear the jacket as the temperature outside is in single digit  and combed his hair and put on his Winnie the Pooh cap and pecked his forehead and told him to go to his daddy downstairs.

While she made a bun of her tresses and applied some kohl in her eyes and gloss on her lips and saw that mole on the right side of her upper lip in the mirror and gave a sly smile to self.

And all the while the lucky bastard was busy arranging the luggage in the cab.She came down and they left for airport.

As they were done with the security check and were heading towards the entry gate, the kid rushed into the book store which was open on all sides and started picking books with big mutli coloured cartoons and caricatures on their covers.

She followed the kid and left the lucky bastard along with luggage in the aisle.

The kid picked bunch of books and together they  proceeded to cash counter and her eyes fell on book with a melancholic cover and the title reads as "I love you Chandler Bing" by Rolling Stone, she felt a pang in her heart and hastily picked it up and flipped through the pages and read the reviews on the back of its cover.

And as she further buried herself in the book and was going through the acknowledgment and prologue and list of other books by the same writer, her lips get curled and crack appeared on the side of her eyes and she was smiling from within and in friction she time travelled to time long past.

And recalled the poem by Shelly.

There were sweet dreams in the night 

Of Time long past: 

And, was it sadness or delight, 

Each day a shadow onward cast 

Which made us wish it yet might last— 

That Time long past. 

Fishes In The Water

The metro was trembling on the tracks, and we two were standing in the aisle with our heavy luggage lined up against us. He was having his eyes in an oscillation from the map in his hands to the watch on his wrist and he was getting restless while I was busy feasting my eyes with the beauty around. He said "Dude I don't think we are going to make it."

"Oh BC don't say that."

He than showed me the map and told me that we are two stations behind our destination.

I asked "What to do now?"

He suggested we can run and reach because if we consider the halting time of metro at each station we will miss the bus, to which I agreed.

And than we two were running like mad dogs on the street with bag on each shoulder and a stroller to drag, our t-shirts were drenched in sweat and I can almost feel my lungs in my throat, and we need to cross the road for which we have to take a foot over bridge with some 50 stairs, sight of which almost made me give up, but by the time he has already climbed half of them, which gave me some inspiration and he shouted from above 

"Run Lola Run" which made me laugh and I started the ascent, which felt like trekking the Everest.

As we were on the other side of the road and started to run after coming down from those 50 something stairs he bent to his knees and was gasping for breath and than I shouted "Run Lola Run" and we both laughed and started to run.

And as the light turned red for the pedestrians, he took out the water bottle and poured the water on his face and tossed the bottle to me and I aped him.

We can see the bus station clearly from the traffic light and we ran again and I took out the tickets and checked the bus number and he spotted it. A man in crsip white shirt and blue denims with a cigarette in his hand was shutting the luggage section of the bus and a fat brunette with horned rimmed glasses  and white shirt and blue tie with yellow stripes was sitting on the steering with a typical german smile. As she has closed the doors I knocked on her window, which she rolled down and I showed her ticket, she shifted her glasses over her head and read and returned the ticket and get down the bus with a frown on her face and said something in german to which I said "English Please!" and she gave a fake smile and said " You are late." and I smiled back still trying to catch my breath. She adjusted our luggage and opened the door of the bus.

We boarded and collapsed to our seats. Girl sitting next to me smiled and offered me the water as I was still gasping, she was a dusky girl with black hair and eyebrows piercing, I accepted the water and sat quietly, he was sitting in the seat across to me and looked back said "Amstrefuckingdam it is!" and gave me a high five.

And after crossing vast stretches of picturesque green fields with wind mills and and tall glass buildings all along the way, we were finally at Sloterdjick again dipping our noses in the map. And after much of photo clicking and cheap food hunting and metro and tram ride we were at our hotel room overlooking the canal.

And as the east of sky is showing some signs of light I went down and sat on the boat in the canal wind was chilly and all house the by canal looks somewhat similar and I started taking long drags from my cigarette looking at people running and walking and cycling from god know where to God knows where.

My contemplative mood was on I was thinking about life in general and suddenly my thoughts drifted to the memory of all the good times I had with my honey.

And the boat rocked a little and he was standing right behind me.

"Why so serious dude! You are in Amstredam! Man!".

I told him what's going on in my mind.

He sat next to me and said "Put your hands in the water" 

"But why?"

"Do as i say"

So i did.

He asked "What do you feel?"

I told him " There are lot of fishes in the water."

And a smirk came on his lips.

"That's what I want you to know." And he left and said "See you at breakfast bro!"

I smiled and as he was walking back, a girl in yoga pants and running shoes was coming nearer and she stops. It took me a while to place that she is the same girl sitting next to me in bus. She waved and said  "Hi."

