Chapter - Four

Devrudra Banerjee

23rd February'24

It was a gloomy day, from the morning itself, seems like the king of the Gods was not that much pleased at the habitant of mortal realm, to seek the vengeance of the countless sins, these trivial mortals did in daily basis, he gave the mighty Sun God a long vacation. 

For some reason Bhagyadevata was too much pleased to me, causing me to have an night shift in this chilly winter. But on the bright side, after a long time, I could laze around on a frowzy day like this. Ordering a big mug coffee from the canteen of our SR hall, I took my guitar, which due to my negligence was now attired in a layer of dust.

Cleaning my oh so lovely guitar, which I so affectionately called as my "guttu rani", pardon me for my insolence way of naming, but my guttu rani was my companion in my every sorrow, she was my partner in my every joy, I was immersed in the lane of unknown thoughts.

A small knock on the door drew me out from my sob story about my guttu rani. Nothing could be more enticing than a hot cup of coffee to accompany a gloomy day, taking the pipping hot mug from Chotu da, the worker of our canteen, I sauntered towards my cozy set up near the window. In this hall, I , might be out of luck sometimes when it shone, got a room , which had the absolute gorgeous view from the window, be it any season.

The greener lush side of the campus had always managed to stimulate that ever so quiescent artistic side of him, where he sang, express his inner emotion, binding them into the thread of rhythm, he made the garland out of words, where he relished the bittersweet taste of his unrequited one-sided love.

Having a sip of his extra sweet hot coffee, he started to tune his guttu rani, with the second sip, where his fingers were meticulously busy in the string of his ever so classical brown guitar, his mind wandered at the lane of memories of day before the previous day.

After getting interrupted by the fellow team member, and witnessing the stoic look on his preyasis's face, he immersed himself in the seriousness of the situation. 

With a tedious discussion of two and half hours, it was decided that four of the students , who had raised their hand to show their willingness, would submit the major topic for the project along with allied minor topic and they had to submit those at the deadline, which was finalised to be on 25th. 

This deadline gave other members of the team to have some time of relaxation until they had to start their research work.

During those unvarying hours, never for a once had I observed her to be talking except giving important inputs in the discussion and she exited the room just after conclusion of the same. 

For some reason I was rooted at my chair to grasp what just happened, she was jovial hours before, conversing me with so much of amusement, then what apocalypse of thought had spread in her mind to get herself cocooned in the hard stoic mask of her, it was equally intriguing and disheartening to me. 

Reciprocating the slight smile of Raghav, I also had taken the exit, not before asking Raghav to accompany me, but to my dismay, he had plans with Bhumi. Walking at the corridor of the hall, I was churning my thought about finding at least a possible reason for her sudden shift of mood, until my name from a nasal high pitch tone halted my pace, the sound of the same declared the possible introduction of the person.

My jaw was clenched at that tone.

" Dr. Banerjee, how are you" the owner of the nasal tone, Dr. Shetty was there, to ruin my already ruined day.

"Pardon me, Doctor, I am in hurry, so please " my voice teetered with extreme annoyance, I was not even a percent patient to hear her unnecessary rambling. 

My behavior might seem hypocritical to many, bestowing with the knowledge about her possible attraction towards me, I still avoided her in every possible instances. If given chance would not I also ramble before Prashmita? Surely I would. 

I was not trying chastising my affection, neither trying to express its profoundness or the extreme devotion I harbored inside me but there was difference between expressing your love, diving into that divine abyss and the pure madness of obsession. 

For her case it was the later, and she was the sole reason for which those hushed admiration of my juniors towards me never got courage to be vocal, though, this was the sole golden incident, for which I was tolerating her, though this was to satisfy her impudence , but it helped me to achieve that clean image across the campus.

A low rumble of thunder forced me out of the reminiscing episode.

At the expense of a mug full of coffee , his tuning session came to at accomplishment. Channeling the tone at the guitar, which he was humming just some moment ago, he embarked to let his soulful voice to flow in the ravine rhythm, each lyrics came out as molten honey for ear, each note was on point to create a celestial atmosphere to ravish to.

Every libretto was offering toward his unquenched love, to describe the sincere passion which he always wanted to oblate. Every tempo flew like divine melody, saccharine melted into cochlea.

With each note, he seemed to be sway in the abyss of reverie, where he was elated, his each devoted lyrics was reaching to its divine destination.

Caparisoned in a rich purple velvet saree, her smile was infectious, erupting the same from mine. Her each slow step was destined towards me, elegant and graceful, I could feel my heartbeat dancing in fast syntax.

She was now in front of me, the melody which I was crooning seemed to be dissolved in the ambience, creating a elysian emanation. 

My eyes were fixed at her stature, difficult to believe , that was what my brain had perceived this scene to be. Her fingers reached to me messy black locks, smoothening some of them, where her plum flush lips drew a tender peck on to my bare forehead. 

I never felt this much tranquility ever in my life, what kind of sorcery she possessed, what kind of illusion she had acquired in those chocolate pupils of her, whenever I looked onto them, I got drown in those. 

Life could be so much peaceful, if she was with me, not in my failed dream but in my stark reality. Her fingers threaded into mine, where she dipped her body with the support of my arm, her frame got settled into my lap, if given option, I would probably cocoon her in my protective embrace. 

Her lips stretched in a shy smile, her eyes fixed probably at my shirt, fingers caressing my calloused hand. I could never ask for anything more than this, a serene moment with my preyasi cuddled to my chest, where I would be devouring the essence of her natural fragrance, expressing my profound affection.

A huge rumble of thunder successfully broke my ever so unachievable fantasy. An irony of my fate, I had dared to imagine so forbidden like her, I had shown my audacity to envisage her.

Would I ever get the taste of forbidden fruit, would I ever relish the ambrosia of love?

Author's note
The pace of story may seems too slow, during writing I also feel this sometimes. But with contrast of that, I want to relish each flavour of emotion. It may seems too descriptive like classical stories,but at the end of the day who doesn't want a classic?

Having said that, I also am aware of recent trend of fast paced story. But for this one, I don't want to ruch it, until few plots where it is necessary. As I am writing mainly from the point of view of male lead, one need to understand the immeasurable affection be harbors for his lady love.

One amy see transition of first person and third person in the structuring of the sentence, my thought while writing a part to always describe as much as possible, so fir that reason, the transition is written, as one can see, I never wrote, pov of the lead, it always the name, so the paras will contain his inner thoughts as well as some his emotions which he is also unaware of.

Preyasi : an Hindi/Bengali gender specific term to describe the lady love.

I wanted to write the term ladylove but preyasi the term seems more intimate.

Guttu Rani : I want to give a quirky name, something that Devrudra would own. Till now from his characteristics, one might not have perceived his jolly nature, which would be unveiled with progressing chapters.

Bhagyadevata : The God of fate

Ishq bulava, though an romantic song, yet stands out as a peaceful melody that teaches us to just embrace the road that love takes us on.