The Unventured Passions

The Roads Not Taken

The black motor carriage ran faster than it could through the narrow earthy stretch of land with green paddy fields spread until the horizon. It had left the concrete cityscape of Calcutta only an hour ago, yet the vast transformation of the scenary left the two mountain dwellers in complete awe, their wide eyes soaking in the beauty of the green plain lands.
Mira was looking outside the carriage window, her head covered with a black shawl, her fingers had lifted the white lace curtains slightly, and her face had a gaped expression, while Bhargavi sat beside her, looking outside too, but at intervals, as her hands held a small book with brown cover on it.

"Look look... Isn't that a mango tree!"
Mira gasped softly and clutched Bhargavi's arms in excitement, as the latter smiled broadly looking up from the book at once.

"A green pond!" Mira exclaimed again, and Bhargavi nodded, burying her head into the book once again.

"What are you reading?"
Batuk was seated opposite to the girls and although had an English newspaper spread infront of him, he too was secretly admiring the beauty outside, occasionally eyeing the two beauties seated infront as well.
Mira was exquisitely beautiful, a typical mountain beauty, he thought, her flawless white skin and her pink cheeks were no match to any artificial blush that the city girls apply, but what saddened him was her eyes, they had no glow, as if she was living yet not alive!
Bhargavi, on the other hand, was brimming with life. She had a more sombre demeanor, although a few shades darker than the former, but her face had an adolescence glow, and her doe-eyes shone with intelligence.
He saw her focusing on a book with a pencil in hand since the time they had boarded the carriage, and barring a few occasions, she hadn't really spoken much.
"Is it some story?" He asked again, and Bhargavi nodded her head.

"I don't read stories. They are meaningless."

"Meaningless? Interesting!" Batuk frowned in amusement.
"What book is this then?"

"It's... Well... It's a little puzzle book. It's called Math Magic." Bhargavi murmured, a little embarassed at her own queer nerdiness.

"Math Magic? Sounds interesting!"
Batuk's eyes, however, had shone up instantly, as he rubbed his palms in excitement and stretched his arm to her for the book.

"It's silly really", Bhargavi objected, "just number puzzles."

"I love number puzzles, and you have no idea how good I am?"

It was now Bhargavi's turn to stir and sit upright, smiling at him.
"Really? Let's see then!"

Batuk invited Bhargavi to sit beside him, and she readily complied, their mutual affection for mathematics pouring down as first drizzle of friendship, shadowing the rattling sound of the carriage wheels with their unblemished laughter.

The air had lightened, and the gentle breeze from the outside ruffled Batuk's hair, threatening to sway Bhargavi's tightly oiled braids, and they sat together, lost in the world of numbers and their endless mysteries. Mira sat quietly by the window too, with a folded letter in her hand, the letter that carried the news of her son... her only beacon of hope, the only source of her happiness... Her only solace!

"Ayey...arey... areyy areyy..."

A rough gush of wind tousled the hair and clothes of the three passengers seated inside, abruptly, like an uninvited guest, and it's unwelcomed advances blew Mira's treasured letter along with it, outside the window, flying high in the wind like an autumn leaf.
It was a moment, a brief second, and before Batuk could fathom the occurrences of the situation, he saw Mira unlatch the door of the moving carriage, about to jump.
Another brief second, another sudden instinct, and Batuk jumped up and pulled her inside by her arm, but blame it on the inertia, or the strength of a wounded mother's heart, the pull backfired, making Batuk fall off the carriage along with Mira... both rolling down the pathway to the edge of the paddy field... She on the soft grassy ground, and he on top of her, clutching her to his chest, their bodies aligned, and their faces collided with each other's.
Batuk's eyes were fixated on her face, his mouth opened, as his senses made him acutely aware of his lips touching Mira's cheek in an accident, a little near to the nose, and he heard Mira sigh, along with the unrhythmic thudding of her heart.