"I hope I get a place to sit", he thought as he once again checked his watch. Fortunately for him, the previous train had just left Platform 3 which meant that he stood right at the front of the queue that had begun forming for the next train and this meant that in all probability he would be the first to enter. He glanced at the Train Time Indicator which signaled the time left for the next train to enter the station. It read 5:00 mins.

Briefing through his resume for the umpteenth time, Armaan once again went through the sequence he had been repeating in his mind since the last week. "Knock on the door politely, ask for permission to enter, wish the interviewer and wait for permission to be seated". And all this with a smile! He couldn't help but be nervous. The Time Display read 4:00 mins.

He tapped his feet a few times and instinctively looked up for a few seconds at the opposite end of the station to notice the queue forming on Platform 4. And it was at that moment that all his nervousness vanished. In fact for him everything ceased to exist at that moment of time except for the girl standing directly opposite him. She was breathtakingly beautiful and he had never seen anyone like her ever before. A lump formed in his throat as he struggled to take in her beauty. The time read 3:00 mins.

On the opposite side, Kashish was waiting for the train to drop her off at Barakhambha Road where she was meeting some friends for lunch. Suddenly she felt a pair of eyes on her and looked up to see a young guy dressed in formals staring at her. Realizing that she had noticed him staring, he quickly looked away. "Disgusting", she said to herself. "Typical Delhi guy! All they know is to stare at every girl". She began playing with her phone only to look up a few seconds later to find him staring at her again. This time he was a little late to look away but it was enough for her to notice that he was not staring at her with lust-filled eyes. Rather she was attracted by a special spark in them and suddenly she noticed how carelessly his hair fell over his handsome face. The time read 2:00 mins.

Armaan was a little embarrassed to find himself being caught so blatantly staring at the girl and quickly looked away only to find his gaze returning to her beautiful face after a few seconds. "Oh God, she was perfect in every sense", he thought. And it was this lingering thought that allowed her to catch him staring at her once again and this time he was a little slow to react. "Dammit! I'm the biggest fool in this world. She must think I'm such a pervert", he thought. However, he couldn't resist stealing a glance at her again and this time was surprised to see her staring at him and then quickly looking away. He couldn't believe himself. This time he maintained the gaze and when she looked at him again, he smiled the most idiotic smile he had ever given anyone in his life. The time read 1:00 min.

Kashish, on the other hand, was taken aback when the young guy offered her the cutest smile she had ever seen. Composing herself, she smiled back at him only to find herself blushing and quickly looked away. When she looked back at him, the smile had been replaced with an even bigger one that forced her to chuckle aloud. "Oops", she thought, grinning to herself,"What's wrong with me!" And it was at this very moment that both the trains entered from opposite directions to mask the flow of emotions taking place.

Frantically, Armaan tried to catch a glimpse of her form through the cloud of rushing trains to no avail. He stood rooted to the spot as his train came to a grinding halt and was soon engulfed in a swarm of people alighting and boarding. People pushed past him, cursing his moribund form while some even stamped his feet to continue their maddening journey of life but for Armaan, none of that mattered. What mattered to him was lost beyond his reach separated by a pair of closing doors. As the two trains pulled away from the station, Armaan kept his gaze fixed at a point directly in front of him. And when it was all quiet again, Kashish stared directly into his eyes and they both smiled in togetherness.

P.S: You might wonder how I know this story. I was told this at Kashish and Armaan's 1st wedding anniversary last Friday

For all those who missed the earlier parts:

The Girl in the Mall - Part 1
The Girl in the Mall - Part 2

Truth, they say, is sometimes stranger than fiction. Well it’s certainly true in my case. It was almost six months to the day that I last saw the girl in the mall and yet somehow, it was as if I had just seen her. After that incident, I returned back to my college and business went on as usual. The next time I went back to Delhi was to attend my sister's marriage in January. Busy with preparations and stuff, there was hardly any time left for other pursuits (read partying with friends). Now the basic schedule for the wedding was something like this-

Day 1- Cocktail party for friends (means no oldies allowed)
Day 2-The Wedding
Day 3- Reception

So finally Day 1 arrived and that was something that me and my friends had been looking forward to most of all. I mean ya my sister's wedding was important but then so was this man. This took place at a farmhouse on M.G Road so basically we had a free reign from 9 at night to about 4 in the morning. The party started and slowly everyone got into the groove. The drinks and snacks had started and the dance floor too was beginning to come alive. After having supplied my friends with all the necessary stuff, I went around meeting all my sister's friends whom I’ve known since childhood and partying with them.

