Winter

In one of those rarely cold winter mornings, I decided to be a part of her life. The decision for me was fairly easy, for she had already taken it for me. All I needed was to nod ‘yes’.

The winter was slowly passing. It was not the typical winter in Munnar. The climate was generally dry and humid and less of the ‘winter’. The trees were all naked, penancing with the hope to bloom with the arrival of spring. I was expecting a usual dry weather when I woke up that morning, little did I know of the storms last night, as I was stone cold drunk by the time I hit bed. The rains which arrived after that, passed without me knowing. As a result of the overnight rains, the morning was calm and beautiful. A veil of mist was surrounding the hill where my house situated and the naked tree branches still had the pearls of water, which shined bright in the morning sun.

As I was taking in the good weather with a dose of the morning coffee, my phone chimed. It was a message from her. ‘CWM? Today?’ that was all it said. First, I did not want to respond to that message, I did not like it when she messaged in short hand, especially when I am at home. I would be going back to Kochi today, but I was not planning on seeing her. I picked up the phone and without looking at the phone typed ‘yes’ and pressed the send button.

I was not sure why did I say yes, but I figured it was the weather. I was as cheery as the weather in the morning and wanted to rub something on her as well. We had a small fight over the phone last night that I cannot remember for what, and this would make it better, may be.

The phone rang. It was her. She might not have believed that I would make it. Typical of her. Always cross checking. I did not answer the call. It rang again. This time a different number, a number I did not recognize. I knew it would be her, and I did not pick the call.

The calling bell rang. I waited for Mom to answer the door. The bell rang again. I came out of my room. Mom is not there, she would have gone to my uncle’s house to milk the cow. Uncle and his family are visiting Balu in UK. They left the cows and other animals under our care and went to UK. Where is dad? I looked at my watch, it was 6.45. He was out on his jog. He goes out every day at 6.30 for a jog, a custom he follows religiously for the last so many years.

I went to the door as the bell was ringing again. Outside the door stood she in a pearl white churidar. The mist behind her and the slow breeze made her look like a heroine straight out of a Yash Chopra movie. She looked stunning and I forgot everything for a moment. Minutes passed and I came to my senses and that naturally made me scared. She was standing on my doors. If anyone sees…! I did not have an answer. That realisation coupled with the shock, made me grab her by hand and drag her into my bedroom.

She did not look startled at all. She was calmness personified. She kept smiling at me mischievously, which obviously should have made me angry, but I was glad to see her. “What were you thinking, showing up like this” I asked.

“I was not able to go to bed after the fight we had yesterday. It rained the whole night. You remember the first time, you actually made an effort to make eye contact and smile? Everything from that point flashed in front of me. Rain was giving me the perfect BG and I kept playing all that we went through over the last two years together, in my head. And when I could not take that anymore, I sent you that message. When I did not see a read receipt, something got into me and I got ready and took the car and drew. I wanted to see you then and there” she was touching my face, her gaze, singularly focused on my eyes. Her eyes had the depth to drown me in and it slowly filled up and then broke my heart by overflowing.

I held her face in my hands and kissed her on her forehead and then hugged her. Then slowly hit her at the back of her head and said, “Do you know how risky that was, had something happened, what I would do?” she just hugged me tighter.

It took me a while to come back to my senses. I wanted to scold her even more for the recklessness of her actions. At that moment, hugging her, nothing else mattered though. Everything was perfect in the world. All I ever wanted in my life was hugging me as if her life is depended on it. Slowly reality sunk in. we were in my room and if any of my parents come back, I would have a very difficult situation to explain. Need to go before that happens. I pushed her away and ran into the bathroom.

In half an hour I managed to get ready and was about to get her out of the house. My phone rang. Some random number. I answered, but the line got disconnected. I asked her to get in the car, while I locked up the house. I left the key in the flower pot hanging over the corner veranda as we always do and went to the car. My phone rang again. It was her number. I opened the car door and then noticed that the phone is not with her. I pressed the answer button.

The voice on the other side was a male. “Sorry, this is the Police. The owner of this phone is in the Morning star Hospital. Her car was involved in an accident in the highway early morning. Yours was the last number dialled from the phone and hence the call. Do you know the owner of the phone, Ms.Divya Ramanathan?”

It must be some weird sick joke. She is sitting right next to me. I decided to play along. “Yes”, I replied. “She is my would-be”. She smiled at me for that answer. “Sir, can you state your name and address, for the record?” the voice from the other side repeated. I stated my name and some random address came to my mind. “Would you be able to come to the hospital, right now?”

“Can I know your name and designation, if you don’t mind?”  I asked calmly. This game is surely going out of hand and I was losing on precious time. He seemed surprised when he answered “George Joseph, SI, Adimaly”. I responded. “Look Mr. George Joseph or whoever you say you are, the person you think you have is not my Divya. She is sitting right next to me in the car. I am curious to know how you got her phone though. We are an hour away from Adimaly and will come directly to the Police station, if that is OK.”

There was no response from the other side for a minute. Then he said, “Sorry for causing any inconvenience, sir. There must have been some confusion from our end. If you are coming this way, we will be very happy to hand this phone over to Ms. Divya. May be she would be able to identify this girl for us then”. I looked at her. She smiled and nodded in agreement. “We will be right there” I said and hung the phone up.

I started the car and had a good hearty laugh with her as I drove past the gate. “But what happened to your phone?” I asked? “I must have lost it somewhere” she rubbed her head. I was not surprised, in the years that I had known her, she would on an average lose about 3 phones an year. Never know how and when she loses it.

It would take an hour to reach Adimaly. “You know, that day when I approached you for the first time and made an effort to talk? That was my 3^rd attempt. The first two attempts you did not even know” I smiled at her as I said this.

“It was not 3^rd, fourth.” She corrected me. “The first attempt was when I was standing next to you in the cafeteria Q, you wanted to say something, I saw that in your eyes, but you backed off. If you had not made an effort to talk to me at the food court when you did, I would have talked to you the next day, when they announced the football match winners” she said with a mischievous smile.

Sun was playing hide and seek suddenly. The mist suddenly grew thick and after the next corner, I did not see much of the road and the headlights that were hidden in the mist until very last. My sudden brake and the immediate steering rotation were the only things that helped in continuing my journey with her. Now we will be together, forever. Till death do us part and after..!