Entwined

Chapter 2

Before reaching her destination Sanvika travelled a lot. Just with a backpack and a camera. She travelled through the coastal line of India. And saw many people... and visited museums and emporiums. Took photos of old houses. She even went to Tibet. Some of her best photographs are from there.

Finally, she settled down on Goa. Because she met Mr Flower there. Now that is another story... Mr Flower aka Shardul Barve was a traveller too. He was a writer. He wrote about architecture and heritage buildings.

They met at a house. Sanvika was walking and she saw a beautiful old house. She wondered if she could ask permission to take photos of the house. She opened the gate and walked in but there was nobody there. She rang the calling bell, and no one answered.

"There is nobody inside." She heard a voice and turned around to see a lean and fair young man of about 30. "May I ask what your purpose of the visit is?" He asked very politely.

"Are you the owner of this house?" She asked.

"No... No. This is my first time here as well." He looked at her confused. Sanvika was wearing her camera around her neck and had a pedal pusher a t-shirt and a cap on. "I obviously took the permission of the owners. They are currently abroad."

"Ah..." Sanvika uttered nodding. "Then can I just click a few pictures of the house?"

"You came to take pictures of the house?"

"Yes. Because it looked so pretty."

"Are you an architecture student?"

"Huh? No... I was just walking, and the house looked so beautiful." She smiled, carefree. Shardul thought afterwards that maybe the moment his heart started melting down for Sanvika.

"You can take photos." He said smiling.

"Thanks." Sanvika smiled widely and took a few steps behind and started clicking pictures of the house. Shardul was just watching her. After a second, Sanvika got conscious of that and looked at him, "You can do what you came to do."

"I also came to just look at the house." He said.

Sanvika just nodded. As she clicked more pictures, she saw that the guy was walking around the house writing some things down in a small notebook. After a while, he sat down on the steps of the house and continued writing. She came closer to see... "You have nice handwriting," She said. He looked up and smiled. "Thanks."

He closed the book and got up. A dried flower fell down from the book. Shardul missed it and walked ahead. Sanvika picked it up. It was a Pinkish-purple Flower pressed between two pages. Thin as paper. "Excuse me..." she called. Shardul turned back. "This fell down." She held the flower up.

"Oh... Thanks..." He went to take it back. He took it back very carefully. "Really thanks. It's kind of important to me."

"Okay. What flower is that?"

"You don't know...? This is a common flower. It's Maharashtra's state flower."

"I have seen it. I just don't know the name."

"Pride of India. That's what it is called."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. Seriously. Pride of India. In Marathi it's Tamhan. It's a very common flower in the Konkan region"

Sanvika nodded. They walked out of the premises of the house together. Greeted each other polite goodbyes. And parted ways.

Sanvika did not meet Shardul until three days later. She was eating at an open restaurant by the beach and Shardul walked by. She recognised him instantly. "Oh. Mr Flower." She uttered. She did not know his name, of course, because they never exchanged names. Shardul looked around.