2.
The phone rang, twice and I hung up. No, I wasn’t being particularly miser, it’s surprising how cheap it is to call India from abroad but how expensive it is the other way around. One of my closest friends was studying in Wales and he needed to know of the breakthrough that I had found the night before. Since it was far cheaper for him to call me I would leave him a missed call and he would call back.
The phone rang, perfect.
Hey
So, I feel like I’m your mom or your girlfriend because you leave me missed calls to call you back?
Dude, this is important
It always is, what’s up?
Well, I wrote last night.
For real? How did this happen? That’s great!
Yea well I found inspiration and I wrote.
I walked up to the only rickshaw in the view and propped myself on it and said, “metro”, while on the other line he kept talking.
That’s great dude, what is the inspiration?
Well, it’s a little creepy but it’s a girl I saw online
That’s okay, Facebook?
YouTube.
Well, okay, erm, who is she?
I don’t know.
Her name?
I don’t know.
How do you know her?
I randomly stumbled across a video of her singing.
Yea, right, that seems about all right.
The rickshaw jittered on the pothole riddled road and I held on to the iron frame of the rick with one hand and pressed the phone harder against my ear to hear him better with the other.
I mean it, I genuinely just stumbled across the video, she’s stunning and sings real well, like really well.
Fine, link me up?
Yea, okay will email you.
So what are you planning to do?
Not sure, let’s see.
Leave her a comment or an inbox?
No, can’t do that, the video was unlisted, I’m not sure if I was supposed to have found it.
So how did you find it?
Random generator script
Brilliant, okay listen I need to sleep now, we are on different continents if you remember. So I’m going to go, but, keep me updated.
Alright. Later.
The timing was perfect since the rickshaw too had just pulled in to the metro station. I handed over the crumpled 10 bucks note to the dark aging driver and he nodded his head in acknowledgement. The noises of the city are far more amplified around metro stations because of the overhead structures. The echo is louder and much more annoying. I plugged in the earphones to shut out the sounds as much as I could and I skipped steps as I sprinted upstairs. The monotony was almost nauseating. The same rush at the security check, the same disinterested security guard just doing his job. The same first time middle-aged women who had no idea how to operate the token system. The same announcements of trains coming our way. I walked past the commotion and went to the end of the platform, hoping the next train would be the extended one so that I can just push myself in the last car and slump in the corner.
I tried to look past the smog enveloping the city and tried to see the sun set softly into the dusty ground. The outline of the city echoed with the mismatched marriage of dilapidated houses and towering structures. I tried imagining an art work that would show a building crumble into dust. It would be the kind of art work that could be the centre piece at The Taj’s lobby if you had the right links, a purchase which could sustain an artist for months. Maybe a story is what I should concentrate upon. I needed to write, desperately. I had generated some impressions last night with the ramblings based on the voice of that unknown girl and I needed to keep the momentum running. Maybe I could write about the crumbling minds of today’s world.
The metro came in, it was the extended one and the little thing made me smile. Some things are still going my way. I stepped in and found the last corner empty. Perfect, couldn’t be better. I tried to zone out myself as I kept trying to weave the story that I would write tonight. The train slowly descended underground to the busiest metro station in the city. As the crowds thronged at the barricade to enter the metro at the Rajiv Chowk Interchange station, I pushed myself further into the corner to save self from the sweaty armpits that would fill every available inch in this car in just a few seconds.
The doors opened and like water being let out from a dam, people filled in every empty space of the train. I tried to look up just to see if I can spot someone who could form a good physical character for a story. Yes, I am obsessed, and it’s amazing at how comfortably you can design new characters simply by observing crowds. I was just looking around when I saw it.
The golden blonde streak was fairly unmistakable. Could it really be her? She walked with long strides towards the escalators. The thin frame, the straight hair and the streak, it had to be her. And in the craziest one moment, I decided to go for it. The doors had begun to shut so I jammed my hand in the opening in the most awkward lurch anyone had ever witnessed in a metro, and then I pulled myself out of the train, leaving behind a trail of cuss words and an angry mob. The doors shut behind me, I dusted myself and walked. No, I ran, I ran towards the escalator because she already had a minute’s worth of a head start and I didn’t want to lose her. I climbed down the escalator, skipping steps, and landed on the base with unsteady steps. I looked around wildly, and then I saw her. Wearing a thin black sweater top. Her hair tied up in a bunch, she turned to see the metro approaching and I saw her face. It was her.
As she stepped into the train and I stepped into a different coach, I couldn’t help but wonder at how much of a coincidence this could be. I felt a lurch inside of my stomach and felt my heart beat go up. It was scary, I did not know what I wanted to do, if I could say anything to her, if I should say anything to her. I looked across the coach and saw her fiddling with an iPod, a muffler wrapped around her neck, she coughed, the same annoyed expression on her face. It almost looked like she was mad at herself for coughing.
I kept looking at her sporadically to make sure she doesn’t disappear in the crowd. I still hadn’t decided what I wanted to do about the situation and I was getting slightly anxious. The train stopped at Jor Bagh and she stepped out, I followed suit and tried to act nonchalant, I knew she hadn’t seen me yet, not that it would make a difference. I thought about it for a while, should I follow her? I was potentially still debating the idea when she swiped out and left the station. My chest lurched and I just knew I had to follow. And so I did
