A Heart-Beat Away!! (First Part)

(Hi Guys, I guess it’s Story time. Happy reading folks and please do post you comments. They motivate story writers a lot!! :) )

A smooth silence pervaded in the air around me. I looked around to find a pure white field filled with white roses and a path-way leading to a huge white door.

A soft Uillean Pipe blew sweet music into my ears. I could hear a voice from far-off calling out to me.

“Sirrrrrr” shouted a person into my ears nearly deafening me. “Don’t worry, we will get you out soon” he comforted.

I tried to move my head to face the man, but I was stuck. My vision was very blurred. Where am I?

Oh no… Is she safe?

I tried gently pushing my head back and forth to manufacture some space. A drop of blood trickled from a cut on my upper nose onto my forehead and disappeared into my freshly gelled hair.

I had just met with an accident and my car had been turned upside down.

I could hear more people gathering around my car.

But first, I must check her.

“Shres..” I gently called out. “Shres, you there?”

Her silence combined with the glass shards poking in my left cheek hugely irritated me. I maneuvered my head to see my love, my life.. Shreshta.

I released my left hand from the seat belt and moved my fractured middle finger and adjoining finger up to the base of her neck and checked for her pulse.

My heart skipped a beat.

“Shres, say something.. please” I pleaded. My hopes were rapidly diminishing…

Oh God.. Please kill me too!!

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The best thing about summers in New York is pleasant weather and long sun-lit days. As I picked some steam to finish the last part of my lap around the Central Park, I couldn’t help but notice a beautiful girl sitting on a bench at the far end of my destination. With more enthusiasm, I quickly ran up to the bench where she was sitting and stretched out my left leg of the wooden bench to tie my undone shoe laces.

Through the corner of my eyes, I could see her staring at me. She looked stunning in the purple chudidhar and a matching scarf around her neck.

“Do you always jog here?” she asked politely.

Not wanting a second invitation to start a conversation with a very beautiful girl, I responded with my eyes still concentrating on tying my shoe laces.

“Yeah. We usually cannot do much in winters, so these 3 months of summer are the only bliss for us”

“Us?” the girl looked surprised.

“We are a group of joggers. Unfortunately my friends have moved to California for their project”

As I finished speaking, I turned around to have a good look at her. She was the most beautiful girl I have ever seen after a long time. Her eyebrows lined up perfectly to match with her doe-shaped eyes. A little pink lipstick adorned her thin lips. Her skin color matched tone between pure milky white and lemony yellow.

As my eyes stared deep into hers, I could feel some connection.

“Hi, My name is Spandana”, she interrupted my thoughts.

“Er.. Hi..” I responded, perhaps a little dumbfounded. She raised her eyebrows as if to ask my name.

“I am Aarya.. .. Aarya Janarthanan”, I spoke after a pause. She gave me the look of an immigration officer. Speak as much as necessary!!

She nodded her head silently. She slowly turned her head to check out a cab that had been honking loudly.

“How about a cup of coffee?” I blurted. What the heck? I had just asked a girl for a coffee. I bit my tongue as the words tumbled out of my mouth.

She head swiveled to face me. A wry smile broke on her lips. “Is that a date?” she enquired.

“Nah..” my brain was freezing to provide any answers to my sudden knee jerk coffee proposal. Relax Aarya!!

“Just a cup of pure unadulterated coffee. That’s all!!” I responded thanking my lips for responding with the correct words.

Her smile turned out into a laugh. She checked her watch.

6:37 PM

“My uncle will be here in thirty minutes” she declared.

“Thirty minutes is good enough time” I smiled. Thirty minutes with a beautiful girl is like thirty seconds.

As we both walked off towards the nearest Starbucks on the intersection of 17th and Park Boulevard, I could help but feel a sense of excitement. I had just asked a complete stranger for a coffee date.

As I opened the door for her, I could help but notice the shop was completely empty. A petite African-American woman came up to the counter to take the order.

