I wish that I die ...

It was 8.00 pm and there was no other vehicle other than the Pulsar 180 cc which Vroomed at 80 Kmph on the desolate ECR highway, that connected Chennai and Pondicherry. The street lights just kept on coming over the bend and the smell of salty air along with the monotonous shade of the lights made the adrenaline rush .The vehicle traffic at this time would be minimal but today it was at an all time low as there was a major accident near Pondicherry. A chemical tanker lorry capsized, and the police took precautionary measures, not allowing traffic till the Fire service department sprayed foam on the overturned vehicle and gave the assurance that it was safe for other vehicles to pass through the accident spot.

Karthick, a young lad in his 18 was riding the Pulsar, he felt as if he is riding the latest 2000 R6 Yamaha with a leather jacket and an armour helmet. But Karthick looked as if he is in cloud nine, because behind him sat Angel. She held him tightly, gripping his hair in her slender fingers, wishing this long winding road would never end. He increased the throttle till the needle in the RPM meter touched the red level. With the nothing to bear the pounding of the gushing wind, the two travellers enjoyed every moment of their adventerous ride.

Karthick inspite of the gale like conditions, managed to utter "How do you feel?".
"I am feeling great,uhuuu", she replied in a shrill voice with her arms high up in the air.
"Oki Angy,remind me when we near 'Fisherman's Cove', or else I might just miss it!".
"I will. I am starving...",said Angel shaking his head. "Dont eat me ... that too my brain!!!", chuckled Karthick, and Angel joined in the laughter. They were in love.

On the start of this beautiful day, Angel was in her room in the girl's hostel dressing up for her first date. "Did the dhobi(laundry) arrive?" moaned Rehane from her bed.
"No, its sunday isn't it, and our ISO 9001 certified dhobi service is deep in slumber" replied Angel. Rehane noticing Angel dressing up, took stock of the happening and said "Look who's going for a date!!,finally the D-Day has come" teasing her. Angel with her cute girlish-blushing replied
"Rehane, you are ribbing me apart, GOD ... I wish that Rehane gets a new boyfriend who takes her out everyday!".
"Dont worry, I will get someone, I am working on it !" retorted Rehane and went on to say "Madam,how did you get dressed up when the dhobi failed to arrive?".
"Ohh, this one is from a separate set of dresses which I brought from my home to be worn for 'special ocassions', each one is very special to me " said Angel.
"So you knew that this would happen, naughty girl !" rided Rehane.
"Hey, I have told you umpteen number of times, that I did not plan this date. It was Karthick's idea " said Angel innocently.
"Angy, you look great in your denims,your boy-wonder would surely like it" admired Rehane. "Thanks, Now I got to go. Karthick said he would be waiting at the bus-stop at 9.00. Ohh my god, I just got 5 mins more!!!,Bye Rehane,Wish me luck!"said Angel as she ran towards the door. "Angy, have a great time! ,all the best!"wished Rehane from her bed.

Karthick arrived at 9.10 and seeing Angel waiting at the bus-stop prepared for an explanation of sorts. "Hi Angy.., Sorry for keeping you waiting, that bugger Krishna did not wake up and I had to bang his bedroom door to get his bike's keys" mumbled Karthick hoping to get a reprieve with the bike still on. Angy smiled and said,"Its OK. Just now, I came to the bus-stop." and mounted on the back seat. "Will we reach in time for the show?" asked Angel with a puzzled look.Karthick throttled the bike into first gear and said "We will reach on time, Angy...". And off they went towards ECR to get to MAYAJAAL(multiplex) for the 10.30 show.

Karthick sped his way through ECR like a pro on a racing circuit. The two did not talk much, Karthick thought that as it was their first date, they still had hesitations to start a converstion. Angy liked the ride very much, but did not utter a word about it. When they neared 'Fisherman's cove' Karthick pointing it said,"This is the place where we are going to have our dinner!".
"Ohh.Its good.Nice choice"said Angel. She loved it and at the same time had a tinge in her heart that she did not reciprocate what she felt about Karthick's choice of the restaurent. She felt that she could have said more about it. She soothed herself that there is a long day ahead, and that their date had just begun.

They reached MAYAJAAL well before 10.30. They had a quick drink to refreshen themselves and headed out for their cinema hall. The movie was good, but they did not indulge in things that other lovers do. Angel really got involved in the movie and Karthick pretended that he too enjoyed it. There were frequent glances at each other during the movie, but none of them uttered a word,untill intermission. "Do you like the movie?" asked Karthick making a contrived attempt to start a converstion. "Oh Yeah,I liked it " said Angel clutching his hand. Now they got into the groove. Karthick was startled at this sudden jesture but did not showed what he felt,he said "Shall we go out and have a quick snack?". She agreed and they went on to buy Coke,puffs and popcorns. At that time, Karthick's mobile ringed, it was a call from Krishna. Karthick received the call, "What are you guys upto?" asked Krishna. Seeing Karthick blushing over the phone, she giggled. This made him worse and said "Man... I will call you later,bye", but the uncessant Krishna had the time to ask "Did you kiss her?" before Karthick could cut the call.

