The Unforgettable Journey

What a strange coincidence, I happen to write this one on a journey, maybe because every journey like this reminds me the unforgettable incidents that took place on that train with Rehan. By then Rehan had touched his adulthood and he was appearing for different examinations in different parts of the country so as to get admission into a reputed institute to fulfil his parents dream. So when he was on his way back to home from Delhi after completing the admission procedure in D.U., he boarded a train not so full, it was called the Utkal Express. It took more than necessary hours to complete the journey which usually is of hardly 21 hrs. Rehan had never thought that a common idiot like him could have such an experience in his life and while he narrates the story to me I can still see the excitement in his eyes which he must have had at the time of the incidents taking place. After I finished hearing him narrating the first word that came from me was “really”.

When Rehan was boarding the train he was very confused about going back home or staying for a week more just to try in some more colleges which he thought was never his cup of tea, immersed in his thoughts he was waiting for the train to arrive after the train arrives he boards and looks out for his berth, 32, side upper berth he remembers distinctly. Why he remembers he told me later. He settles himself down and takes time for a nap; it was 8 am when he boarded the train so he had to get up early and could not sleep so he decides to sleep first. Two hours passed by, he has taken his nap feeling fresh but still in his sleep he notices a family boarding in Agra and coming to the same cabin he was in, they had all the berths from 25 to 28 that made it one full side and the lower berth on the other. Now why Rehan remembers his berth because just opposite his berth was berth number 27 and 30; on berth no 27 there was a cute girl. When Rehan talks about a girl you have to listen to the details he provides and how he justifies his usage of words. By cute he meant not hot and by girl he meant 3-5 years younger to him. As they settled down he found the girl taking the upper berth 27; this was the reason he remembered. Rehan was about to get up from his nap as he noticed the family arranging themselves some lunch. Rehan usually didn’t eat while travelling but this time he thought of getting something so he got down at a station and bought some fruits and kept it on his berth and made himself comfortable on the lower berth. He wanted to talk to the family who were there. He saw something in their lunch packet and the courage to talk from within came to him. He asked about the destination in which they headed and found out that they were going to the same place as of Rehan as he made the conversation he had a masterpiece which he had seen his brother perform, he asked the Lady what do they call Cucumber in their language and hence he came to know all about them, their religion, belief, family background, native place and what not, he smartly shifted his conversation with the lady to her child; the cute girl. By that time that lady had become an aunty of Rehan and the girl was somewhat friendly because her mother was talking to him. She was still in her schooling days; she attended a very famous school, DAV in 12th standard. There was something peculiar about these convent girls, I thought about this as Rehan told me about her, they are all very cautious and highly egoistic, tall claims but these are the things I have noticed personally. You will never find a convent girl who doesn’t know how is she looking and she will always think of herself as second to none. I don’t know how these chicks survive in all girls’ school, they desperately need male attention, that is the only thing satisfactory them. So as Rehan describes this girl, she was nearly 18 and was a early bloomer and had a pretty face but some part of it still covered with pimples but it made her cheeks look more pink and it suited her fair complexion, wearing a pant which covered her legs just above the ankles (I don’t know which category do they fall into full or Capri) with a black coloured top just touching her waist. She showed every sign of growing up into a beautiful lady, one of the reasons was her being a ‘panju’ and other reason was ‘Rehan thought so’ that she looked stunningly beautiful then. She had a problem of speech, she used to stutter, and Rehan came to know about this after a long time talking to her. After the lunch the family decided to take some rest. Now Rehan has nothing to do so he pulls out his rucksack and gets hold of his walkman which he had borrowed from his brother and his brother gave it to him reluctantly. He had a cassette of Lucky Ali and Bryan Adams...needless to say he wanted to play Lucky Ali but he played Bryan Adams in anticipation that Miss. _______.....Ohh God!!! Now Rehan realises that he had not even asked the name of the chick. Now Rehan makes a checklist in his mind what he has to do before they get down 1. Name, 2. Address, 3. Phone-number( if possible). So Rehan keeps listening to his walkman when the boy comes and sits next to him. This boy is the chick’s brother, he was boring to the limits and he integrated stupidity along. He had a funny side though, he was a sardar without a turban but he had all the jokes suited to him as if he was the Santa of all the sardar jokes. Rehan describes him to be the utmost boring guy on the whole train, even the beggar was sounding interesting to him. So finally the beauty awakes from her sleep with a cup of coffee, she preferred it over tea. Rehan was sitting there with his walkman both of them exchanged a smile and then she came down. Rehan started to nod his head and noticing this she asked him “what are you listening?”(as anticipated by Rehan), Rehan proudly said Bryan Adams... she said “oh k”. She then asked “what other cassettes do you have?” Rehan gave her all four and what luck she picked up Lucky Ali and requested Rehan to play it. Rehan changed the cassette and during that time he asked her “What’s your name?” She said “What?” Rehan completely on his back foot repeated his question in totally different manner “nothing I was wondering what your name is when you were sleeping” Rehan still doesn’t know why he said so. Because when she said what she meant that she couldn’t hear it and wanted to know what he asked, but Mr. Rehan made a fool of himself and paid for it later. By the way her name was Anjali. Anjali made a note that Rehan was looking at her when she was sleeping, and she asked him twice why he was wondering about her name when she was sleeping maybe she was teasing Rehan but he got completely nervous. Anjali sensed it and made Rehan comfortable again. I don’t know how these girls can do it, first they will sense what you are thinking and then they always have a solution for it and they will solve it even before you’re asking for any help. The time passed by and now Rehan and Anjali began to gel with each other, her stupid brother came and interrupted again and again but after receiving a cold response from both of them would return to his mom and granny. After a while they had dinner, Rehan was also asked to join, he did it, without hesitation but ate very little because of his fear of eating while travelling. After the dinner they all played a game of Rummy even the aunty enjoyed the presence of Rehan. They all set their beds up and Anjali took the same berth opposite to Rehan. Rehan went to the washroom and came back in a while and found her there on her berth. It was only 10 Rehan gestured to Anjali why so early? She pointed towards her mother. Rehan thought that’s it this is the end of the talking because they had to get down early in the morning. He knew that he won’t be able to ask the other two things and therefore there would be no chance of meeting Anjali again. Rehan also climbed up to his berth reluctantly, he put his walkman on as Anjali wished him goodnight.

