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| Photo Credits: Saurabh Jain |
Since this is turning out into a story, I want to first hand warn all the people. If you are here to read another out of world story, not a normal story, then bugger off. Or if you think that this is also one of the another love story then you are right, so close it right now. Now for those who still continued reading, this is just a plain story of friendship of two normal people. My name is Saraansh Jain and to tell you the extent of the normality of this story, I can say that if I stand in a group of 4-5 people then it would not be possible to say I am any more special then any other person. Telling you more about the story, there is saying that ' A girl and a boy can never be friends'. Well they are wrong. A girl and a boy can be a much better friends than anyone else. And in this sentence lies the crux of the whole story.
So back to the past, it was a normal day as usual. I was at my home in my home town Kota. Yeah I know what are you thinking. Yup I was born in the grueling educational environment. But being the intelligent one from the start, life was a bit easy. I was among the toppers in my school in both academic and sports. Got myself into a decent engineering college after high school. And here I was at my home in the summer vacations at the end of my first year.
I was having a little pain in my tooth from the morning, and it had become worse when I ate the ice-cream form the fridge after lunch. My mother ask me to go see the Dr. Mukesh. You see, Dr. Mukesh is a friend of my father and he lives in the same block as us. So he is kind of uncle to me and our family doctor. So if there was any medical help needed, we first used to consult him and since he was dentist by profession, I already new at the back of my mind that I was doomed to go see him.
I was a little reluctant as it was a small problem of toothache and Mukesh uncle always treats me like a small child which is quite irritating. But after the pain became worse and my mother gave me those frozen eyes, I knew all my further efforts will go in vain. So around the evening time at 3.00 pm I went around his house. I knew that these were not his visiting hours, so I won't be disturbing him and also I didn't have to wait in the reception office.
I got in from the front door into the reception room and rang his home-bell. While I was waiting for him to open the door, that was when I saw a girl sitting in the corner on the bench. She was quite disturbed as if she didn't know where she was and what to do. She was just a normal looking teenager, but there was an innate beautiful quality attached with her features(which I can't place till today). Just when she lifted her head and gazed me, I realized that I was staring at her blankly for last 5 minutes. So I stared away from her. Mukesh uncle came out in a few seconds and asked me what the trouble was. After hearing me out, he said to come in. Then he saw the girl and told her that it's not his visiting hours. The girl said something about problem with braces but uncle ignored and said to come during the visiting hours. She was looking totally distraught. So, maybe as a pity on her, I convinced uncle to see her. He said OK, but added that he was having lunch, and both of you have to wait for some time. He asked me to come inside the house, but on an impulse, I told him that I will wait in the reception room. 'Fine', he said, asked us to wait for 20 minutes and went inside. I sat down in the other corner of the room.
My mind was only thinking of talking to her but I was a little afraid because I am somewhat shy around girls or maybe because I was already in a relationship at that time and I was feeling guilty of having an urge of talking to her. So I just sat there with my head down pretending that I was in a deep thinking. I was so absorbed with myself that I was a bit startled when I heard a 'Thanks'. I looked towards her. She thought that I haven't heard her, so she again said 'Thank You'. Being polite, I replied 'No problem'. Then she asked me that, 'Did you know the doctor?'. I told her that, 'He is my uncle'. Seeing a doubtful expression on her face I added, 'He is a very good dentist.' That was when I first time saw a smile on her face. It was a smile with lots of efforts. But chuck it man, it was an awesome smile. And to tell you the truth, it was the smile that encouraged me to continue further. I asked her, "Why was she here?" and she told me something about the displacement of her braces and having some bleeding because of it.
As we talked further, her discomfort eased out and next thing I know we were continuously talking as if we had known each other for a long time. Well I stand corrected, she was doing most of the talking part and I was handling the listening side. I was paying very less attention to exactly what she was saying but hearing her words was so soothing like listening to a sweet song. In the next 15 minutes, she rambled on and on about this and that, and it was first time when I was heeding to that. Well, guys who are or have been in a relationship would understand the importance of that.
To clarify, in every relationship there are some times(well actually more often than some) when the girl goes-on rambling about so lots of thing, that it's very hard to process or even keep-track of. So from my experience of past two relationships and observing a lot of people, I have learned that guys learn to ignore it. Some guys just sit there and be mum, some guys pretend to listen by nodding and occasionally saying "Hmm-mm..." and some guys, like me, subsides into some kind of trance, start imagining their fantasy and at the end say- " You are right, baby". And these three words - "You are right" works like a charm.
Oh, so much bullshit. Coming back, she was set on an express train, at end of the 15 minutes, I knew about her so much that I even don't know about some of my very close friends. She was from Mumbai, doing some MA in commerce at some local college. She came to visit her sister, who was taking coaching here and much more jargon(for now). If she had been given 15 more minutes, then I would have known about her whole life but we were interrupted when Mukesh Uncle came. It was also an awkward moment. She was so startled by the opening of the door that she became stiff, like she had seen a ghost. I suppressed my smile and to decrease the awkwardness, I asked uncle, "whether he was done with his lunch?". He replied, "Yes" and asked me to come in.
Remembering that she said something about bleeding, I asked uncle to check her first. I always had a kind nature, for which I always have thanked God a lot. Because of this kind nature, I was always able to make friends with other people and able to adjust in many situations. For the current situation, my reward was a beautiful smile, which I can't even describe in words. The most beautiful thing about it was that this time there was no effort in it. It was as natural as rainbow flowing over the sky.
Mukesh uncle had another exiting way from the check-up room, so I knew I was never going to see her again. It was just like meeting some stranger on the train and bidding goodbye to them. While she was going I realized that, I know so much about her but still I didn't know her name, so I asked her the name. Turning around in the doorway, she replied, "Shanti". While she was disappearing around the doorway, there was a smile on my face on the irony of the name of that talkative known stranger.
Contd....
Further??????
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