“The
Twilight Kiss…"
By- Sobhan Pramanik.
Saturday evening, nice and cloudy…a day on
the toes walking the escalators of South city mall accompanied by random
shrieks of—“Oh..!! Shit…We missed a pair of denim.” A sullen look and then the
enthusiastic back up—“We are dropping down tomorrow sharp at 10…” He threw him
an upsetting eye-‘too early a call…I need
to sleep’ but he adhered to his own timing, lips carrying the lid of a
cello pen; hands loaded with stuffs, checking the list for what all was missed
and a beeping cell phone that received alerts from banks due to extensive
swipes of credit cards. It was 9:30 pm, the show break of INOX, and everything
out there was buzzing.
Yeah…I was a witness to the yet incomplete
shopping of his own marriage. Crave to fix the knot and the urge to look
perfect on that SEEMINGLY-SPECIAL day was daunting every cell of his. My
brother is getting engaged…the last few days before I will get to spot him in
LADIES SECTION of garments.
Such a change over!!!
It
was quiet sometime we had been on our shopping spree, time whistled, Kolkata
was eyeing a super-rocking Sunday…and I was gearing for some tummy fillers.
Somewhere bro jumped out of suits, indo westerns, denims and fragrances to
KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN. I just thanked god for that. There was some hunger buds
left in him as well…!!!
“Let
us get something…” he said.
I was yet to believe that command, for I
thought there was no hunger buds…only MARRIAGE BUDS. I was wrong. His hypothalamus
still worked.
“Order
one basket…ten pieces will serve five pretty well”, Siplu, my brother’s best
buddy said.
‘Two chickens slaughtered on our shopping
spree’, I wondered.
Suddenly he turned towards me and asked
“Any drink???…Krusher’s???”
“Oh…Sure….umm…MANGO krusher…” I said in
excitement. I was blushing to myself. For some reason I was walking the memory
lanes. I looked around, as if I would have loved to see something…or may
be…SOMEONE.
He winked at my excitement, as I sat down
without helping myself to blush. I heard his voice—“One mango krusher”
Minutes later I was helping myself with
crispy legs of a tender chicken. The first sip of mango krusher went down my
throat and I felt my cell phone vibrate in my pocket…I knew who had texted me… I
wanted to take out the cell phone, reply to that SOMEONE….and may be blush a
little more. But I could not, running the fears of being questioned.
Just when I miss you….I always find you around
me….ALWAYS….
Soon I was on my way back home…with the
taste of fried chicken lingering in my oral cavity and the chilled Krusher
partly in my brain and partly in my clasp. My phone vibrated for the second
time…Krusher slipped down my throat…I was getting relentless. I slid down the
left rear window of the car as beads of rain water struck my forehead…bro
turned up the stereo volume. Oh!!! Man…What a moment that was….Bryan Adams into
the vocals of a midnight city awaiting the onset of Friendship day, the track
went and so the vibration; as the third text made its way into my inbox, I
smiled and sloshed myself into the track—‘Whatever I do …I do it for
you’…Smiling to myself with some memories…Bryan Adams and definitely the MANGO
KRUSHER.
“Hey can’t you see??” bro honked to a cab
driver who was driving over at least ten sachet of some cheap liquor brand.
I took out my cell phone and replied back
speaking to the winds and the darkness around me—
“Thank you Tweety
for being with me….remember dear, mango krusher...??Hmm??....happy friendship day…take care…”
And like every time whenever I talk to her
in her absence I stretch my left hand feeling she is there. This time I did the
same but just to find a teddy bear on the rear shelf of the car.
The last sip went down my ducts…Krusher
ended….joy lasted!!!
CHEERS TO LIFE…!!!!
The tiredness of the past day still
lingered as I woke up to drooping eyes the next morning and was almost
scampering for my uniform for I had to go to college. It was quarter past eight
and I barely have an hour to get inside the college campus without being
detained by the securities. I dressed up in the least possible time and
skipping my breakfast sprinted to the bus stop. I exhaled in relief having made
up for the lost time. I checked for my cell phone, it showed-‘3 missed calls-Trisha.’
‘Oh Shit’, I said to myself as a sense of
guilt overpowered me. Even petty things appear guilty in an encounter with your
SPECIAL SOMEONE. The missed calls reminded me that last night I told her to
wake me up for I knew that the tiredness of a full day shopping would give me a
hangover. She did her part, as I stood there brandishing my irresponsible shoulders
to spoil her efforts. When I was engrossed in defining myself how irresponsible
I am, I found she had texted me.
“Where have you been Tanmay?? I called you
up thrice…Are you still sleeping?? Utho!
You will miss your college.” I smiled at her decency and replied her back.
“Tweety…I am in bus…woke up late…skipped
breakfast…will reach in time…m sryy,
didn’t notice your calls; was sleeping dead…L”
I was still yawning and these are the times
when I find the college rules are not student friendly. Much of our assumptions
of an undisciplined and independent college days go wrong when we find
ourselves sitting up the pants on the cold benches of a nerdy engineering
college. Just when the system of homework ends, shafts of uncertainty regarding
a stable career tend to dazzle and as soon as concerns regarding LIFE evokes in
our cortex; LOVE sets our heart melting into blobs of emotions.
