Sahasrasagun

Part 4 (Final)

UNEDITED version. I never read this for second time also.

“Sagun, it is dark and raining heavily outside. Come inside and sit with me. Please sit at our seats. It’s already too late and I am only one awake” said Pavithra in a high voice.
“Sorry I am lost. I am coming in” replied Sagun removing his player from the ears. Both went to their berths and Pavithra asked him “What are you thinking so deeply sitting there? What made you go and sit there again? I never saw you like this past 3 years after we got married.”
He thought he should tell his past to her which was the only thing that he did not tell his wife as he never tried to remember it nor forget it totally. He told her what he reminded till now.
“What happened then?” she asked curiously.
“We went for lunch that day and went to our respective houses for luggage pack up. Our train was at 4 in the evening and we decided to tell the matter to our parents. You know my father; he is an editor in TV channel and is fond of breaking news. He got so much accustomed to telling breaking news, he used to break something or make something fall on floor deliberately and tell the news to everyone. He got out of this habit these days but it was too severe those days. When 09/11 happened in Newyork and he got the news from reporters, he was at home and he almost broke the TV watching it. Sometimes his actions used to be funny but sometimes resulted in loss of property. He is a nice man though and I loved him a lot. I thought of telling him about this in his way. So after I reached home from college, I took 3 months time to get myself prepared and was waiting for time to tell my wish to marry Sahasra, to my parents. I seldom spoke to Sahasra these days as well. After all, without proper communication, it’s not possible to get things done.”

…………

It was the day when Sagun wanted to speak about his love to his parents as the next day; he was going to travel to Chennai to join his job. Its evening time, he was having a cup of Tea and his father was also sitting beside him. He thought this was the time and intentionally dropped the cup. It broke into pieces and he started saying “Why did I love her and why I had to tell this as breaking news to you?” 
His father was amazed about the action and dialogue in a cinematic fashion.
“What? !!!!! Why? ..What happened?” asked his father with a question mark on his face as well.
“Truth Daddy. This is the truth. I fell in love with Sahasra, who studied in Pace engineering college at Rameswaram. Well she accepted my proposal of course. But she had bet with me that I would not be able to tell this with you. I told this to you and I won the bet”, said Sagun very intelligently. He was waiting for a reaction from his father.
His dad was in a shock, surprised and could not react so easily. But he immediately stood up and went to Sagun’s mother who was in kitchen. He dropped the cup on floor; that broke into pieces, and said “You must listen to this breaking news.” She got angry that the cup got broken and in rather a harsh tone said “49 is the count. One more cup to reach 50.” She was a typical Indian house wife who always calculated things and fond of  TV serials. “Tell me what it is?” asked Sagun’s mother.
“Your so called son won the bet with his girl friend named Sahasra. The bet was to tell about his wish to marry her, to us. See how dare he is.”
They both came to Sagun and his mother sat beside him and started crying “Sagun, just like in the TV serial ‘Love story’, all the love stories might become tragic. Why did you love? What made you go in that way? We have put such a good name to you and you are doing all such activities. I cannot see you crying for your beloved. Oh Sagun! Why did you do all this?” She started crying a bit louder.
Sagun said “Dad and Mom, I know you have been showing so much love towards from my child hood and gave me whatever I wanted. If you do not want me to marry Sahasra, I would not, but I cannot marry any other girl also. We both understood each other well. But it’s not my wish that we should get married immediately but I just wanted to convey this thing to you. Well, she does not belong to our community but she is a very good girl. I strongly believe you like her. I cannot tell anything more than this but it is up to you to decide.”
They were silent for some time and said “We will think of it”. Later, he joined his job and there was no call or communication from Sahasra from some time. She was expected to join in a company located at the other side of Chennai city just like how it was in Rameswaram. He tried calling her house but no one picked it up for some days and later got message that the phone was disconnected. He tried a lot to reach her and went to the place where she stayed but there was no clue. He started getting disappointed. His concentration on the work got decreased and he started to smoke and drink frequently. Very soon, he got accustomed to boozing and smoking. He was not happy and he stopped visiting his parents in Nellore. If he went to Nellore, he would just go to Sahasra’s address, enquire about her and returned to Chennai disappointed.

