Secondhand Love

“Mom please stop it. Don’t start all this early morning. I am getting late for collage” I hung up the call and boarded the bus to Lal chauk.

As usual morning bus was over crowded. I saw a guy sitting on ladies seat and asked him to leave the seat for me. But you know, some days are just not your day. The champ gave me a look as if I have asked him to give his power of attorney on my name. He did not move an inch, I asked him again and his reply was enough for me to show him the other side of my personality. He said if you can wear pants like man then why you can’t stand like one. I shouted as loud as I can and asked that guy to leave the seat as else it won’t be good for him. By now I have created a good scene there, and after the bus conductor’s intervene that guy moved from there and finally my bum got a seat. Lady seating next to me gave me a look top to bottom and when I stared her back she looked away.

 I took out a book to read but I had no mood to read it. I was feeling bad for creating a scene in bus and fighting with my mom early morning, I felt ashamed. This is not who I want to be, this is not how I was all this time in my life. I just closed my eye and rested my head back.

I have always been a decent, well behaved, shy kid. Following what my mom asked and scoring good marks in school made me the ideal kid for all uncles and aunties in my colony. Everyone wanted their kid to be like me, and I just wanted my mom to feel proud on me. She has single handedly raised me and my sister, and being a trouble for her was the last thing I wanted to be. My life was going smooth till I fell in love.

“Excuse me” a female voice brought me back to reality. I opened my eyes and saw a thin girl in red Kurta and jeans standing in front of me. She smiled and said “Hello Mam, I am Prabha. I go to the same college as you, I am your junior.”

I tried hard recognizing her and smiled just to make her feel welcoming. “Mam, I really admire your courage. The way you handled that idiot man, he deserved that only. You are very strong mam; I wish I have the same courage as yours.” Prabha said while bending towards me. I was taken aback that someone felt what I did was right, I felt good but I was not fully convinced with my act.

“It’s nothing heroic Prabha. It’s just that for our right we have to speak because silence is mostly taken as our weakness.” I spoke like some psychologist. Prabha was still standing next to my seat, she looked mesmerized by the line I just said, and not talking to her will feel rude so I tried changing the topic. “So which course you are in Prabha?”

We talked about college and some general stuffs and finally reached college. “Okay Mam, It was nice talking to you. Have a good day” Prabha greeted me before leaving for her class. I smiled and asked her not to call me Mam “You can call me Shikha” and we parted our ways.

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After first lecture we got a break of 5 minutes I took out my phone and saw an SMS from Aakash. He wanted me to meet him at the coffee shop in evening. We had only 4 lectures remaining so I agreed for the meeting. I was replying to his SMS only when I got a pat on my back, it was Richa my best friend “what’s up Shiks? Oh busy SMSing Aakash. Where are the lovebirds meeting today” she winked at me.


To be continued ..... here