All Of My Heart❤️💔

London City Tour❗️

I was in hallway when a poster hung on the notice board caught my attention. It was a promo for photography session in Seattle, Washington. The winner would be awarded a certificate in photography from the University of Washington. Interested candidates had to submit a few of their best photographs to the given email address. I rushed to the computer lab and switched my laptop on. I chose some of my best shots, attached them to an email I drafted and sent it to the submission email ID mentioned on the promo poster. I secretly prayed for my pictures to get selected. My thoughts were interrupted by the cell phone buzzing on my pocket— it was Taani. She asked me if I was free. I didn't have plans and even if I did, I would have dropped them immediately to spend time with her. She told me to meet her outside the same music store around 4 pm. I packed the laptop back into my backpack, zipped it shut, headed out of the university and caught the Tube on time. Taani was waiting for me on the bench outside the music store. As usual, she had earplugs stuffed in her ears, shutting out the world around her.

"Hey," I said once I was close enough to her.
"Oh, hi," she said, removing the earplugs from her ears.
"What's up?" I asked. "What's the plan?"
"Here's the plan," she got off the bench and said, holding up two plastic cards at me. "I've got two London Passes."
"How do they work?" I asked, taking one from her.
"A London Pass is a sightseeing Pass. Well, it's more like a pass to the city's top attractions that requires less pf our time for research and is cheaper than trying it ourselves."
"Wow! How long have you been planning this?" I asked, surprised.
"Planning what?" She asked.
"This sightseeing trip?"
"Dude, I just bought them last night." She said, and nudged me playfully.

I threw my head back and laughed.

"You don't have to laugh. This is a fun thing. Once you have this card with you, you won't have to pay separately to access da attractions and sights included in this pass. Gotcha!"
"Gotcha!" I said with a nod.
"Let's start with the hop-on and hop-off bus tour."
"Cool." I felt a surge of happiness inside me as we walked to the bus stop.

We literary hopped on the double decker bus and saw several of London's tourist spots from the comforts of out seats as the bus drove through the city's streets. This was the best chance to capture London's essence through my lens. I fished the camera out of my bag and started taking photographs. The bus passed the Tower of London, buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, Big Ben and Trafalgar Square. I couldn't believe that I was touring the city with Taani by my side. While taking photographs of the landmark on my cameras, I also took candid photos of Taani, & she looked beautiful in all of them.
   She caught the lens pointed at her and said,       
"Hey, what are you doing?"
  "Nothing, I was just taking pictures of Big Ben." I lied.
   "Are you sure?" She laughed.
   "Yeah." I nodded. "I'm sure."
   "Should I check your camera?" She said, looking at me from the corner of her eyes.
I laughed, looking away.

Later in the evening, after we hopped off the bus, she took me to one of her favourite places in North London— St. Pancras Old Church. I wondered why she had brought me here. Had she secretly changed her faith to Christianity?

  "Taani, why exactly are we here?" I asked her, as we aproached the entrance of the Church.
   "It's quite peaceful here, Rey. I'm sure you'll love it."
   "But, it's a Church." I reminded her.
  
She stopped in a midway to look at me.

  "What happened?" I asked.
  "Seriously?" She asked.
  "What?"
  "Do you it matters where we end up finding peace for ourselves? Regardless of the place being a mandir or a Church?"
   "Uh, well..." I searched for the right words.
   "I didn't expect you to follow such a funda- mental beliefs."
  
I fell silent.

   "Rey, we should not view it throught the religious prism. As far as I know, peace is a subject common to all religious. Isn't that so?"
   "Yeah, I guess." I said, ran my fingers through my hairs.
    "I find peace here." She said, gesturing towards the church building. "But that make me any less of a Hindu. Where do you find ur peace?"

I looked at her, furrowing my brows, without answering her.

  "Is there any place where do you find peace? Or any person you find peace with?" She looked at me.

I couldn't turn my gaze away from her, but I also didn't have an answer to her question. I remained quite continuing to stare at her.

   "You're impossible. You know that? Come, let's go inside," she said and took me by my arm, leading into the building.

The church had a quaint look and a quite embience. We walked down the aisle till she stopped and ushered me to one the benches, asking me to close my eyes. I waited to see what she did. She closed her eyes and started to pray. It was the first time I'd seen her praying. She looked a vision of serenity— seated at the bench, her eyes closed— and I felt I could almost hear her pray. I felt a little lost and didn't know what to do. If I closed my eyes to pray, I'd miss the chance to watch her frm close while she was in a spiritual moment. She looked beautiful. If she had asked me then whom I found peace with, I would have an answer for her. I would have told her, that I found peace with her. I wish I had told her when she asked me outside the church. The moment I realized that she was about to open her eyes, I shut mine and pretended to pray.

     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~