Short Story Love – That Calcuttan Princess
© Anand Vishnu Prakash, YourStoryClub.com
Summer of 1996, Kolkata:
My cousin and I had gone to the City of Joy for the first time. Hotel Heera – a 3 star inn where my father used to stay and recommended us to too. Clean and nice, we checked in in the torrid afternoon and refreshed selves high-speed for that specific reason I’ll let out in a moment. Going to theatres used to be a dream come true back then. Due to restrictions from parents that seldom happened. As obedient teenagers we waited for our times seeing other guys watching adult stuff and talking always so excitedly. We needed our shares of liberty and that’s what we got hence skipped the lunch and rushed to the nearest theatre exhibiting that adult poster. Oblivious of the theme, we left the theatre with our anticipation devastated. We were still novices in our choices. The selection wasn’t apt as it turned out to be a documentary instead of a hot on-screen romance. While my cousin ordered cold stuff I was still hooked up to warm water. Cold in summers, I tell you is one of the weirdest harassments of any normal life and I couldn’t take that more, hence gulped down 2 glasses of apple juice chilled, straight. Trust me, the cold was all gone.
We had some best fun. Getting up early and roaming around the city till tired was just incredible and awesome. From photographing to bird watching, from hogging at pastries in Flurys to loitering at Victoria Terminus, from enjoying the tram ride to metro – we did all. Our favourite spots were Globe and Whitehouse theatres. There was no dearth of movie watching. We indulged in all in abundance.
Meanwhile Papa had come to Kolkata for a day and he got our stay extended. It was like bolt in the blue! The moment he left the next moment we continued. In the evening after ample fun we retired in a restaurant. God was extra kind that evening having fulfilled our discreet desire. I noticed this goddess sitting with a family right across us. She was so chic, so alluring! Throughout Kolkata we had missed one pretty damsel. It was an incomplete trip sans a beauty until then. She smiled while we placed the order, looked at us with some kind of hope, some anticipation. She wanted to say something, talk. I was in awe of her eyes, her lips. That moment I just wanted to see her, talk to her, kiss her. In moments the family left. She was still there. They called – Sheetal! She got up, paused a moment, her eyes still looking at us, waiting for something. I noticed her white top teamed with blue jeans caressing her pristine figure beneath her smart strands of tresses. Her eyes still holding ours she slowly drifted out of our sights…forever.
Alas! You also must be disinterested to know what happened afterwards because we were. Disappointed we returned to our room but there was one thing we had, one thing we couldn’t help talking about and that was her, just her. That beauty, that smartness, that mesmerizing smile of hers….
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