The train journey

My train departed at its regular time of 10:10 PM, as per the custom, I called my Mom to inform her that the train has departed and she would ask the same question, "By what time will you reach home?". Even though I have boarded the same train almost every month from the past 5 years and even when she knows the answer she still asks. Although we always have a generic start to our conversation, I try to bring variation in my answer every time, then if she has anything to tell me, she continues, else we hang up. She had something to inform me this time, listening to which I hung up immediately. Everything was going as usual, I climbed up to my upper berth, made my 'bed', set up the alarm for 6:45 AM right after the TT had done checking my ticket and doze off.

I woke up by my alarm the next morning, it was still a bit dark because of the foggy winter morning. From the screams of the tea-vendors and the motionless train, it struck me that we are at some station. My half alert brain made me think that we have reached our destination and I sprang up immediatly because of which I banged my head to the roof. While I was caressing my throbbing head I overheard someone saying out loud, that we are still 2 stations away and our train is 3 hours late. "Ah Winters!!", I said, using the same expression for my pain and the train. I had already had a nice share of sleep, so wanted to get down near the window. I noticed that the lower berth passengers had already left, but to sit comfortably (without banging my head anywhere) I needed one of the middle-seat passengers to be up. So I checked my diagonally opposite middle berth. That guy was still asleep, he had a smile on his face, which was contagious. I started wondering, what he must be dreaming about and why does he look so familiar. While I was lost in my thoughts, I forgot that I was unknowingly staring at him and suddenly he opened his eyes and caught me staring. I immediately looked away and lied down again, pretending nothing happened. I began thinking hard, from where do I know him. I divided my life into parts and questioned myself, 'Do I know him from school?', No, 'Do I know him from college?', No, 'Do I know him from office?', No. I wanted to look at his face once again, just to confirm whether I was not confusing him with someone else. So I turned around to have a stealthy glance but was caught in the crime again. This time I was really embarrassed. I unlocked my phone to divert my thoughts and dropped it first on my nose and then in the air. I closed my eyes to sadly hear the sound of phone dropping on the floor. To my surprise, that sound never came, I opened my eyes and turned to have a view of where did my phone go, it was in that guy's hand and I let out a sigh of relief. From his reflexes, I could deduce that he was staring at me while I was busy looking at my phone. He handed over the phone to me by stretching his hand and left his hand in the air requesting a handshake after I took the phone. His introduction became dramatic when he said, 'Hi, I am Rahul' and I completed his sentence after taking his hand stating, 'Naam to suna hi hoga'. I believe both of us blushed at that time.

Days later he texted me :

Rahul: what made you drop your phone that day?

Me: I had seen the picture of the guy whom my parents were considering for my marriage proposal, he was also coming to the town so my parents wanted me to see him.

Rahul: Was he that scary that you dropped your phone?

Me: No, he was cute.

Rahul: So did you meet him?

Me: No

Rahul: Why? And send me the picture of that 'cute' guy :P

I wanted to type, 'Are you jealous?', but I erased it. I don't know why, but I was having the butterflies in the stomach kind of feeling at that time. So I sent him the picture. His picture. After a long display of 'typing…..' .

Rahul: Are you kidding me? It was you who refused to meet me at the last moment. Why did you do that to me?

Me: Because our story would sound more interesting like this in the future.

That was our love story. Thank you. I was deafened by the big round of applause when I placed the mic down. Rahul took my hand and we commenced the dance of our 25th anniversary. We looked at each other, blinked and smiled, that was our way of saying 'I Love You'.