Mysterious Romance -Part II-The Main Part

The girl was beautiful with looks to envy for though she was humble. She was a bit uncommon in the crowd. A sweet and decent fashionista flaunting both Eastern and Western styles, she outlined her eyes beautifully with liquid eyeliner and subtly applied pink or brown eye shadow, sometimes also blue-certainly “Miss Attractive Eyes.’’ She wore glasses. Had she not worn glasses her sweet innocence and softness would have been more prominent. She was serious yet fun-loving, but in a matured way. She knew her limits, could sense how much or what was good for her-so the after effect what she did was good. She was not a people pleaser, not doing things she knew was bad for her. She was a neutral person. This was a rare quality she had reflecting her intelligence and maturity. She was straightforward, yet controlled and reserved. She never told much about herself, never gave herself away completely. Others understood that she had her limits. She was friendly, helpful, girlish yet with a lady-like personality, moody yet inviting, placid yet gay. Her friends would cluster around her for her warm ways, yet she maintained a certain distance which they dared not to cross. She never intentionally hurt anybody or harmed others. 

Coming to the boy…………

He was mysterious to girls as he was seldom seen talking with girls. He was serious, wore spectacles, yet boyish, fun-loving. He was often seen to play fun cricket and laugh heartily. His father was a professor of the same institution, though of a different department. Maybe this had an inhibitory effect on his subconscious which was manifested in his outward behavior. This unconsciously shadowed his actual self with some caution.

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They were batch mates. She was the first to approach him and ask for a book he was holding. With a funny smile, he blushed and gave her the book. She went through the book and returned it. He acknowledged her thanks with a decent nod and smile. He could not look at her face and there was an added color in his cheeks. His face betrayed that something wanted to gush out from his throat which he with a lot of effort was resisting and gulping down.  

She was eagerly waiting to strike a conversation with him, but he remained mute and she did not know what to do. She returned to her work. Though she remained outwardly oblivious of him, she was constantly wondering why he was silent, what could possibly be the meaning of his smile and what he would have said if he talked.

He would pass her, look at her knowingly yet in an expressionless way. There was no exchange of a simple “Hi’’, “Hello ’’ or “ How are you?’’Yet their eyes would meet.

When he saw her, it was as if he had suddenly been struck by lightning. The suddenness of being surcharged by a medley of powerful emotions rendered him action less, speechless and blank, not knowing what to do in the moment. She would look at him. Instinctively knowing that he would not talk, she remained silent. But she felt him as he approached, he talked, he walked past her, and went away.

At times he thought him to be eccentric, at times unsmart-she would think “I was the first one to go and talk to him, and just see! Is he a stupid, speechless, unsmart nerd? Well, damn him!’’

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Time passed. 

In certain times she could sense his secret admiration for her. She used to wear beautiful sarees on special college occasions. She looked very beautiful and different in a saree. He had three bosom friends-together they formed the “Four Musketeers.’’ She had often sensed one of the musketeers getting excited and notifying him, “ She, she has worn a saree. You must see her.’’ From some secret corner he had seen him and secretly admired her.

One beautiful evening, she was dancing in the moonlights on the college grounds on a festive occasion. It was impromptu dancing and she looked so happy. Her friends cheered on, “ Very good. Carry on. ‘’ She discerned he was standing at a distance from his friends, noticing her. Did he secretly desire to come up to her and dance? 

One day she was walking through the common departmental passage alone. It was afternoon. He was standing there, gossiping with many boys of his department. One girl approaching, being simultaneously eyed by so many boys…..consider the situation! The boys were mischievous, yet young gentlemen. Some of them smiled at her in a friendly way. They made her feel comfortable. Yet, she instinctively felt something was brewing. 

She knew she was correct in her surmise, because when she turned round the corner so that her back was facing the boys, she heard a sudden rustling of hands and feet, someone saying, “Hey! Why don’t you go?’’

