Chapter 2: Viscous Alliance.

Whenever Anoushka eyes met with mine, she used to give a sweet smile. Seldom there were any words exchanged between us. She possessed an elegance, which attracted many friends around her. From a distance, I cherished her beauty and frolic nature. On the other hand, I kept to myself, surrounded by my haughty nature. Probably everyone in the batch thought me as a snobbish person and I liked that. At least that close guarded my solitary citadel.

It was not long that those courteous smiles turned into some friendly conversations. That night I was hungry so I bought a patty from a nearby shop and was munching. I did not notice that Anoushka was standing behind me watching me intently. She cleared her throat to signal her presence. Her feminine fragrance snaked into my nasal cavity and attacked my brain cells.

“Munching alone? Where is your friend, Anirban?” She asked me.

I was startled on hearing her voice. I stammered a bit, “Yeah. I did not have the time for lunch and was hungry so I was grabbing a bite.” I looked around, in general, some of her friends always surrounded her but at that time she was alone. I asked her, “So today no one is with you?”

She gave a faint smile and shrugged her shoulder, “Nopes, may be they don’t like my company.”

I laughed at her, “Who on earth would not like your company.” I lowered my voice, “I think you are wrong. People are dying to get your attention.”

She sported a coquettish smile on her lips, “Really? I did not know that. Who on earth is willing to die for.”

I was enjoying her smile and company. “Find some time to look at your back, you will find a long line of bees hovering to get your attention.” I joked at her. I looked at the road, expecting the bike rider to come and pick her up. Probably she fathomed as what I was looking for.

“Why are you frequently looking at the road?” She asked me.

“Aha! I was looking forward for your two wheeled chariot and the warrior over it.” I flirted.

She laughed at me and said, “My brother is not coming to-day to pick me up. I am waiting for the bus.”

A huge relief got off my mind. I was in an impression that the person, who picks her up every day, was her boyfriend. I observed that many buses passed but she was not boarding. Finally, I asked her “It is not raining today. The buses are plying perfectly normal and it is getting night. I think you should go home. Why have you not boarded any of the bus?”

“Nothing. Is there any problem to stand here?” She smiled at me and said, “You are a complete bore. I am going now.” She turned and walked towards the bus.
Suddenly I felt a small vacuum inside my chest. I called her “Anoushka, I can drop you if you want.”

She ran towards me and sat on my pillion. A faint laugh lingered inside my head, how many colours can a girl can show, I thought. May be she was just playing with me.

“Start now.” She held my shoulder and whispered in my ears. The bike raced into the dark night, over the black pitch road. I looked up the sky, Kolkata is always humid and during monsoon, the clouds do shower at anytime. The humid cold winds were blowing around us. Through my shirt fabric, I felt her soft warmth on my back.

She shouted, cutting the roaring sound of the engine, “What does your name, Budhaditya means? It is a real long name to call.”

“It denotes something from Vedic literature, that’s all I know nothing more. But why on earth you are concerned about the meaning of my name?” I replied her.

“Just like that. Actually after calling your name, one has to look into the mirror to check whether her teeth are ok or not.” She laughed heartily.

I joked at her, “Making a mockery of my name. Is that so? I will then stop my bike here in the middle of the road and you have to go all alone to your house.”

She giggled “Come on, you are not going to leave a poor girl all alone here.”

The light-hearted conversation went on. I came to know that she was studying physics in a nearby college and was looking forward to study masters. Most of the time I kept quiet as she was babbling too much. In between the conversation, she was giving me directions to her house.

She asked me to stop at a lane and said to me, “Leave me here. I can walk the rest path.”

I stopped my bike and asked her that I could drop her in front of her home.

She joked at me, “No way. What will happen if the bee stung me?” I laughed at her, slowly her facial expression turned serious, “Actually I have some problem. My father will be furious if he notices me with someone. That’s the reason he sends my brother every evening to the centre to pick me up. Today I told that I could commute alone, so my brother did not come.”

