The Reunion

The night was as tired as he was. Both looked foggy and frail. He had a long day at work and had just reached to the door of his home, and was tussling with his keys against the dark to open the door. The right key finally opened the door unlike the missing key of the answer of his question which he was yearning to find since long.

The ajar door welcomed him to his well disorganized home ;some credit of which goes to his bachelorism and some to his liking of keeping things not in the way they are meant to as if he didn’t care enough about their right places. With a well built body, deep black eyes and tousled hair, he was a man in early 30s. In fact he had all those attributes needed to present a man as tall, dark and handsome but there was something, some sort of naivety or listlessness in his bodily demeanors which made his overall stout personality look seasoned off with little cluelessness.

He had a handsomely paying job and would live away from his parents in a ‘Big City’, as the people of small ones would call them. In the overall scheme of things and the entirety of his life, he was fine, happy and an interesting person but some shattered pieces of the broken glasses of foregone days of his dear past would still come under his feat making him bleed emotions and sighs.

There was some string of the past which still held him from moving ahead in life and getting closer to people. Perhaps, an answer to some question was all that he wished for.

Having taken a hot shower to shun the dust & drowsiness, he moved to his laptop to reply to some important official mails. While he was scrolling through the mails, he happened to find a mail from his old school friend Deepak. While, he avoided being in touch with his old classmates, Deepak had somehow got his mail address and would reach him every now and then asking about his whereabouts. Like all the previous ones he was going to skip this as well, when he read that the subject this time was different. It said “REGARDING REUNION OF THE ALUMNIS OF ST THOMAS SCHOOL, SHIMLA”.

The index of finger of his right hand moved almost automatically and he clicked open the mail. It read,

Dear Raghav

I don’t know whether you are going to get this mail or you even got the previous ones, but I could not keep myself from sharing this wonderful news with you. Our Alma Mater St Thomas School has organized an Alumni Reunion on the Sunday next week, that’s 22^nd November. I know what has bothered you over the years and does, even now. You know very well that this is the only opportunity for you to meet her again. Now it is up to you if you want to carry the burden of your past on the shoulders of your present or cut that glittery chain binding you.

I have no hope of your coming as far as I know you but anyways I am attaching the invitation with this mail.

Yours

Deepak

He was least expecting this on such a tiresome day. All he wanted to do was sleep but he felt as if the mail was pulling him inside a dream without even letting him sleep.

 "Kavya". That was her name. He met her for the first time in 8th standard. Her father was an employee of central government and was transferred to Shimla. As speedily as the warm breathe turns into cold, fleeting mist, in the mountains, they began to get close to each other. Theirs was the love of late nineties when phones & internet were not omnipresent and when love was much more than the contractual relation of breakup and patch up; When people had to wait everyday to see each other in the schools and video calls & chatting apps were aliens. That was the love which was not bound by those three magical words. It was all signals, symbols and sights. A smile on her face and a play of his eyes. That was the beauty of their relation. He didn’t know exactly if she loved him or not. He could never gather the courage to ask and perhaps she could also never call the valor to tell. It was just like the shades of grey; neither black nor white.

 Years passed by and their board exams ended. They had no other option but move on the directions of the destiny as the dried leaves move by a strong gush of wind. They both went to different colleges in different cities and had no way to be in touch. But even in the college he could not get over with her and the moments he shared her. He finally decided that during holidays when he returns home, he will directly head towards her house and tell her everything. Raghav, eventually returned home after a year or so during his year breaks. He went to her house the next day to meet her but to his shock he found that her father was transferred from Shimla and the new people living there had no contact of her family. He was devastated and completely shattered. His eyes could no longer bear the huge mass of his tears and they oozed out with utmost incessancy.

He returned to his college, trying his best to take back his soul from the shiny remnants of past and tread ahead. He completed his studies, got a job, and moved to Bengalore. It had been almost 14 long years since he had visited her house. In all these years, obviously & apparently, he had recovered to a great extent from the injuries of his bygone days. He loved his work, was very close to his parents but there was something which stopped him from being as natural as he was. He feared from losing people and didn’t make much acquaintance because of the same reason. This is what made his otherwise charming persona look skeptical of things and scared of getting close to people.

He had been able to get over all the ingredients of his slow cooked love except two things; her eyes and his question. Her magical blue eyes were not some random view to forget. As beautiful as the snow of the mountain clad Shimla, they would still haunt him.

And, of course, the question that did she really love him or was it just teenage infatuation? If she did, did she still do? Was he only one who had left a melted piece of himself in the past or was she also sometimes living in their mutually shared, alluring past?

Now, after all these years he was getting the chance to look beyond those oceanic eyes again. He was going to get an answer to his question. He was excited and felt like going there for sure. He brought his thoughts back, reshuffled them and placed them back in his mind like a deck of cards. He was not feeling hungry. He just wanted to sleep and may be dream of those charismatic eyes again.

Just when he lied on bed and was going to doze off, a thought sheepishly scrawled into his head. What if Kavya does not turn up at the reunion? The castle of his dreamy romanticism would be razed in no time. Even if she appears, what if he comes to know that she didn’t really love him? What if, it is revealed that it was no more than the childish romanticism of love which he took to be a beautiful scene of Shakespeare’s Romio Juliet? Will he not be laughed at by Kavya and other friends for considering a 15 year old camaraderie to be true love?

