Yet Another Love Story

The Mail Express was very late that day when it reached Cannanore Railway Station. In its last leg of journey, it looked like an old man. The sound and smoke of the engine reminded of person vomiting blood after severe cough. People had begun finding their ways out, to continue their onward journey. And by the time I got down last from that compartment, she had got into the arms of her parents. I could see the happiness of home coming in her tired face.

There was a reason why I noticed her even after getting down. Hours ago, probably I must be the first person to notice the wetness on her left eyelid. Next to her he was sitting, with the closeness of being more than a friend. I was sure that they were not a married couple, the signs didn’t say so. But it was my friend, who was an expert in Man-Woman relationships, who confirmed that they were young human beings who are inseparable in life.

I wouldn’t have noticed them and would have indulged into my reading until he put his left hand behind her neck, clutched the steel rod of the window and brought her close to him. She rested her head on his shoulders and held his right hand. My mind was getting dirty, hoping to see some romantic actions that might come up, and since I sat across them I had a nice view of them. They should be students studying in some big college out of the state. It was vacation time and they are coming back. They were surrounded with more young people, who seemed to be their friends or classmates. But they never disturbed the couple in their private moments.

She was talking to him continuously. Their acts and faces clearly said about the separation they were about to face. Minds struck with grief of a possible break-up. It reminded me about the ‘couples’ who sat on the college gallery during my college days. Most of the gallery portion will be crowded by the final year students. A boy and girl, either of them who will be leaving the college in few days, will be walking hand in hand. They will then walk down the ground through the sides of the Chemical Block and finally reach the Ladies Hostel. In front of the Hostel Gate at the Dispensary, they will sit and talk till its time for her to get in.

What was the difference between them and the couple in the train? Romance built up on the same mould. Some stay, some separate – all decided by destiny.

As the train approached the station I heard silent sobs across the seat. She was crying and his face was red. From a mature young man who was consoling his mate a few minutes ago, his face now turned to that of a young kid who couldn’t control his sentiments. Suddenly he took her hand from his, stood up and walked to the doors and stood there. She looked at him. The moist eyes were calling him back and she yearned for a hug from him.

The train blew out a long horn, indicating its entry into the station. She started packing her bags. Handkerchief wiped out the final tears on her cheeks. When the train stopped, she got down through the door opposite to the one he was standing. Later he too got down, and behind him I and my friend.

We stood there on the platform drinking a tea, browsing the Higgin Botham’s book store and saw her pass by along with her parents. She was a cheerful young girl now. As we climbed the over bridge I saw him sitting on a bench, looking at a walking her in the distance. Once she looked at him and smiled. He buried his heart-aches in that smile and then he walked away, in the opposite direction.

I and my friend discussed about them and their relationships. Her transformation from a crying lover to a happy daughter was something which I could never understand. My friend explained the intricacies of those relationships and the state through which her mind traveled. It is either love or lust, nothing else. He concluded.

At night, as I wade through the pages of my book, she came to my mind again. Whom did I see? A lover going to bed, after a long phone call with him, with mind full of him and his memories? Or a student sleeping deeply with the tiredness of the final exam behind her?

After a long study, scribble and dinner as I switch off my bedroom lamp late in the night those two young love birds and their love stayed on in my mind.

As my characters.
As an ever lasting picture in the mind of a writer.
Above all, as an unresolved mystery.

When My Eyes Lost 'It'

It all happened with the wretched giant wave that swept Varca Beach. I was playing with the waves a bit away from the shore. Please don’t misunderstand; I was that much away so that a person who doesn’t know swimming would not be drowned. The Wave No 8734567839 of the day came in. I am not sure about the number, but it could be only approximately correct. It splashed hard on my face and I could sense something moving away from my face. In a moment I knew my vision was going absurd. I checked my face with my hand.

“I lost my specs, I lost my specs” yelled poor me.

I was always attached with my beloved Speckie Darling, and I couldn’t live without her. She ascended the great throne between my two ears when I was in class 8 and since then she has been there, growing proudly. Her vital stats revealed a sexy -4.5 and -4 sized big cut cucumber pieces. Huh!! She was gorgeous. Truly.

I was lost, and as I went down the sea bed to search her wave numbers 8734567840 to 8734567845 came in and I was swept ashore.

I am half blind now. I cannot see the distance, I cannot read, I cannot watch TV, I cannot ogle at the foreign tourist in her bikinis, I cannot drive, I cannot take food from the Rs. 275/- + taxes buffet at the hotel without looking at the name tag so closely.

I am frustrated.

I decided to check out in the town. I find an optical shop. I am glad. Cloud Nine!!

“Boss, I want a frame and lenses with this prescription. When can I get it?” I ask Mr. Owner.
“In 3 days” He replies after a deep study of my prescription.
“What? I am asking for a normal lens and you need three days for that?” asked the Kaliph akka Kalippan in me.
“We don’t have a factory here, it need to be made”
“But normal optical shops give me it in a day or max 3 hours"
“This is not a normal optician shop young man. We serve the foreigners who come here and we would live on them and not on once in a life time creeps like you. May be you can try contact lenses if you are in an urgency.”

Contact lenses, they are supposed to be kept inside the eyes. Won’t they harm? How will I put it in? Thoughts and more thoughts.

Finally I decided to give it a try.

Mr. Owner comes up with the set and hands it over to me.

“All yours, dude.”
“But how will I put it?”
“Never used before?”
“Nah.”
“Okay, sit on that chair. I will come in a moment.”

He briefs me about the rituals that should be performed, before putting in the lenses. Then he shows me the new green cell membrane like lenses that will cover up my old speckies.

He tells me to open up my right eye. I reluctantly do it. But he is not satisfied. With much force he opens ups my two eyelids. Poor my black beauty. I can see her enlarge; she is tense as she senses something is going to pierce into her. She sees the green thin membrane on top of a finger. She feels she is to be broken into pieces. She feels she will be raped, by a sadistic male pervert, who with his dagger like fingers wants to rob whatever she has left in her.

My Oh My!!! Her Ijjat and Virginity at stake???

With all my power I release my eyelids from his custody and tries closing them, like a rape victim who tries to latch the door when the villain approaches her (As seen in many movies).

“What are you doing? Open it up”.

He tells me about how the eyes should be kept open and how the lens should be put in with the finger. Then he pulls the eyelids back again and stretches them to maxima. I pull them down when he approaches with his finger. The tug of war goes for sometime, and finally he puts it in, with much difficulty.

He puts in the other too onto my left eye with the same amount of effort he had to use for my right eye. The new lenses floated on the tears that bathes the eye when I blinked them.

Thus I got vision, my eyes still itching of the new covering they have got. Mr. Owner came in again; this time to demonstrate how to remove the covers.

He asked me to open up the eyelids again. As I do it he puts in his eye again onto my eye-balls and pulls the covering down. Then he tries to pluck the lens with his two fingers. My black beauty is scared. She cries.

“He is plucking me out. He is plucking me out. Help!! Help!!”

In the end, he succeeds. The lenses are in his hands. My eyes turn red. She is bleeding.

My eyes, she lost it. The sacred thing, her virginity.