After a while someone tapped on Rehan arm, it was Anjali. Her mother had slept and half an hour had passed and then Anjali decided to wake up Rehan and talk. She started by saying “You wanted to talk?” Rehan did not reply. After that they chatted for three longs hours; all lights were put down in the compartment and the only light coming was from the passage near the door. They were talking about everything and anything on earth, there was one time when Anjali asked Rehan to come to her seat as it was a little inconvenient for both of them to lean over in order to talk, Rehan resisted, he knew the risk in that, after a while again Anjali complained of her neck pain and offered to come over to Rehan’s berth but Rehan again refused. Rehan had no idea what they were doing staying up all night but Rehan had asked by far address of Anjali when they were talking about the time she takes to reach to her school. She stayed in the same part of the city where Rehan lived about a couple of kilometres far. Suddenly her mom woke up because of hearing both of them laughing although they tried to keep it as low as possible. She asked Anjali what she was doing and she blatantly said she tried to sleep but she can’t. Rehan felt proud he thought this was because of his charm that Anjali could not sleep but what the reason was only Anjali knows. Her mom again went back to sleep and the snores became harder and louder this time. They chatted for a while more and then Anjali said this is the time we should sleep otherwise we won’t be able to get up; it was 4.15 am in Rehan’s watch. Anjali asked for a little help before they went back to sleep, she asked him to escort to the washroom and Rehan agreed. They both got down but Rehan went ahead and made sure that it was safe Anjali followed and asked him to wait outside the door till she comes out. She took a little time in there and Rehan out of curiosity knocked the door, Anjali opened the door and asked Rehan to come inside, Rehan was confused but Anjali pulled him inside. They were both in the same washroom Rehan was terrified about being in there because he was aware of the risk if someone found out about this. He said to Anjali “if your mom comes searching for you and finds us like this I am dead”. Anjali said nothing; she just placed a finger on his lips so as to make him stop blabbering and her right hand on his chest and slightly came ahead, Rehan had no idea what was happening, she then kissed Rehan on his chin and then on his right cheek. Now Rehan knew what was happening. Rehan returned the favour immediately and kissed Anjali on her cheeks, both of them; Anjali smiled and came out of the washroom, she rushed back to the compartment, Rehan kept standing there thinking of what just happened. When Rehan was going back he saw Anjali coming towards him, she took him to the door which was closed and whispered in his ears “everyone is sleeping”; then happened the unforgettable she held Rehan tight in her arms and gave him a kiss, this time it was more passionate, more romantic and more on the French side, Rehan was shocked for the initial moments and later on began to play the part. Rehan recalls that the kiss must have lasted for more than 30 seconds but still says that it felt like 30 minutes of her breath, smell of her hair, the feel of her body and her beautiful white, delicate arms wrapped around him. I could see the beauty of that kiss in Rehan’s eyes. They came back together from there this time and climbed up to their respective berths. Anjali gave a flier to Rehan and Rehan returned a smile. Anjali said “I would like to keep meeting you in town”. Rehan got excited he asked “how?” She said “Shhhhhh, I will let you know tomorrow now go to sleep”. Rehan said to himself “how can she possibly think that I can sleep now?” But anyways Rehan slept and woke up in the morning to find out that Anjali was already awake and ready to get down, he slept long, hurriedly he washed up himself and packed his stuff and before he could talk to Anjali they started to head to the door as the station was arriving. Anjali smartly made sure that she goes last to the door, Rehan saw this and he followed Anjali such that she was just in front of him. There Anjali stared at him and Rehan felt sorry for his sleeping for so long, but he managed to ask “what next?” Anjali abused him with some English abuses and asked for a pen, Rehan got hold of a pen she gave him her number on a piece of paper so did Rehan. Rehan said that he would call her for sure. They both got down of the train and Rehan saw that Anjali’s father had come to fetch them up, that man Rehan thought had seen somewhere, he was Rehan father’s friend’s brother, he had met him in party but he decided to keep away and he took his way out and they took their.

