just another guy – just another journey

The previous weekend was officially my second trip to Mumbai. I must say that I have already perfected the timing of my sleeping. While going to Mumbai, I would sleep after the mountain section of Khopoli and Khandala were crossed. This would give me one hour on flat surface of the Mumbai -Pune expressway to sleep and wake up when we cross the Vashi bridge. While returning I would sleep as soon as possible and wake up after the ghat section of Khandala had been crossed.

As just another guy, i did the three things that every guy does before the start of journey.

a) Wish for a girl in the seat beside you (especially on a bus journey).
b) Wish that the I-Pod I had forgotten to charge lasts the journey.
c) Catch the Bus/ Train in the last moment possible.

Having boarded the bus, i picked out a seat somehwere near the middle of the bus. I chose the aisle seat and waited. Waited for some nice girl who had to book tickets in the last moment to come and sit next to me. Sadly, there were enough seats in the bus that enabled everyone to bypass me. By this time, I had settled down and was thinking when sleep would take over me. The bus stopped just after it entered the Expressway Toll-gate. The door opened and a beautiful girl entered the bus. The conductor was arguing with someone downstairs while she came walking by . I glanced behind me and found almost all seats had single occupants. This was to be my lucky day. Our eyes met. I gave a weak smile. Then the conductor entered the bus , came towards us. He saw we both were looking at each other and he called out to me ‘ Apun ka do ticket hai. Tu wahan baito’ . ( i have two passengers. You sit there with another dark fat male while this girl can enjoy the ride with her guy)

I went and sat next to the nice gentleman I had described above. This seat was just above the rear wheels of the Volvo. I cursed everyone and sat silently. It took just three more minutes for the tyre to get completely shredded and me stranded on highway waiting for another bus. I thought to myself ‘ Shit happens . Shit happens all the time’

I had gone to enjoy Pongal and had not slept properly. I came to the Dadar Bus stop at 5:15 PM after a day’s trip to Mumbai and waited patiently behind four more people at the ticket counter. When my turn came ,
I said ‘ One ticket to Aundh(Pune)’. He said ‘ Sava Paanch Bus chalega ?’
I looked at my watch ‘ You mean 5:50?’, He said ‘Yes.’
I said ‘Thank You.’ I already started to think whether I should roam around somewhere and then come back. He calmly gave me the ticket receipt where I saw the bus departure time to be ’5:15 PM’. It was already ’5:22′
I gave a good glare at the ticket counter guy and rushed to catch the bus. I was exhausted by this time. My seat was already in inclined position and I did not even have the energy to change its inclination. I sat down on my seat and slept off immediately. I woke up one and half hours later to find that there is a girl sitting beside me. Not just a girl but a really beautiful one. The bus did not have any lights on and so I was using the light from the sparse lights installed on the expressway. Immediately I regretted the fact that I had slept off. Just the day when every guy’s wish of having a girl beside you in a bus journey is fulfilled, I realise that I had practically slept through more than half of the journey. The biggest problem in sleeping was that I did not know what I did. I was so tired that I could have practically leaned on her without realising it. I did not know if I snored. i did not know if I did anything that would have spoilt my image. So I kept quiet. My I-Pod. Yes, it suddenly dawned on me that while I was sleeping my I-Pod was at work.

I usually kept my hand on the arm-rest but since a girl was near, I wanted to give her the freedom. I kept my hand on the side of the arm-rest, so that she could place her hand on the arm-rest and feel relaxed.

I suddenly felt her arm on the arm rest. In a way, it was actually touching my elbow. I felt slightly excited and composed myself. ‘Maybe ! Maybe she likes me. Maybe I did nothing wrong in my sleep !’. I tried to be the nice guy and moved by hand slightly away just to check whether her hands would follow me. After a couple of minutes, i could feel her soft hands brushing against my elbows. In the dark, I could feel my face gleam . My I-Pod was playing the James Blunt ‘You are Beautiful ‘song. The song and its lyrics seemed a perfect fit.

‘You’re beautiful. You’re beautiful.
You’re beautiful, it’s true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don’t know what to do,
‘Cause I’ll never be with you.

Yeah, she caught my eye,
As we walked on by.
She could see from my face that I was,
Fucking high,
And I don’t think that I’ll see her again,
But we shared a moment that will last till the end.

You’re beautiful. You’re beautiful.
You’re beautiful, it’s true.
I saw your face in a crowded place,
And I don’t know what to do,
‘Cause I’ll never be with you.’

I was silently appreciating how I-Pod in its shuffle feature managed to play the most perfect song for the moment. The song changed but I had stopped listening to it anyway. I decided to act on her cue. I decided to show some courage and talk to her. After all, I had this type of incident planned for so many days. I mean I am sure everytime a guy travels in a bus, he wishes to have a good companion with him on his journey. I am just another guy on just another journey. Why would I not want the same ?

I was finding it hard to get the right words out. In my mind when such an eventuality actually occurred, it was planned to have me talking with the girl from the beginning. This was me, waking up from half sleep and trying to think of somehting cheesy , something romantic. I did not have anything to get her attention. I thought of looking at the time and comment something like ‘ I hope the bus is on time or something like that’. It was compeltely dark. I inclined my left hand , careful not to let go off our contact and pressed the side knob of my new Timex Expedition wrist watch. It had a back-light feature that I could use at night. I saw the time. It was eight minutes past eight. I decided to ask her in general about Pune. So I turned my head to face her and I glanced down at the arm-rest where supposedly both our arms were relaxing against each other. I realised that what I thought to be her hand was actually her purse.
‘Darn you vile woman !’ echoed in my head. My I-pod of course was one step better. It was playing the Linking Park – Faint song and exactly these lines when I realised it was a purse -
‘
I can’t feel the way I did before
Don’t turn your back on me
I won’t be ignored
Time won’t heal this damage anymore
Don’t turn your back on me
I won’t be ignored
‘
I felt like a big fool. I decided to say nothing and just go home in a quiet manner. When my stop was due, I just casually told her
‘ Hope it wasnt scary sitting with a guy.’ , She said ‘ No . I think you are stereotyping girls.’ There you go. One more girl against me. I gave out a false laugh and said’ Ok. See you. ‘

I took out my bag from the luggage compartment over the top of our seats and prepared to walk away when she said
‘You have a nice watch !’
Darn ! She did notice the watch !!