A Dream that lasted long

It was a quiet winter evening, as a E18 with a few passengers was thundering through to Tambaram from Guduvancheri. I had a window seat, and was gazing into the faint drizzle. It was then I saw this girl wearing a backpack, holding up her blue umbrella and evading the puddles on her path. My memories were thrown back a few years.

It was the beginning of a wonderful dream, one that lasted long enough to make you wish it had lasted forever. She was wearing a black churidhar spotted with flaming orange flowers. Holding her umbrella up, she was trying to cross the puddles on the famous pathway through the lawn. She was jumping from one landing to another, with a childishness that adorns her to this day. As I watched her disappear behind the famous building, it was raining joy...

She was not the beauty queen there. Yet I liked her. I liked everything about her, right from the way she holds the pen with her left hand to the way she giggles for no reason.
The few strands of hair that danced on her cheeks and the way she used to get them behind her ears were poems themselves.

Most of what my teachers used to teach over the next few days went over my head as I sat in the class dreaming of her. Of gardens, and swings.. Of roses and violets.. Of a long walk on a winding road.. Of a poem I would tell her.. Of sharing an umbrella in the rain.. Of fighting for an ice cream.. Of sitting on a park bench.. Of holding her hand.. Of being together.....

Never could I forget the way she smiled, giggled and said a 'Thanks', when I presented her an hand-crafted gift. To this day, a flash of that memory, lifts my spirits higher than anything else... I was smiling thinking about the wonderful day, when the driver applied a sudden brake jolting me back to my senses.

My destination was nearing. I turned to face the gloomy sky outside, and my music player in N72 sang away...
un karam koarkayil ninaivu oar aayiram..
pin iru karam pirigayil ninaivu noor aayiram...
...
...
kaadhal inge ointhathu..
kavithai ondru mudinthathu..
thedum bothey tholainthathu...