It was a hot and dry day in April. A
secluded corner in Café Coffee Day gave us a delightful chance of a tête-à-tête,
nobody else being in the café. We were talking of old times when I suddenly put
my hand upon her hand; she was a bit surprised, but she only smiled in retaliation.
I was surprised, I expected to rise and leave the outlet in response, but she
merely smiled at me. Apparently, things had changed at her end.
I could see that though she was the
same shy and innocent girl I once knew, a few years of girlhood in Aligarh had extracted
most of the simplicity out of her. We were in the University Canteen when I first
met her on the pretext of exchanging class-notes. Our hearts always missed a
beat when we were together after this. To encourage our hearts to take a
recess, we made it a point to be there after regular classes everyday. We didn’t
much to discuss, the lectures being quite enough themselves, but we liked being
with each other.
We had come a long way since then, a
lot had changed, but a connection still seemed to throb between us.
A wide gulf separated the youth in Aligarh and the lady I was
before today. She was no longer the slim young lady I once knew. She had become
a confident buxom bodied woman brave enough to fight the world on her own
terms. She did look a bit different when we talked of the good old times. She looked
quite good in all the trinkets and ornaments she had on. I had never seen her
in such ostentation before:
student-life was so simple: there was only a lipstick and kaajal those days, and that too to keep
up with her peers. The lady before me had elaborate gold earrings, and a gold chain
to compliment the sari.
A lot of maturity had settled into
her. I was sitting before an adult woman in a designer sari. She was quite different
from the lass I knew while in Aligarh .
I wanted to compliment her for her good looks when a man walked into he outlet.
I was a bit surprised when he indicated an intimacy with her and snuggled close to her on the sofa. She introduced
him as her husband.
She had moved on from the time we
were students in Aligarh .
She even told me of a son who was in school. My heart wept a few silent tears
when I thought of all that I had missed without Zeenat. Zeenat would have been
a part of the world a long time ago had it not been for the set of physical handicaps
I have. Life would have been different.
I wonder if I should thank Allah for keeping me away from the
fun and excitement Zeenat would have brought into the world because this would
have meant a different set of problems for me. I was not a party to these
problems, but was I better off without them? I wonder if this has been Allah’s
motive behind keeping Zeenat in the trove of my dreams for such a long time. What
do you say?
She told me she had been in touch
with everyone from out batch: everyone had moved on and was well-settled. Most of
my peers are at the apex of their careers thinking of how to tackle the host of
issues that rattle their everyday lives. I do wonder if I am better off without
having to bother about any of the issues.
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