AbhiGya SS ~ Diary of a Rockstar

Drabble 13 : 7th October 2014 ~ Part 2

She came to sit next to us in the empty couch. And no sooner did she arrive her secretary came rushing to her with her phone. He spoke to her softly in her ears and she smiled a little. I didn't like the way he could make her smile, I tried to ignore it thinking she would see me anytime now. But she just took the phone from her sec. and left the auditorium to take the call. She didn't return for about twenty minutes and I was having a fleeting feeling that what if she had urgent work and she left? Now that I knew about her whereabouts, maybe I still could get in touch with her, but still something about this moment clung to me. I had to show this to Tom and the rest, that this Asian beauty with brains was all mine.

I decided to walk out of the auditorium and find out if she was still around. The auditorium was in the uni's Arts and Science building, so I walked out and saw there was one exit from the building, the gate opened towards the path that led to the students accommodations. I walked out of the gate to see a narrow walking track going up on a slightly elevated plain. To one side was a compound on which one could see the giant grey academic building, its parking, an artificial lake and a little ahead, a crossroad showing directions to the Library building to the right and University House to the left. My instinct told me to follow this narrow path ahead. Once I reached the top of the elevated plain, I saw this narrow path meandered for another kilometer downhill with open fields on both sides, at the end of the road were the student's accommodations. I could now see students walking up and down busily through the path. I walked ahead and reached closer to the first accommodation building, and to the right I saw an artificial lake with a cute wooden bridge on top of it. On the other bank were other accommodations.

But what made this postcard picture of lush green landscape with such props more beautiful was the lady in peach standing on the small bridge and intensely gazing at the swan swimming below. She had taken off her blazer, and was holding the neatly folded pile in her hand.

***

"The Ugly Duckling isn't the story of your life 'Chashmish'!" I piped in gently in hers ears from behind. She smiled a little. "How did you know, I was thinking exactly on those lines right now, Arjun?" she turned around to face the so-called Arjun.

Her smile faltered for a second and then it cemented in that half smiling expression for another few seconds before she recovered from the initial shock of seeing me after ten whole years.

As I said the next few words, I knew it myself that no matured man in their thirties would say this. But seeing 'Chashmish' before me, I couldn't help feeling like the twenty year old Abhi again.

"So are so glad or upset that I am not Arjun?"

She stared at me blankly and I could see that she hadn't still recovered from her shock, but she replied all the same, "Arjun is my secretary"

"And I am?" I asked curiously.

"Rockstar Abhi" she replied, still very numb and blank.

I didn't like hearing that, somehow Rockstar Abhi' was a measure of my success, it showed how much I have risen in life and how far the crowd is from me. But I didn't want to feel the impersonal distance from chashmish.

"Chashmish, I will remain just Abhi for you always" I said.

Even as I write this now, I don't know what made me do the next thing, but I couldn't stop myself. I just hugged her tight, much the same way I had hugged her the last time in the train station ten years ago. But something had changed. She didn't reciprocate to the hug. Had chashmish changed? I released her and saw her finally breaking from her trance. She finally spoke, "Abhi, this is really you?"