……………

“I didn’t expect that you had such a long love story. You are as normal as a human and showered so much love and affection towards me” said Pavithra in a sad tone.
“Yes, it was all because of my parents who got themselves transferred to Chennai. They stayed with me and changed me with their love towards me. I am back to normal, taking everything as past and left all my bad habits. That is why I love them very much. It took me sometime to self realize and understand the importance of life, as love itself is not life.”
“And I would have told this to you before our marriage but I couldn’t because of my parents. But later I felt I should create trust in our relationship and show how much I love you. I just wanted to prove, whatever that happened in the past does not affect our relationship at any cost. And I think I am fairly successful if you declare that. I just got reminded about all the things that happened in the past only because of the TT and the environment outside. I sat there at the entrance when I and Sahasra travelled for the last time; we sat like that at the door listening to songs with similar atmosphere outside. If I had not seen the TT, I would never have remembered this. I am not sure if I remind all this in future again. In the past I might be sad but right now I am happy, satisfied with what I have and I assure you that this will be the same in future.”
“You need not explain me all this. Such things happen in life and I understand. And I trust and love you a lot. I would not have bothered about this if someone else told all this about you. Feel free to share with me in case you get distressed on reminding this in future. I am also a good friend to you apart from being a life partner. All life partners cannot become good friends and vice versa.” told Pavithra.
Sagun was feeling happy on listening to these words.
After a couple of minute silence, Pavithra asked Sagun “Finally, did you find out what happened to Sahasra?”
“No, I could not. Neither did I see her nor listened anything about her. I understood the importance of communication” replied Sagun with a smile.
“She would be fine. Let us sleep now. It is already 1 AM and the arrival time at Chennai is 7 AM. The busy week starts tomorrow. We had a great trip this year. Let us go to trips like this every year” said Pavithra.
“Sure we will” replied Sagun.
Both slept on their respective upper berths.
The train was late by half an hour and they got off the train. Platform was full of passengers and they were heading towards foot over bridge. When they were taking the steps up, Sagun saw a lady who was coming down, holding an approximately 6 year old boy. He could not believe his eyes and she appeared to be Sahasra. She was followed by a male who was 3 or 4 years older than her. Sagun thought he was her husband. She looked at him and Pavithra as well. She was surprised and they stopped on the same foot step and looked at each other for couple of moments.
“Sahasra?” Sagun asked.
“Yes” she said.
Pavithra was also surprised. He introduced Pavithra to Sahasra and Sahasra introduced Sathvik, her husband, to Sagun and Pavithra. They stood on foot over bridge for some time. While Sagun was speaking to Sathvik about their life, Pavithra spoke to Sahasra.
“Although we got introduced few minutes ago, I wanted to talk to you personally. Sagun told me about you and all the things that happened during your engineering days. He told me all this last night and this morning we saw you. One thing we both did not know is where did you go after returning from engineering? He tried to contact you and searched for you everywhere. It has been more than 9 years since this happened but please let me know what happened to you after. Please don’t take it to heart and if you do not want to tell me, you can leave it right way” told Pavithra.
“I will tell you but please let Sagun know about what happened. He should not feel that I betrayed him. When I came back home, I told my wish to marry Sagun to my parents. They were shocked and they did not want me to marry him. They did not tell me any reason while community difference is one cause. They locked me in a room all the time and we got transferred from Nellore to Visakhapatnam in few days. They never let me go out and got me married to Sathvik. I told everything to Sathvik and he was very kind towards me. He loved me a lot and felt pity about me initially. We went to US later and used to come to Chennai every year. But this time we came back permanently and as time progressed, I was into my routine and seldom reminded about Sagun. First love is something you would never forget in your life. It will have its impression on his subconscious mind. I am happy to see Sagun like this. Hope you both are happy” replied Sahasra.
“Yeah we are happy and he reminded you last night only after 2 years we got married. He told me how he behaved when you were out of reach and how he self realized about the importance of other things in life. Whatever might happen, you should go on with your life” replied Pavithra.
“Shall we leave?” asked Sagun from other end.
“Yes” said Pavithra.
He did not speak anything to Sahasra nor she spoke to Sagun except a ‘Hi’ and a ‘bye’.
They went on with their life. Pavithra told the things that happened to Sahasra and Sagun felt bad about what happened. But he felt good that atleast she was happy and told Pavithra that he did not take any contact details of Sathvik and Sahasra and did not want to meet them again accidentally or intentionally.
Thanks to the positive attitude all over which ruled the minds of the four important characters. Although it was tough, they led a beautiful life thereafter. If anyone thought negatively about the other, the train should have derailed.

