It was one of the
winter days and I was reading the morning paper when at once someone came.
“would you mind
sharing the table?”
It was 6 o’clock
in the morning and I was still disturbed by my dreams and the unpleasant news
in the paper. I wasn’t interested to even reply the unnecessary request but
ineloquently I nodded. I gave up the paper criticizing the headlines as to how
the media is exploiting itself by exaggerating seemingly small issues.
“Someone isn’t
having a good morning it seems,”
I shrugged and
then I realized that someone was there waiting for my attention infront of me.
“its not actually
some favorable weather to make new friends” I shoot her rudely to check her
reaction.
it was normal for
me to be asked for company there in that place as we all were students and then
I used to exchange smiles with literally every people who came there.
“hamal, would you
mind pouring some delicious extra warm tea?” I ordered her tea without even
asking her if she would like some.
“dai, u haven’t
finished your previous one” hamal looked at me with dragon eyes.
“why don’t you
just do what I asked?” I wanted her to show my superiority and my respect to
her.
“obviously you
seem familiar, but I am sure you are new here.”
It was more than a
year since I stayed here.
I knew people well
here. If its early in the morning, an old grandpa with a cane would cross the
road at exact 6.45 . and then a dairy bike with 4 cylinders full of milk would
horn the building right when I was infront of it. If it was evening, on my way
to the café, a couple would feed a dog with no hair on the tail.
“ have you already
forgotten me aadesh,?”
I was stunned the way she knew my name and the style with
which she pronounced. Only one person in whole world would call me like that. I
didn’t want to disappoint her with such negligence hence I pretended something
fiddly,
“oh I am so so
sorry, I am still sleepy! Then slowly things came around. Hamal brought the tea
to my table and he gazed at me with a surprise way , “you seem over glad today
dai.. any good news?”
He looked straight
at me. He didn’t even once look at her. He should have normally asked her what
she would like to have for breakfast as other normal customers who come here. i
didn’t feel right and I sent him away so that I could talk more to her.
I offered her tea
and she was grateful for that. Flashes began in my head. I know this girl but
how can I not know how. Her long dark hair that fell and covered her eye.. i
felt those wide brown eyes so familiar and the tooth hidden behind such heart
lined lips.
“aadesh, its not
fair… yesterday u said that I look like your dreamgirl and today you are
looking me with a strangers eye. Obviously I am not liking you aba..”
I felt that I woke
up. I was like so sure, she was Isabella’s friend. But still I could fathom no
conversations that I had with her. She just stayed right in front of me and
gazed me with unrestrained affections. She wasn’t blinking her eyes.
“dai, Isabella di
saga jhagada milyo?” hamal came to take the cups from my table. Again he stared
at me anxiously.
It was day before
yesterday when Isabella and I had a harsh discussion. How much I adored her and
how much she knew, it was always assumptions. Everyone who came there knew that
we were more than friends.
“and why would you
order a tea if you aren’t even touching it?”
Again he was
missing her. He nearly walked over her. He was standing right beside her but
also I felt he didn’t notice her or he wanted me to believe that he didn’t.
I thought this was his new trick to me and
didn’t even care to ask if he knew her or if she did.
he pointed at her
cup, which he claimed to be untouched when I knew she hadn’t finished drinking
it.
“hamal, why would
you take her cup without even asking her if she finished?” I was furious this
time. His ignorance towards her was getting on my nerves.
“dai these few
days its so hard for me to get you, is Isabella di joining you later or you are
drinking for her too?”
“you know ni dai,
what kind of people drink tea from two cups?”
I felt so odd, he
was mentioning Isabella’s name again and again. And every time he talked about
Isabella and me, I looked at her, across the table, I could sense she wasn’t
liking that. Again I sent him away..
It was so unpleasant. How can I be such
forgetful? She means something. And what is wrong with this hamal? I felt
humiliated infront of her. When I looked back to her, she was gone. Like
disappeared.
I couldn’t even be
surprised because I was so confused in a complicated way. I went to the counter
to pay.
“which way did she
go hamal?”
“please dai, don’t
mess with me early in the morning”
I went back to my
hostel. I was trying to think of the events since two days back. I saw the
grandpa with the cane and the dairy bike. I was irritated due to such
unexplained chemistry, I recalled every words and sentences of hamal, of the
girl I met in the café and talks I had with Isabella until we had that fight.
I entered my room
after ten minutes. I wanted to read something. I eyed my well decorated study
table and saw something that dropped my jaw and took my breath,
There it was
pasted above my study table,
a sketch,
of the girl I met
in the café before 30 minutes.
The sketch was
give to me by Isabella,
“aadesh, this is
my dream girl.. keep it safe..i will wish yu will get someone like her in
future”
these were her words I could still read below
the sketch.
