Long time [Part-I]

"Long time can never be so long"

New Delhi railway station,
Standing on platform no. 8, I could hear the lonesome whistle blow. Train arrives and I board into it. After taking my seat, I could just think of getting a hot cup of tea. The caterer serves the tea. There are two more passengers sitting in front of me. A boy and a girl. They are sitting as if they are strangers to each other. I don't know if the train conductor knew the silence sounding so loudly in the compartment that he plays the song
"ye raatein, ye mausam, nadi ka kinara..Ye chanchal hawa"..
After an hour a soft voice breaks the silence .

Girl: - Pratyush, How are you doing?
Boy: - Hey Mahek, Am doing fine. How about you? Long time.

I am completely blown away by this surprise. A minute ago, I didn't have this slightest guess that they knew each other.

Mahek: - Yes, it was really long. Some 11 months. We last met at the alumni meet.
Pratyush: - Yup! And "ab mile bhi hain to train mein".
Smile touches their lips and it seems as if it was trying to narrate all that happened in the last 11 months.
Pratyush: - So you are going to Patna.
Mahek: - Yes. To attend the marriage of Nikhil and Sony.
Pratyush: - Hey what a coincidence. I am also going to attend their marriage. Sony lives just a few building away from mine.
Nikhil, Sony, Pratyush and Mahek were classmates at MDI, gurgaon.

Pratyush: - So how is your work going? Are you working for the same bank or switched your job?
Mahek: - Nope! I am still loving my old job. How is your interior designing business going?
Pratyush: - Yes it’s going fine and the good news is that I will be moving to UK for some assignments.
Mahek: - That’s great. So how is your girl friend? Has she completed her studies?
Pratyush: - She is fine and is working for an HR consultancy after her studies.
Mahek: - So when are you two getting married?
Pratyush: - I don't know. I don't know where our relationship is heading towards. At this stage, we both are giving time to each other to think about this relationship of two years. Initially she could not live without me but I was too careless to think about all this. Now she is getting busy to shape her career and our relationship is facing all this heads and tails.
Anyways forget all these. Tell me, what’s the scene with you. I just hope you could have found someone too good for you. (Pratyush smiles and Mahek tries to match him with an artificial one)
Mahek: - Yup! I am getting married this November. I am not very sure if he is too good for me but my parents think he is good for me. I have met him couple of times and I find him nice and matured.
Pratyus: - Congrats yaar!! So you must be very excited and eagerly waiting for these months to pass by, as a flash.
Mahek:- I donno if I am happy or not but I just think it as another inevitable thing going to happen in my life. And I am accepting it because it had to happen someday.

Pratyush: - Why are you sounding so complacent about the changes that is going to happen in your life. You don't sound excited.
Mahek: - Why are you asking all these. You are not oblivious of the reasons. So better stop this discussion and let’s talk something else.
Pratyush tries to get himself into the magazine, he is holding and Mahek looks outside the window.

Again a long silence surrounds the compartment and adding to it is the song played,
"Na umra ki seema ho na janmon ka ho bandhan, Jab pyar kare koi to dekhe kewal mann...Tum haar ke dil apna, meri preet amar kar do…."

To be continued....