---The End----

Sahasrasagun

Part 3

Train stopped at a station. Sagun could not see the station name. It was nearing dinner time and songs were still being played in his player. People started boarding the train and it was uneasy for everyone to get into his compartment as he was sitting on the footsteps. He went back to his seat to see Pavithra sleeping. He woke her up and they both had dinner.
“You were lost in thoughts and I did not want to disturb you.” told Pavithra. Sagun gave a smile and did not talk anything. They quietly completed their dinner. He went again to the door and sat at the footsteps. Pavithra was surprised and she wanted to follow him. But she did not. The train was already on its full speed and Sagun went back in to past with same speed. He pressed the play button of his player.

emaindi ee vela..yedalo ee sandadela
mila mila mila meghamala..chitapata chinukeeyu vela
cheli kulukulu chudagane …chiru chematalu pooyanela
ye shilpi chekkenee shilpam..sarikothaga vundi roopam
kanureppa veyaneedoo aa andam..manasulona vintha mooham
maruvaleni indra jalam…vanalona vintha daaham

…………………………

Sahasra was thinking about him for about a week and she was not sure why she was thinking much about him. After all, Sagun was a fellow passenger. She shared her feelings with her friends and they all said not to feel much about nothing.
Sagun was on cloud nine. The moments spent with Sahasra had a strong effect on him and they never left him even for a minute. After he came back to Rameswaram, he did all the research about the locality of Pace engineering college, its timings, its bus routes, hostel information and general places in Rameswaram where Pace college students live outside the college. He reminded her when someone discussed about their journeys, when he saw someone eating samosa in the canteen and even in the classroom; he started dreaming about empty berths in a reservation compartment.
He decided to go home every weekend in the same train and reserved for the same train for next weekend. On the other end, Sahasra, though decided not to think about him anymore, reserved her ticket for the same train on the same weekend just with a hope that she would meet him again. She also thought that this would be her first and last attempt to meet him. If not this time, she would never give a voluntary try to meet him.
Both were waiting for Friday evening to catch the train. Both started to count hours in every second.
On that Friday, they reached the railway station by the time the train was about to start but at different times. Both had got berths in the same compartment but on different ends. They boarded the train from different entrance doors. Because of the crowd, they could not see each other. After an hour, Sagun listened to TT saying “Tickets Please!!” He had shown his ticket and convinced the TT to see the charts once to see Sahasra’s name. And he found it on the chart of his compartment itself. He started going towards the other end of the compartment and at the middle, he stopped as he could see her sitting in the last. He was delighted and went into a dilemma. His mind made 2 statements. One was to go and meet her. The other was to stay where he was as she might think bad about him, that he was following her. The compartment had a couple of exits in the middle along with the 4 exits at the end. He stood where he was right now and was seeing her from the distance. He was not looking at her continuously but at irregular instants so that no one noticed it. He started doing things like this. He thought these were basic symptoms of love. He also stood at a position where he was visible to Sahasra. After couple of hours standing like that, he observed that she looked at him and recognized him. But he was still. His heart started to respond and without his intent, he walked towards her. She was so happy on seeing him and there were no bounds to Sagun’s joy.
They started a formal conversation and the first thing they did, was to exchange their contact numbers and email ids. Sagun fought with the TT to get a berth near to her while the TT was doing his “Ticket Please” work.
From next time, they never travelled alone. Both reserved tickets to travel on same day. Email was the only communication between them although it used be costly. But most of the time, they used to exchange letters and spoke over PSTN phones. They used to meet once a week initially, that changed to daily or alternative days.
They both got jobs with decent salaries in Chennai in campus placements, different employers though. They were about to complete their engineering.
Ten months later, it was going to be their last travel from Rameswaram to Nellore. They completed their final semester exams. Both Sagun and Sahasra met a day before they were leaving Rameswaram. They both went to Rameswaram temple, prayed God for whatever that had been happening. They understood each other well from past 1 year and Sagun wanted to let her know his love towards her. Although he was confident that she would accept his love, there was not enough courage to express his feeling. He made up his mind that day. They were walking along the shore, the sea was calm and the waves were touching their feet now and then. At such a place, normally he would feel light and delighted but that day his heart’s weight got increased. The pressure built up and he seemed to be moving slowly. But actually he was moving with great difficulty.
“I had a weird dream last night.” said Sagun.
“What was that?”
“You were asking me, what is the meaning of your name ‘Sagun’? I said good qualities”
“Oh then”, asked Sahasra
“I asked you, what is the meaning of your name ‘Sahasra’? You said ‘A new beginning. I thought the meaning of your name is “thousand” and I always felt very happy clubbing our names “Sahasrasagun” because that gave a very good meaning ‘1000 good qualities’. That means when we both are together, we have a huge number of good qualities in us. How good that is?”
“Oh really!” she said and was silent.
Sagun said “Do you agree to make it real?”
She stopped there and looked at him. He repeated “Do you?”
She looked in to his eyes and he was serious. At that moment he could feel his heartbeat in every part of his body.
“Yes, I am with you” is the reply from Sahasra, after few seconds.
Sagun felt his weight decreased ten folds and his soul jumped with all the happiness. She could see his happiness in his eyes. She was also happy because he proposed at least on the last day.

………….

