Chapter 1
The August breeze tickled the nape of his neck. But the
weather didn’t have a calming effect on him. Aakhil ran his hand through his
hair and then smoothened it. He tapped his foot restlessly, as he rehearsed his
lines in his mind for the hundredth time.
He stared at his
mobile to see that only a minute had passed since the last time he checked it.
His eyes impatiently darted across the wide, crowded park and finally rested on
its entrance. He let out a sigh. Waiting for someone can make us go nuts,
especially if that ‘someone’ is the one whom you are nuts about. He smiled as
he let his train of thoughts derail towards their first meeting…
Aakhil had to literally shout to his friend who was sitting
right next to him, to be heard. Such was the noise level that surrounded the
M.A.Chidambaram Stadium. It was an international T-20 match between India and
Australia. MS Dhoni was on strike, so Aakhil didn’t complain. He had witnessed
worse uproars in Ranchi Stadium, after all. But there was an almost ear-splitting
hollering that kept coming from his right, which he couldn’t simply tolerate.
He scanned the crowd to find the source of that hollering. He didn’t have
trouble finding it. It was a lady; gorgeous- looking, young lady, probably in her
early twenties.
And he simply couldn’t take his eyes off her. He kept gazing
at her eager, brown eyes fixed on MS Dhoni, her shoulder length hair swaying
lazily over her shoulders, her hands cupped around her mouth, her lips beautifully
shaped to a perfect ‘o’. (Through that small ‘o’ came the loudest, craziest
cheers.) A part of him still wanted to watch the match, but that part seemed so
tiny, so insignificant.
He could sense that
he was falling for her. And he wasn’t a bit surprised about it. It almost felt like
it was destined to happen. He could already see their future in her eyes…
He noticed that the others too stared at her. While they looked at her out of amusement, he
did it out of fascination, or rather
pure, blunt admiration.
However, she seemed to be unperturbed by all the staring. It
looked as though she believed that her whole existence depended on cheering for
the Indian players. After a while, though she did feel perturbed by a
particular person’s constant staring. It was, of course, Mr.Aakhil. She turned
to look at him. For a moment, they eyes met, their gaze locked. And then she
quickly turned away. ‘Our first eye contact’, he thought. The word ‘first’ made
him smile instantly. For he knew there was more to come, much more…
During the interval between the innings, he slowly
approached the drinks counter, scanning the place for his dear ladylove. Just
as he turned to his friend to ask his help, he collided with a woman who was
carrying a glass of coke in her hand. He frowned when he saw the drink spill on
his T-shirt. But when he recognized the woman as his ladylove, the frown
travelled down to his lips and transformed into a killer smile.
Her eyes lingered over the stain on his shirt, and then they
reached his face and finally settled at his eyes.
“Oh, I’m so sorry”, she said.
He jerked his head awkwardly. Now she viewed the stain as if
it were a bad omen.
She quickly produced an Indian team jersey form her backpack
and almost thrust it into his hand.
“Oh! Thanks, but I don’t think I’ll need this”
“The last time I spilled my drink on a guy, India lost
miserably. Since then, I always have an Indian team jersey in my backpack”
‘Oh, wow! I’m not the
first. Seems like she has a penchant for spilling coke on peoples’ dresses’ he
thought.
“Please put it on. I can’t afford to see India lose.”
He bit his lower lip to keep himself from collapsing into
fits of laughter.
According to her theory, the stain is the one causing
the problem. But wearing the jersey isn’t going to wash away the stain. Well,
he would have tried reasoning out if it were a different time, to a different
person. But now, he decided to keep his opinions to himself.
“Sure, if that’s what you want”, he said reassuringly.
When they had returned to the stands, he found her looking
at him or rather the jersey he was wearing.
He pointed to the jersey. She nodded and smiled. He blushed as he felt
the adrenaline rush. ‘ A lot of boys
might spot a pretty girl in the stands, but not many get to wear the jersey she
gave nor get to see her smiling at them across the stands’ he thought,
feeling thrilled than ever.
****
She walked to him after the match was over.
She said, “Well, India did win after all. I doubt if things
would have been the same if you hadn’t worn the jersey.
He beamed at her as he nodded his head. He has his own set
of superstitions when it comes to watching live cricket matches. ‘Maybe I should save it for our first date’ he
thought with a blush.
That made Sindhu become suddenly interested in the strap of her
backpack.
“Do you often come to the stadium?” he asked, desperately
hoping to get ‘yes’ as an answer.
“We never miss the weekend matches”, she told, with a proud
smile spreading across her lips.
“I see. So, I shall return the jersey when we meet again”, he
told, his eyes sparkling like two pieces of burning coal.
“Oh come on, you don’t have to return it, seriously…”
Then both of them fell silent, feeling content with just
replaying their little conversation in their minds.
Aakhil sensed the peculiar kind of tension between them, the
tension you can feel when the other person has real feelings for you. As began
to relish this, he realized that it was time for the inevitable to happen. Exchange of phone numbers. But he
decided to be patient. Some part of his brain, which had lost the ability to
reason ever since he fell in love, assured him that they would certainly meet
again.
“Well, I got to go” she said, her eyes actually speaking the
contrary.
As he watched her walk away, he felt the space between them
fill with questions that he didn’t want to answer.
We feel attracted towards quite some people, flirt with a
few of them and probably end up dating one or two. However, you can hear your heart say, “She’s
your girl” only for one woman. This might sound like a cliché, but it is still
the truth… and in his case, his heart was singing that message to him in a
trumpet.
Man, it was definitely love at first sight…