After the intermission they began to speak, from class gossips to personal stuffs. They liked to talk rather than watching the movie. But as first timers they just limited to talk and nothing else. Now glancing at each other and making an eye contact was not a problem. They felt very comfortable in each others company. The movie ended in a jiffy. But Angel concentrated to watch towards the end, as she liked the first half of the movie and wanted to know how it came to an end. As for Karthick, it wasn't the movie that was going on his mind...

After the movie they went to the food court, and took the prime table on the best spot. Karthick let Angel to choose the dishes from the menu card. She chose heartily never minding of the outrageous prices. She ordered Ceaser's salad and a king size burgar .Karthick was prepared for such an eventuality, he brought his debit card for today. They had a long lunch lasting for 2 hours which was lightened by frequent orders for ice-creams and Milkshakes . They started to converse about anything that came in their mind's and then continued to stare at each other till Angel blushed. After their lunch, they roamed the place till the junk food in their stomachs lightened. Now Karthick was serious in his conversation with her, he asked about her friends, her family and what she thought about him. Angel was not left behind, she asked 10 times more questions than he did. By the time, they got to know about each other it was 4.00 pm.

Next they headed out to the gaming section and the snowball arena. Angel tried her hand in all the games available, Karthick was hesitant at first, but a smooth persuasion from her made him feel interested. When they headed into the snowball arena, it was Karthick's domain, Angel was impressed by his skills with the bowling ball. But his bull run was cut short frequently by Krishna's "What are you upto guys?" calls. Karthick got fed up when Krishna called up for the 6th time, he answered, "I am going to crash your pulsar, if you call me once again...". Angel chuckled when she overheard it. It was getting dark, and when Angel checked her watch it was 7.15 pm and she sighed to Karthick who cried "Strike" when he knocked down all the pins. Karthick got the hint and both of them marched towards the exit. And Karthick with his macho-style started the bike into which Angel hopped in. They sped towards 'Fisherman's cove'.

A few miles down MAYAJAAL there was a Chennai bound bus from Pondicherry. One of its passengers was Mr.Benedict who happened to be Angel's father. He was looking anxious as he was behind schedule. The tanker lorry accident and the subsequent stoppage of traffic made him wait for more than 5 hours. He had a presentation to make about the trial results of the new drug developed under his guidance at the R&D centre of his company. He had planned to reach Chennai by 5.oo pm but because of the delay he could not reach Chennai before 9.00 pm. He telephoned the Regional office about the delay that was caused, due to the accident and scheduled the presentation the following day. Mr.Benedict was genteel in his demeanour, his co-workers called him to be a purtanical,Victorian fella. He loved the ambience of the ECR highway and it in turn soothed him from his tension arising from his hectic schedule. His co-passenger was fast asleep and there was no way that he could open a conversation with him. He tried to read the newspaper that he bought at Pondicherry. He was pleased to read the "India wins Test Series" article on the sports column. His demanding work-schedule made him, miss watching the match live. He enjoyed the vicarious thrill in reading it. Then he moved onto the regional section. There he saw an article about the recent spate of accidents happening in ECR because of over-speeding and loss of lives of young people in the category of 16-28 years.

Mr. Benedict thought if each parent had read the article they would not give bike to their wards and let them crash themselves due to overspeeding. When thinking of young people, he thought of his beautiful,cuddlesome daughter Angel. The bus in which he travelled slowed down, he thought to himself, "Now what?, not another accident!". The passengers at the front end of the seat started to get down from the bus. Mr.Benedict out of curiousity got down from the bus. When he got down, he could see other vehicles ranging from Cars and buses piled up before his bus along with it, he could see the entry arch of the 'Fisherman's cove' restaurant.

The sight of the restaurant made him energetic from the sluggish journey. But all of a sudden, he felt a premonition of something terrible happened in his mind. He made his way to the accident spot. On his way to the accident spot by negotiating through stranded cars and two wheelers, he heard the comments of passers-by that a boy and a girl travelling in a two wheeler crashed. His heart felt as if someone had stabbed him. His walk towards the accident spot, now turned into a frenzied run. When he reached the accident spot, it was crowded by curious onlookers. He was determined to see the accident, he ploughed his way into the crowd. Before he could reach the inner perimeter, he could glimpse the wreckage of the bike. It looked like a mass of crushed metal with some blood strewn over it, with the front wheel contorted without the hood. The people from the spot carried a stretcher containing the injured boy, from the looks of it, he thought that the boy was badly hurt. His feelings ranged from feeling pity for the young teenagers to his premonition. Amidst the frenzy surrounding it, hopes of people at that spot were to save atleast the boy's life. What happened to the girl's life ?. The same question hung around Mr.Benedict's mind. Finally he reached the inner perimeter of the accident spot. There he had the shock of his life .

