Dark Horse Arts and Sciences

“Enna Sona” by Arijit Singh playing in the background.

As we sit together side by side on that bus, with your body making friction with mine, a sense of calmness envelopes my body and mind like a large canvas. A canvas so soft and thick that even the sharpest of materials cannot penetrate through its deep layers. 

We don’t talk much. We just sit there, glancing at each other in between, again staring out the window, observing the beautiful scenery presented before our curious eyes. I silently absorb the mesmerizing lyrics of Enna Sona. The song is composed by the great A.R.Rahman. There’s something with Rahman songs that make you feel calm and collected. 

Track changes to Pehla Pyaar by Armaan Malik. 

Armaan Malik is one of my favourite singers of all time. If I would be given an option to choose a voice, it would be his, not an iota of doubt about that. 

We still sit silently, the silence growing thicker and thicker as time passes, but it never feels uncomfortable or awkward. I never find this silence uncomforting, rather I really enjoy it. Sitting with her like this, tuning in to some beautiful music, saying nothing, just feeling each other’s presence, it’s what I exactly want at the moment. Even in those beautiful moments of utter silence, we find ourselves conversing with each other, in a non-verbal way, through our eyes and body language, a type of conversation that transcends beyond words. 

Music switches to Mohammed Irfan’s Phir Mohobbat.

It’s not that we are lovers or anything. We liked each other at a certain point in our lives. But there is that room of fondness we possess for each other in our hearts, a certain kind of attraction that can’t be depicted through mere words. We find each other’s company really comforting and serene. 

Ritviz’s Pran hits the audiobox. The bus driver has got a great taste in music, I must say. Ritviz is one of the most underrated musicians in India. Indians haven’t discovered him enough yet, and when they do, there will be no going back. His music goes straight to the heart, pervading that thick layer of flesh and bones. 

She keeps smiling at me. Her smile contains with it an intoxicating, infectious radiation that involuntarily instigates a smile on my face, without my realization. 

And now a song that has stayed in my heart since childhood, Lobon Ko by KK. Anyone who is born in the early 2000s knows the craze of KK in their childhood. Songs of Emraan Hashmi lips-syncing KK were part of a golden age in Indian music. Though it’s not an Emraan Hashmi song, it puts me in such a romantic mood. 

The way she stares at me, uff, words will fall short to explain that gaze of hers. Her eyes have that curious glance, curious enough to explore the other individual’s heart and inner feelings about her. Our eyes mingle with each other. It may sound quite flimsy, but for a certain period, it feels like time has ceased to exist, it’s not moving as if it has come to a standstill, only for our eyes to cross their paths. 

Tum Se Hi by Mohit Chauhan on the radio.

I imagine myself in a similar situation as Shahid and Kareena in that song. Dancing in the rain, oblivious to their vicinity, enjoying life to the fullest. I place her in Kareena’s shoes and myself in Shahid’s. I loved Shahid Kapoor in those days, it’s not that I don’t love him now, it’s just that he was so cute and charming those days. With his hair falling on his forehead, with clean specs on a white shirt, and with that infectious smile, well any girl would fall for him. 

So, as I am imagining all this, she gives me a thump on my arm. It’s time to go, she says. Our stop is approaching. So, that’s it then, I say. She gives me a sad smile, a smile not representing any kind of happiness, instead a slight sense of melancholy, a melancholy so loud that it has travelled from a dark, deep corner of her heart to my inner soul. 

She leaves her seat, taking her bag, and bids me farewell with a bye. And then gets out of the bus. Yeah, that’s it. One moment, she was beside me, the next, she was gone; vanished like a ghost. 

I also get ready to get off of the bus, carrying my heavy bag, and a light head containing all the memories of her and me, those ninety minutes of a beautiful journey, that will always be imprinted inside my subconscious.