Part 3:Between friends

The words were looking like alien symbols and the figures like some child's angry slashes across paper as Adi plodded through the research article.It was 5 in the afternoon and his senses were crying for a breath of fresh air and a piping hot cup of coffee.He closed the journal and returned it to its rack.He had enough for the day.He was here for a doctorate and had no plans to finish it in one day by gobbling all the literature on his project in one afternoon.Picking up his satchel he trooped down to the canteen.Ordering a coffee and a sandwich he sat down in the shade of a towering gulmohar tree.The coffee kick-started his beaten senses.He was planning to rush headlong into the literature marathon and was just about to get up when he spotted Nilima walking in to the canteen and despite himself he waved her over.
"Hey,how are you?",he asked
"Dead and drowned in a ceaseless barrage of literature.Why do people write so much about the tiniest of details?And why in the name of god do we have to read all of it?It's so boring!I have had it!Done for the day.If I read one more paper I will be fit for The Lunatics Club.How about you?"
"Same here.Join the club...."
Both of them grinned.
"Coffee?",he asked
"Yes,what about you?I see you already have had your cup."
"The more the better...Wait I shall get them.."
The coffee flowed and so did the conversation.Light and jumping from one topic to another.Movies,books,idiosyncratic people,anecdotes from their school and college days.He felt comfortable in her presence.She had a personality unlike any girl he had ever met.There was something that captivated him,something that made him light headed and he felt his tiredness evaporating even as she laughed over his silliness.The sun set over the horizon and a cool gentle breeze was flowing.Conversation had trickled off.Nilima glanced at her watch and gave a yelp of surprise startling Adi,
"What happened?",he asked
"We have been here for the past two hours!!That's what has happened."
"Two hours have passed?Didn't realise it.Felt like got here two minutes ago.how time flows.
She looked at him quizically.
"Let's get going.",she said and got up.
Following her example Adi got up as well and both of hem started heading for their respective dorms.The campus looked beautiful in the twilight.A millions shades of green,red and orange coloured the campus.Adi had a mad urge to clasp her hands in his and wished the evening would go on like this forever.Yeah right,he said to himself,dream on idiot;look at her,and then look at yourself.The atmosphere was having its magical effect on Nilima as well.How perfect would it be to walk on this road hand in hand with someone..The perfect evening,Not a soul to disturb your walk..Does this guy have any streak of romanticism in him or is he going to walk like this silently lost in his own thoughts?If only he could say something romantic,a quote,an anecdote,anything.So lost was she in these thoughts that she failed to see the small depression in the road and stumbled and would have taken a nice bruising had it not been for a pair of hands that had held held at her forearm and her waist.She looked up to look into the Adi's coal black eyes and saw for an instant a window open into his mind.His thoughts becoming crystal clear.The eyes took on a life of their own and seemed to look straight through her and look at something only they could perceive.Something that was not physical but existed only in her thoughts.It was as if two streams of thought had violently clashed against each other and had become one smoothly flowing stream.Without saying anything to each other,in a moment when their eyes had met,everything seemed to have been said.Everything that had been on their minds ever they had stood in the queue admiring each other in their private secure mindspaces.
"Be careful".Adi said even as he helped her pick up her books.The spell was broken and both had landed on terra firma.Both thinking that their minds had taken on a flight of fancy,imagining things when there was nothing.Telling themselves that romantic the evening maybe it was no film going on and they were no heroes and heroines to fall into love and break into a song and dance sequence.This was life and here you did not run around trees singing silly songs and had a "feel good" feeling as the credits rolled.
"Sorry about that,didn't see that,"she replied.
Both of them walked the rest of the way in akward silence.Their minds in turmoil.Was what they perceived real or was it just a figment of their wishful thinking?
Mids still in turmoil they said their good night to each other and went their separate ways to their dorms still immersed in their speculations,wishful thinking and pessimistic opinions.