Friday, December 5, 2008

A Beautiful Day

She was cute.
She was smart.
She was fair.
She was tall.

It was 6:30 in the morning on May 17th, she glowed under the dim light of rising sun. She looked like a goddess to me in the middle of a Malleswaram road. She waved her hands with the ease of a bird waving its wings. I stopped. She wanted to go to MG Road. Words didn't come out of my mouth, my heads and limbs moved involuntarily asking her to sit. My heart was pumping blood, my limbs were shaking a bit. I took a deep breath, to calm my nerves, shifted to first gear and drove towards MG Road.

It was a beautiful day, women were selling flowers and vegetable on the pavement. Some people were out on the street buying vegetables and flowers. Everybody looked happy. Everything looked beautiful. It was just another ordinary day in Malleswaram. The beauty with me, made the day extra ordinary for me. I was skipping beats of heart, I was sweating on a beautiful day with a light breeze.

I could smell, the jasmine scent from her, in the light breeze. I drove slower than normal, in fact I left my formula one instincts and enjoyed the drive. I have never enjoyed my drive, so much as that day. The traffic on a early morning was less, not many people crossing the road and not many irritating drivers on the road. I didn't even realize that, I couldn't see a "Formula One" call center cabs on the road. oh! it was a Cab strike, I realized, and blessed the Cab owners for their strike.

There was one thing missing, I had worked the whole night and was in a bad shape. I wish I had a bath in the morning. I wish I was well dressed. I wish the tobacco smell was not present.

As I drove down the road, I dreamed of, how good my life would be, with her as a companion. How she would, wake me up with a beautiful cup of coffee. How beautiful the day would be, if I saw her face every morning. etc. etc. I was just another normal human being, and I had small dreams. I used to work 17 hours day, to earn money and bring some security in life. My dreams were small, and each and every cell of my body knew for instinct that, she was the one who could make me happy.

I adjusted, the rear view mirror to look at her. She was sitting majestically with her legs crossed. Wow! what a face, what a beautiful soft smile she had on her lips. I could see that, she was enjoying the beautiful day with the eyes open. Wow! what beautiful eyes they were. Oops! a bloody cow crossed the road, I quickly and softly applied the breaks and tackled the situation smoothly. Guess what, I had to make an impression, right? I started to concentrate back on the road, but never forgot to get a glimpse of her once in a while. Funnily enough, I didn't get angry. I would have swore at the cow and the people who had left the cow on the road, with the choicest of words, any other day. I always patted myself on my swearing skills and my creativity in that area.

I started to remember, how she sounded when she talked. Such a beautiful voice, I had never heard before. Four syllables, of MG road was what I had heard, and it rang in my ears again and again. Funnily, I tried to imagine, how she would sound when she says, "Ri, can you please take your coffee?". Ha ha ha, only Sushmita's, voice rang in my ears. I remembered watching the movie "Mein Hun Na", afternoon on the previous day. I kicked Sushmita out of my head, and waited to hear her voice again.

I asked, "Where in MG Road, do you want to go?", my heart started beating faster as I spoke, and missed some syllables in between. You can guess my eagerness to listen to her voice again. She told, "Prestige Meridian". That's it! I was disappointed a bit, but remembered that there is always another opportunity to hear her speak. I didn't forget to get a view of her, once in a while.

She was a Goddess!

I reached Prestige Meridian on MG Road and stopped. She looked at me and said, "It should be just 40 Rs from Malleswaram, and your meter shows 50 Rs. I come here everyday, and I will give 40 Rs. only". The words as she spoke were song to my ears, and I replied "hun!". She was a bit perplexed by seeing my reaction. For the first time in the day, I saw her making a face which wouldn't be called beautiful. I didn't like the look and forced myself to forget it.

As she crossed the road, I kept watching her walk across. And once she entered the building, I smiled to myself, dropped the plans of working till afternoon (on a Cab strike day) and decided to go home and hope to dream of her in my sleep.

She had made my day.

-- Madhukar Hebbar

7 comments:

VidyaShankar Harapanahalli said...

Good narration. I didn't know you were auto driver before entering Software :-))) Haha haha

Anonymous said...

first paragraph - Sensuous - heart-throbbing with anticipation

i thought she waved at the auto-rickhaw behind

Please - sushmitha --- should be sushmita --- she is a bong

you got it right the next time
fundoo .. the person actually was a rickshaw wala

total twist in the tale

Shetty said...

I read this twice, confused on what was reality and what was hallucinations.

Well written, huge improvement at articulation
and expression

Ananda Teertha said...

maga i expected a romantic ending.
dint like the ending, may be u can continue in next episode & brew a sizzling a cup next time.

will wait 4 ur continuation

Gulmohar said...

Aiyoo, your metre too was defective was it?! On May 14th line up near the PM with the correct metre - - am sure you'll be her regular driver (as a correct meter will show even less than 40 bucks!

Btw, why did you have plans to work only till afternoon; that too on a day when cabs were on strike?

Madhukar Hebbar said...

Gulmohar, Read story again. :-) It is 2 dimensional :) :D

you guys are the inspiration for my writing. Thanks for all your comments, keep it coming...

Keshava said...

Superb, Mate. There is a real poetic tinge in this Article. This has a gentle touch of a professional writer. Kewl:-)!!