Sahasrasagun

Part 2

Sagun completed his engineering from Race College of engineering in Tamilnadu and every couple of months of he used to travel to Nellore. Train was his most convenient mode of transport as he need not take a break in his journey. It was a tiresome travel and normally, an unplanned one as well. So he wanted to get a sleeper berth and hence always boarded the Sleeper class compartments without an advance reservation ticket. Most of the times, it’s the buck toothed TT who caught and get some money out of him and gave him a berth.
Sagun was pursuing his final year engineering and the first semester that year started that month. A local political party announced state bandh on Friday and its going to be a 3 day weekend for him. He immediately decided to go home as he liked his mother’s food. Just the way he did from past 3 years, he caught the same train and it’s the same TT again who caught him without the ticket. Sagun paid the extra amount and there were lot of berths available on a weekday. Its evening, snacks time, and he took 2 Samosas from the vendor. He was about to have his first bite when he noticed a girl standing in front of him. It was the time he first saw Sahasra.
She was looking for her berth number and sat in the seat opposite to Sagun. She had put her luggage beneath the seats and made herself comfortable. All this time, Sagun was watching her with that Samosa still near his mouth. He didn’t bite it yet though the saliva was mouth full by that time. She appeared to be eternal beauty on the earth and he has gone mad about her. He could not understand if that’s Love or attraction, nor he wanted to think about it for now, but he did not stop looking at her. No one boarded in that 6 berth section of the compartment then and they were the only two. She sat comfortably and looked at him. First time, Sagun’s eyes met her eyes. He did not know the reason but he could not look into her eyes for more than a second and had his first crunch of Samosa as if someone was pushing him to eat.
He was watching her now and then, but she did not. Though he did not want to get himself into this, he involuntarily wanted to feel the beauty. Weird thoughts were running in his mind. He started to feel all the things that he listened till now. Statements like “This is how you feel when love strikes you”, “Many love stories start in trains and end in marriage” etc He was feeling happy, tensed and fear all at the same time. Finally he decided to start a chat with her. If it is written that two people should live together in future, everything around you starts helping you and if it’s not, nothing helps you.  It had been 3 hours since he saw her and both started their travel. He observed that she was feeling a little uncomfortable, nauseated and after few minutes vomited. No one was around and Sagun gave his water bottle to her as the train was also running without water.
She got settled and said “Thanks” to Sagun.
Sagun replied “You are welcome” and wanted to ask “Where are you going?” Instantaneously, Sahasra asked the same question.
“Nellore, and where are you going to?”
“Nellore”, she replied.
He was surprised and said “I had been travelling from past three years in the same train but never seen you before. Probably you don’t travel much in trains”.
She understood the intent behind those words but was calm. Sagun felt he was a little hasty in his words and thought he would speak carefully from next time.
“Yes, I travel by a different trains and do a break journey normally” she replied in a little hoarse voice.
There was a pause for couple of minutes. There were thoughts running in his mind, what to talk and what not to and finally made up his mind to start a chat. He broke the silence and asked “so your native is Nellore?”
