A Doubtful Encounter

The world outside seemed to be under a dim light as the cloudy weather prevailed for many days. The rain was ruthless rushing in with all its might, falling with only a few hours of break in between.



The city wasn’t prepared for it, many roads remained submerged in water. The nearby river was slowly reaching the point where it could pose the threat of flood. There were long traffic jams at places, with people reaching their workplaces late and then later late on their way back home as well.



Chavi was thinking how much of it she could take. The rains were proving contradictory to the feeling she associated to it, of peace and falling asleep to the rain cooled air.



Chavi ate her breakfast before heading to work. She was getting late, not in the way where she was past her usual time of leaving home but the ‘leave an hour early’ mark of time which her manager had suggested to the employees while the manager himself hadn’t come to the office for the past three days.



Chavi soon left the house with an umbrella over her head. She thought of walking to the train station but the rain water had pooled in several places, forcing her to take the auto rickshaw. It was a shared system, where three people shared the auto.



Chavi shared it with a woman elder to her while the other one was around her own age. Twenty minutes passed and the auto rickshaw reached the station which was quite crowded.



The three passengers got down, while the woman elder to Chavi paid and walked away the other one stayed and Chavi could feel her gaze on herself.



“Chavi,” she spoke



Chavi looked at her for a few seconds but couldn’t recognise her.



“It’s me, Ekta,” said the woman



Chavi still couldn’t recall anyone she knew with that name.



“We studied in fifth, sixth and seventh grade in the same school,” said Ekta, a sadness slowly appearing on her face about Chavi not recognising her



“I am sorry.. Ekta, I cannot remember you at all. It was a long time ago, many things have left my memory and I don’t need to be rude but I will be late if I don’t catch the next train,” said Chavi



“It’s ok, I will come with you, we are going the same way,” said Ekta



Chavi did not think much of it and she walked towards the station with increased pace; she had lost some time there. Ekta quietly followed her.



Chavi pushed her way through the crowd to catch the next train. She had a monthly pass. There was no seat so she found a place to stand quietly and that’s when she realised Ekta had followed her.



“We were not friends, were we?” asked Chavi



“A month in fifth grade we were, at the starting of new session, then you found other friends,” said Ekta and now Chavi remembered



Chavi no knew who she was and had she not met Etka the thought wouldn’t have occurred but she felt some guilt over how things went even though they were children.



“So, you also go this way, have you seen me before?” asked Chavi



“I see you every day, we get on the same train,” said Ekta



“That’s a coincidence,” said Chavi and then something occurred to her, “we might also live nearby each other since we got on the auto rickshaw at the same place”



“Yes, we do,” said Ekta, “your house is ten minutes’ walk from where I stay”



“You have been to my house?” asked Chavi



“Not inside but I have passed by several times, and have seen you there” replied Ekta



“You live with your family there?”



“No, I live in a small rented apartment, I moved there a few months back,” said Ekta



Chavi was not feeling very positive about this for some reason.



“Al right nice, so where do you get down?” asked Chavi



“We get down at the same station and we work in two different companies but in the same office complex. That is where I first saw you a few months back,” smiled Ekta and Chavi could see for some out of the world reason Ekta truly believed it would make Chavi feel happy but Chavi was wondering about how complicated her life could possibly become from this point onwards.

Written by Anuran Chatterji

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