Sijo and Sharmin
The
Thermodynamics lab was called Khandar (The Relics) as it was housed in the
first stone structure that the university had come up with in its initial days.
The building was now used by Department of Mechanics and was a good kilometer
away from the main campus building, almost towards the western end of the campus.
One could see the sun setting behind the magnificent Rairi Mountain, a mountain
range on which stood the old Raigad fort. The October air was damp with
receding monsoon and it was dense green everywhere. That year the rains were
romantic, neither too less nor too strong. No one except Sijo and Sharmin had
come to the lab, not even the professor. They sat on a canal bridge and were
looking at the pink sky in the distance.
“So
how come this far?” Sijo was trying to keep up the conversation. He simply didn’t
want her to go.
“Life’s
pretty different out there. In Tura you are not expected to do anything
worthwhile. All your life you’re taught to listen to others. Sacrifice your
wishes for your brothers and get married to give your in-laws something to play
with. After that, it’s the same routine of household chores. You live a
compromised life and die a miserable low esteem death.” It looked as if Sijo
had touched a tender nerve this time around.
“I
want to be free, I want to be me and above all I want life – limitless and unconfined.
If I had not run to this place, then by now I would have been up in the
marriage market.” Anger was showing up in her voice.
“But
it’s simply not about running away as well" her expression turned to that of a
proud child. “I actually love machines and want to carve a career in automobile
engineering.”
Sharmin’s
face was glowing with passion now. There was a glint of hope in her dark black
eyes and she looked more beautiful as one of the strands of hair brushed her
cheeks. Sijo could not help stare at her beautiful childlike innocent face and
wished if he was that stand of hair.
All
about her was riveting – her slender face, her almond complexion, and her red
thin lips that curved into an infectious smile and her expressive kohl lined
eyes. Sharmin suddenly turned to look at Sijo and left him fumbling for an
appropriate reaction to come up with. It was not the first time she had caught
him staring at her, but he felt equally embarrassed each time.
“Can
I ask you a question, if it’s ok?” she probed.
“Yeah
sure da!!” Sijo in that split second prepared a long affirmative answer just in
case she proposed. - Boys I tell you.
“How
come you got this fancy name?” she still had that childlike innocence on her
face.
“Oh!”
disappointed he was. “That’s actually a derivative of my parent’s names. It’s
Si from Lesi and Jo from Joseph. My brother’s name is Lejo” Sijo explained as a
matter of fact.
“Wow!
How romantic” she said covering her mouth. - Girls I
tell you.
It
had been just 2 months since the session has opened and Sijo and Sharmin were
already talked about in the university campus. But Sharmin couldn’t have helped
it, because had it not been Sijo then there would have been someone else. Not
that the damsel was drawn toward boys but because she was not left with any
other choice. The only other girl that year in Department of Mechanics had
already returned home. Partly because 2: 58 ratio was too hard for half the
boys to handle and half used explicit as adjectives.
But
Sharmin had not traveled all the way from hills of Guwahati to return back.
She had taken a boat to cross the Bramhaputra, then a tanga to the Guwahati
station, a train then to Mumbai and finally a bus to Lonere. She definitely
knew better than to repeat that “all transport” journey to her feared prison.
Her determination was stronger and her dreams bigger. Sijo’s was the only bench
she found safe. Moreover the scientist’s son too shared her passion of engines
and technology.
“Would
you come with me to Veer Station tomorrow?” she asked. “My RX 100 is coming by
Matsya Gandha Express”.
Lejo
- “Your what?”
Sharmin’s
wings were coming the next day. Her cousin had smuggled her a bike from Mumbai
and with it their togetherness also found wings.
They
were together everywhere - classes, labs, workshops, canteen, football field,
restaurants, Raigad fort, cinema hall and rumored to be seen in the terrace
corners after college hours. Some called them the love birds and some obnoxious
deewanas, but Sri equated them to the Boobs and Bra. According to him there
were too many similarities –
1) They were always close together except at nights.
2) Sijo always supported Sharmin.
3) Sijo always protected Sharmin from other's watchful eyes.
4) And Sri was very confident that someday Sharmin will change her choice.
1) They were always close together except at nights.