“Yes, I am born and brought up in Nellore”.
“What made you come to Rameswaram? As a guest or have relatives here?”
“I am studying here” said Sahasra
Sagun was excited and asked her “I am also studying here at Race Engineering College”
“Ok, I heard that was a good college. I am studying at Pace Engineering College on the other side of the temple town and your college as well.” replied Sahasra.
No wonder that she did not see her till now but his heart compelled him not to let her go from his life. She said many things about her like her specialization, her likes and dislikes, why she had to take this train now etc. He listened to them very carefully. And he had a very decent talk with her, with very selective words and did not slip into a converse which conveyed poor meanings. He was never so much careful and constructive earlier while talking to others. He shared many of his interests with her also. Their interests did not match in most of the things but matched well in important things.
It was dinner time and as she caught the train in a hurry, she did not get anything to eat and neither did Sagun. So they thought they would buy something to eat. Their adjacent berths were empty still and the train stopped at a moderately big station. Sagun went to buy something to eat for both of them. He got a bad idea while purchasing food. Although it had not been much time since they met and also did not have much expectation from her, he wanted to test if she was going to care him. He boarded the train in the adjacent compartment and managed to come to an entrance corridor of his compartment and was watching her in the mirror at wash basin near the door. Their berths were next to the entrance. So she was visible, sitting quiet and the train started. She started to get tensed and watching at the food stall from the window. She was very much tensed as the train left the station. She was almost crying and Sagun was watching all this from the corner. He had no bounds of joy and suddenly came into light. She got surprised and was very angry with him. She started taking a big lecture about not boarding the train in time and how tense she felt about him. Sagun lied that he managed to board the train in the other compartment as it already started while he was purchasing. But he was happy about all this.
On the other side, Sahasra was feeling good about him. She liked his attitude and the way Sagun was speaking to her. They shared the food and were speaking all over the night about all the non-sense in the world. Both of them never thought there would be a night like this and that too in a train. Sagun was thoroughly enjoying the magic of love (at first sight).
Yet another love story started.
They reached Nellore in the early hours of Friday and when they were about to get down the train, Sagun asked her “We spoke about many things all over the night but we missed an important one.” She was curious to know and he asked “Well, may I know your sweet name?” She gave a beautiful smile and said “Sahasra”.
“What a beautiful name! My name is Sagun. It is nice to meet you and I am feeling difficult to miss you”
She lost the smile and the glow in her face and felt disappointed. Saying, “It’s OK. We will meet some other time”, she got off from the train. Her father received her. She was going away from him and he did not feel good. When the separation was about 25 ft, she turned back a little and had a look at him. That’s it, the wireless connection from heart to heart got established and he walked out of the railway station very excited and happy. Telepathy works!!

(to be continued….)

