Bombay and The Queen's Necklace

CHAPTER 3

Janani couldn't find Dhruv in Marine Drive for the next two days. She as usual sat on the shore and sketched the sea and the surroundings. In between her eyes also searched for the photographer with Nick hung to his neck.

Three days later Janani was having a coffee from Artico cafe. The cafe was filled with customers, most seemed like regular ones. There were few people with their laptops and doing stuffs as if the place felt like their home. It was her first time there and she really liked the vibe surrounding her.

She suddenly noticed a six feet tall guy with a travel bag hung to his shoulder and camera hung to his neck getting inside the cafe. And she knew it was Dhruv with his Nick.

"Hey Dhruv, how was the Pune shoot?" Janani heard someone there in the cafe asking Dhruv.

Some of them including the owner himself were having a friendly chat with Dhruv. So Dhruv was a common figure there, she thought.

"Hi..", Dhruv waved his hand on seeing Janani in a reflex before she forced herself to take her eyes off him.

Janani smiled.

"Jeevan Bhai, one cappuccino to that table" Dhruv pointed to the table where Janani was sitting and sipping coffee.

"So, you saw the photographs?" Once again it was Dhruv who initiated.

"I'm so sorry for that day." Replied Janani with a pinch of embarrassment.

"Never mind" he always had a Dhruv special smile.

"The photos are too good. I mean, it's just wow."

"I know," still smiling,"Dhruv," he held out his hand.

"Janani", they squeezed. "But photographing a random stranger without permission is not cool, ok?" She had another sip.

"Photographing a random stranger without permission is not cool. But it's fine if she seems like a photographic subject. At least for me I must say."

"Subject?"

"A girl in between all the odds attaining her peace in the beauty offered by the sea. The beauty of the girl punctuated by the beauty of the nature. Perfect.What I want are some out of the world moments to capture. Frankly, that's some real struggle. I had to wait and wait and wait... But at the end of the day, I just got what I wanted. And don't worry, it's not for publishing and all. Me and Nick didn't want to miss an interesting subject. That's all."

Janani found hard to control her astonishment. "But how come you knew...??"

"Just some of those things. You can call it 'a photographer's instinct'." He still had that smile.

Janani didn't reply, she was astonished by his words.

"Not from Bombay, right?"Dhruv enquired.

"Cochin. Kerala," she answered.

Dhruv continued. "Can I have a look at your sketches? I just had a glance at it the previous days."

Janani took the sketchbook from her bag and handed it to Dhruv. Two minutes of silence rented the air as Dhruv swapped over pages.

"Mind blowing," He broke the silence.

"Thank you", Janani knew just the two words would do. With words she neither wanted to showcase artificial humility nor did she want herself portrayed as a bragger. She was well aware how good a sketcher she was.

And that was the end of a sweet conversation, and Dhruv was about to leave.

"Dhruv, can you do me a favour?" asked Janani with a bit of hesitation.

"Shoot"

"Could you help me land a job in Bomaby? I can sketch anything." Janani pushed herself so hard for this. "Sorry if I bothered you."

"You sketch cartoon?" Dhruv replied in the next second.

"Yes of course," Janani had some real excitement internally, but she controlled it externally.

The very next day Dhruv introduced Janani to his colleague Vikrant who owned a cartoon magazine and Janani was appointed there as a doodle artist.