Her eyes, I couldn't take my eyes off them, "Hey Can you Please do the billing fast, I don't have all day", a voice jolted me back to reality. "Oh yes Ma'm I am on it", After a while I looked around again but by then she was gone! I did the remaining billing and finished my shift, by the time I was done it began raining incessantly and the roads were brimming with dirty water, not from the rain God's but from the overflowing drains. I felt disgusted but somehow moved towards my bike trying to save myself from getting even an inch wet with the dirt that was splashing everywhere. I saw little kids bathe in the pools and I felt nauseous. Monsoon wasn't my favorite season, in fact I never liked rains and people who called rains romantic made me feel like putting all the water into their homes for them to get a real feel of it. I was getting late for my guitar class, I taught guitar to kids apart from working in this supermarket, to make some extra money to pay for all the extra coaching I took to do well in academics. People didn't approve of me working but I didn't bother, I never liked depending on anyone for anything. Today I just wasn't able to drive well, not simply because of the heavy rains that blocked my vision but because of those eyes that left me mesmerized. Filled with Kohl and shaped like almonds, Uff! I couldn't get my gaze off them to look at her completely. But there was no point pining over something or someone whom I hardly knew. She was just a customer and had left immediately after shopping, the possibility of seeing her again was out of question. So many people walk in and walk out of the store everyday but there was something different about this girl which I'll never forget. I reached my guitar class at 6, all the kids were ready to learn but I wasn't in a mood to teach today. So I just gave a small talk about the chords and called it a day. The rains just wouldn't stop and this was driving me up the wall, I had to reach home by 8, freshen up and study for tomorrow's class. So I decided I'd ride home in the rains since I didn't want to remain stuck at this class all night. I wore my raincoat and helmet and ran towards my bike. Vehicles from everywhere splashed rain water on me and I almost had tears in my eyes. I looked up at the cloudy sky and cursed it! I was half way home when my eyes fell on the bus stop. Let me make it clear I am not one of those lecherous men who'd eye women at bus stops but that moment I don't know why I did that and saw the same girl from the supermarket standing at the bus stand. Her umbrella was shielding her from the rains but she still looked totally soaked. I thought I was imagining things and so to confirm I just turned my head back and the next second everything simply blacked out. I had apparently hit something or something had hit me, I don't clearly remember. Thanks to my helmet, my head was intact but I fell with my bike over me and after a few minutes when I opened my eyes I saw at least 20 people surrounding me. Nobody was helping, everyone just busy talking about what had just happened! Morons! Anyway the lady with her beautiful eyes too had come to "see" the accident but Thankfully some sense prevailed upon her and she hailed a taxi to get me to the hospital.
On reaching the hospital with two other helpers I was treated for two fractures, one each in my hand and leg, that didn't mean I was handicapped for life but just meant that I was going to be disabled for at least a good part of the month. And what do you know, the girl who caused it wasn't around to check on me at the hospital! Oh well, I cant blame her, I acted stupid, what was her fault in it? My parents took me home and I felt like a vegetable being carried home in a wheelchair. I was asked to take rest for a month but I don't think I could afford that luxury. Riding my bike and playing the guitar with a broken hand was out of question but I could still work at the supermarket and study at college. So I decided to continue these two activities. I went to college the next week and was greeted by my sympathetic classmates who wrote "Get well soon!" on my plasters. Everyone was curious to know how I broke my leg and I just told a few close friends how it really happened and they were so amused. That evening I went to the supermarket to work for the three hours that I did and what do you know! That girl was casually browsing the aisles and shopping for beauty products! "Oh Yeah! Please buy some more cosmetics to injure more people on the roads" I thought to myself and laughed. She was coming straight towards my counter now, "Oh my God!" "Heyyyy" She said a long 'Heyyyy' that stretched so long, it caught everyone's attention except mine because I didn't want her attention anymore. She snapped her fingers when she saw I was still looking down. I looked up and pretended to see her for the first time, "Hi Do I know you?" I asked. "Yes, you met with an accident the other day and I helped you get a taxi, Remember now?" She looked at my hand and leg plasters and gave a "Tchhh and Awww" sound, the sound I hated to hear from any girl. "Thank You so much for helping out, really it meant a lot. Sorry for not recognizing you instantly, you know I was in shock then." I said. "It's alright, how do you feel now?"she asked. "I am OK." I said and smiled but inside my heart was aflutter and it wanted me to say so much more than just that. "Ok Good, bye" she said and left. I kept looking till she left and wanted to call out to her to stop her but pushed that thought behind and concentrated on my customers.
She kept visiting the supermarket regularly, not to check on me but to do her shopping. I'd be foolish to think she was visiting again and again to check on me but why was she visiting only this supermarket, weren't there other places too?! She always tried to strike conversation and I always avoided it by smiling sometimes by just saying "Hmm". One day she asked me "Don't you feel like studying, it's your age to study not work!" I stared at her, keeping a straight face I said "I study". She looked amazed as if I had said something bewildering. "What?" "Yes I am doing engineering, this is only part time" I replied. "Really? You know what, all this while I always thought you were just an employee here and that you were wasting your life working in a super market." "Thank you for your concern" I said. Now she saw me in a different light. "Thank God!" I thought. The problem with Indians is that there is no dignity of labor here! But let me not bore you by sermonizing more about Indian mentality. So now we met a couple of times outside too, outside doesn't mean at coffee shops or ice cream parlors, outside just means at the entrance of the store when we bumped into each other by chance. She lived just adjacent and so we often bumped into each other. She always looked so beautiful that I never had the courage to ask her out. "Would she be willing to go out with me, is she already seeing someone?" all these questions flooded my mind. So one day, she came to the super market on her so called "shopping trips" and asked me all of a sudden "Can we meet outside this stuffy place too, sometimes?" I stopped billing and the other customers started protesting that so I started again and in her usual manner she snapped her fingers to get my attention. I looked up, smiled (almost wanting to shout in joy!) and said "Yes we can" then stupidly felt like Obama after saying that line!
I vividly remember our first date, my plasters were gone now, I felt like a free man, I had my guitar and it was raining! After my shift, we met at the entrance of the store and without giving a second thought I ran holding her hand into the rain towards my bike! I was so happy! I didn't care about the dirty water or the puddles or the children in the muddy pools. All I cared was about her! We went to a coffee shop and I played the guitar after a long time for her as she smiled at me. It was wonderful and then I decided I'd end the day by telling her the story of my accident and after I had finished she was in splits, she just refused to believe it was because of her that it happened. It rained everyday after that and I fell in love with rains and her! I finally have to admit rains are really romantic!
Indira Shukla
