Back In Time

~twenty three~

Meera gazed at the old, silver coloured scooty parked and felt herself breaking into an unconscious grin. How many times had she hopped behind Vedant on that thing?

She stopped at the main gates of the typically Gujarati house quietly, her head snapping up to the third floor of the house. The back balcony of the house was attached to Vedant's bedroom, where she would spot him with his Company Law textbook almost every time she would step out of her house once upon a time.

Now, it looked rather empty, the bamboo swing hanging untouched. The door of his bedroom that was visible from the balcony was locked, and the clear darkness within the currently uninhabited room could be seen.

Meera smiled to herself, already able to picture Vedant's thin frame with days of unshaved beard due to the exam stress walking the span of the balcony with a yellow highlighter balanced between two fingers on his right hand. Sometimes he'd be too deep into studying to notice, but other times, when he'd catch her walk by, he'd turn to her with his face breaking into a million watt smile before waving her way.

She would blush immediately, until he'd mouth, Where are you going?

Vimal Uncle's, she'd explain with a gesture of her hands.

Sometimes he'd ask her to wait and accompany her just for the heck of it. Other times, he'd hold his ear with an apologetic smile and point at his textbook helplessly.

She would eye the street carefully, before blowing him a quick kiss and walking away with a smile on her face.

Meera sighed to herself. When had she gotten so used to him?

Up until her move to Delhi, she'd never realized the intensity of her feelings for Vedant. Sure, she'd really cared for him and fancied him, but the degree of it all, had come and hit her like a truck in the months she lived in his absence. And then, she had had to come to Mumbai unexpectedly.

Now, walking through the same streets and lanes she'd made countless memories in with Vedant, everything felt incomplete and strange. Like none of what once seemed so natural now made sense.

Like that speed breaker at the end of their lane Vedant hated riding through for how it shuffled the contents of his scooty, like the young Golden Retriever named Bobo walked by the single, old Nepali lady Vedant would always stop to play with, like the ice cream cart of the local single flavoured ice creams they'd grab on their way home, like....like her. She felt incomplete without him.

She'd had moments here and there, but for some reason, the gravity of their long distance relationship was now sinking in for her more than it ever had before. Today, she was beginning to understand how Vedant must feel in her absence.

For it was easy to move away, but very, very painful, to be left behind.

Her gaze dropped down at her watch distractedly. 1:20 PM.

Collecting her astray thoughts, Meera took a deep breath in and adjusted her purse on her shoulder again for a silent motivation to herself, and then, she walked into the little compound outside the building named Manav Mandir.

You could only find such stunning buildings with no lifts in a place like South Bombay.

When she reached the third floor, she let her panting breaths even outside the house with the name Shahs written on a nice wooden wall hanging.

The sound of the bell resembled the ringing bells from a Church, she knew because she'd fancied attending some Sunday masses with Vedant in their local chapel a couple of times. It was always fascinating and liberating to look at a religion so very different from yours.