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.

The girl on seat no. 69

2nd April 05 AM, outside Bengaluru Railway Station

It was early morning and the first rays of sun were yet to lighten the city. I got out from my office cab, looked at my watch and realised that I had arrived an hour early to the station. I looked around to see if there is any scope of "bird watching". By the way, I rank Bangalore Majestic as the fourth best place for bird watching in the city, next only to Koramangala which lies at third. The second place belongs to Malleshwaram and the evergreen locality has always been Basavanagudi for me, nowhere else in the city I have seen such beauty.

And I was not disappointed at all, inspite of being there at odd hours. Just then, my eyes caught a girl who was getting down from an auto. It was not totally dark, thanks to the artificial lighting, and I managed to get more than a glimpse of her somehow. She was wearing a maroon coloured top, almost sleeveless and a light blue jeans to go along with it. She was quite thin, surely slimmer than me, looked to be around 23 to 26 years of age, was probably five inches shorter than me, had a hand bag which left hanging on her left shoulder. She probably had two feet long hair which ran down till her lower back, that she had left untied. A black framed spectacle, like one of those that Preity Zinta used in Kal ho na ho, made her look smart. Overall, a very beautiful female. She kept arguing with the auto driver on the auto fare and was surely unhappy. Have I seen her somewhere? Asked one part of my find. You always think so when you see a beautiful girl don't you? Replied the other part. I carried on and boarded the train, thinking that was not a bad thing to see first up in the morning.

Same day, 06:05 AM, inside Janashatabdi train

I was just back from a night shift; so my eyes gave the sensation of being burnt due to lack of sleep; my stomach groaned due to lack of food; my body ached due to lack of rest. I was already sitting where I had to: compartment D2, seat 70, which was a midddle seat out of the three seater. The aisle and the window seats next to me were vacant. I had just closed my eyes and was trying to get some sleep when my ears heeded to a sweet, polite voice saying "excuse me". I opened my eyes and saw something which looked familiar. Maroon top, blue jeans,black hand bag (I could now notice the colour of the bag, as there were more lights and it was closer). Oh my god. Am I dreaming??? I hung open my mouth for a few seconds. She looked more beautiful now in the natural light that had just begun to wake up the city (contrastingly, the passengers in the train were trying the opposite).

"Its my seat over there" she said pointing to the window seat next to me.
"Go on" I replied giving her some space to get to her seat. My heart started pumping loudly. Never before, had such a beautiful girl sat next to me. In my college days, me and my friends used to say a girl's name and award points based on her looks on a scale of ten. This girl surely was a 10 pointer.

"So how's it going Anil?" asked the female.
What the $&*%??? Beta... mann mein laddu phoota?
Not only she talked to me but she also knows my name. Where on earth have we met each other?
I gave a startled look to her for a couple of seconds. Then, my mind travelled back in time. Three years ago, this little girl who was fresh out from college then, had joined the same organisation where I was working. She sat a couple of bays away from me. Although I had not failed to notice her, we hardly spoke to each other. But there was an occasion where I had danced next to her for almost 7 seconds, and our hands touched for almost 0.5 seconds. You see, I am awful when it comes to interacting with girls. Yes.. its the same girl.

"Am doing great. How are you?" I asked. She said she was fine.
"You were working in Delhi. How come you are in Bangalore? And where are you going now?" I questioned her existence in the city and in that train.
"Ah. I changed my job and have come to your city now. Am going to Arsikere to attend a marriage, and its my best friend at office who is tieing the knot".
I smiled.

Now, my mind had come up with a question to which I had to find an answer soon. What's her name? What's her name? And her name's not Sheela.

I again traveled two-three years back trying to find a clue that would lead me in knowing her name. I tried to "do a search" if she had sent any emails, tried to recall the nameplate on her cubicle, or what her colleagues shouted to call her. She was not in my friend's list in facebook for sure. And noway I was going to say "sorry I don't remember your name, can you please tell me that".That would be humiliating.

Dejected, I turned to her to talk something. And I couldn't utter a word. She had now taken off her spectacle and was looking at the green fields which kept passing as the train raced away. The more I saw her, the more beautiful she looked. The speedy winds made her hairs fly in the air which kept touching me cheeks and forehead, it made hold my breath for a while. I need to recall her name.

All of a sudden, like a lightning on a cloudy day, a plan stuck my mind. I still couldn't recall her name but I had figured out a method to know that. But it couldn't be accomplished just then. I had to wait till the train stopped. The next station was Tumkur and it was still 20 mins away.

"I heard you changed your job." She initiated the conversation again. All of this morning, it was she who initiated every conversation.
"Yes. And how exactly did you hear that?" I cross-questioned.
She giggled. Boy.. she kept looking more and more beautiful.
"I read your blog. You mentioned it in your recent post."
"Am glad someone reads my blog apart from me." Came a witty answer from me.
She giggled again. This time it was more of a laugh.

"I really like your blog. I read it whenever am bored. I particularly liked your encounter with the monkey. You know what.. blah blah and more blahs" She kept talking and I kept looking at her. Its good when beautiful girls talk, as it gives a chance to keep looking at them. Her blue eyes could make anyone go crazy about her. I wanted to ask if she had a boyfriend. If not can I be one?

"Yeah thanks and keep reading it." I giggled this time.
I looked outside the window. Tumkur should be few minutes away now. I tried to recall for one last time what her name could be, before implementing the plan, but in vain.

Alright.. here comes Tumkur, I said to myself as the train began to slow down and I saw lot more houses and shops which had just started opening up for business. The train reached the station and was now hardly moving at a few kilometres per hour speed.
"I will be back soon" I said and stood up to leave.
"Sure" she said looking at me. I don't blame her if she thought I was heading towards the loo.

But I knew where I was heading. This was were I could find out what her name was. I never had dreamt that Indian Railways would come to my rescue in this way. Yes, Indian Railways would answer the question and reveal the girl's name.

One had to book tickets to get into the Janashatabdi. Booking tickets means the reservation chart would be put outside the compartment. The girl sat next to me which is seat no. 69. All I had to do was to look for the name displayed in front of the number 69 in the reservation chart. That's it; job done. What an idea sirji!

I felt proud about myself as I walked between the seats to get out of the compartment. Its not simply that people tell me that am talented, its not a joke when I think am intelligent, its not a fluke that I am recruited by the world's #1 storage company. You are simply the best mate.

The train finally stopped, I got down praying that the reservation chart existed. Yes it did; great. Then I began scanning for the number 69. Down I went to page 3 of the chart and finally found 69 and her name is......

What the hell? This can't be true. The chart said Ramdev Basappa. She does not even remotely resemble to that name. Her name being Ramdev Basappa means Himesh winning a Nobel prize for Chemistry. I looked up and down, further down, far up again, searching for anything that looks like a female's name. And all I could find was Shanti Dharmendra, Seethalakshmi and Devamma. She is not any of those. Like a batsman out for a duck I returned back to my seat.

To be continued.. if you care