A Trip to Remember…
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Chapter 1
Summo looked out the train’s window. In her lap was her best friend Mananya, fast asleep, snoring lightly. If you looked closely enough, you could see the thin streaks the tears had left on her face. In the dim train light in the S3 coach, she resembled a baby who had fallen asleep crying over something.
Her thoughts drifting, she found herself just unable to sleep and thinking of the day ahead when the sun would have come up and everything would have again become normal. It was going to be Tuesday! She hated that day so much. It seemed as if she lived for Tuesday evening when the next Tuesday was the farthest away. The reason being her extremely hectic and monotonous Tuesday timetable.
In the next seat was her friend Samyukta wearing a red hat and pretending to read some novel over her 5 inch cell phone screen. Throne of Glass Series was definitely a nice read but at the moment it was helping her in not thinking about what had been just one of the most memorable weeks of her life. With her hair flying all around because of the wind, it looked as though the hat had been made for her. The other day while buying the hat after what seemed like infinite number of attempts, Adi had finally settled for a red hat more so as a souvenir. Later when Mananya tried that hat, it looked way better on her than on any of the four guys. It was only then when Harsh mentioned, “Everything looks pretty on Girls!”. Adi had known it always deep in his heart that Harsh carried some secret admiration for Mananya and even though he denied having any feelings for her, Adi found their chemistry exceptionally amusing. He had smiled his way through then just to declare his agreement with Harsh.
Raj was sitting with his eyes closed looking more calm and a bit tired. The same can be said about his emotions also. Sitting there, as his train whistled past very fast, the lush landscape of the state of West Bengal rushed away behind him. A tiny speck amidst the beautiful hills and mountains in a metal tube hurtling towards college. What a turbulent period it had been initially! He had almost given up but he never let even a minor reflection of his motion fear surface on his face. That is why they say, ‘Guys are tough’ whereas in fact all of them always have that extreme tender spot hidden inside themselves which they always tend to hide . Just beside him and exactly opposite to Harsh who was by now dozing off over Adi’s shoulder even though he had been sleeping all day, was Arjun who was busy going through all the pictures he had clicked using his brand new Canon DSLR camera which he had brought from Europe. Arjun liked to believe that he was good at photography and he in fact at times clicked good photos. That was the reason he decided on buying that DSLR as the only thing while returning back from his dream destination. However Arjun seemed just not ready to accept the fact that their trip had come to an end and was trying to go over the same pictures over and over again. As if, they were going to come alive and the calendar would again reach back to the 4th of March,2015.
Adi took special pleasure in kicking Harsh who was still sleeping all over him with his elbow. Even though Aditya found it a bit annoying to let someone like Harsh who had been sleeping all day long in that SUV on their way back to New Jalpaiguri, to sleep at all, Gangtok had left such an imprint on him that he was more absorbed into recollecting those memories which already seemed to have happened long back. Added to that was his 15 minute long debate with Harsh who was trying to explain that he was awake during the entire day and deserved to be given a bed with all respect. There was a kid like innocence that Harsh had which often made Adi back-out from the discussions, much like what he had done after boarding the train.
As Adi went on recollecting, Harsh was still sleeping peacefully and the train kept on moving but Mananya had woken up, her head still buried in Summo’s lap which she found very comfortable at the moment. Adi indicated her to move to the upper berth with the motion of his eyes which Mananya immediately agreed to complaining of a mild headache. The headache was just another manner of hiding out her emotions. Adi very well knew that she had not yet recovered fully and let her go without saying a word.
All 6 of them had pulled her leg so much that Mananya at times started believing that she would have to go to her own berth which was 4 compartments away. Indian railways allowed for a maximum booking of 6 berths at one time and Mananya being the 7th ended up having a berth allotted separately. They had so many plans supposedly to be executed during their return journey exactly the way their journey had started when they left Guwahati junction in the 12518 kolkata bound Garib Rath Express but no one felt like doing anything. Summo had stretched her leg a bit in the space which Mananya had vacated and Samyukta had taken down the hat and tied her hair. Adi often asked Samyukta to let her hair down and she would do so once in a while which made Adi happy. The red hat found it’s place over Summo’s head now and Harsh was correct- Things looked beautiful on girls!