Sahasrasagun

Part 1

[All characters in this story and the story itself are absolutely out of my imagination and any resemblances to anyone, living or dead is purely coincidental. This is not even my experience. This is a common love story seen everywhere]

Sitting at the window seat, Sagun could see the world outside going fast behind him. He was about to get himself into the world of thoughts enjoying the nature outside. The train was going fast and it had been an hour since the journey started. Its Dusk and Sagun could see bright reddish orange colored sun reaching his destination on the west, while black clouds were quickly conquering the sky from the South. There are resemblances between Time and Train. Both move fast and both add good experiences to life. Both life and train have people entering and leaving. He thought of telling this point to his wife Pavithra, who was sitting opposite to him in the side lower berth of the Sleeper class reservation compartment. Accidentally, she told him the same point at the same time!

“Ticket please”, requested the TT. Sagun turned to his right and noticed a man wearing a black blazer and his white shirt tucked in so tight that it showed his paunch he then saw his buck teeth and the eyes which looked magnified because of the thick glasses he put on. “Ticket please”, asked the TT again in rather a harsh tone. Something struck Sagun’s mind after seeing the TT and he sat staring at him. “Hello, can you show me your ticket? I am not going to dine with you”, the TT was impatient this time. “Sagun, show him the ticket. What happened?” told Pavithra in a low voice. As far as Sagun could recollect, apart from his responsibility, it was also TT’s mannerism to ask tickets while he was speaking to others and checking the tickets. He wanted to prove himself about his recollection and he asked the TT “Sir, do you remember me?” The TT answered in a flash “It’s not my job to remember everyone I travel with nor do I do it with passion. Tickets please! I am just doing my job.”, he immediately turned towards the other passengers and said “Tickets please”!! Again he turned towards Sagun “Mister, are you going to show your ticket or get down? Tickets please!!”

Without making further discussion, Sagun displayed his ticket to the TT with an extra energy level than required and while the TT was checking the ticket, he again asked him “ Sir, are you sure you did not see me earlier? I think we met earlier”. TT replied “Hey, I agree I saw you somewhere, but I do not remember, here is your ticket. There is absolutely no difference between the details printed on your ticket and details on my sheet. (Looking at other passengers) Tickets Please!! No difference and waste of time.” Sighing with a little smile on his face he said in a low voice “I would have earned some money if there was any difference”. With this he stepped forward and checked the other’s tickets.

After few minutes, Sagun could hear those two words from the other end of the compartment “Tickets Please!!” Pavithra was somewhat curious on seeing all this and she asked Sagun “Do you know the TT earlier?” Sagun was lost somewhere in his thoughts and Pavithra repeated her question. “Hmmm, yes. He gave me berth in this train earlier many times. We used to quarrel sometimes but I thought he would recognize me.” There was a minute pause and he continued “Let it be, give that walkman. I want to listen to music for some time.” He started playing songs in the player. While outside the window, although the sun was no more visible but there was still some sunlight and it had started drizzling. Against his will, his thoughts went into the past because of the environment currently he was in. He stood up suddenly and told Pavithra “I will be standing near the entrance door of the compartment" and did not listen to what Pavithra was saying, probably because he had earphones plugged into his ears. The door was not far, just couple of berths away. He sat at the entrance, resting his feet on the footsteps of the compartment. The drizzle was touching his feet and he could see couple of hills at a distance. The black clouds were so dense and low that they covered the roof of those hills and it was looking as if the hills were cut and a bridge was laid on their tops. Coincidentally, he was listening to ‘Kuch na kaho’ from ‘1942, A Love story’. He did not expect that this wonderful moment reminds him of his own love story, year 2000.

Kitne Gehre Halke Shaam Ke Rang Hai Chhalke
Parvat Se Yoon Utre Baadal Jaise Aanchal Dhalke
Aur Is Pal Mein Koi Nahin Hai
Bas Ek Main Hoon Bas Ek Tum Ho
Kuchh Na Kaho Kuchh Bhi Na Kaho

(to be continued..)