Raghav looked at Anjali and his heartbeats missed their rhythm.
Every time? He sighed. She was sitting with her friends on the alternate table diagonal to him in the college canteen. Raghav twirled his fork inside his steaming plate full of noodles and rolled some more noodles over his fork. He sneaked at her again from the corner of his eyes. She was laughing. Her beautiful eyes were almost closed while laughing and those milky cheeks had mysteriously sunk deeper to form those breath stopping dimples. Her delicate lips parted ways to let her teeth sparkle while she jumped up and down in her chair laughing over probably something funny.
Some alien sensations flashed through Raghav’ heart, again. Raghav couldn’t help but smirk at his own misery. She is so pretty.
‘What the hell? Why aren’t I invited to the party?’ Amar pulled up a chair for himself and grabbed the fork from Raghav’s hand. Raghav was startled by that sudden interruption but pretended to be indulged in his cuisine.
‘Four years of engineering have passed and nothing has changed about this canteen. These noodles still smell like shit,’ Amar contently smelled the noodles wrapped around his fork before swallowing it, ‘and yeah it tastes like shit. The way they have maintained the quality I tell you, once I will run my own company I will hire my canteenwalah to lead the quality control department over there.’ Amar stuffed his mouth with more noodles while he was yet to swallow from his previous bite.
‘I don’t know if he is going to join your company or if you are going to join this canteen as your campus placement,’ Raghav sneered. Apparently he wasn’t too pleased by that intrusion in his personal time.
‘Or maybe I will buy this canteen and he can keep his job. Seems like a win-win to me,’ Amar chuckled flattered by his own humor.
What the hell? Why is he here?
‘By the way you are spending too much alone time nowadays. Sorting out some emotional thing?’ Amar winked at him before nudging him into his belly.
‘What emotional thing? There is nothing to sort out.’
‘Come on every boy loves some girl in his engineering. Bro engineering is incomplete without three things, back, peg, and a girl. The girl for whom you fight with other boys, cry over drinks, carry your lazy ass to attend the college to just be around her and all this without even letting her know anything about your feelings.’
Suddenly, Raghav’s eyes dwindled for a moment and before he could stop them, like rebellions who have been deprived of something important for far too long, they sneaked at Anjali again and Amar caught him sneaking.
‘You are into somebody.’ Amar’s eyes sparkled.
‘No.’
‘I knew it. It was just a rumor. You are not gay.’
‘What rumor? Of course I am not gay.’
‘Who is she? She is sitting over that table at the moment right now. Isn’t she?’ Amar couldn’t hold his excitement.
‘Who is she?’
‘Nobody man.’ Raghav was trying hard to cover up for that little slip up from his side but he knew it was impossible to make Amar shut up now. The secret he had kept so well for four long years was in danger.
‘Who is she?’
‘Can’t a boy check out the girls sitting on the next table? Isn’t that something boys do?’
‘Normal boys, yes. Raghav Sarkar, a big no. Now tell me who is she?’
‘Leave me alone man.’
‘You want to play it the hard way. Let’s play it the hard way. I will name each girl on that table and you have to escape from the eyes of Sherlock.’
Raghav flicked his head scornfully. He was caught.
‘Mitali?’
Raghav looked away.
‘Sonal?’
‘Soniya?’
Raghav didn’t flutter. Amar kept on reading his eyes.
‘Varsha?’ Amar slowed down a bit.
‘Anjali?’ Amar reluctantly said and Raghav’ eyes surrendered. A smile played over his lips but Amar didn’t complemented his smile this time. His stern gaze tried to catch any hint of humor on Raghav’s face.
‘Anjali?’ He confirmed. Raghav took a long breath before nodding slowly.
‘Since when?’
‘First day of college,’ Raghav apologetically looked at Amar. Amar knew Raghav, he was a sincere gentleman who valued his words above everything. Raghav wasn’t just his friend rather he was the man he respected for his strong values. Lying was never an option for Raghav.
‘Even after that thing last year,’ Amar leaned forward and whispered.
‘Yes. Doesn’t matter to me.’
‘She is no more the same girl. She has changed man,’ Amar was consciously choosing his words.
‘What do you mean by changed?’ Raghav frowned.
‘She was very beautiful man when you had fallen for her. But I don’t know if its some of yours self-righteous shit related to conscience or what but practically you can’t even look at her now,’ Amar hesitantly spoke up.
‘Why not?’ Raghav’ back straightened as he gave Amar an intense stare.
