Paayal - His Scarred Butterfly ✅

1 - AN ANGEL ON THE WAY

எங்கேயோ பார்த்த மயக்கம்
எப்போதோ வாழ்ந்த நெருக்கம்
தேவதை இங்கு சாலையோரம் 
வருவது என்ன மாயம் மாயம்!
(I feel intoxicated as if I know you before,
I feel closeness as if we lived together before.
An angel walking by the streets,
Whether it is a magic?!)

Madras,
May 1995. 

The day dawned. The rays of the raising sun pierced through the window of his room. But there he was, snuggled up like a hibernating bear on his cozy mattress. His mother hurriedly made her way to his room and called out, "Krishna, Wake up. It's getting late to your school."

Despite several attempts to gain his attention by calling him multiple times and gently tapping his shoulders, he responded lazily, "Five more minutes, mom."

"Krishna, It's already 8.30. Wake up." His mom Parvathi insisted.

"What??! Is it 8.30?! I have to be in school at sharp 9" Krishna woke up in a hurry immediately and looked at the clock. The clock showed the time as 8.

Krishna glanced his mom, giving her a grumpy face and whined dramatically, "Mom, You are always tricking me into waking up."

"Anyway, it is late, my dear. Get ready for your school." Parvathi smiled and left.

Krishna descended from the bed and proceeded to bathroom. He has recently completed 11th standard and the school was conducting summer special classes for the upcoming batch for the board exams. Those students didn't have much summer holidays like every other students.

Soon, He bathed and got dressed in his higher secondary uniform: a white shirt, grey pants and a white with grey checkered tie. His deep set coffee brown eyes, perfectly arched eyebrows, straight bridged nose and his thin lips, everything projected him like a model. But he had a dream of becoming a doctor and serve the society.

He had breakfast and took his backpack which was loaded with his science stream books and his lunch box.

"Bye mom," he said and came out of his home. He carefully secured his bag on the rear seat of his bicycle and proceeded to ride his bicycle through the busy streets of madras.

The school was almost 5 kilometers away from his home. He had to cross a bunch of streets to reach the school. On moving through one of the such streets, his legs gradually slowed down pedalling his cycle and stopped on seeing a beautiful young girl. She possessed an attractive almond shaped dark brown eyes with long eyelashes and the midnight black long silky hair that cascaded till her waist and a charming heart shaped face.

She was cradling a wounded pigeon in her hands, affectionately applying turmeric remedy to soothe its injured foot. 

What made him halt on his tracks? Was it her kindness to the pigeon? Or was it her beauty? Or both? He didn't know.

But he felt an undeniable attraction towards her as if the river runs towards the ocean, crossing all the hurdles on the way. Everything around him seemed to blur, except her. The morning hustle around him turned to be a melody. His heartbeats turned into heart flutters. His eyes turned into a poetic camera, and he looked at her as if there was nothing in the world mattered to him at that moment, than admiring her.

How could he not admire her when she looked like an angel came to earth?

It was not love. He didn't believe in love at first sight. But he definitely felt, it was not just an admiration. There was something deep he felt in his heart, which he couldn't name.