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….)