The Terminal : Chapter II

Chapter II
Please Read The Chapter I If You Already Haven't

The second flight lands, its 08:50, by now the crowd from the previous flight has vanished into the private cars and those famous yellow and black ambassador taxis of Delhi. The second group of travelers start to emerge in a few minutes of landing, they seem to be a rather more elite version of the previous batch. White collar employees it seems, a lot more sophistication in the walk and hand bags. It must be an Air India flight, which is really popular in the Central Govt. employees. I waited for everybody to come out, and still find her not present in this tourney. Even the people who were slow in getting the luggage from the carousal were out now, but she wasn’t. I wanted to get my mobile out and call her, but I controlled my feelings. She had been angry that march evening and over the phone had asked me not to call her ever again, I would not. Since that day I hadn’t called her, there were couple of moments when I was desperate to call but I had been able to convince myself against it.

She had become really ill, and had to be brought back to Delhi, her dad had gone out to Pune to get her, I had come to know when she was already in Delhi, and she was instantly hospitalized. I wanted to go and meet her, I had had searched frantically through my contacts in hospitals and came to know that she was admitted in a hospital in Saket. After that day, I had gone twice while she was admitted, but never went inside, I did not want to cause any more pain to her. I had done enough damage to her. I knew I was the reason for so much misery in her life. I never wanted to cause any more pain to her. When I came to know she was back from hospital, I messaged her a random message, just to show that I knew that she was in Delhi. I did not want her to know, that I knew about her illness, she would have become really enraged about that. I did not express.
Sometimes I think, I have become a passive stalker, but then she was the drug of my life, for 5 long years, it would not be easy to cut myself off her. I knew she could be hurt when I was going through tough times, as I tend to lash out on people who try to come close to me. I knew I could hurt her, and that was the reason I distanced myself from her. You might be wondering why I was standing and waiting for her now? Well, things had changed now, I had struggled with myself, I had worked on myself. I knew why I was hurting people, I had been reborn as a new person.

This is too much thinking, I still have thirty minutes till the next arrival from Pune. I need some coffee.

To Be Continued...

Chapter I

The Chapter I

The T3 Terminal build by the Delhi Authorities is no doubt the symbol of progress done by the city of New Delhi, India’s capital. It is a symbol that portrays the advancement from the image of rope magic and snake charmers. For me though, the airport, or even railway station and bus terminals have always been a symbol of change. A change from your present state of life to something different, you tend to go through a travel portal in every change of state in your life.

Standing at the terminal, early morning in the month of December, in Delhi is an experience not everybody can say they have had. The anxiety of meeting the person you have been waiting to meet for long is clearly motivation enough for so many people. Looking around myself I could see people sipping hot cups of coffee and tea and talking animatedly through layers of protective clothing. They were really active at 7:30 in the morning. Delhi is famous for its winters especially with the fog, the flights usually get delayed due to the same, but today the weather had been benevolent on the travelers. I sat there observing people, which was my favorite hobby at airports or railway stations. Families all cooped up together in the winter, to a lad running around with his mother trailing him with a sweater in her hand, clearly the lad was not interested in the warmth of the sweater.

I was standing there with both my arms inside my pullover, waiting for the flight from Pune, it was after ten months that I would see her. Last we met was when in Feb she had been in the city, and she had been really busy at that point of time, we didn't get a lot of time together. The only issue in today’s case was that I did not know when she was to land, all I knew was that she was to reach Delhi today. If I had done my calculations correctly, her chances of landing in Delhi were the maximum in the flight which were landing before eleven in the morning, which were seven in total. She liked to travel early in the day so that the time is saved, and the whole day is not wasted. She always loved to utilize each and every hour after reaching Delhi, she always had been in love with Delhi. Until recently she fell in love with Pune. She had actually shifted to Pune for her job, after college, but then she started liking the openness of the city.

I had always wanted to shift to Pune with her, but I could not actually take that decision. To be truthful to you guys, I have had issues with her in the recent past. We had started arguing on many things, I had actually become insecure about her, not that I had any doubts on her, but I had doubts about myself. I somehow did not realize my insecurities, but she did. She would always know what was going on in my mind, she realized what was troubling me. She tried to help, but in the process burned her own hands. We crashed and burned, but after that moment of her leaving in Feb, I had been broken. With a lot of introspection I knew what I had to do, and that is the reason I am standing here today, waiting for her.

I didn’t even realize the first flight had actually landed, at 08:45 am the first batch of people started coming out of the airport. With happy faces everywhere, I could only sit and wait to see if she had taken this flight. From all that I could see, a really active Punjabi family was really happy on meeting their son after a long time. They were with a girl, who was had gone red as a tomato on the cheeks. She must be soon to be bride, because she was shy but still was trying to be confident. The magic of arranged marriages in India is that if you are going to do everything according to your parents, they are going to select a wife for you. 


They are going to choose your life partner, yes you get to meet each other, but it is rare that you get to say your say. Most of the time, you suddenly marry somebody who could be a total stranger. But the stats show that things work out in the end, if given time, patience and persistence things work out for the arranged couples, they usually have a long and happy (generally) married life. I had always been really intrigued by the whole concept of arranged marriages, what if he/she has some habits which you are not comfortable with? What if he/she has some friends that you are not comfortable with? Everybody lies. If you’re soon to be partner lies to you about himself or his habits, what can you do? And as most of these arranged marriages come from a family tie-up, breaking these marriages become really difficult in the Indian culture. As our neighbors are not-just-neighbors but an extended part of your family in India, what they think about your family in such conditions is really important.

To Be Continued...