“One hot chocolate with no whipped cream.. 2% milk” I ordered. She nodded her head and I looked back to see what Spandana was ordering.

Her big black eyes scanned through the list of options available and it was if she was seeing the options for the first time.

“Do you like Chai?” I tried to help. She nodded meekly.

“One Chai Latte with no Whipped cream” I ordered for her and reached out for my credit card.

“I will pay for myself” came a polite request.

“It’s ok” I replied.

“No, I will pay for my Chai”, she strengthened her tone.

I raised my hands giving up the argument. There is nothing much you can argue with a beautiful girl.

As we both collected our hot drinks, we chose the table lined up by the window. It was beautiful New York late summer afternoon, with the slight hum of some cycles paddled on the streets. The huge intersection usually jam packed with traffic was amazingly empty.

It was so strange. No customers and no cars.

I looked at the petite African-American waitress and spoke “Is there any special event today?”

She slowly raised her head from the task she was performing, “Actually there is kinda a cop shootout, happening 15 blocks away and that’s scared the shit outta people. I say.. People relax.. But who listens.. everybodyz frightened. But don’t ya guys worry. Nothing will happen to ya guys”

I gently nodded my head. Perhaps it was the wrong time for coffee date. But then when will you get a chance to sit with a very beautiful girl in an empty shop.

I smiled reassuringly at Spandana. I could see the fear glooming in her eyes.

“So what do you do here?” I tried to start a conversation.

“I guess I have to leave soon” came an irrelevant reply.

“Listen. Everybody gets scared for something. Seriously speaking, there is no problem with cops here” I reassured her.

Seeing her hands shake a little, I gently placed my hands onto hers. She quickly retrieved them back. Oops!! Mistake..

“So what exactly do you do here?” I tried changing the topic to cover up my stupid act.

She gulped some chai and looked sharply at me, “I have come here for an operation”.

“What operation?” I burst out with a perturbed question. I have had enough liaisons with operations and medicines.

As she was about to answer when her phone rang.

“Hello uncle” she spoke. She then nodded her head for about thirty seconds and then hung up.

“My uncle says, it’s not a good idea to stay here. The police have given a general warning to clear the area, it seems”

“Okies, lets walk back to the park” I suggested.

As we started our small walk back to the park, I noticed the roads were utterly deserted. As we reached the pedestrian crossing, I could hear the siren on the cop’s car wailing loudly coming directly at us.

Suddenly in a flash, one of the cars that the cops were chasing went out control, flipped and landed on a turtle back, precariously close to both of us. My heart just skipped a beat..

AJ.. Don’t leave me!!

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The light struggled to burst through my closed eye-lids. I slowly opened my eyes and looked around and saw a pure white room. Shresta was sitting next to me in a golden chair reading some novel. I cleared my throat to speak but words would not come out. Shres dropped her novel in her bag and stood up next to me, gently pushed my hair away from my forehead and kissed me and whispered, “I shall always be with you AJ”.

I broke up with a sweat and got up immediately. I looked around to find Spandana reading a novel. I tried to move myself into a better position but my head hurt even though the soft pillow cushioned my ache. I scanned the place around and it looked like a hospital room.

“Don’t move” cautioned a soft voice.

I looked at Spandana little confused. “Where am I?”

“First you tell me, who’s Shres?” replied Spandana.

I smiled weakly not wanting to reply to her question. “How did I get here Spandana?”

She just shrugged at my attempt to cover up. “The police were chasing some gangsters and shot at their car’s tire. The gangsters lost control and the car flipped upside down and landed at our feet”

“Oh my God! What happened after that? Did they shoot me?” I spoke up perturbed.

A sarcastic smile crossed her face. “You..” she paused and her smile faded “You fainted”.

“What?” I questioned her to hear those words again.

“You called out somebody’s name called Shres and then you fainted with your head banging nastily on the side-walk” she repeated.

I shook my head in disbelief. It has been two years since I had thought about her and the gruesome accident. She had remained ingrained in my soul.