He could not beleive his eyes, he saw a girl lying prostate on the floor, with blood flowing from her head. Her face was damaged. She was very similar to her daughter Angel. A second glance made him realise, that the girl was wearing the same dress that he bought for her daughter, when she came for her semester holidays. His heart pounded heavily, and rushed towards the corpse, thoughts like"It is Angel, Oh my God, Angel, Angel, What happened to you?,How can it happen?" to denial like "It cant be Angel!,She must be in her hostel, studying!" ran through his mind. But when he came close to her , he lost himself, his teary eyes could not beleive the carnage. "It is Angel", he cried. He came running and lifted the corpse. The crowd was in awe at the terrible turn of events. Mr.Benedict, hugged her and began crying inconsolably. He cried, "Angel, Angel, Why should you die?". His eyesight darkened and he became unconcious in a matter of seconds.

"I wish that I die ...", said a voice.

Amidst the jungle of cars and two-wheelers, it was dark, Karthick had said "I wish that I die ...". He repeated the same "I wish that I die ...", when he was kissed on his other cheek. But this time Angel gave a punch to his tummy and said, "Its getting late. Drop me at the hostel, Papa is coming to see me tomorrow !", from the parking lot of 'Fisherman's cove' restaurant ...

My first kiss ...

I am curious about girls, even today. They act as if they are from a different planet, my mylaporean (very conservative place) upbringing alienated, and a bit frightened me from them. There had been countless occasions where I wanted to say something to a girl, and yet I remained as a quiet observer.

But even to a tight mouthed guy like me, a kiss happened. A cupid's faintest arrow must have struck me and that girl who used to sit near me at school. Her dressing sense was of Haute Couture, her pristine eyes dazzled along with her yummy cheeks, yet I reminisce that I had liked her hair more than anything else. She smiled whenever she saw me. I used to beam back blushing, but no one from our class seemed to be bothered about our clandestine stares and the consequent blushings. People must be busy in their work, I had then guessed.

At recess hour, she would be the last person to move out of the class. I was quite the opposite as my brain thinks like an ogre when I feel hungry.  I always headed out first, marching along with my friends like a pack of army ants. "Did she miss me in the recess hour?", I used to wonder. My doubts didn't last long as she would continue where she had left to occasionally gaze at me after the lunch break. I could recollect that sometimes I resisted my temptation to look back at her and listen carefully to the class proceedings, but my heart always breaks down after some time. She must have looked at me at least six times by that time and I would have displayed my trademarked loser smile when she casts her eye on me again.

A few days passed and as luck would have it; the girl next to her was absent for that day. An opportunity presented itself to sit next to her. I did not hesitate and captured the moment as my gut instructed. Her eyes sparkled at close quarters, and I could look no further, even her faintest smiles rocked me. I was lost in her beauty, and she chuckled at the sight of it. My heart soared and ebbed. She looked very ecstatic of us sitting together and I had lost all attention to whatever that is going on around me.

I moved closer and kissed her yummy cheek. My heart stopped for a moment. All thoughts ranging from: "Why did I do it ?","What a foolish thing to do?","What will she think of me?","How many from our class has seen it?", "Did the teacher see it ?"

My tension that rose like a rocket fell like one when she smiled back. Is this what is called Elysian joy? The teacher and other students just kept on doing their work. Finally, my time hath come. I have a girlfriend whom I can kiss.

The following day, I had the chance to sit next to her again. I began scheming and her glances at me assured that I was on the right track. I moved closer, I kissed her again in the class while she was listening to the teacher. She turned towards me and her countenance suggested that she was in awe. Emboldened, I said to her "I would kiss you after every session". Mysteriously, she agreed to my deal. True to my word, I did kiss her after every session on that school day. I distinctly remember that she was attentive to the class proceedings in spite of me being a distraction. She always had an eye for her work.

I asked her to kiss me with just minutes before our recess could start.
She kissed me on my left cheek. It was the first time when a girl of my age kissed me. I still cherish that moment. Everything had then come to a still, and I could hear my heart beat. Her pulchritude after that kiss was magnanimous. We smiled back at each other numerous times that day. I pecked her cheek one last time.

"Neo !", the teacher shouted and the whole class turned towards me. "Naughty boy! What are you doing in that corner?" she asked. I was flabbergasted, but my girlfriend was not; she smiled at the teacher as if she had not done any wrong. She looked at me to admonish, but nevertheless could not control her laughter. As she came towards our bench, my first-grade teacher said, "I am going to change your place !"

Errr ...