May be mine had started to melt just a
little earlier.
“Hmm… have a good day…happy friendship day.
Take care…J”, she replied.
I wished her the same as my bifocals caught
up with a romancing couple through the steel beams of the heritage Howrah
Bridge. It only left me smiling. I plugged my headset to insulate myself from
the ambience of wailing conductors. The track was the same as of last night,
Bryan Adams once again singing into my auditory canal. I just loved that song.
Gentle breeze blowing across the river Hooghly threw up my hairs. I closed my
eyes and the setup took me to sketching the images of the very first time I met
Trisha. We met in Verdan market located in Camac Street, a bazaar known for its
collection of trendy garments at an affordable price. I was in the same store
where she was giving a kind of ‘test
scream’ of her vocals to the manager, complaining about a recently
purchased sandal that lost some of its affixed crystals.
“I want you to replace this and if you
don’t I will go up to the consumer forum.” , She said pointing her index finger
towards the pot bellied manager as he looked totally helpless in front of her
rage. His pale face seemed to change color with every passing second. Sweat
streams were crossing every square inch of his face. I felt sorry for him.
‘Such a desperate girl’, I wondered. There
is no point in arguing with a girl because you are destined to lose. They have
got an Expression Monitoring System pre-installed in their body to win over any
kind of situation. They can make you walk the moon, sob through the night,
seduce you to bed and even force you to replace a sandal. She looked way cute
compared to the storm she generated in that store. She was mesmerizing in her
cerulean blue embroidered kurti
teemed with a pair of black leggings that followed up to a strapped purple
stiletto. And with that mascara in her eyes that went behind those curly
strands for split seconds, any guy would feel a twitch in between their legs.
Well...she was not only cute…she was a ravishing beauty too.
“Why are you smiling?” she said stretching
her lips and the index finger was in its usual place. I was yet to emerge out
from my admired images and she was already there standing a feet ahead of me.
‘Was I really smiling?’ I questioned to
myself. I wasn’t really aware whether I was smiling or not but then again I
don’t want to step into that manager’s shoes. I really pitied his condition and
I didn’t want myself to suffer that. Finding no clue whether I was smiling or
not, I said-“Sorry” trying to pull up a genuinely guilty look over my face.
“What sorry Haan??...That means you did that intentionally…right??”, and this
time I had all her fingers curled in interrogation in front of me.
I was perplexed and was not finding
anything to answer. I stood there obeying silence as her eyes were fixed at me.
“Hello…I am asking you something”, she
spoke.
“I am really sorry” And this time I sounded
a little more genuine.
“Okay” she said and started to walk away. I
remembered my gods.
The manager having dropped his gun was
waiting near the exit with a fresh pair of sandal. She took the packet and left
the store leaving the manager with a free advice, “Learn to behave with
customers.”….Free advice is a mark of Kolkata; they are as readily available as
eighteen plus videos in a teenager’s cell phone.
In a few minutes even I left the store
after an hour of window shopping thus earning myself straight fit denim and a
round neck tee-shirt. I spotted her a few yards away from the store talking
over the phone. She noticed me winking at her and once again started to walk up
to me. I was ready for an emergency sprint this time; adrenaline was rushing in
my veins.
“Hey”, she said with a smile and the pitch
was lot soothing than what I and the manager had experienced few minutes back.
“Hello”, I greeted back.
“I am sorry for shouting at you like that”,
she said as she made a sad face.
Ah!!
Those great girly expressions. My ego was defeated before her cute sorry.
“It’s okay”, I said and smiled.
“Hmm….Why did you smile by the way??” Once
again the same question, but this time she was not charging, she was just
asking.
“I was not aware whether I was smiling.” I
said retaining the smile.
“But this time you are”, she laughed. “By
the way I am Trisha...nice meeting you”.
“Pleasure here…I am Tanmay.”
We shook hands as she announced that she
was in a hurry and her mother had called her up quite a number of times. We
parted as my eyes followed her, a long way before I lost the sight of her
cerulean blue kurti amidst the bustle of Verdan market.
Thereafter we got hooked in facebook, our
friendship grew deeper, and so was MY relation. As time passed by we became the
best of buddies. Every morning she used to wake me up, we both used to sit for
the breakfast together, feed each other in imagination; I used to prepare for
my college and she for her school. We used to wish each other good day after
which our daily routine began. The most interesting part was that all this used
to happen over SMS’s. As she was preparing for her class twelfth board
examinations, she used to do late night studies and kept mostly busy but still
we never forgot to wish each other good night in the sweetest possible manner.
“Good night Tweety…sweetest dreams….J”, I used to say.
“Good night baby…sleep well…J”, used to be her good night messages mainly. She would ensure that
I have fallen asleep by asking, “Slept dear??”, and if I didn’t reply she would
start up with her night study plans. I usually used to keep quiet at times so
that she could devote most of her time to books. In many a ways we used to care
for each other so much…!!!