“I replied to your question and it’s time for you to reply to mine. And what is that steel rod doing in your ankle?”

“No.. Its nothing” I tried to cover my ankles with the bed sheet. I had only met Spandana for less than an hour. How could I ever tell her my secrets.. But I felt a urge to tell her everything..

“Oh Com’on” her eyes pleaded with me. “My uncle will take an hour to come and I am all ears for your story”

“It’s not a story” I spoke angrily.

“I am sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. Just wanted to tell you that you could share anything you want with me” she toned down her request.

I nodded my head and let out a sigh. “She was a very beautiful girl” I started.

“Who.. Shres?” intercepted Spandana.

“Yeah. It was three years back when I met her”, I dug back into my memories to start the tale. The pain was still alive in my heart!!

“Where? Coffee shop, mall, theatre, college?” intercepted Spandana again.

Such an impatient girl like her!! I nodded my head in negative.

“It was a ..” I could see Spandana craning her head for the last word “MISSED CALL”

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He was the sickest, manipulative and jollu-vittufying lead I had ever seen and I was just waiting outside the conference room to have a discussion about my quarterly rating. I damn cared about my ratings, but I didn’t want to listen to his crap of ‘Aarya, the company and team needs more from you. You should take proactive measures.. blah .. blah.. blah

My phone buzzed. I quickly took it out of pocket expecting to see a forwarded sms but instead I saw a call with my number, flash on my mobile.

My number.. wait.. Nine digits were similar to mine except that the last one was a number 6 instead of 7. I saw my lead walking in from the other conference and I quickly cut the call and stowed my phone away in my pocket.

I opened the conference door for my lead but my lead motioned me to get in first. Sivaji padam Office Room machi..

“How are you doing?” my lead started the conversation.

“Quite well” I replied getting ready for the mokkai dialogues to follow. My lead placed a set of printed copies detailing my quarterly goals. Oh No!!

My phone buzzed once more. I sat down on the chair and quickly pulled out my mobile and cut the call. Damn.. Same number..

And in the next 15 minutes, I received 20 calls and my lead pretty much knew that I was paying no attention to him.

“This is your problem aarya” finished my lead. “I am going to rate you as 2 this quarter”, he fired his last salvo.

3 was ok. But 2.. was not!! A host of options including leaving the company ran through my mind.

“But I can make it a 3”, his words hung in mid air “If you switch off your mobile”. I quickly switched off my mobile. Who would want to lose a rating for a stupid call.

As the meeting-bashing finished, we came out the conference room and he patted on my back. “Well I could have given you a 4 but you never follow rules you.. Do you?”. Your rules.. say that.. damn!!. I quietly nodded my head cursing him and the person who had called me 20 times.

I quickly ran up to the break room and dialed the number. “Hi, I had received a call from this number”

“Are you nuts?” spoke a girl angrily.

I should have been angry at the person who disturbed me so much. But it was a girl and so the emotions tempered down. “What?” I replied.

“How will anybody contact you in an emergency?” she shouted.

“Why? What happened?” I spoke anxiously fearing the worst for any of my friends or family.

“I was just saying how anybody might contact you” she lowered her voice.

“What do you want?” I responded.

“I need 1000 rupees from you” she requested.

“What? Why should I give you 1000 bucks”, I replied.

“Actually..” her voice suddenly dropped so low as if she was speaking from the depths of grand canyon and I had to strain hard to hear it, “I had wrongly recharged to your number while I had to recharge to my mom’s number”.

I quickly checked my inbox and found a re-charge of 1000 rupees.

Stupid Girl!! She commits a mistake and shouts at me.

“That’s not my problem” I cut the call.

As I was just walking back to my desk, I felt my phone buzz again and it was her. She was definitely not going to leave me.

“What do you want?” I spoke angrily.

“Please.. Help me na” she spoke sweetly. It was the sweetest voice that I had heard till now.

