Aditya's Diaries

Aditya's Diaries

This is from before the days of blogging, when the book was where the soul could be poured into. Aditya maintains a personal diary for his thoughts. What follow are some random leaflets (most of them being parts of the leaflets) from his diary. The entries focus on his encounters/experiences/meetings with Anushree - a good friend.

16 Sept 2007

It was 9:03 in the morning. The train was supposed to reach Kurla by 8:57. Late by a full 6 minutes. I was cursing the Central Railways in my mind - though I guess I might have been saying it aloud as my co-travellers seemed to nod and agree. What with the overflowing crowd in the second class compartment alongwith the various aromas that people carry, taken with the fact that the fans are also not working very well - the physical as well as the emotional energy pretty much drains out in the brief 18 min ride from Mulund to Kurla. I was quite sure I would miss by 9:01 Panvel. 9:13 Belapur was the next train. Aaj to bhai late honewala hai. Inhi khayalon me uljha hua, I got off the train alongwith the hordes of several others, and headed towards the stairs - kitna bhi late ho jaoon - I won't cross the tracks - the law abiding citizen that I am. Took a glance at my shirt. Or rather what remained crisp of my nice ironed off-white shirt. The necessary creases weren't visible. There were many others which shouldn't have been there. There was also a small grease strain conspicuous on the light background. I couldn't have been more frustrated

And thats when I saw her. She was dressed in a Yellow chudidar dress. You could see her slender frame from the midst of all the crowd. She was like a lone fresh, blooming sunflower in a vast field. My heart skipped a beat on seeing Anushree. I did know that she used to be on that train, but had never seen her before. She was climbing up the stairs. Contrary to the crowd around her, she looked unruffled, totally at peace. It was as if she hadn't been in a local train, or rather that she had been just teleported from her home to this staircase directly. I am not sure about it, but I think I lost my pace, my hurry, my apprehensions at missing the train, getting late and also to close my open mouth gaping at Anushree.  

"Arre bhai .. chal na.. kya hogaya" I kind of fumbled and started walking towards the stairs. I hurried up and was just a couple of stairs behind Anushree. She didn't know I was behind her. I didn't know whether I should call her and talk. I have never talked to her before. In person that is. Few times over the phone. And I am basically a shy type of person. Not really the kind who'd walk up to people and start talking - even lesser with the ladies. Predicament Predicament. Kya karoon... Only 5 stairs were left. After that she'd go left, I'd go right. And then I thought Chal yaar baat kar hi leta hoon. Himmat juta dost himmat juta. And so I just reached out to her elbow and called her softly - partly hoping she will hear, and partly hoping she won't. But she did. Anushree gently turned back. Again - I half felt she won't recognize me, half felt she would. And she did. She gave a surprised, and yet an enthusiastic "Hie". We proceeded to have the briefest conversation over the next 4 stairs. I don't recall what I talked. All I remember is a sunflower (or was it a marigold), freshness in the eyes and a sweet voice talking to me for the next 1 min 30 seconds. I do hope I said a "Bye" when we parted on the staircase. 

Refreshed - I saw the time in my watch. 9:07. What ! It's just 4 mins since I got off the train? It had seemed like an eternity. I picked up my pace, my hurry, my apprehensions and hurried to platform 7. 9:05 Chembur train had just arrived. I personally think this is a wasteful train. Who benefits by the Chembur train. I walked up to the rear of the platform. Kedar was climbing down the stairs, and waved at me. 

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A New Beginning

The clock on his laptop showed 5:12 PM when he returned to his desk after his workout session. He still had a couple of hours before he could call it a day. He opened up his laptop, started checking the agenda for the meeting with the business folks at 5:30. Another window on his laptop showed his Gmail inbox – which had 1 unread email. Now, Aditya Krishnan was a man very particular with his mails and messages. He usually cleared off any pending items as and when they came in. And that’s why he just casually went to his inbox to check out the latest item. Seeing the sender’s name automatically brought a smile on his face. It was an email from a friend he considered very close. It was from Anushree, also the younger sister of Bharath – Adi’s good friend and classmate through school and junior college. Though Bharath went on to get his BTech from the most prestigious institute in the country – the IIT – Adi had done his B.E from Mumbai University. Around the same time, Adi and Anu had gotten to know each other better. Over a series of communication over yahoo chat, gtalk, orkut, and telephone in the period of next 6 years, Anushree and Aditya became close friends. Aditya had always liked Anushree. He used to openly flirt with Anu, and she being the sport always took it in her stride and laughed it off. But despite all those flirtings, there was an element of feeling in Aditya’s heart. He did harbor some ideas regarding Anushree, but he mostly disguised them in his flirtations.

The email had a subject title “Hii”. This perplexed Aditya even more since Anu was not the one to send a lot of personal emails. He still had 15 mins to the next meeting, but he just couldn’t put off reading this mail from Anushree. With a little anxiety, Aditya opened the email. Anu had poured her heart in the email. She had mentioned about her feelings for Aditya in the email. It was not a very lengthy mail, but not a short one either. She had written about the anxiety that she had in composing and sending this mail after saving it as a draft multiple number of times. Aditya read the mail at least three times just to make sure he didn’t misread or misunderstand her email. He had least expected this from Anu. But once he was sure, he immediately hit the reply button to compose an appropriate response.

Adi’s mind was flooded with all of the thoughts about Anu from the last 6 years. Anu’s cheerful face with her brilliant radiating smile, her simplistic nature, the beautiful way in which she carried herself, all came flashing in front of his eyes. He could almost feel a tear welling up in his eyes. He took out his cell to call her up and declare his “yes”. Just then he realized it was 530 and he had to get back to reality and into a meeting for the next couple of hours. The next couple of hours were painfully slow. Time seemed to have come to a standstill. Adi could hardly concentrate on the discussions in his meetings. It was as if he had been transported to a different land, and only his physical presence was left back on earth. A constant smile adorned his face for the remainder of the day.

Somehow, Aditya managed to wind up his meetings for the day and left office. With his smile. He called Anushree. Anu had just reached home and was her usual cheerful self. Both talked for about half hour. Both knew that nothing had changed between them – that they still remained friends. Both also knew that something still changed – that they were now in fact more than close friends, who wanted to share their life and passions and ambitions. Neither spoke about the email exchange, but both knew what it meant. 

Both knew that this was a new beginning for both of them . . .