I had come to Udaipur for an internship at the Hindustan Zinc and was staying with my aunt. It was mid-June and the temperature was a soaring 44deg C. And to add to the agony was the usual power cut. It was a nerve-racking day. I was about to lose my cool, when the ice-cream van passed by. Without any second thoughts, I rushed out to grab a mango candy. It was then that my eyes caught hold of an angel draped in whites around her curves. I was dumb struck. I was holding the mango candy, when she came to me and said, “Are you feeding the candy to your shirt, or are you going to relish it…” I gave her a childish smile feeling totally embarrassed. She ordered herself a strawberry cone, and we decided to sit under the neem tree nearby. She had come to visit her grandparents who had recently shifted from Meerut some 2 years back in the next lane. Her name was Rashi Jain.
Rashi was from the hills of Himachal Pradesh. She had come to Udaipur to attend her grandparents’ 50th wedding anniversary. She told me she would be leaving tomorrow to Jodhpur for sightseeing. Without wasting a second, I asked her, “Can I come to see you off at the station?” She was taken aback by my sudden request, but she agreed to it. We enjoyed each other’s company under the neem tree till the sun went down. And that was the beginning of a tale.
I went to see her off at the station the next day and waited the whole day pacing up and down. The next day, I assigned myself as her tour guide for Udaipur. We walked through the corridors of Udaipur City Palace, Sahelion-ki-Bari, Gulab Bag, Jagdish Temple and finally ended the day at Doodh Talai enjoying the sunset and a spectacular view of the Lake Palace in solitude.
The next day was her grandparents’ anniversary and she was totally involved in the celebrations. She invited me over to her house. Every now and then my eyes would catch hold of her twinkling eyes and then we would turn away in embarrassment.
On the fourth day, she went out to the city market with her parents. I borrowed my cousin’s bike and followed her like a maniac the whole day. I know she had noticed me following her auto rickshaw, but I couldn’t help myself. That night we spoke on the phone till dawn. I was saddened to know that she would be leaving the next day in the night. Early morning, I went to the city market to buy her a gift. A pair of parakeets- that would be perfect. I asked her to meet me at Doodh Talai. Taking hold of her hands, I told her that the past 5 days have been the best days of my life. Looking into her eyes, I told her quietly how I felt about her. Sometimes silence can also speak a thousand words. Then I gifted the cage with the 2 parakeets to her. She was amazed by the present. She then looked at me and opened the cage and set the birds free. I looked at her in question. She says, “I love freedom. And I want you to feel it.” She then bent forward and planted a peck on my cheek and left.
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