After that first meet at Verdan market I
have met her couple of times. In those times we came to know a lot about each
other. Our main hangout place was a nearby mall named Riverside, we used to go
up there and talk our heart out either over a cup of coffee or KRUSHER’s…Mango
krusher to be more precise. It was her favorite flavor and gradually it became
my favorite as well. At times I helped her out with her studies. All I can say
is that we had a great time together. Slowly but steadily she made her way into
my heart as I started to develop feelings for her. Apart from my mom and the
text books of mechanics she was the one I talked too and spent time with. She
became my most precious belonging.
It was early January and the city was
experiencing the realms of winter. I was on my college vacation as the mid
semester examination was over and Trisha was taken to some serious studies at
home for her upcoming board examinations. I woke up to my vibrating cell phone.
Trisha
had messaged me—“Good morning dear…have a good day… :) woke up??”
“Very good morning…hmm…just woke up”, I
replied back. I sat up on my bed, still under the cozy blanket and looked out
of the window. I could barely see anything. It was all foggy and the glass
panes were frosted. Dew drops rolling down cut through the haze as saffron
streaks gleamed across my face. I drew my eyes close for a split second, the
light appeared two strong for those yet sleepy eyes. I stepped onto the cold
mosaic floor and my feet froze. I walked up to the sink and splashed water on
my face as I received another text from her. She wanted to hang out with me
today since she was getting monotonous with her intense study plans everyday
and I was not made to decline to such offers; the decided venue was-Barista
Lavazza at Riverside mall, 5:30 in the evening. I was on all smiles throughout
the day. As the sun took plunge in the calm western sky, I was getting ready
for a great time.
Finally I (we actually) arrived at the
scripts of the much awaited moment. Winter evening with special people at
coffee shops always leaves you with cherished memories. We ordered ourselves
Affogato Italiano as I sat there in the back drop of instrumental MJ tracks,
the Italian coffee delight and my beautiful Trisha in studded spaghetti. An air
of silence between us before we began chatting was something very charming. It
was an evening that I will never forget for it kept me waiting for an answer. I
proposed her and she was yet to accept…
…Something within me always said that-‘She will be mine someday’ and I
respected my inner voice with all my heart.
It had been more than a year we are
together and seven months had passed since I proposed to her…!!!
********************
I was walking out of my college campus and
the city was eyeing a rocking friendship day evening. I was strolling along the
bustling streets as I decided to call her up. She received the call on the very
first ring as if she was waiting for my call or preparing to call me. Well, I
was not much concerned with it.
“Hi….how was your day dear??” she said and
I could almost she her beautiful pink lips curving into a smile on the other
side of the phone.
“It was great…” I said and decided to come
to my point immediately without wasting any further time.
“Tweety…Won’t you like to spend some time
with me this friendship day??Hmm??” I asked and eagerly waited for a ‘yes’.
She laughed. “Why not…what’s the venue?”
“Umm…Kolkata Maidan…” I said.
“She you in half an hour”, she said and
hung up. Imaginary fireworks shot up the evening Kolkata sky somewhere in my
mind. I was walking the ninth cloud!!!
I was on all smiles throughout my journey
till I stepped onto the lush green bed of Maidan. I decided to call her up…as I
could see the same spaghetti clad beautiful girl smiling to me from a distance.
She looked differently happy today. Why wouldn’t she be, she notched up good
percentiles in twelfth, cleared the engineering entrance exam with flying
colors and was all set for a new life. Before I could say anything, she pointed
me towards a bench.
We sat together. Sun was setting and the
orange red light gleamed of her cheeks, she was looking like a heavenly angel,
beautiful and chastised. High tech engineering studies through the day took
some toll on me, as exhaustion was depicted through my face.
“Baby you told me something at Barista that
day…Remember??” she asked taking my fingers on her palm. I was going numb. It
was all happening for me.
“Yes Angel…” I replied in almost inaudible
verse.
There was a brief silence…I was getting
relentless. I wish someone would have pinched me and said that it wasn’t any
dream, it was reality. I was sitting in the lap of a setting sun amidst those
green beds with tangled fingers with my Trisha.
She leaned forward, placing her hands across
my shoulder, whispered in my ears-“I love you dear…”
I couldn’t believe it for a moment as she
repeated her words…and almost uncontrollably it went off my vocals, “Love you
too.”
She held my chin on her palm and came
near…further near….my heart skipped many a beats.
“Tweety everyone is seeing us”, I whispered
as I could feel her breath on my face.
“I can’t see anyone”, she said and closed
her eyes as we locked our lips.
The earth seemed to have paused on its journey;
for I could feel nothing more than those Nivea coated lips and the rampaging
tongue making my world go upside down every time they met mine.
The captivating orange shade in the western
horizon spread across; as the Sun took to disappearance and we sat there
romancing, living to bits the tranquility of a serene evening.
Behind the arc of romance lay those iron
tram tracks, as I could hear the rattle of its wheels. This gothic transporter
of Kolkata can take you to Verdan market from Maidan over six pennies…where it all began.
Author- Sobhan Pramanik,
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