‘You know why not.’
‘No I don’t know.’ Raghav confronted him, suppressing the anger simmering within him.
‘Okay. If you want to hear it, I am going to say it. Anajali looks heinous now. After that acid thing last year, every time I look at her, she scares the hell out of me,’ Amar bluntly sputtered without even realizing that he was loud enough to be heard over that alternate table diagonal to them. A silence prevailed over that table as every girl sitting over there was staring at them. Anjali stood up at once and wiping the tears from her eyes rushed out of the canteen.
‘You fucking blind just go to hell.’ Raghav yelled and ran behind Anjali. All the eyes were on Amar who wished if he could somehow vanish in the air. Rather he drowned inside his plate and slowly continued swallowing more strands of noodles from it.
‘ANJALI,’ Raghav shouted from some distance but Anjali hustled through the crowd trying to hide her tears. Raghav paced his steps and caught her soon. He stood in front of her, blocking her way. Her teary eyes didn’t leave the sight of the ground for even a moment. The students passing by glanced at them quizzically. That was the moment Raghav had waited for four years, to speak to the girl of her dreams.
‘You know me right.’ Raghav sheepishly asked.
‘I thought of you as a decent boy,’ Anjali finally looked up and her glaring eyes scared Raghav for a moment.
‘Whatever you heard, it was just that idiot that I am not even friends with from that moment onwards. And I am sorry about that. I truly am,’ Raghav calmly spoke up. He knew he couldn’t afford a slip up now.
‘You people have no idea how it feels to go out among people and to fight all those stares every moment who tell you to your face that you look fucking ugly. And yet I fight every day and suffer every day to keep that urge of living a normal life alive. If you have to call me ugly at least you can do it behind my back.’
‘But you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen in my entire life.’ Anjali was taken aback by that unexpected response. She quizzically looked at his face. Every word from Raghav resonated utmost sincerity.
Anjali’ left eye lid was half burnt and was melted into her cheek making her left pupil look bigger. The blisters over her cheek extended to her chin. Half of her upper lip had disappeared as on the fateful day her skin melting from that acid had settled over her lip. The right side of her face had magically escaped any damage. All that agony of a lifetime because she had refused the proposal of a boy.
She stood rooted to her ground, her fiery eyes trying to penetrate inside Raghav to read his mind. His eyes were telling her that she was beautiful, something she had forgotten long back. The passersby couldn’t stop ogling at them but Raghav couldn’t care less about anyone at the moment.
‘I want to tell you something,’ Raghav’ heart was pounding hard against his chest, pumping enough blood to turn his cheeks red. ‘I didn’t know anything about love till I saw you. And since then I have never stopped loving you. I don’t care if the whole world is blind enough to judge you by a few scars, but I have always imagined my world around you and which looks very beautiful.’ Raghav’ legs were shaking like dry leaves, thankfully hidden inside his pants. ‘Anjali I love you.’
Anjali stood stunned still trying to believe on everything that had just happened. Never had she imagined that day would ever come again in her life. She had seen Raghav sneaking at her from her first day in the college. A girl can tell when some boy likes her. Her heart would skip a beat whenever she felt Raghav glancing at her. But that was before the acid attack on her. Afterwards, all she could notice were the stares.
‘How can you love me? Even I find it hard to love myself.’ She whispered. Her eyes fixated at Raghav.
‘Because I love you and that is why you are the prettiest girl to me and I don’t even know how to think it the other way around.’
‘Last time I said no to a proposal, somebody burnt my face,’ a painful smile crossed her lips.
‘Well, I will just wait for you. I have been waiting for you for the last four years. I think I can do that for the rest of my life,’ Raghav tried to smile but the tears brimming inside Anjali’ eyes killed that smile instantly. ‘I didn’t mean to hurt you.’
Anjali jerked her head in denial wiping off a tear from the corner of her eye. ’No you didn’t. I just never knew a proposal can be such a beautiful thing.’
Raghav was breathing finally as a weak smile floated over his lips.
‘Is that a yes?’ He dared to ask.
‘No. I need to know you first mister. You have been stalking me for four years,’ she chuckled while wiping more tears streaming through her eyes.
‘Would you like to go with me to canteen? I am supposed to finish my noodles. They taste like shit but I’ll let you share.’ Both of them looked at each other for a moment trying to believe the beautiful turn their lives had just taken and then broke into laughter. Crowd surrounding them dispersed slowly, making way for the new love birds who walked back to the canteen.