A walk to remember

They stood there at the ATVM machine at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, looking at the map. Tracing the routes on the screen, they fought with their index fingers. Her finger overtook his and raced towards Mulund. His finger slowly made its way to CBD Belapur. They exchanged a look that dissolved their differences. She took two tickets to CBD Belapur. Two one-way tickets.

They read in the train. And talked. And people-watched. And people watched.

He got up, took her hand, and they walked to the door. The train was moving super fast. She was scared. But he gently yet firmly pulled her close, her back facing him, and they were half hanging out. It felt so awesome! Like a smaller, local version of the Titanic feeling. But then, feelings cannot be measured and compared, right? So yes, it was like the Titanic feeling.

Belapur was not all that welcoming. The weather was okay; not as pleasant as they were hoping for it to be. They went towards the rickshaw stand. The guy asked him where they wanted to go. Again they exchanged their trademark look that leaves nothing to be said.

“Chala.”

(Let’s go)

“Kuthe?”

(Where?)

“Tumhi chala, mi saangto.”

(You come, I’ll tell you.)

“Asa nahi chalat, tumhala mala saangava laagel kuthe jaycha aahe.”

(That’s not how it works; you’ll have to tell me where you want to go.)

“Amhala nusta kuthe tari jaaun chalaycha aahe.”

(We just want to go somewhere and walk.)

He motioned for them to sit.

The road stretched in front of them and after a few minutes turned left and it was like a completely different place. So green. So serene. So unreal. They wanted to get off right there but they knew that the right place was yet to come. A couple of minutes more and they got off. There was an upward-bound path. It was markedly different from the rest of the area. Greener. Serener. Unrealer. They strolled up to the foot of the path and they realized what was so strange about it. It was the weather. The weather was different on that way. It was cool and breezy and heavy. The ground was moist and so were the branches of trees that met over them.

A look exchanged. No word exchanged. They walked.