The Gift

Creative Writing Competition 2012 India
CODE	199
SETTING	Railway platform OR Inside Train
OBJECT	Book
THEME	Dream/Fantasy of a Teenager

It was once in a blue moon sight to see the crazy, bollywood movie lover Mili waiting for her train, holding a book close to her chest, like a file. That was really the first book which enjoyed the privilege of such a warm hug by Mili’s cute hands. She has earned the reputation in the college as a ‘book hater’. She was lethally allergic to reading. And she took much  pains to read her texts to prevent herself from the status “fail”. The girl in her teens was passionate about movies ,music, internet and cooking.

This book was in no way related to her study. But it was the most unusual gift she has ever got in her life. It fell into her hands the previous day in a glittering paper, as a birthday gift from her classmate Samran, on whom she had a crush. A fondness for reading or books was something which she wasn’t gifted with. She didn’t want to cultivate it either. To tell the truth, she didn’t even try to touch a book, even literally.

Her friends have gifted her flowers, greeting cards and some soft toys. She was looking forward with a curious heart for Samran’s gift to her. She hasn’t yet disclosed her crush to anyone and she wasn’t sure whether Samran had similar feelings for her. She wished to get a rose or a gerbera from him, which would have made her whole day and even the whole year. But all her dream castles were demolished by Samran. See what he gave her….a BOOK!!!!    She was dejected as she felt rejected.

She didn’t know how to take the gift. As a cue of his approval? Or as a mockery? Her sad and confused mind told her that the possibility for the latter was more. As everyone in her batch knew very well about her disinterest in reading and enormous interest in bollywood movies. He could have given at least a music DVD or so! She wished.

Her sadness turned into bitterness. She planned to ask him directly about it. But for that she should reach the college. A two and a half hour train journey would take her to her study place. Her train of thoughts was interrupted by the whistling of the train. She checked time, 6.10 am, the train has kept the time as usual. She happily got into the iron machine.

Ladies compartment would be almost empty during that hour. So security concerns took her to the general compartment. But she was surprised to see the almost deserted compartment.

She chose a seat near the window. No one around! She kept her bag on the right side. She looked out through the window in the left side, it was a beautiful morning.

She again stared at the book, read its title for the 50^th time.

‘The Splendour of Silence’!

She has already allowed all her imaginations to play, play as wildly as they could, but none of those waves informed a correlation of the title with love. And reading the book, to know what it was about, was such a horrible thing, that  Mili  couldn’t even imagine. At last, she made up her mind to read the information on the back cover or in the front pages of the book.

The brief synopsis harmed her already shattered hopes.

“In 1942, Sam Hawthorne, a young U.S. Army captain, arrives in a tiny princely state in western India. He carries combat wounds and several secrets, one of which is the real reason behind his visit: to find his brother Mike, an idealistic American soldier who disappeared after joining the local struggle for independence from the British.”

“Oh !!!  She exclaimed.

“This is absolutely heartbreaking! Samran gave me a book on war, that too happened in 1942?”

She sighed reading the first few lines.

“Now it has become evident that he was trying to mock me with this gift. How cruel!”

She closed the book and kept on her bag. The alluring sight of morning sky in the east couldn’t make her smile. Her eyes were a little moistened. But she didn’t want to cry.

“I am gonna give this back to him! It may be unfair though!”  She made up her mind.

She wanted to change her mood. She took the ear phone and plugged into her ears.

“Kyon naye lag rahe hain ye dharti gagan
Maina poocha to boli ye pagli pawan
Pyaar hua chupke se
Yeh kay hua chupke se...”

“Wow, what a romantic song, 1942- A love story!”

After one minute she got a revelation, the war too had taken place in 1942.

Some of the dead ‘hope flies’ in her mind came back to life, fluttering their wings.

She again took the book and continued reading the synopsis.

“But Sam's mission is soon threatened when he falls in love with Mila, daughter of the local political agent. Betrothed to the local prince, Mila draws Sam into a doomed affair that places them both in the path of dynastic intrigue, racial prejudice, and the explosive circumstances of a country torn between imperialism and nationalism.”

