C U 2MROW @ 9 (August 28, 2016)

“Ok bye mummy...dhyan rakhiyega.”Courageously, Mannu spoke and tears rolled down his eyes as that heavy feeling of deceiving his mother just came alive.

At eleven he was ready with my baggage to leave for home. The train was scheduled to depart at 15:30hrs.

“What shall I do?”He asked himself, looking into a mirror. There was only one more way of seeing Pia, to go and stand in front of the gates of her house. Yes! Nothing else could end this all. Getting caught was a very big risk, little for him, but more for Pia. 

At twelve noon Mannu was in front of the gates of her house. It was her ancestral house built around 1960’s. The street was not broad enough to let cross a four wheeler and a two wheeler. The street dividers with all sorts of flowers and plants that we see in the centre of every big city could be considered as highways if one stood here and thought of the world around. This street in itself was a strange new world. On the left and on the right were stores of statue makers of the city and the white marble dust that left the statues further cleared the colour of his white shirt. A stream of white water flowed on the side ends of the street. Everyone around was staring him with an alien look. A murmur had started among the shopkeepers. A look into their eyes was fatal. They were beaming with doubt. Cycle rickshaws thronged the lane up and down, loading and unloading the marble statues. Members of a society, wearing kurta pyjama passed through the lane to give a final check to the decoration. All were eyeing Mannu with suspicion. Only a word from him and they would have loaded him with questions. Mannu chose to remain silent.  

Statues of Sai baba, Lord Krishna were being carved and he bowed to pray to see Pia soon.

 “I love you Pia...I’m sorry 4 all the bad I thought 4 u...Dis is really an unusual place....plz plz don’t cm out...Just cm on ur window so that I can c u once.”

Mannu sent this message using all the 185 characters of the text page. But where was she? Mannu couldn’t see her on the window. He was more than surprised when he saw his watch. It was 1 pm.