Songs, music, walks, conversations, happened to
increase in the weeks that followed.
My routine for the day remained the same. Wake up
early, text my virtual boyfriend, go for classes, come back, go out on a tea
date with myself; only the thing that severely changed was, this time I would
keep on bumping into the quirk, almost every day.
One day, I returned from my classes a little early,
around afternoon. Since I had nothing to do till the sun goes down and the
world creates the perfect ambience for a date with myself, I lazily kept
scrolling my Facebook newsfeed, and came to realize, my boyfriend has gone off
Facebook.
I tried Whatsapp and that account was deleted.
I tried his phone and
that was switched off.
For natural reasons, that upset me. I kept calling
that number once every ten minutes, only to listen to the same robotic lady
telling me the same words.
Upset,
heartbroken and worried, I decided to go out, have a cup of tea, and think upon
what can be done.
Tea date with myself done, I lingered around the
marketplace that day.
Dark,
silent lanes were only accelerating the worries.
In one of those noisy, tourist-crowded shops in the
marketplace, I met the quirk, checking out a burnt clay bangle.
I went beside him and asked, “For your mother?”
He turned around, little distracted by my words from
his deep inspection of jewellery, “No,
for myself.”
I couldn’t help but laugh, “Do men in Kerala wear bangles?”
I expected him to get angry, but he seemed equally
amused, “No no, but I want to wear. See,
even the color goes with my skin tone.”
My
mind kept whispering, ‘Say hello to the quirk!’
He not only bought the bangle and made me bargain
with the shopkeeper, but also posted a picture wearing it on his Facebook
profile.
This
time, more than amused, I was amazed at the straightforwardness of a person, in
public.
Anyway, days went by, my virtual boyfriend stayed
lost and gone, and came Mahalaya, and that only meant, Durga puja was just a
week away.
Santiniketan organizes a fair on Mahalaya, where
each department of my University puts up stalls. Ours had newspapers to sell.
I
was hardly interested in the fair, but in the fact that the next day I was
going home; for one long month.
After roaming in the fair for some time, and getting
choked by the amount of crowd in a small place, I came back to the ramshackle
halogen-lit tea stall for a late evening tea.
The quirk with another friend, walked in almost
then.
After
rounds of lemon tea, horribly made though, and appreciation of the vintage
flavor of the shop, we were out to walk back home.
On the way I told him, “I’m going back home tomorrow.”
“Oh.
I’ll go too.”
“When?
Go home. Anyway, the holidays are on, and there is nothing to do here.”
I replied.
“I’ll
go. Maybe this week. Just little lazy to book my ticket.”
He smiled back.
I returned the smile and the bent to my lane came.
“Okay
then, see you soon?” He smiled and held my hand.
I faintly pressed his hand before letting go, “Very soon.”
He smiled and went his way, and I mine.
To
be continued…