“Are you nuts” I spoke trying to obtain higher ground. “You want a favor from me and so you call me and then shout at me. Why the hell would anybody pay you if you speak like that?” I questioned.

“No Yaar, I was waiting in the hot sun outside the Airtel shop, pissed off about the shop owner wrongly re-charging to another number which I didn’t tell him at all. I was so angry that I was not able to reach you for half an hour” she pleaded her case.

I felt sorry for the girl and I too had planned to re-charge my phone. “Ok. I will re-charge to your mom’s account. Tell me her number”

“Actually.. I got tensed and re-charged for her taking some money from my friend, otherwise I would have been fried in my home by now” she giggled.

A sweet smiled crossed my face. All the angry thoughts of my review meeting vanished from my mind. “So what do you want me to do?”

“If you can give me 1000 rupees in cash..” her words dragged on.

“Hmm.. Ok.. Where shall we meet?” and I listened to the time and place where I was to meet my love.

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I bent low on the protective railings on the first floor of phase two of Spencer Plaza and scanned the crowd for a girl in yellow chudidhar. I checked the time once again.

11.12 AM

She was supposed to be here by 11AM. Has she decided not to come? Nah.. She would never leave me without getting her money.

Suddenly somebody tapped me from behind. A girl wearing a yellow chudidhar and about 3 inches taller than me and about twice as fat stood gigantically in front of me. I stood little shocked perhaps as a result of my own expectations.

“Hi, I had spoken to you. Can you give me the 1000 rupees?” she spoke in a half-manly voice.

Something seemed fishy. The girl who spoke to me had a really sweet voice.

I gave the fat girl a quizzing look, dialed the girl’s number and could hear a dial tone, but nobody attended the call.

I shook my head at the girl trying to con me and started to walk off. Suddenly I could hear the fat girl calling somebody on her mobile and from no where entered the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. Her round face, milky-white toned skin, beautiful braided hair, Britney Spears perfume, cute little diamond bindi and her beautiful pink lips transported me to a heavenly dreamland.

“Hi” she spoke sweetly. I didn’t have to heart to cross-check such a beautiful girl and immediately my hands went towards my purse to give her 1000 rupees. As I finished my job, I quickly turned around and started walking towards the exit with an amazing feeling of meeting an angel.

I heard a sweet voice calling out to me, “Don’t you want a treat?”

Shit!! I didn’t even know her name. I turned around to see the angel and her friend walk towards me.

“Hi, I am Shresta” she raised her hands for a hand-shake. And as soon as my hands made contact with hers, a certain strange feeling creeped into me.

A small meeting at the small coffee shop in Spencers turned into a date at the different theatres, beach meetings, Saravana Bhavan lunches and Mayajaal rides.

And about two month later, I got a call from Shresta asking me to meet her at the same Spencers coffee shop where we had met at first.

As she walked towards me in the distinct maroon colored chudidhar with a green collar and matching duppatta, I could feel my heart miss a beat.

“Hi, waiting for a long time?” she enquired.

“No no. Just for two hours” I spoke little angrily.

“Oh, I am sorry. I had to drop off my friend” she apologized.

“That’s ok. Shall we go inside and have something to drink?” I suggested.

“AJ” she spoke softly as we parked ourselves in the corner most seat. She used to call me AJ which stood for Aarya Janarthanan. It was a special feeling to hear somebody call you that way. I leaned close to her.

“I want to ask you something” she started off slowly. “Do you like me?”

“I like you..” I paused “as a good friend” I replied truthfully.

She eyes sulked and she looked down. After a few seconds, she looked up “I love you, do you love me?”

Her blunt words took me by surprise. I should have guessed the missile hurling my way. Suddenly the waiter came up with two cups of hot coffee and placed it between us.

I utilized the silence and sipped the hot coffee, trying desperately to avoid her kohl applied eyes.

“AJ? I asked you a question” she spoke again after a few minutes.

“Shres, I like you a lot, but I cannot love you” I spoke watching the horror of my word’s effects on her beautiful face.

(To Be Continued...)

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