FraGraNce Of LoVe

Night it was. Or wasn't it? She twisted and turned on her bed. It seemed to be an endless torture. "What the heck  is happening to me", she thought. But her mind was racing. Racing against her thoughts. So fast that she was finding difficult to understand what exactly was happening to her. Or was it her hallucination?

Nothing seemed real for her. It was a total blur. She tried her best to recollect. No. Everything seemed so elusive. Thoughts were racing through her mind. Am I meeting him tomorrow? If so, what am I going to talk to him or tell him? "Ok. Let me brush my teeth, she thought, and stepped into her bathroom. She saw her face and was startled to see that she had already blushed! "What the hell" she thought and looked at herself again. Her cheeks were still pink. Uncertainty gripped her . . . . . The next day, morning never seemed to dawn for her. Was there ever a night? Was there ever a dawn? Or was there ever a morning? She got up in a haze. Looked up at the clock. 7-00 AM. "My god!" she thought. She had to be there in her college early! She dressed herself so hurriedly that she even forgot to comb her hair properly. Who cares ??????

She had to catch her regular bus to reach college. She waited. And waited.. Time seemed to come to a standstill. Inside her she could feel mixed emotions. Anger that the bus hadn't come. Frustration that she would not make in time. Irritation that she may not be able to see him or even catch a glimpse of him. At last, the bus came. On any other day, shewouldn't have even dreamt of getting into such an overcrowded bus. But her heart was racing . . . . against time as it was at that fleeting moment. She reached her college. There was no sign of him. The few hours till lunch time seemed like ages. At last, it was lunch! Canteen seemed like a haven. Still no sign of him. Disappointing it was for her. She sat for a full hour, and probably would have sat there for a couple of hours more, but for her lab work. Slowly, with a hung face, she trudged her way back to her lab.

Lab work seemed like it had never been before. Nothing looked like what it had been. She just went through the motions. Her eyes, though, were intensely focused. Time seemed to jog by. Frequent glances at her watch did her no good. They only seemed to catalyze her pent up frustration. The tutor's explanation about an experiment was being echoed away towards other receiving mechanisms, but not her ears. At last, the lab was over. It now her choice, whether to go to his department and see whether he was there, or catch a bus as usual. The decision was hers. It didn't take much time. She went for him, in a feeling of blinded courage? She didn't know it herself. He was busy, extremely busy. All he did was to give her a cursory glance with a nod. She hinted that it was getting late for her. He came out at once, and her heart started to beat that much faster . . . . 

"I'm not going home" she told him. He gave her a quizzical look. She told him that she was actually going to her aunt's place that evening. He asked her whether she could wait for a few minutes. Few minutes? Her heart was on the race track. 'I could wait for you for ages', she thought and waited. The very thought of seeing come out of his lab dried her throat. She wanted to say "Hi", but the word just wouldn't come out. They went together downstairs to the parking lot. He started his bike and turned his head around to see where she was. She was right beside him, just waiting to hop over. "Shall we go", he asked her. There was just a nod of her head. Thoughts of her previous experience were starting to flood her mind. Off they went, the guy rambling about so many things. But she was nowhere; she seemed lost. Or was she?

They had gone at least about 10 km when the bike seemed to stall. The place was deserted in the sense that on one side it was the property of the Indian Army, and the other side was an open field with a railway track running further away. She got down from the bike, obviously worried, and asked him, "What happened?" He just told her that it wasn't a major problem and could be rectified in a few minutes.

Minutes were fleeting by. Her heart started to race again, for a different reason, though. Would she reach her aunt's home in time? How long would it take to solve this bike problem? Whether he would be in mood to do something to me? Or whether should I do something? Something she hadn't done, ever before. So many thoughts were racing through her mind and so rapidly that she didn't even listen to his "Hi. It's ok. Can you just help me out with this?". By the time she realized, he was holding her hand and pointing to a protruding wire from the carburetor of his bike.

Thrown out of her thoughts, she dutifully knelt beside him and began to look at the wire; she had no idea whatsoever about the wire or its function. He started to fix the wire against something, and she was trying to help him out. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught him glancing at the little traffic that was that evening. As such there were no road lamps, and the only photonic disturbance seemed to be the traffic . . . . . "Hey", he called out to her. "Yeah, tell me", she said. "Are you able to see what this is?", he asked. She tried to see what it was, flexing her body to catch a view of what he hsd been trying to convey to her. And then it happened. A fleeting moment. The very second she tried to see the so-called wire, she felt something moist caressing her lips. By the time she realized, she was relishing it, a feeling that had been unfulfilled, an emotion that had been un-felt, and a satisfaction that had never been imagined before!!!

She went to her aunt's place, dazed, dizzy, fazed, but with an overwhelming feeling that she had become a woman ...!

"There is nothing holier, in this life of ours, than the first consciousness of love - the first fluttering of its silken wings." Anonymous