Suddenly, Abhinav came running to me and pulled (read dragged)me to one of the corners where some guests were sitting. And that was when the world around me stopped. I had seen Her again and no, this was no imagination. She was really there and this time I knew I wasn't letting go of her so easily. But she was sitting with one of my sister's friends (Neetu Didi). I call her Didi cause many of my sister's friends tied me Rakhi when I was small (C'mon guys, you can't protest to all this when you are in Class 2!! I was innocent back then).

So I went and found my sister and literally dragged her from the dance floor and demanded to know whether she knew the girl sitting with Neetu Didi. And I absolutely hated that smirk on my sister's face when she asked, “Why?". Some bullshit later and she finally told me that that girl is Neetu Didi's younger sibling Shikha. Now I was in a moral dilemma. I mean I treat Neetu Didi as my sister but does her sister also qualify as one. No way, my brain told me. Even Neetu Didi's my sister by sheer ill-luck and not by choice so definitely her sister doesn’t qualify in that category. And my assumptions received further impetus from Abhinav and Saurav who told me that" Real Sister ki friend who's your muh bola sister ki sister is definitely not sister". Seriously man, thats like saying Osama and Bush are brothers or like Mallika Sherawat doing puja!!! It’s as far stretched from reality as possible.

So after convincing myself that I wasn't committing any cardinal sin, I spent the next ten minutes wondering how to go and talk to her. Believe me, it doesn't help one bit if you have friends like mine who give you advice ranging from writing a love letter (I mean C'mon guys, get a life!!Who writes love letters now) to going straight to her and snogging her in front of everyone (apparently according to them, she'll think that I am very direct in my approach and hence THE MAN). So once again, I dragged my sister off the dance floor (with my future bro-in-law giving me murderous looks) and asked her to do something!!

Finally my sister agreed and we pretended to chat to the guests and slowly made our way to where she was sitting. My heartbeat seemed to grow proportionally as we moved closer and closer to them and at one point of time, I even decided to back off. Well, what are sisters for after all!! Oodles of gyaan later and we finally reached their table where I started chatting with Neetu didi while glancing at her every 5 secs. And finally, we were formally introduced!!! I extended my hand to her and said in the most macho tone I could muster at that time (not easy when your heart's accelerating like an F1 car)," Hi, I am Aman!”. And she said, "Hi ".That’s it!! Just Hi, nothing more nothing less!! I mean, she must be having some name right? "That’s the end of my love life", I told myself.

And then she started laughing and I was like," My name's not that funny also". "No stupid", she said," I am laughing cause you still don't recognize me. I am Shikha, dumbo!. Remember we used to play when my sister used to come to your place back when they were in school. I think we were in lower KG then. U still don't remember kya??".
Now believe me, I have absolutely no recollections of my childhood. Not one bit!! The last thing I remember from my childhood was when i was caned by my principal for bunking to a girl's school in class 9(that’s another story). So there's no way I know whether I even studied in lower KG or not!! But of course I couldn’t tell her that so I put on the best thinking expression I could come up with and said "Oh ya, of course I do..ya u still look the same". "Shut up liar, I know you don't remember me. I do cause I slapped you when you hid my Barbie doll". Ok that was quite embarrassing but at least it broke the ice.