A shiver ran down to his spine. He has already been a gullible person since such long that he wouldn’t be able to able to make himself a centre of humor and ridicule. He could continue living with the misconception that she loved her and still does, than living with the truth that she does not. He had taken such a long time to divert and would not be able to gather himself again if broken. He finally dropped the idea to go and slept.

 Three days passed to this incident. As very usual he returned from his workplace and was searching for some documents in his old trunk when a photograph slipped and made its way to the floor. It was the only picture he had of him and Kavya. It was of a school trip. They both looked so elated and excited in that photograph. He would look at the picture every now and then and would think how different, how beautiful would her face have turned in the period of more than a decade? He used to keep it in his wallet but to get rid of the past he kept it in the trunk a year ago. Ah! The obstinate past; it somehow makes its way to circumvent the present. He knew where his emotions were going to lead him. He tried his best to stop them but could not stop the voice coming from his inner self that "he should go". “Even if they laugh, even if she denies, I should go.” He thought. If not to relive the poetic past then to return the pieces of the past that remained with him and to get back the piece of himself which the past has kept captured. If not to see love for him in her eyes, then to find the one who replaced him in her eyes. He should go.

He immediately booked a flight to Shimla and tried to keep himself very busy to avoid any thoughts next two days. Finally, he boarded the flight late night on 21st November and reached around 10 am in the morning. He didn’t tell his parents about his arrival and went to a hotel instead. Having dressed up, he got the keys of his subscribed Car and left for the venue. The Reunion was to start at around 12:00 am and the school was at the distance of around an hour from the hotel. He drove as fast as he could sensibly do. Every time he would come back home he would feel as if nothing had changed. Although the people tried to change it to a more developed and sophisticated city, the old mountain beauty seemed to stick back to its sleepy, slow and foggy hill station life. And this time he could feel the old Shimla even more. He knew he was at risk but was equally excited. He didn’t even get to know how swiftly he had covered half an hour of journey just by talking to himself.

He had now left the highway and had taken a route which bifurcated to the left of the highway. This was not as busy as the highway as this led only to his school and an apple orchard which was situated near the school.

While he was just twenty minutes away from his destination, he saw a girl around a car waiving her hand toward his car for a lift. He pulled up his car and saw her coming towards his window. She looked to be a girl in her late 20s with a classy and elegant appearance. She was wearing a beautiful churidar salwar and was struggling with her hair which were following their master, the wind. She had covered her lower face with her transparent Dupatta perhaps because of the dusty pathway. Though her lower face was partly visible, her eyes were clearly in his sight and they were…..they were explicitly…BLUE..in color.

“Oh my god”! Is it her? But he had no further proof so he kept quiet.

She came closer to his window and said,” Excuse me. Actually I was going this way and my car stopped midway due to some problem in the engine. Driver is trying to fix it but I am getting late. Will you please drop me in the way?

She spoke all this in one go while he was busy juxtaposing Kavya’s 14 years old photo from his memory with this girl’s face to find out if she was her.

She said again with some clear irritation “ Hello, Are you gonna drop me?.”

He abruptly replied, “Yeah, no problem.”

She went to the other side and sat in the car.

He enquired off, “So, I am going to the orchard. Where do I need to drop you?

“You can drop me at St Thomas School” She replied. His dream was perhaps landing on the ground of reality.

“Oh! That grand, old school. I wonder why would you visit a school in a city like Shimla where you have so much other places to see” He asked with an aptly curious face.

“ Actually, I am an alumni of that school and going there for a reunion”

“OK. That sounds pretty cool.” He began engaging her and was getting sure at his speculation. Just as he was going to delve deeper into the conversation, her phone rang and she picked it up.

“Hello. Yup dude I am on my way. Will get there in around 15 minutes. Has he come yet? I wish he does soon.” And the call was cut.

As soon as he heard this his belief grew stronger that she was the girl he had come here for.

He looked at her and smilingly said," Looks like you are here for someone special."

"Yes." She said blushingly.

"So another love story may meet its destination today."

" Don't know exactly. He was there in school with me. We were very close and I didn't realize since when I started loving him. He also loved me perhaps, but we couldn't tell each other. Finally the school ended, we moved to different cities and lost touch. But today I hope of seeing him again after nearly a decade. I may get my answer, today" She narrated her story with gaiety and zestfulness. He was more than sure now that she was Kavya. She loved him then and still does. He couldn't be more ecstatic and had never been this joyous since many years. Collecting all his thoughts he replied," I wish, You do".

The car reached at the front gate of the school. She thanked him and got off the car. He was gathering his sprinting emotions to find some words and surprise her. This was his moment and she was her lady.

As he was pondering over what to utter, he saw her going to a gorgeous girl standing at the gate with a boy and a baby in her hand. He could clearly hear the girl he dropped, saying," Oh God Kavya, Your baby girl is so cute. Since so long, I have been dying to take her in my arms." And she took her baby in her arms.

The other girl replied ," That's all right Sonali but why do your eyes look so like mine?"

"I thought of giving you a surprise so got these blue lenses. Leave all that, Did Deepak come? She asked Kavya.

"Not yet" She replied taking her baby back in her lap.

He felt the whole world being destroyed in an apocalypse in the front of his eyes. He couldn't stop there any longer. He started his car and sped off. He was not sad this time.

Perhaps He had got his answer.