She had the feeling that some of them were insisting a boy to come up to her. When he hesitated, some of them pushed him towards her. He was desperately trying to hold himself back to prevent himself from falling on the girl. She felt like turning back to catch a glimpse of the situation, but a sudden thought restrained her from making this move. What if the boy was him? It must be him. She somehow did not want him to find himself in an embarrassing, awkward situation. She let go of it, and walked away, as if unperturbed. Silently she wished she had two eyes in the back of her head. Her mind was preoccupied with a question, “Was it him?’’ Her intuition went on saying, “It must be him.’’ Yet certain confusion remained and this incident kept on haunting her. 

On the day of the prize distribution ceremony, she arrived in the large hall much before time. She was joined by another girl who was her close friend. Both of them, after much thought, chose a cozy corner. They were immersed in conversation on an interesting issue. Suddenly she looked up and discerned a third entrant in the hall, who had seated himself nearby in the opposite corner. He was none other than him. Their eyes met. He was looking at her. The other girl did not know him and was busy doing an assignment. 

He smiled, she smiled. Oh! How she was expecting he would talk to her! They continuously looked at each other, but neither could speak. There was suspense in the silence of the empty hall. What would happen next?

Suddenly, the boy did something very unprecedented. He shook his head, suddenly got up, and sat in a more distant corner of the hall. 

The girl was quite bewildered. She pondered restlessly in the silence why the boy went away. Suddenly she recalled a similar action she had done earlier in school as an adolescent. She was thirteen and was experiencing her first strong infatuation. She knew a boy of a different section for a long time as they went in the same school bus. Suddenly she started having strong feelings of love for him. She tried her best not to disclose it to anybody. 

One day the school bus was quite empty and both of them were sitting on the same bench, he by the window and she in the corner at some distance apart. She started to get very strong feelings. How she longed to tell him about his feelings and hold his hand! It was going out of control. Suddenly without a word she had got up and sat on another bench. Their eyes met, his eyes pondering what made her get up so suddenly. She continued to look at him, her eyes betraying her underlying emotions kept under control with much difficulty. 

She understood that the same thing had happened to the boy. They both kept silence to settle this unsettled matter.

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College was coming to an end. 

One afternoon, the girl was walking in the college campus. A long distance ahead, she saw the Four Musketeers. He was there. They were looking at her and talking. From their smile and reactions it was quite evident that she was the hot topic of their discussion. 

She had a sudden reaction. She increased her pace and caught up with them. All of them became silent. She smiled at the boys. Three of his friends smiled back at her, but his face had become very pale like a criminal who has been caught, and he dared not look at her. She looked at him directly and smiled, but his face was pale and turned away, and it seemed he would have a heart attack. She walked alongside him for a while, and then slowly went ahead, as if waiting for him to come and join her. 

Yet there was no positive development. He remained where he was, even though she heard his friends encouraging him. She came up to him, yet he could never muster the courage to come up to her.

That was the last real-life encounter they had. 

Yet, it left behind a trail of questions………..

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 The girl had dreamt of him sometimes- she had felt his presence in her dreams and flights of fantasy. Even in fantasy, his presence had been so real- as if his inner voice was communicating with hers, even though in reality he had drifted far away. 

At one point in her life when everything seemed to fall apart and she was withering under the pressure of depression and uncertainty, he had appeared the most in her fantasies and dreams, and channeled her towards positivity. With his inner voice and invisible hand, he guided her to places where she unexpectedly found help at the right hour and her favorite things. He reminded her of many things she had loved before, made her dress up the way he wanted to see her, as if he had come to bring back the lost colors of her life. At the end she again found a foothold, a new life and a new identity where she got the proper appreciation of her talent. She cannot deny the power of magical realism she had experienced, the blending of reality into fantasy and fantasy into reality to come out of a helpless phase in her life. He had empowered her with is love.

But the whole thing remains a mystery to her. She still thinks-

Did the boy ever regret? What would have happened if they had talked? Does he miss her? 

What do you think?

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