After that we got along like a house on fire. Chatted stuff ranging from anything to everything (nope, I am not telling you guys anything). And yes, we even discussed my antics in the mall six months ago. Well 2 hours later and I remembered I had other friends too. So I introduced her to my friends and she introduced Anushka to my friends (yup, she too had come along with her). And then we danced and danced and danced. Holding her close to me, taking in her fragrance and just being with her was like a dream come true. It was the happiest night of my life. Obviously the drinks too helped but I cannot remember having so much fun ever in my life!!

The next three days passed in a blur and I was on my way back to college before I even knew it. She came to see me off at the station and a lot went unspoken there. They say everything's written in the eyes and that you can read a person like a book by just looking into their eyes. Well, I did just that and so did she. And even though there were a lot of things we didn't understand, most of it we did and we were grateful for that. We were in touch constantly after that and we still are to this day.

Now to answer the question foremost in everyone's mind. Are we or are we not? Well, as of now we're just friends although very close ones. I dunno about the future and frankly speaking I don't care. Cause I believe that if you're meant to meet someone, then the entire universe will conspire to bring you together. And after reading all this, you might just tend to agree with me. And that, my friends, was my story.

Now many people have asked me why I included Anushka's name in all this when she didn't have any part to play. The answer to that is Abhinav! Because Shikha wasn't the only girl in the mall that day and I wasn't the only guy there. This story did have two different endings. And a little bird told me that Abhinav and Anushka had a very umm private sort of dinner two nights ago and the bugger hasn't answered my calls since then (obviously!!). So here's wishing them all the best from everyone who's reading this.

P.S-: I re-wrote this 3 part story 'cause of a phone call that I got from the U.S a few weeks ago which brought back a lot of memories of an old friend :)

The alarm went off exactly at 7 am. And just like every other day, she stirred from her sleep and groped around in the dark to feel the empty space next to her. And even before she could feel anything,she knew he was not asleep beside her. It had been the same for the past one year and she missed every little touch of his. The way he held her, the way he stroked her hair and the way he kissed her with a passion unmatched in all the world. Oh how much she missed him! But today was going to be different. She was going to meet him today and she looked forward to sitting next to him, talking to him, pouring her heart out to him. Even though she spoke to him everyday, being near him made her feel so much better.

Kashish got up from her bed and checked her phone. No missed calls again. "The fool forgot to wake me up again today",she chuckled to herself.
That was another thing she liked about him so much. He would remember the tiniest of details and yet forget the most important ones. She quickly got ready for office and left the house, remembering to take the keys with her. She smiled as she remembered the numerous fights they had over her always leaving the keys locked inside. She just couldn't wait for evening to arrive sooner.

She hummed their favourite song as she stepped into the Underground. Even at 8 in the morning, the Tube was packed with early morning Londoners on their way to office.This was another reason for them settling here. They both had loved the hustle-bustle of London and were third-generation migrants to this modern yet rustically romantic city. She waved to a few familiar faces and it was a matter of minutes before she got off at the Chelsea End Station and by 8.30 she was already in office preparing for her day ahead.

The day seemed to pass in a jiffy and even though Kashish tried to concentrate on work, her mind always seemed to drift in his direction and the impending meeting. She looked at her watch and was dissapointed to see that she still had a couple of hours before she could leave and be on her way to meeting him. The next two hours went by in meeting clients and chatting to co-workers. With every passing minute, she looked at her watch in anticipation and quickly left office just as the clock struck five. It would take her another hour by bus to reach Westminister for it was there where Aryan would be waiting for her.

Precisely at 6.10, the bus dropped her into the busy little square of Westminister from where she walked at a brisk pace to reach the appointed place. On her way she picked up some flowers for him. She knew it should be the other way around but knew he'd like them nonetheless. The wind turned a bit chilly as she turned a corner and neared the meeting point and her steps began to falter as she spotted him waiting for her. The next few meters seemed to take ages to cover and she tried bravely to hold back the tears to no avail. All those memories and pent up feelings came rushing to the fore and Kashish wept uncontrollably as she sat down and laid the flowers on Aryan's grave.

P.S - The inspiration for this story came while listening to my favourite song - Atif Aslam's "Kuch Is Tarah"