And asked " Can I join you" to which I agreed.

And he looked back and shouted "Lot of fishes in the water."

And rest is history.

Happy Ever After!!!

As I walked down the staircase with my friend she was standing there reading something on the notice board in her pink jacket with a hint of fur in the hood, her hairs were tied in a ponytail just above her neck, her cheeks were pink and red with marks of acne on them.And she glanced at the staircase and our eyes met for a friction of seconds and she again continued reading the notice board.

I told my friend to wait for me outside as i went to check out the notice board and her obviously.

She was tall and fairly fair, the pink of her jacket and heat that one feel when wearing layers of clothes that are excess for indoors are giving more plumb to her already pinkish cheeks. And her ears were red with the heat ,with little gold rings in them. She glanced at me with those big black eyes with not so big eye lashes and curved brows over them she ruffled her hairs to the back of her ear with her long slender fingers and I smiled, to which she sheepishly smiled and went inside the admin room. 

I went outside and told my friend " Bro! I am in love!"

He said " Not again. And laughed loudly"

I told him " Look if i see her again today than she is the one"

" But we are not going to wait for her here, lets go back to hostel and if she come to hostel, than she is the one and he laughed some more at my craziness"

I asked him " Lets go and have some paneer pakora and if she comes there i will go and talk to her"

To which he laughed some more and said "All the best bro"

And we went to sindhi's to have some paneer pakora and left the bike at parking.

And we finished the pakoras without any hint of pink jacket.

Since it was late in December when you can feel the chill right through your bones so a cuppa tea is always welcoming. So i cajoled him for tea for which he readily agreed.So we went to chauddhary tea stall which is just opposite to Gupta Chaat wala.

My eyes were getting restless searching for her in the crowd and as i was having the last sip from my cup i saw her coming with another girl in brown tweed overcoat who looked quite similar to her and an aged man in green sweater with MC written on patch of white leather on the left side of his chest.

As i saw her nearing the Gupta Chaat wala i felt week in my knees. She saw me staring her and elbowed the other girl who also scanned me and said something to her.

They went straight to chaat wala and ordered something meanwhile my friend was pushing me across the road to go and talk to her.

As i came nearer to her i felt my throat is dry and my knees were weak, hands were shaky and nose was running  so i took out the handkerchief from my back pocket and blowed the nose and cleared my throat and mustered all my courage and said "Hellooo" to which she turned and faced me and smiled and said "Hello".

"So you are a new admission"

"Yes we are" and pointed to the other girl.

And in the meantime the aged man came looking at me with suspicious eyes. 

And before he could say anything " I introduced myself" and gave a firm handshake.

To which he replied and introduced himself as "Durgesh Barman", here for the admission of my twin daughters.

And today when I woke up she was lying next to me and as she wakes up i read to her a quote from the book I was reading last night.

“And she's got brains enough for two, which is the exact quantity the girl who marries you will need.” 

― P.G. Wodehouse, Mostly Sally

What Is Past Is Prologue!

Suddenly the plane jolted and i was woken from my slumber with sunrays hitting my eyes, and the selt belt sign was on. So I searched mine and fastened and drop the window shade a little, and checked her she too was sleeping with her selt belt fastened.

I looked down and saw large spread of snow covered mountains and it looks like as if someone has sprinkled bucket loads of salt on them, with left out little green patches of pines here and there i took out my mobile and clicked few pictures.

And as the plane starts its descent the view became more picturesque.

I shook her hand and pointed towards the window. She leaned on me, with her boobies pressing my arm, she adjusted her tresses to back of her ear and she too was awestruck by the view, and exclaimed "wow". And than she sat straight in her seat and stretched her legs and yawned and  leaned on my shoulder and than took my hand in hers and closed her eyes, which made me peck her cheek and whisper "I love you Honey!"

At arrival a fair and tall man was standing with a board in his hands on which our name was written, and he took our luggage and opened the door of car for us, and asked "You're here for the first time" to which she confirmed.

And after much of deliberation and some great Wazwan lunch, we decided to spend the evening at our hotel balcony.

She ordered filtered coffee and played some John Legend on her phone.

And as the earth was about to complete its rotation, and we were facing the west to the beautiful hues of the sky.

I saw the moon and told her "Sometimes I see the moon in the day when the sky is bright. But most of us don't really see it, or seem to care even if we do. It's only when it's dark we appreciate it."

She ran her hand through my hair " Oh my darling philosopher, don't let the past takes it toll on present."

"Oh no honey, I don't mean that. It was just a passing thought."

And I told her " You know what Shakespeare said about past." I paused for a moment and said "What is past is prologue".

To which she smiled and said "That's more like it."

And we drank our coffee pondering over this quote from Tempest.