Sea Link

David Bowie’s Hero

God Only Knows by The Beach Boys

A solo holiday at a Dharamshala resort

Weekend in Goa with my wife

Leo Messi hattrick vs Real

Virat’s century at Perth

Their answers were fluent and poles apart from one another’s.

As the two of them sat by the sea that late night they seemed to have found a connect in their disconnected lives. The Mumbai sea-link formed an unlikely backdrop to the serendipitous meeting of two strangers.

He was a 30 something freelancer working with various IT firms in the city. He knew he was pushing the age limit for his ultimate ambition…to have his own dream App come out. But he didn’t think of failure. With his wife and 3-year old at home he couldn’t afford to

She dreaded approaching 30. Two broken relationships and endless job hopping had been her only remarkable achievements in life. Away from her family in Kolkata she found sanctuary in her one room PG dig in Bandra. Her job at the mall paid her bills. She secretly wrote poems.

A technical glitch brought them together that night. Inexplicably both had the same taxi assigned to them for different locations. They wondered how the same car could take them to Bandra and Powai at the same time. The car went to neither. Instead dropped them off by the sea and whisked off before they could finish their curses.

Just one of those nights, he smiled as he looked at her and sat on the concrete slab by the sea. The night breeze swept her hair across her face making her look beautiful.

Yes the last thing I needed to round off a lousy week she sighed, moving the hair off her face with her slender fingers. She too sat down next to him.

Strangely it didn’t feel strange for either of them as the conversation flowed on.

Bad week eh he asked looking into her hazel eyes directly as he spoke.

She liked people who looked her in the eye as they spoke. She nodded a yes. A soft smile flashed across her lips. Maybe for the first time that week.

Business has been slow and the store I work in has been threatening to trim since a while now. And I feel the axe might just come any day now she sighed, as her shoulder slumped as she removed her hand bag from her shoulder and kept it by her side.

I don’t even have a job he laughed. I keep hoping to get a next assignment soon but things are bad yes. He understood how she felt, since he juggled his uncertainty at job on a regular basis.

They both decided to book their cabs again hoping they’d get separate ones to take them to their respective homes.

Kajal will throw a fit again. She’ll be sure I’m out boozing with my friends on a Friday evening. Maybe that’s better for her to think than knowing I’m sitting with an attractive girl by the sea at this hour he smiled as he looked straight in her eyes again.

Oh thanks she smiled back, looking him back in his eyes. She found his honesty disarming and sweet.

Favourite song? Dream Holiday? Best sporting moment?

They asked and answered each other’s questions like old friends. Theirs was a connection that was unprecedented and rare.

Two unknown people bumping into each other in a bustling city one lonely night by the sea was stuff they had read or seen in movies. But this connection was so real and yet magical.

They both felt a sense of calm which they hadn’t in a long time. Relaxed.

He answered a phone call which interrupted their conversation, as he whispered “Kajal” to her with a smile.

No I promise I’m not drunk he answered on the phone, as he flashed that same charming smile at her. She found it adorable.

Her taxi arrived before his. She got in the car and waved him a goodbye. She kept looking at him as her car started moving and suddenly said I’m Aditi by the way. Her words echoed in the quiet night as he saw her taxi fade away in the darkness. He went back to sit and wait for his taxi to arrive. He saw she had left her hand bag there, in her hurry.

He picked it up and smiled as he opened it , hoping to find an address or a phone number.

The sea link looked bright and lit up that late night.

Copyright (c) Pratik Majumdar, 2020. Any article, story, write-up cannot be reproduced in its entirety or in part, without permission. URL links can be used instead.