Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem.
Ding-Ding Dong
Passengers' kind attention, please.
The Next train to Chennai Central from Bangalore will arrive at platform No. 3 in a few minutes.
The microphone spoke out loud.
"Shabna, I feel sweaty," Shabna's mother said anxiously rubbing her both hands together.
"Mom. It's alright. Allah is with us and we would reach home safe and sound without any trouble, In shaa Allah," Shabna tried to console.
Shabna and her Mom had come to Bangalore for a family function along with her father. He left them early due to some emergency in his office. That moment, they were returning home, all alone and by themselves.
Bangalore to Chennai is quite a long journey and it requires a minimum of six hours to reach the destination via train.
"Shabna, pick up your luggage, the Train is about to come," said her cousin brother who came to drop them at the Railways station. They boarded the train. "Aunty! Don't you worry? In shaa Allah, you both will be fine," he added as he gave them a bag of fresh cookies and potato chips to munch on the way, after they had boarded the train and settled in their respective seats.
"Jazakallahu Khairan, Bhai," thanked Shabna wholeheartedly.
"Wa Antum fa jazakumullahu khairan, beta. Have a wonderful journey. May Allah bless you. The Dua you make on the occasion of travel is surely answered, so make lots of dua's and don't forget to add me on them," her cousin beamed.
Nodding her head, Shabna made herself comfortable. As they booked the ticket in an instance, they got seats on the normal cabinet instead of a sleeper. They were seated each on the window side. Shabna could see the door of the train ahead and so, she passed the rest of the time until the train whistled to a start by watching the passengers board in.
After a few minutes of waiting, the train finally started.
Shabna was the only child to her parents and she had just graduated from her university. Her parents were middle class and back-minded people. She was a beautiful soul, who strived each day to please her Creator in this modern and mundane world.
A guy who was seated on the same couch as they were sitting was continuously singing strange songs and that made her Mother panic more, worsening the control she had over the situation.
Shabna was wearing a nose piece and her face was thank God! secured from the guy's protruding gaze. She stiffly blinked her eyes a couple of times to let her Mom know that nothing would go wrong and tried to ensure that it was just her anxiety which was making her feel alarmed.
Many stations passed, trees were going in a blur when the Xpress train took speed. Shabna got annoyed more and more with each passing minute, due to the ridiculous songs the guy was singing. She personally hated Men like his kind. She always wished a knight in shining armor to sweep her away with his love. She wished her story with her soul mate would be fairytale-like. She wished so much happiness and love but at the same time, she knew about the reality of life. She knew that marriage would not be a bed of roses. It would be filled with thorns and bricks, one would need so much strength and patience to cross all the boundaries and still feel love for their spouse. She was just thinking about her future husband and she wished he should not be like the annoying guy who was sitting in front of her when suddenly, she remembered her cousin asking her to do dua, for the dua made during the time of travel is accepted so she quickly started praying for having a good spouse who would love and cherish her in the future.
Her gaze flickered to a man standing by the door and she unknowingly made dua that he should be her husband. She bit her bottom lip as the prayer left her mouth and felt dizzy thinking of what she had done. She had prayed for that person to be her potential future husband.
The man was wearing a brown shirt which was fitting his posture with black jeans and a bag was hanging on his shoulder. He was facing the adjacent door so she could not see his full face.
Her heart was beating furiously in her chest.
She did not realise that she was staring at his figure for so long or he got that strange feeling that someone was looking at him that he turned towards the small sink on his right and peered over the mirror which was hanging in the support of a hook.
Just like that, their gaze met in the mirror, making her heart stop beating completely. She was mesmerized by the view of his eyes. They were all anyone could wish for, they were the full form of the word, beautiful. The moment froze to eternity.
The next second her fuzzy mind registered what she was doing and she immediately turned her face towards the window, the skin beneath the covered layer of her face reddened.
Ya Allah! What just happened? She thought to herself.
After some time, her heart started beating normally and she avoided any gaze towards the door of the train. She silently wished that she wouldn't have to encounter him again because his eyes were enough to cause havoc through her whole body.
A little while later, her unknowing gaze found its way to the door to find it empty.
She felt something she had never felt before.
Who was he? Where did he come from? Where did he go?
She didn't expect him to vanish like that, not so soon as she had anticipated him to.
Why did Allah make her do dua for him to be her husband? Would he be her other half?
Questions started blasting one after the other and her brain cells were completely working at a rapid-fire pace. She felt ecstatic and then she remained very quiet throughout the journey.
"Shabna, after this stop, there are only two more stopping for our railway station to come," her mother spoke breaking her chain of thoughts.
"Yes, Mamma. We are ready to get down, Chill. We both will manage," she replied, her vision lingering over the door to find it still empty.
"Can we go and stand near the door. Please," her Mother begged to make her roll her eyes at her typical Desi Mother.
"Okay," she knew the circumstances if she didn't reply affirmatively. She picked up their bags and they both started moving towards the door's direction.
The Train was crowded and so they both were left hanging on the way to reach for the door. Someone told them to be patient and give way to others to pass. To escape from the passing of passengers over them, they stepped inside the nearby compartment.
Placing the bags down, Shabna breathed heavily inside her veil and looked to only have her breathing hitched in her throat.
That guy. He was there. He was seated there in that compartment.
Much to Shabna's surprise, he was leaning back in his seat with his head looking at the ceiling, his eyes closed, his lips slightly parted and he was sleeping peacefully.
Shabna so badly wanted to tear her eye's from the Handsome face but she could not.
She knew she should lower her gaze but she did not.
Those beautiful pearls of his beautiful eyes were hidden by the oyster of his eyelids and were secured through his thick eyelashes.
His hair was neatly spiked in front.
His nose was straight and thin.
His lips were pink and plump.
His beard was small yet full.
His Adam's apple was protruding.
He was wearing a brown-colored shirt that hugged his body and the starting few buttons were left open showcasing the view of his chest slightly. He was wearing a black undershirt contrasting the brown.
"Shabna, our stop has come," her mother grabbed her hand and she also grabbed Shabna's attention in the process.
That instance, Shabna quickly prayed sincerely to Allah that if she was the queen, he should be the one ruling her kingdom. She didn't know anything about him, she was not even sure he was a Muslim or not but still she prayed with all her heart.
They got down from the train and Shabna trained her eyes for one last glance at the one who was sleeping but she was surprised to see him awake. He grabbed the bottle from his bag, gulped down the water, his eyes were searching the train for something and when he finally looked outside the window to see her standing, those eyes looked like they found the one who they were searching for.
Their gaze locked for a final time and the next second, the train started moving until all she saw were the fast-moving cabinets.
Two strangers and just one meeting.
After the train had gone did she realize, he was on the train and she was on the path while he was gone?
They were like the two boulders of the train tracks, no matter how far they traveled along with each other, they would never become one, or did life had other plans?
Read this book to know their journey.
***
Assalamu alaikum guys.
Well, this is the sequel of my first book "Path to Love".
If you are new, you can read it as such.
But there will be characters from the previous book.
Did you like the prologue?
Please comment on your reviews!!!