Homecoming

As she crossed the busy Phoolbagan crossing quickly , her tresses bouncing playfully, bordering her face and invading it , her fingers moving up to deftly place the errants behind her ear and her eyes darting to the platinum watch on her wrist , she looked at ease in this old city despite returning only yesterday. Looking smart in a white shirt , tucked neatly into her black jeans, sprinting across the now dug up , previously bustling, square she glanced over her shoulder towards her left.

A nervous teenager in a printed t-shirt and ankle-length jeans waited below a black stone statue in the centre of the busy Phoolbagan square fiddling away her time twiddling her fingers anxiously glancing furtively over her shoulder. She adjusted the strap of her handbag and crumpled the piece of paper in her hands as she lifted up her wrist regularly to check the time on her Minnie Mouse plastic watch.

The statue had disappeared , giving way to absolute nothing as the old city continued her journey to becoming a modern one. The modern girl's heels clattered onto the century old pavement seeped in history as she hurried towards her destination. As she walked past the street food stalls lining the pavement , her eyes lit up as she recognised the now much older but still as busy puchkawala. She stopped for a second , watching him serve an array of customers clamouring for the delicious snack , smiled to herself and continued walking . As she rounded the bend heading west, she looked up and as if involuntarily her body slowed down. Her eyes picked out a tree to her right , about 50 metres ahead just opposite a confectionery shop.

An old man got up from his usual position on the bench of a tea stall and walked across the road . As he approached the tree opposite the confectionery shop he unstrained his eyes ,now sure that he had seen correctly from the other end of the street. He walked up to the young girl sitting under the gulmohar tree and said, "Excuse me miss but I've been watching you for a long time and you look like a nice girl. Are you waiting for someone ?" The girl looked up at the concerned gentleman, smiled and said, " Yes , I am actually."
"For 40 minutes ?"
"For 3 hours actually", she smiled back. "He'll come", she assured herself.
The bewildered gentleman left but only on her repeated insistence that she was comfortable there. She looked again at her Minnie Mouse plastic watch and looked up hoping it would rain that day.

Slowly she regained her brisk pace, reorienting her senses to the present as she walked past the gulmohar tree, smartly towards her intended destination but her mind was flooded with countless images, all clear yet dissolving into each other. One memory deformed and reformed instantaneously into another one and her mind took an overwhelming swim into a tumultuous onrush of memories, taking her through a plethora of emotions and gamut of feelings. Her face betrayed the tremendous upheaval she was experiencing within her as she maintained a stoic facade.

A young girl screamed loudly and clutched the shirt of the boy sitting beside her as the movie got scarier. In the dark hall no one noticed as she buried her face deep into his arms and dug her fingers into his thighs. The dark hall was suddenly alight with a thousand tiny stars as a young girl looked down from the terrace at a boy standing on the lawn below and shouting her name . "Happy birthday " , he managed to scream before the guards accosted him. Her peals of laughter reverberated across the night as she opened her eyes to find herself walking along a lake . Looking down to her right , she saw intertwined fingers and smiled to herself, happy. The darkness of the night was dispelled by the first rays of the sun as she boarded the school bus and out of the corner of her eye saw him jogging strategically parallel to the bus. Soon she was falling and falling past balloons and cards, cakes and patties, dosas and puchkas, letters and texts- oh so many texts . It seemed like she would sink in an ocean of texts but she wriggled right through and fell onto a boat on the Ganges below the Vidyasagar Setu, apparated magically onto Park Street on Christmas Eve and before she could take in the lights and revelry , she was praying silently in St. Peter's Basilica on Christmas Day. She opened her eyes to morning kachouris and jalebis in Balwant Singh's Dhaba and hopelessly running after him across the Maidan. The greenery vanished and old houses cropped up all around as they walked below the starry skies enjoying ice cream. Everything dissolved and in the darkness a girl pleaded desperately, " It doesn't matter that I'm Bangali and you're not. We can fight everyone but only if you're with me . I can't do it alone". She kept falling fast as she heard herself cry out loud screaming "Please!!" over and over again. The screaming would not go away and neither would the sounds of sobbing and they were reaching an intolerable crescendo.

She wiped a tear from the corner of her eyes and adjusted her hair as she stepped into the cafe and located the seat she always used to take and finding it empty , she made her way to it. She composed herself as she sat down and prepared herself for what she had been waiting for . She glanced at her watch and smiled to herself as she realised that as usual she was on time but still too early . She took out her phone and was about to dial a number when the door opened and she looked up expectantly. Her heart skipped a beat as their eyes met across the room and his warm smile seemed to induce a strange nostalgic pull in her. They were the same eyes , the same heartwarming smile that greeted her below the black statue, the same arms that had wrapped themselves around her , the same fingers that had enlaced themselves with her. He walked across the room , only his body reflecting his age , and took the chair opposite her. There was absolute silence as the sounds of clattering cups, clinking glasses, clanking spoons, cookies being crunched, soups being slurped, coffees being gulped down and doors being swung open became too conspicuous for her liking. She decided to break the awkward silence but could not frame the correct words to say . She was struggling with her thoughts when as if from a far off land an old friend whispered something . She looked up puzzled.

"He....hi....hey", managed the boy, his throat parched.

She gathered up all the courage she had and with her heart beating dangerously fast said, " Hey, long time huh ?"

"Yeah, I was surprised you called actually" ,  he said, "Happy but surprised", he added.

" 6 years actually and I was surprised I called you too", she said and both their eyes met and they afforded a chuckle. The mood lightened many folds , she trudged on, " So there's a reason I wanted to meet you. . . "

He looked on expectantly, perhaps spurred on by her affability.

". . . that being that I just can't seemed to get over you . I mean it's been 6 years . It shouldn't be this hard", she added conjuring up every last bit of conviction in her gut.

He placed his hand on hers and began, " I've been thinking the same thing and especially after seeing you like this , you look. . ."

"What I needed and did not have all these years is something which only you can give me", she said cutting him short . She knew exactly what he would say and she had no intention of hearing it again . Removing her hand from under his , she said, " Closure".

Confused he looked at her as she continued , now boosted by how perfectly this was shaping up ," I wanted to meet you with the intention of getting closure because I wanted to move on with my life and I had imagined this to be multiple folds tougher than this but right now there is nothing clearer than my mind and for the first time in many many years , I seem free ."

Looking up to check the confused look on his face , she made a mental note to remind herself how happy she was feeling later on she continued, " Even a few minutes back I was a terrible mess walking down the streets of Calcutta but I just love how this city made me face my worst fears and in the end that was all that mattered . It's not you're fault . It never was . It was mine for thinking that you'd take the path less taken but you know what, thank you"

"For?", he croaked.

" For showing me that if I could love the wrong guy this much , imagine how much I will love the right guy. For showing me the immense love that I'm capable of giving".

As he fumbled about with words , trying to figure out what to say , she got up , pushed the chair in and his eyes following her , walked out into the cool breeze .