THE FORBIDDEN GAP

The very first thing that I want to tell about him is that, his black eyes with long eye laces attracted me a lot. He was fun loving, devoid of any complexity of life and yes of course was a bit crazy; which I came to know after my friend Niki, had become his neighbor. His home was on the way to my college. At the very morning when I went to college, he used to sit on a chair at the balcony of their flat. I saw him first four years ago on a bright sunny morning of July. I don’t know why, but when I saw him first, I badly wanted to see him for second time too. The way he set, the way he was taking his breakfast, everything was very cute. I was very happy when I came to know that our bus route will be the same which goes in front of their house.

Few days went back…..it was a gap of 3 days when I saw him next. That day he was with two balloons knotted on his ears and was scaring a little kid on the balcony. He was looking so cute that I could not help myself from talking to him. Slowly I made a scram to grab his attention, but my so called TOTLA voice was of no use and he did not notice me at all. He was busy at his work. I became dishearten…

For the next few days, as it was the rainy season, continuous raining was there and I was unable to peep through the window of the bus to have a look at him and I cursed God; I wanted to start my love story and now only you can interfere. What were you doing when the cultivators needed rain? May be He listened to me. Next Monday the sky was clear and adding to my joy one of my friends also stated coming from the flat to catch the college bus. I was happy because for her the bus would wait in front of the flat for five minutes and I could have a look at him for five minutes. (Sometimes even a minute means a lotJ). From that day I started awaking up much before my mom called me and started getting ready as fast as I could, so that I could catch the college bus. Meanwhile my classes also started in full swing. But he occupied my mind so badly that on graphics sheets I stated drawing his face, in chemistry labs I did those titrations with Potassium Permanganate very carefully to make the baby pink colour which was the colour of the cloths he was wearing when I saw him first.

I used to sit with Niki at class and whenever I felt that all the boring theories were reflected from the circumference of my dull brain, without even 1% penetration towards the centre, I pleaded her to tell about him. At the cost of her favorite chloromints she used to tell me lot of things about him. With all the stories about him by Niki, I could somehow find it that he will like me and I was very happy thinking about it. Niki also forced me to talk with him and finally I made up my mind to put the first step…..

That day I wore a pink suit as she told me that red is his favourite colour. But as I did not have any red cloths so I substituted with pink. That day I started from my home as soon as possible to catch the window seat of that side facing towards their home. I was excited and my heart was biting faster as the bus was approaching towards their house.

Finally it came…The bus stopped to pick her up.

But ….

His chair was empty and I heard he was screaming very painfully inside the room. It horrified me. I pulled my neck as long as I could and wanted to have a guess what was going on. I thought maybe he got fever and so the heartless doctor injected him. I did not even imagine what was waiting for my eyes. Meanwhile Niki came and the driver started the bus. Just before the bus left I saw a portion of his snow white body which was covered with red blood and a bald man was cruelly pulling him with a rope and a fat lady was pushing him with a big stick. I became a statue and I felt that my heart stopped biting….

I recovered my sense when Niki kept her hand on my shoulder and uttered “I am sorry dear”. I did not even have any word to ask her anything. She just held my hand tightly and her eyes were also filled up with tears.

(Later she told me that while playing with the little kid as always that morning he bites her and she got hurt. So the kid’s parents bit him to death. Their very dear Tommy, the snow white spitz dog turned into devil within a minute….

And thus my story ended. It remained as a forbidden gap for ever between him and me….)