Her mind skipped "dynastic", "intrigue", "racial", "prejudice", "imperialism" and "nationalism".

But her eyes and heart got stuck on three words – Mila, Sam and love.

Her heart throbbed with excitement and  joy! Wasn’t Samran declaring his love for her?

The heroine Mila, similar to Mili and the hero Sam, similar to Samran. All the powers of that teen body and mind said that her crush has reached a new dimension, an elevated one, called love.

Even then she didn’t bother to read the book, and wasn’t eager to know how the story ended. She found what she has searched and was satisfied with that knowledge.

She wanted to shout this to the world, she wanted to sing and dance, in ecstacy.

But even the empty compartment didn’t make her comfortable to do what she wished. So she  sat there smiling, laughing, giggling.

She looked out and saw the vast yellow fields of mustard, carrying the morning dew and dancing in the breeze. The birds were chirping the early morning tunes.

It felt heavenly. Cool breeze from outside blew through the window and kissed her face and neck. She closed her eyes.

Thirty minutes more.

She listened to the song that was playing in her earphone and sang along with it.

“Jab se tere naina mere naino se lage re
Tab se deewana hua aa haaa
Sab se begaana hua aa haa
Rab bhi deewana lage re
Rab bhi deewana lage re ho oohoohooo....”

The songs changed and her level of consciousness too changed along with it. After some minutes, she was in the state of sleep.

The train stopped at a station. Five or six passengers got out of the train. A day without any hustle! And only one man, who looked like a senior citizen, got into the train.

 

~~~
The movie scenes, the songs scenes, which she had seen so far, made appearances in her dream, with the settings. But in all scenes, there were one heroine and one hero, Mila and Samran.

She was standing in her white salwar in a yellow mustard field and Samran was standing  at a distance in his black coat….(DDLJ , isn’t it?)

(Everything in her teen world and imagination were so interlinked with the bollywood movies.)

She was running with stretched out hands towards Samran, who was also standing with stretched out hands. But he was not running, but was standing like a statue.

She ran, fuelled by the power of love and desire.

But she never reached him. The distance remained the same. She ran with more effort, with stretched hands and melting facial expression out of love, that could again be attributed to the love songs in movies.
~~~

 

The old man who was reading the newspaper spreading and holding it in front of his face, saw two hands coming towards him, as in horror movies. The startled man put the daily down and saw the young  girl sitting opposite stretching her hands towards him, as if she was desperately trying to catch hold of him. Her eyes were closed; ear phone cords hung from both ears and her body was leaning forward.

“God, what is wrong with this girl?” He asked himself.

He knew she might grab his face if he doesn’t do anything.

The old man gave a strong pat on her left hand with his right hand.

Shocked and panicked, she opened her eyes and saw her stretched hands almost close to the old man. As a reflex action, she withdrew them at once.

“What happened, daughter?” The man asked.

“Nothing!” She replied with all the embarrassment one could ever have.

“Seems you dreamt!”

“Yes, I was running away from a tiger!”  What a brilliant reply!

No one would run away from any animal in ‘that’ way. But the old man ignored the reply and continued reading the daily stretching it in front of his face.

She looked around; no one else!

“When did this odd, old man get in? And, WHY into this cabin? The nearby cabins are vacant  too!”

She cursed the man in mind.

“Thank god, anyway this old fellow didn’t stop reading ….and started scrutinizing me!”

Five more minutes to go.

She took the earphones out from her ear and kept them  in her bag, along with the book. Looking out through the window, she said in mind.

“So, Mila and Sam were in love, which could trigger the crush of Mili on Samran!”

She smiled.

The train slowed down reaching her destination and she got up to get out. The old man was still reading the daily. With a happy face,  she got out of the cabin and the train.

Walking on the platform she was planning to thank Samran, for such a gift.

“Samran might have done much work to find  a book with those names, for me!”

Moreover, she wanted to tell him what exactly she felt when she discovered the ‘affair’!

She hummed.

“Pyaar hua chupke se
Yeh kay hua chupke se...”

__END__