2) Sijo always supported Sharmin.
3) Sijo always protected Sharmin from other's watchful eyes.
4) And Sri was very confident that someday Sharmin will change her choice.
But
they were deeply in love and as opposed to what other’s said, their love grew.
They planned marriage and family and home and even life. They planned and they
wrote, they composed and they sang.
It’s been quite some time since I held this guitar.
How many years have passed since my last song!!!
A time a feared no music was for me
when every light seemed so dark to me.
But let me believe again,
Let the words come to me.
So with you on my mind
and love in my heart,
Here is a song, a song for you,
Of me and you and we are making it through.
It’s a song so strong and true,
To keep the love alive
our whole life through.
A song for you!!!!
This
performance of theirs’s won many hearts and after that for many they were the
perfect couple. They were good in studies, sports, music and love. They were
happy and their happiness was contagious. It seemed life was made for them and
they’ll always win. And so the year went by and the summer vacations came. When they were saying good bye to each other
the pain was so palpable that even their sadness became contagious. Nothing
looked happy on that day in BATU.
That
summer they wrote to each other. From her home in Tura she wrote.
Feeling so lonely, so very alone....
Wish you were here with me and I would have someone
to call my own….
Missing you a lot like I’ve never missed you….
Feels like a glimpse of you would be enough
forever!!!
Staring out of the window, looking at the farms….
I hope each way would lead me to your arms….
But miss you and think of you is all I can do….
I just want you to know how much “I LOVE YOU”….
Sharmin
wrote from her home in the hills and he sung it with his guitar. It all seemed
like the 70’s Bollywood love - mushy but subtle, and it had a similar fate as
well.
Second
year’s session started and Sijo waited for Sharmin to come back and the wait
grew long. He wrote to her but replies never came. He grew sad and nothing
seemed right. And one day they said someone from Tura had come to cancel her
admission. The person said that Sharmin was married a week back. Sharmin’s fear
had come true. She no longer was the bird she wanted to be. She was the victim
of her male chauvinist society that she wanted to break free from. Sijo’s heart
was devastated. He felt sad for both his love and his friend who could not
write her own destiny, but he never doubted her love for him. He thought of all
the days they had spent together and cried in his hearts and he wrote songs but
they were of pain. Pain that was there to stay……………
I can see the lonely sky
Cry for me, cry for you.
I can see us both together again,
It’s a dream seem so true.
Though it’s hard to believe
That you are so far away.
Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
Oh! My darling I’ll always love you.
I’d die in your arms,
But I’ll never say goodbye!!!
Let me love you
is all I’m asking from you.
All you have is to only try
And love will show the way.
There’ll be no more rain of tears again,
We shall see a brighter day.
Though it’s hard to believe
That you’re so far away.
Wherever you go,
Whatever you do,
Oh! My darling I’ll always love you.
I would die in your arms,
But I’ll never say goodbye!!!
Let me love you, is all I’m asking from you.
That
year it rained heavily, almost ferociously. The rains washed away their signs from
the air of BATU. The moss would cover the canal bridge making is too sloppy for
anyone to sit on and finally the bridge got washed away in a storm one day. Monsoon
in Konkan can be ruthless…….some know it; while others feel it. But for you to
feel it there is a condition to live in past. A past that is serene as you look
at it from today. A past without today’s omnipresent technology. Where once you
were with someone, you left a trace of yourself on those grass covered
mountains of Shayadri. Where you were one with serpents and sparrows. Where
evenings were slowly swallowed by the rising dust from the feet of returning
cattle, and you could hear the jingle of the bells tied around their neck. And
as the night crept in, you were left with the playful sound of streams of
running water that washed the evening away.
The
university has now a new building and, if now you visit the place, you in all
probability will not visit the Khandar. The Khandar is more dilapidated as it has
gone out of use, but to Sijo it is still with him as it stood that day when he
and Sharmin were alone looking at the pink western sky. But I must warn him –
it has been raining too much here and everything is now covered in moss, and if
he’d live too much in past; he could slip off one of those moss covered rock and
fall.
______________________________________________________
"A song for you" and "Let me love you.." are written by Somar Mazumdar while "I love you" was penned by Ratnabhargavi A. R.
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