#60 …when you find thousand miles not longer than one.

I was visiting Mumbai with my parents for a very short while. Siddharth was all excited to meet me. He had shifted to Mumbai to pursue his further studies and since then we haven’t had any chance to meet. Mobile had managed to keep our friendship alive. Considering my conservative family, I could not go and meet him with my parents’ consent. We were flying the next day to Jaipur and I hadn’t yet had the chance to cook some story and go meet him. We only had two hours of leisure in the morning next day before we flew. My Mom was adamant on taking me along with her for shopping before heading to the airport. My dad was supposed to meet us directly at the airport after finishing his work. I dumped all hopes of meeting him and accompanied my mom to Inorbit, Malad. Siddharth was obviously aware of my every move. Thanks to the short messaging services. When I thought I’ll ask my mom to pay the bill and move to the car, I got a call. It was Siddharth. My mom was pissed at my constantly being on phone, be it for exchanging messages or making calls. And here was Siddharth telling me he was in that very mall waiting for me on the 2^nd floor. I was perplexed. Excited and terrified. I somehow asked Siddharth to wait. Then told my Mom I’ll take a final round on the 2^nd floor while she paid the bill on the first floor. Asking me to hurry up, she moved to the cash counter. I ran to the 2^nd floor.

“Why did you have to come so far and especially when you knew I’ll not be able to give you more than 5 minutes of mine?” I charged him as soon I saw him.

“I travelled 2 hours in bus, in this hot weather, bunked my office, to hear few sweet words from you, and here you are ready to fight with me. I thought you’d love the surprise!” he said.

I felt extremely guilty.

“I am not fighting yaar. Just making you understand it wasn’t worth it.”

“Let me decide that,” he said and winked. I couldn’t help smiling.

“Waise I am loving it,” I said.

“I am not “it”.”

“Siddharth shut up.”

Back in Kolkata, I was narrating that episode to my friends when one of their comments set me thinking. “Only someone in love would travel miles for a momentary glance!”