I understood her handcuffed situation and said her not to worry. She asked me to ride away but I insisted that until she reaches her house I would rather stand there for her. She smiled and waved me, “Go now, I am ok. This much path I can walk alone.”

That was the only day Anoushka rode on my pillion, after that day she did not asked for lift. She always took the bus after the class, but she cared to stand with me for sometime before getting on the bus. With each passing day, she seemed to be friendlier with me. Anirban joked at time, asking as what was going between us. I joked back, that Anoushka was a good friend of mine and nothing more. At times, I felt and invisible magnetic attraction towards her. I suppressed those wild imaginations, hurling those to the abyss. It was hard to imagine that someone can get attracted to a coarse rugged boulder like me. I never asked about her personal life and she refrained from knocking into my domain of silence. I felt that normalcy was entering my life again, which evaded me for long, more than a decade of solitude.


It was not long that the cohesiveness grew strong, however there was a dark surprise waiting for me. It was a preferably sunny day compared to the grey sky of the monsoon season. I took a casual leave and went to Newmarket to buy something for my Grandma. Out of the blue, I heard Anoushka calling me. I looked around but could not find her and then I saw her walking towards me. She was accompanied with some friends. She asked me as what was I doing in the market place? I told her the reason of my shopping.

She laughed at me and said, “Don’t you have any friends with whom you can shop? You came to buy things for your Grandma?”

I smiled back at her saying, “She is the only girlfriend left in this whole universe for me.” While saying those words, I felt a pinching pain deep down my heart. I hid my expression and sported a smile to ask her back that what she was doing there. She should be in her college then.

She answered that she came with her friends to watch movie. She introduced me with her friends and warned them that I was much older than they were so they should at least show some respect to me. I laughed at her proposition and said her that no need to show extra courtesy. I happen to observe a person amongst that group to be close to Anoushka. She invited me to join them for the movie. A felt a tiny deterrence in my path, I thought, it should not be there. Why on earth, I was feeling like that. I politely refused her offer excusing that I had other jobs to finish. I observed a sigh of relief on the face of the person standing close to her.

My refusal cast a slight gloom shadow on the moon I was beholding. Anoushka gave a painful smile and said, “It would have been better if you could join us.”
All of them turned to go away. I looked at her passing. After walking few steps, she paused a little, looked back and asked me, “Are you coming to the evening class or not?”

I laughed and nodded my head, answered her that I would be present in the evening class. I looked at them as she mingled with the crowd and went away. I took a deep breath to understand clearly as what she happen to convey? I tried to assimilate that, probably the boy standing next to her was not in a close relation with her.

I made her promise that I would be present at the class. For some unknown reason she kept evading me for the whole time. Whenever I tried to make an eye contact, she shied away her eyes. Anirban asked me at one point that was I feeling bit perturbed by some reason or not. I felt not to answer his query.
After the class was over, Anirban and I was smoking cigarette. I observed that Anoushka was waiting for me at some distance. I was eager to fend Anirban as soon as possible but he was nonstop in his nonsense babble. I was getting anxious to meet her, so I said to him bit loudly that if he can give me a treat in a nearby sweet shop. I knew very well that a miser like Anirban would not prefer to shed bucks. I looked at her, trying to fathom whether she has heard or not. I saw her smile that ascertained me that she grasped my intention.

Anoushka strode towards me as soon as he left. I felt a sleek anger in her eyes that deterred me to look directly in her eyes. She asked me “You can come to class but not to go with movie with me? What made you do so?”

“Oh! That is the reason of your fury. See I have a job and I thought that why to disturb your gathering. I was unknown to all of them that would make your friends uncomfortable, right?” I answered her.

Without any notice, she sat on the pillion and looked at me, “Take me home, will you. And try to make this sure that you are my friend, I would have felt more comfortable if you were around.”

While moving I answered her, “You were with your friends, you should respect their feelings also.”

She gave a gloomy smile, “Friends, huh. It was I who was paying for their tickets, not them.” She took a deep breath, “At least, I hope Samudra would be different.” So at last the curtain was clear, the name of the person in her life was Samudra.