From Pragmatic Persona, to her

Not every meeting is a planned one. There are some people in your life whom you’ve met unexpectedly and now they’re important part of your life. I am sure that this story will take you to that person, the meeting with whom was only coincidence.

Pragmatica, my renowned gf has become quite fashionable nowadays. In spite of meeting her demands to take her to several places and events, she has developed a new interest. The interest of visiting ‘her type of beauty parlour‘. It was her second visit to Canon Service Centre, Barakhamba, Delhi.

I was to pick her up from there a few days later. Hence, I decided to visit a place nearby for photography. After surfing through internet for a while, I found that Agrasen ki Baoli is only a km from there.

I had some hopes about this place but after reaching here, I couldn’t find it meeting my expectations. Though the place was crowded, it was poorly maintained. The crowd was mixed one which comprised of all section of people, the majority being college students. Also, there wasn’t much space to roam or to click, just a reservoir. I started exploring whatever perspective and places I could see.

The Baoli had many stairs. I started going down to see what’s there at the bottom with the dslr in my hand. On the way my eyes caught the glance of the two girls, one sitting and one standing, on the side walls. They were clicking photographs of each other and selfies. To me, it appeared that they were waiting for someone may be their friends or boyfriends because they didn’t seem in hurry. While I passed, they looked directly at me as if wanted to say something but instead started murmuring between themselves. I am one of those persons who couldn’t initiate conversation with girls until prompted. I blushed, withdrew the gaze and took my way. I went to the bottom of stairs to look what’s there and click some more picture. The remote part of Baoli has become a center for bats. Also, there wasn’t much to see. Hence, after spending some time, I took my way up to the stairs.

I could again see them sitting at the same place and lost in some conversation. This time, I willingly stood at some distance from where they were as to see what they were up to. Also, you can’t stand somewhere casually. Thoda odd lagta hai. Hence, to pretend, I started clicking pictures of a model you came there for her modelling photographs along with a man. I was surprised to see the risk she was taking to get herself clicked. Once, she sat on the edge of wall with both the legs swinging downward to get herself clicked. It is a real struggle to be a model.

While I was thinking all these, one of them came directly to me and stood aside. I felt proud on myself the way I anticipated about them that they wanna say/request something. Meanwhile, she was already standing before me. I kept pretending that I am busy clicking, knowingly and waited for her to catch my attention. I couldn’t give any explanation for my such demeanor. It might be that I wanted her to put some efforts. She also waited for a while but very soon her patience betrayed her. She turned directly to me and said,

Hi! in a low and pressed tone.

Now it was my turn. I twisted myself towards her in such a way that my face become collinear to hers. I could see in her eyes as if she wanted some favor from me.

Hey Hello! What’s up?

She was amazed to see me do some talking without having formal conversation. Also, I realized that I shouldn’t have asked the second question as it may make her feel uncomfortable or the impression that this guy is desperately looking for a girl. Nonetheless, I waited for her to reply.

“I am good. Actually can you click the pictures of two of us and send over whatsapp later“?

She came directly to the point without asking the state of mine.

“Yes sure! But I ain’t much good in portraits“.

The thought of whatsapp provoked me little but then I realized that it’s not a big deal to share contact number with any stranger in a city like Delhi.

“Chalega!” With this, she quickly dragged her friend and asked for a place to pose.

I couldn’t understand what happened with me a while ago. With a perplexed state of mind, I directed some locations where they can pose. Through viewfinder of my camera, I found myself inclined more to the second one though both were equally beautiful. Her hairs were all black and long which was set loose to touch the side of her waist. I could have described the hairstyle if I had known, nonetheless, the hairs were combed from the corner and one side of waist has significantly more hairs swinging than the other. The eyes were bigger than usual and protected by a thin layer of Kajal (collyrium) on the lower eye lid. She wore a watch in her left hand. While she smiled the moment I was clicking the pictures, the fair complexion cheeks arranged itself to form a dimple, not fully matured. Altogether, these distracted me a lot and I ended up clicking more blurred pictures than good one. I thought, I will edit and then send her.

The photography session got over sooner than I expected. I could guess a reason that they didn’t want to trouble a stranger much with their poses. Now it was the time to find for a suitable medium to share the pictures. Without wasting more time, I asked to the girl who came to me”,

“How will I share the pictures”?