After two days when Rehan went to call Anjali he found out that the paper he had written down the number was washed along with his pants he tried to figure out something from that piece of washed paper, he was only able to make out three digits out of five so he tried to recall what Anjali had told at that time but he remembered nothing so he decided to call up random numbers and ended up calling 15 wrong numbers. He was devastated with this event and had only one hope that Anjali called, and she did. When Anjali called after two weeks to check for Rehan, his mother picked up the phone as he was not around and when he came back he came to know about it...

Months went by and Rehan had no contact number of Anjali, he tried everything from phonebook to school directory but nothing seemed to be working, slowly the memories of Anjali started to fade away. Strangely he never happened to see her in town after that. Rehan stayed in the town for an year because he started working there in a financial firm and postponed his graduation for an year, exactly 8 months after he had gone to Delhi, he saw Anjali again in a restaurant. He was sitting there with one of his clients, a lady from the bank who wanted a vehicle to be financed; Anjali was there with a guy too. First when they exchanged stares she didn’t give a heed but second time their eyes met she nodded in response and gave a smile without letting know the person she was sitting with. After a while she stood up and went towards the restroom and on her way back she came to Rehan’s table and dropped a tissue there. It had something written on it: “Thank you for tht journey, I waited for ur call but cudn’t wait 4 long, he is my BF n I m glad U found sm1 too, luv Anji”

Since then Rehan had seen Anjali many times in town but never approached her to tell what exactly happened. He was completely fine the way it was. But he still laughs on the fact that he was mistaken to be seeing that banker of all the people. There is one more thing Rehan thinks of and instead of laughing just manages to smile...that’s his unforgettable journey....