a paradise lost!

1993 january! On a chilly winter morning, I boarded the A/c chair car coach of the karnavati express, was traveling to surat.i was 31, just returned from Saudi Arabia, was excited that I had an interview call from a fairly known instrumentation company, more important, the vacancy was for the post of an asst manager sales! dreamt of growth…. As I occupied my seat, the interview blues had set in, making my heartbeats more random than their usual self.


Surprisingly it took me a full five minutes to realize that my seat was at the center of the coach, and there was a row of seats facing me. And a further few seconds for it to sink in, that directly opposite me, was a lady. A food tray separated us. Hmmm breakfast could be the ice breaking point maybe, I said to myself. This lady was in her late thirties probably, had a very dignified and refined look. Even while she was sitting, I could judge, she was roughly the same height as me, 5-7! Wearing a crisp black cotton saree with a contrasting 2 inch sky blue border! a very unusual color combination, but the combined hue enhanced her extra bright hazel eyes. I have seldom come across hazel eyes, they hypnotize you instantly dont they?



Especially when they belong to a stunning lady ..I was sort of so much in awe of her eyes, that I almost didn’t notice her flawless wheatish complexion, had it not been for the sleeveless blouse she wore! And I always admire women who wear a permanent half smile, it makes them look so much more confident. That half smile was exceedingly infectious, and had already started to permeate my senses. Thank god I was sitting, otherwise she would probably notice me going weak in the knees. And sadly for me, she was sitting, so there was no way of instantly knowing that she had a graceful body to overshadow all her endowments I have mentioned above!



What I haven’t mentioned is the perfect symmetry of a face that she was gifted with. I thought to myself, if she was a teacher, and teaching the concept of symmetry to her class, all she had to do was to tell them to observe her face carefully, and the students would never forget in their lives what was meant by symmetry!


After a careful preliminary observation, I sort of relaxed back in my chair, closing my eyes for a few seconds, trying to see if I could recollect her face later, when I wanted to, and as I saw her face in front of me, with my eyes closed, I smiled to myself! Why only surat, I wish I was traveling all the way upto the southern most tip of the country. Rarely does one have a goddess like entity as a co passenger!! I have been always surrounded by 60 plus years old fat grannies, and this was such a refreshing and welcome change. It almost made me dizzy.



As she looked out of the window, she gave me a fleeting glance, that first interlocking of eyes for the briefest of a moment finally happened. butterflies all over my body….Hmmmm the connectivity had been established. All that was needed was to attempt and make a strong connection, and I had 2 full hours with me, till I reached surat. Why did I feel so strongly that as she looked out of the window, she was probably thinking of me? I always feel that way with all attractive women! Once again I smiled to myself, and our eyes met once again, this time for an extended version of a fleeting moment. Cool ! I started looking for the pantry guy, as breakfast was the right time to break the ice I thought.


As I started to initiate a warm, and wonderful, yet imaginary dream chat with her, in my mind, a middle aged guy, who had just walked in from the adjoining coach, approached her, carrying a ticket in his hand, and said something to her. She then saw her ticket, had a look at his ticket, and got up, expressing a soft apology to this guy, took her bag, and coolly walked to the adjoining coach! She was in the wrong coach!


And I felt as if I was in the center of the gobi desert, with a carton of empty bisleri bottles