“Why don’t you give him your number”? She suggested her friend.

I was surprised and smiled at this gesture of hers. Why she urged her friend to share her number? Did she come to know my attraction toward her or was she more concerned about her privacy? It could be anything.

“Ca..n we s..h..a..r…e it through m..a..i….l? Pictures ki quality waha jyada acchi aayegi” She said- half stammering, a quarter concerned and with so much innocence that she took all the the care that I won’t feel offended.

I wanted to jump in the middle of her statement by saying- the documents feature of whatsapp has made it possible to share images in the original size. but after she completed her statement, I couldn’t. Instead, I appreciated her as she was concerned about her privacy. After all, she met me a while ago and if she didn’t want to share her number, it is completely justified. Trust isn’t easy to build. I don’t know why but this made me happy and my interest in her increased.

“Yeah, it’s completely fine”. I replied in satisfied tone and gave her my phone after opening notes in it.

It’s been several days, this incident happened. Internal examinations were at hand. I couldn’t remember to transfer the pictures from dslr to either mobile/lappy for further processing or to share on social medias. Also, I didn’t prefer sharing pictures on the same day with the idea that she might take it in the other way. My internals came to an end just a day before the Deepawali. I passed that day roaming with friends and eating street foods. On the day of Deepawali, I had to leave for a relative’s house in Delhi. I opened the notes app in my cellphone to make a list of all the items I should carry. Before I could type anything, I found an email-id on the top of the list which read”,

amsjain.17@gmail.com

For a moment, I couldn’t figure out whose email Id it was. I, then scrolled the date on which it was saved. It was 16 days old.

Oh Shit! Shit! Shit! I forgot to send her the pics. I recalled everything the next moment and realized my mistake. I decided to get this done first. After processing all the images, I was into the compose section of my email box. The next I wrote was as follows.

“Hi Ams!

This is what your mail says about your name which I forgot to ask that day. Shashank here!

Before I begin – Happy Deepawali, I hope you must be busy with rangoli, colors and light. 

Actually, you have asked me to click some images of yours on my visit to the Baoli. I took a good time to send you those, so excuse me for that- if possible. I am attaching some of you and your friend images here. Actually, I don’t specialize in portrait hence I can only hope that you find those images good enough to post on social medias. As I love to travel and click and write – you can get in touch with me at my Instagram ID – pragmatic_persona”

Thank you! 

After clicking on send button, I just realized ki kuch jyada hi likh diya. But what’s done is done. Now let’s see what her reply be. With such intentions, I engaged myself in other works. I was skeptical about her reply. The chances were 50-50. The strange thing about such situation is that even if you’re not sure to get a reply from the other side, you keep looking your cellphone as some sort of expectations creep in your body. The best you can do in such situation is to get yourself busy and that’s what I did.

However, in my case I didn’t have to wait for long. Barely 10 minutes passed when a message popped up on the cellphone.

Thanks a lot for sharing. These are great!

Though she cut the message short but still it made me happy. After all, what’s better than the work carried out successfully. My job was done, I consoled myself. Also, life taught me not to expect anything from anyone and if we did, we would be ready to disappoint ourselves. You can only give whatever you can and spread happiness.

It’s been a couple of months of this incident. The memory of that girl and the event had blurred in my mind. But the fate plays very important role in our life.

One day, I was scrolling the insta-feed to get an insight about what people were up to. In the meantime, I received a message from someone who wasn’t in my contact list.

“Hey!

Got a chance to read some of your travelogues. I really like the way you write, reading which is a cakewalk and entertaining. Hence, I thought to drop a congratulatory note that you’re doing a great job! All the best for your website.”

My happiness could be guessed from the wide smile I had on my face. These kind of messages are the best, I would say. Also, I didn’t know how to react to this message.

Hey! Hi.

“Glad to hear from you after a long time. Thank you so much. Your views will encourage me to come out with the best possible blogs and places. Thank you again!“

I was afraid that I would mix my words up. Hence kept it this short. She was also waiting for my message on the other side hence, it didn’t take much to receive a second message from her.

Anytime!

“Btw, where will you be going next?”

“Within Delhi or out of this city”? I asked in kidding manner. This is the human tendency. The more you talk, the more you feel comfortable.

Any of them will work for me! She added.

-Shashank –