Unnamed Relationship & An Anticipation - उसे अच्छा होना ही होगा

It was a different meeting: a bus journey from Bangalore to Coorg, different was the fact that I was allotted a seat next to a girl. This generally doesn’t happen. A single girl traveling would be given seat next to a girl or the seat beside her goes vacant. She didn’t want to sit next to me because I am man and thanks to some retard celebs that ‘All men are potential rapists’ (Nandita Das). I was ready to exchange my seats but the bus was occupied with either couples or boys with boys and girls with girls, and trust me no one would sacrifice a night ride in a multi-axle VOLVO bus which would go dark in the night. She had no options but to sit beside me and spend the entire thinking the worst cases that can happen to her during the night.

I introduced myself, “My name is Kumail, I work with National Geographic, my PAN Card number is APTL0987T, I am from Delhi, and I am potent but not a rapist.”

She seemed convinced with my introduction and was relaxed. I tried my level best to stay awake so that I do not lean on her shoulder or slide right on her lap, and she was reciprocating the same, but we were not in our college years so the fight with the sleep became intense after every passing second.

“My name is Anshima, and I do not know the meaning of my name, work at Bharat Electronic Limited, do not remember my PAN, from Bangalore, and a girl prone to be molested or raped.” Her introduction was cool, knowing the fact she copied mine.

“So different introduction!” and she understood my sarcasm.

“Can we talk?” She asked and I felt as if I was in a relationship again.

“Yeah, why not, even I am not feeling sleepy,” again a sarcastic shot.

“Listen we can’t sleep together, and before you ask, we can not sleep alternatively as well,” She clarified, “so talk and spend the night talking.”

“Sorry, you are afraid because I can take advantage of yours, so you stay awake and I will sleep,” I pulled the blanket and turned towards the window. Yeah, I got the window seat.

“Listen, talk to me, or else I will sleep, and I do not want to wake up guilty,” She requested.

“You can play subway surfer, temple run, do some Instagram...” I was still facing the window.

“I request you...I do not want to spoil my holidays, and most probably my last holiday,” and from here our conversation took a turn.

I turned to ask why was it supposedly her last holiday, and she said that she was going to get married and it was her bachelorette’s party. I asked why she was alone, and she kept quiet and I turned the other side. She requested to turn again and told me the reason – she is a solo traveler and her to be husband doesn’t want her to go places alone, which meant she cannot do solo trips.

“Why are you marrying such a guy?” I asked her and she chose to duck my question.

“So, tell me what do you expect from your partner, girlfriend, or whatever you want to call it,” she asked and her last line was going to make an impact I never knew ever existed in my philosophy.

“I do not expect her to be anything, I do not think she has to be someone for me, basically ‘she has to be herself’ and nothing else.” I said and she kept looking at me as if she was asking why, why I do not expect anything of my partner, “she doesn’t have to qualify any parameters to be with me, because who the hell am I...NO ONE.”

“Great, never expected such thing from a northerner to the very least,” she commented in the garb of a compliment.

“Generalisation is not a character a genuine person should have,” I replied politely.

“You don’t even want her to love you?”

“Never expected southerners to be so dumb witted, but... I would make sure I love her and if she wants to stay with me, she would.”

“You practice what you preach?” she was scathing with every sentence of her.

“Do you really talk so much, by the way, are you a lawyer or something...I mean you said you work at BEL but you seem dumb and I am not generalizing but concluding from the sentences of yours you said above.” I wanted to sleep.

She didn’t mind and gave me a smile I would never forget.

“You are a nice person, and expecting nothing from the one you would love takes a lot, and would you mind if I give you a piece of advice?” She seemed beautiful with every word she was uttering, maybe because of my heavy eyelids.

“Yeah please...”

“Do not name a relationship, the moment you name a relationship you define them – you make boundaries, limitations; you expect something out of it and you become selfish; you get hurt, you hurt,” She said and held my arm, leaned on my shoulder. My shirt was wet. Neither did I sleep nor did she.

We reached. She spent the entire night lying on my shoulder. We deboarded the bus together and moved to our respective booked hotels. We were not supposed to meet again.

“Hey Kumail, where do you stay?”

“Just here,” I pointed at my hotel which was right next to bus stop.

“When will you leave for your documentary or anything you are here for?” She asked with her eyes still red.

“Right after you come with me and live yourself before you regret your marriage, and you can trust me. Room number 212.” I walked towards my hotel thinking about her.

I received a call from the reception stating there is a cab waiting for me for sight-seeing and she was in the cab already.

“So...You came to pick me up!” I made a weird face.

“Yeah,” She didn’t take a nap as her eyes were still red.

“Would you mind if I instruct the driver?”

“Yeah please,” She was looking out the window and I was looking at her sitting beside the opposite window.

“Sir, would you mind driving the car nonstop for as much time as it would take to visit all the scenic beauties?” I requested the driver.

“Tea coffee break?” He was sensible.

“Yes, we can stop for that.” I was impressed with his intelligence.

“Why do you want the car to go unstopped?” She asked looking at me for the first time I got in the car.

“You will see, but before that you would not say to stop the car at any point in time, done?”

She nodded.

The car was riding at a speed you would loathe if you are in a city but it seemed to fast in that area where a crawling car is the most common sight.

The city was passing and she had the urge to stop the car whenever she was spotting something ‘special’ and kept turning back till she missed the sight of it, and because of that something ‘special’ she missed the next sight; after a while she knew that I wasn’t going to get soft on her, she dropped her urge and enjoyed each of the sights without missing a single one and anticipated coming sights to be more beautiful along the way.

We came back. She understood something. We hugged. She left for hotel and I reached mine.

Live in the moment and don’t regret what we just left behind, keep moving because neither your life is a cab nor you have the control on it. You can’t stop your life and live that moment or go back again to live that moment. Anticipate everything with positivity. As one of my friends said, 'It has to turn out to be the best, there is no other way.'

She may be happily married or maybe happily unmarried but her bachelorette’s trip would be the one she would not ever forget. I sometimes miss her. We didn’t have the time to love each other, like each other or the time to name this relationship – so this unnamed relationship was the best thing for me as well.