Five days. That’s all it had been. Not even a week. An almost negligible amount of time in the grand span of the human life. There was no justification for the way Mananya felt now tossing and turning all alone on the upper berth. She remembered voices of laughter, the images of her friends, the baker’s cafe, the mafia games, the snow fights and her snow-man, the smell of a chilly morning, the late night Rum and Red Wine after it had become unbearably cold in Lachung that night when they had traveled like anything and the warm touch of a hug followed by the coldness after it was over. People of northeast India definitely were the most humble species alive on earth. “Just this one trip” was how she had tried to convince her parents . Triggering the senses to pinch her once in a while she wanted to make sure this was not a dream. The trail had composed the greatest story of them all.
The feeling of a sudden sharp stabbing pain made her look down. She saw it was because she had been gripping something too tight and its edges had cut into Summo’s skin. Bright Orange with a glossy surface, it was Kurkure. They had brought in snacks just in case they wanted to eat and nobody had touched a piece even though everyone was now on their own berth trying to sleep. Harsh had woken up and alongwith Adi he sat on the side lower birth with the resolute of not sleeping at all. “If I feel like sleeping again, I will go to Manaya’s berth”, said Harsh. Samyukta had put away her phone. She had tried to read the book for the entire trip but had hardly managed to finish even 20 pages. She had many more interesting things to do. Now, when she had all the time to read, she didn’t feel like doing it. Triggers of melancholic nostalgia. That’s what these were. The water rafting experience, that cold night when she could not even sleep for one minute, the physical objects like the souvenir she had bought, the Buddhist flags that she saw, the game of poker which she had learnt. She wondered if she would ever be the same again, if she could ever again attend class, give tests and get back into the dull routine of life. It was long back that Adi had proposed the idea of this trip but things somehow never worked. Finally there was a group that was ready to go, a group in which she liked everybody. Mananya’s parents had been too tough to convince. More so because of some recent incidents which her uncle had to undergo near Guwahati railway station. They agreed only because Samyukta made Mananya promise to her parents that she would never again ask permission for any trip if she was granted a permission to this one. Now that everything was coming to an end, the probable dates of discussion for a next trip had already started.
The concept of college trips had been there for long. Every now and then, students would go for a trip and come back. So why was this so special? Why were there pangs of nostalgia? The five days had begun much like any other trip, what followed though, had changed her life wholly and completely. Maybe the thought of trying to imagine the entire experience backwards could help. Only once she was done, could Samyukta rewind and live it in the chronological order. A lot had happened between her and Adi even though it seemed nothing had happened. They had been together for 4 months! They started out very differently and there was nothing usual about their being together. Her friends often wondered on the kind of relationship she was having but there was some sort of understanding which she had with Adi and which she could not explain with words. 4 months had never been imagined by either of them but the way things were moving, both of them enjoyed and were happy about it. Nothing else mattered. She looked towards Adi once before finally trying to sleep. Adi had lied down on the side lower berth which Harsh had vacated by now and probably gone to sleep. Mananya had stopped tossing. Summo was snoring. Arjun still had the camera held tight in his hand and was almost asleep. Raj seemed calm like ever. He was awake but in his own thoughts. Samyukta wanted to say good night to Adi but it seemed he had slept already. After all, this guy had stayed awake for most of the trip. Shutting all thoughts away, she finally turned in the other direction and went to sleep.
Adi opened his eyes and looked at his cell phone.
11:00 P.M.
It was still 5 hours long a journey before Guwahati. Raj had dozed off with his mouth open by now. Taking a sip of water he took one last look at Samyukta finding her asleep. Life had blessed him with a very good group of friends.
He put on his headset and played ‘ye din humein yaad aayenge….Ye dosti hum nhi chodenge….’ And closed his eyes.
-To be continued…..