Short lived love story of Miss Sharadha - Part III

Part III Substitute for the Love 

Sharadha and that stranger were sitting opposite to each at the corner table. He introduced himself as Shyam Babu. Conversion did not start easily. There was awkward silence between them.  Sharadha was feeling she was under observation by all her colleagues and few customers were occasionally glancing at them.

 Shyam coughed couple of times to clear his throat and thoughts. He started feeling he should never have come back here. He looked at Sharadha; she had bent her head slightly and was staring at the edge of the table.  He could sense that she was also not feeling comfortable.

 Shyam had come with preparation and convincing answer, but his conviction started fading away with an every passing second. He wanted get it over as quickly as possible.  It one those rare moment, he decide to pour his heart out.

 He cleared his throat umpteenth time. He started thinking his heart was the guiding light.

 “I am extremely sorry about what has happened that night. I know it is not easy for you to forgive me or take that incident easily. Once again I am sorry…”

 Sharadha’s eyes did not leave the edge of the table. Her hands were getting wet with sweat.

 His mother death when he was eight year old, his drugs addiction, his chronic drinking, his flashy and meaningless lifestyle and his rich father… everything flashed in front of his eyes. He felt he will never be able to explain himself; forget to others not even to himself.

 He got up and pulled out a small box from his bag and placed on the table.

 Tears were welling in Sharadha’s eyes.

 He did not know what to say. There are some moments in life best left unexplained, he felt this was one among them. He got up and bent a little forward whispered “I am sorry again… Hope you will forgive me, bye”. He walked out of restaurant hurriedly.

 Mahesh who was observing all this from the corner approached her couple of time, but could not find means to start conversation.

 Sharadha sat there for some time, when she realized some customer was looking for a place; she forcibly got up, went into rest room and washed her face. She looked at her reflection in mirror, she felt a pity for herself and tears started rolling down again…

 Somebody noticed a small packet on the table and returned to cashier. Cashier had seen Sharadha talking to Shyam Babu and handed it over to Sharadha, thinking it belonged to her or Shyam. Sharadha who did not want to talk about it silently accepted it and put it in her bag.

 After sometime, she felt, she was not able to concentrate on her job and was getting lost in thoughts. After some struggle to keep her mind steady, she decided to leave early for the day. She took permission from the supervisor and left couple of hours early than her usual time.

 When she stepped out of the pizza restaurant, neon lighting's, glass walls and all the glitter of the posh area looked strange. She felt it was mocking at her. She thought she does not belong to the place. She felt very ordinary and hopeless.

 As she was walking towards the bus-stop, she felt Shyam Babu should never have come back. Her dreams, romantic feelings and the hopes it brought could have stayed forever. If only he had not come back, her love story would have lived longer or may be forever.

 Suddenly she remembered the box. She opened it, there was high end mobile phone set inside. She closed her eyes and thought for a moment. She threw it to nearby dustbin. She felt better. She waved an auto rickshaw and told him her home location.

 As if auto rickshaw driver understood her state of mind, with out asking any questions started moving as soon as she got in.

 In meantime Mahesh who had come out to in a hope to talk to Sharadha, returned to restaurant with out a success.

 

---*---THE END---*---

 Authors Note:

Fifteen-twenty years back, I had read an article written by eminent Kannada writer P. Lankesh. In that he had quoted a French story. It was about an ordinary looking waitress, who gets kissed one evening by local drunkard. She develops romantic feeling towards him. All that romantic feeling is busted when he come back and apologizes for the act.  No need to say, I liked that story very much.  

 Here I have tried to recreate the same magic. I have created different characters in Indian setup. To my surprise new elements, feeling and dimensions were introduced as I started writing the story.

Many thanks to Madhukar Hebbar for encouraging and pushing me to complete the story.

Hope you enjoyed reading it. Let me know how you felt about the story.