The girl on seat no. 69 - Name revealed

Like a batsman out for a duck, I returned back to my seat. I stepped inside the train, but I somehow couldn't pick myself up to go and sit next to her. I stood there clueless, hands on my hips, my teeth gently biting my lower lip, my eyes giving a blank expression. What had happened? It took a few seconds for me to even guess what exactly had occured there. She might have swapped her seat with this Ramdev, the reservation chart might be lying or, she might not have booked her ticket at all. Should I ask her if she even has a valid travel ticket?

The train whistled, few passengers standing on the platform hurried into the train, few others stood on the platform and waved hands to the people inside the compartments. The train slowly started moving and I was still wondering what I had gone through in the last three minutes. The train gradually picked up its pace and was racing again. I felt like jumping out of the train for being so stupid. If I managed to survive even after the jump, I should dig a hole and bury myself. I was carrying a heavy heart and my lips had dried up. I had now quit even attempting to recall her name. Or should I just straightaway ask what her name was? No, I would have restored some respect had I asked her initially, but after so much of time spent with her, if I now ask her name, its asking for strange looks, disgusting feelings and lots more from her.

Unwillingly, I headed back to my seat. She had a couple of packets with her, wrapped in newspaper that surely looked like breakfast.
"I got breakfast for you without asking you", she said pointing to the packets kept on the foldable table in front of the seat. She did not sound all that sweet in saying that. It was more like a tone in which she thought she had done me a favor in buying it.
"You just saved my twenty bucks." I replied. Saala kanjoos
She smiled. Oh... those blue eyes.

She had got the most famous South Indian breakfast - idly wada for both of us. I unfolded the packet, broke a piece of idly, smeared some green chutney while being careful that I don't collect the big green chilly peice along with it and put it in my mouth, that was already watery. Ummm.. typical idly that you get in a train. They don't taste all that good but you still end up eating one almost everytime you travel in a train.

Some sort of peace was being restored in my mind as I was at least filling up my empty stomach after my expectations were blown away by the Indian Railways. Too early to have thought that as she asked,"What were you looking at in the reservation chart?"
Gollluupp. The idly tasted bitter now, and even without the chilly, the chutney was red hot spicy. Was she peeking from the window and trying to know what I did when I went away from her?
"Nothing. I...I just confirmed if my name existed in the list" I lied.
"But the TC has already seen our tickets right?" She was in no mood of sparing me.
Half of my brain was already blanked by her beauty, now the remaining half was heading towards darkness. This girl is a lot smarter than she looks. Don't be fooled by her looks mate, I told myself. In a flash, I remembered those days when we worked together. There were instances where she turned bossy towards her counterparts who shared the same amount of experience, sometimes even with people senior to her. And, she was a star during the appraisal season, hitting the outstanding mark consistently. I am scared of only two species, 1-wild tigers, 2-smart females.

I still had to answer her question and I couldn't come up with another lie. "Nothing yaar" I said trying to run away from that question. After a brief pause, I asked "Any plans of marriage?"

She squeezed her face as if to say, 'why are you trying to run away coward?' and then that smile again. It didn't bother me losing that small verbal battle because I kept looking her smiling. I couldn't miss noticing her when she put a wisp of her hair behind her ears, the winds being responsible for her act.

"My parents are bugging me to get married soon, but not for at least one year from now if you ask me. Also have to arrange a hefty amount for the dowry." For the first time today, she looked sad, her lips arched to make one those parenthesis used in smileys to represent unhappiness. She looked cute to me even while being sad. Don't worry, marry me and I won't ask for a single penny, I wanted to tell her.

Its amazing how time just flies when you are sitting with good looking females. Apart from being intelligent and beautiful, I liked the way she took the jokes cracked on her. I kept pulling her leg, and she kept laughing, and sometimes teasing me back. A very sportive girl, a prankster, successful right from lemon and spoon race in her kindergarten to achieving best employee awards in her working organisation; not a bad one to get settled with. She made me recall an occasion where her team lead had sent a box of chocolates from onsite mentioning, 'This is only for boys and girls' and she said 'Oh! Then its not for me' and the whole bay had burst in laughter. I hoped the train broke down right there, unable to move an inch, or someone pull down the chain so that I could spend more time with her.

Arsikere was just a few minutes away now. She started arranging her things in the bag. My eyes were clearly saying the words 'please don't leave me'. She never looked back at me, instead, opened up her mirror and began to look at herself in it. Bah! You girls never improve. I turned away while she did that.

"Can you share your mobile number?" She asked. In no time, I turned to her. She was looking down.
"Ya sure" I said. We both took out our cell phones and shared each other's number. What do I put in the name column. I didn't want her to know my ignorance, and hence quickly put an X in front of name. Whilst doing that,she noticed my phone, squeezed her eyes and asked
"Hey that's a Galaxy series phone isn't it?"
"Yes" I replied.
"Its high time that I change my phone. This one's really old." She said showing her Nokia 6600, which looked like it was used by Graham Bell to call his wife. I had never seen a 6600 phone with a girl, that's always a man's phoone, I thought. Did this girl drop down from Mars?

I showed some of the applications that I had got in my phone and she began to enjoy them. She even grabbed my phone and started looking at some more apps. I never thought my cell phone would fascinate a girl so much. I had seen a TV ad where a girl, impressed by a man's phone, gives him condoms saying no change, but thought it was too good to be true. I hadn't managed exactly the same thing here, but at least, there is some interest.

Once again, the train began to slow down. Arsikere was fast approaching. While she played with my phone, I looked outside. And I could see more people now, people sipping the morning beverage, half naked kids running around, don't know what they were after. The girl gave back my phone and got ready to leave.
"Ok Anil. Will hope to see you in Bangalore"
I will be waiting for that moment, I wanted to say. Instead I said, "sure".

Two minutes later, I was alone in the three seater. I closed my eyes and recalled what had occured in the last two hours. Maroon top, spectacle, hair touching my cheek and my failure in remembering her name. I smiled, with my eyes still closed.

My cell phone beeped and vibrated. I decided to ignore it initially, but let's just check, I thought. I opened to see the screen displaying a message symbol followed by 'X'. Whohoo. I quickly unlocked it to read. Would she propose me? I won't accept proposals in SMSes. It has to be face to face.

Instead, it read, "My name is not X. It is ..". She had mentioned her name. Oh yes. Now I could remember that.
I immediately hit the reply tab started typing, "Hey am so sorry. I really can't believe that I forgot your name. I am so sorry yaar. I.." Wait a minute. Be a man Anil. No need to be so apologetic. Accept what you had done. There is no point in using condoms after both the people have caught AIDS.

I deleted the text and then typed again, "Ok. Sorry about that. Can I write this episode in my blog?" I thought a little before sending it, but once it was sent, I got more anxious. My stomach groaned, my mind just wondering if I had asked for trouble again.

The cell phone beeped and vibrated for the second time. One new message from X. Ewww. I still haven't saved her name in my phone. I opened the inbox, tapped on the unread message and read the words, "Sure I would love to read that." I closed my eyes, smiled again went back recollecting the moments.