The 4 Hour story

STATUATORY WARNING: All the characters in this story don’t exist and the story is based on no real life incident

There is this guy 21 odd just out of graduate college, on the look out for a good PG institute. The guy is about to board a bus bound to Mumbai (Via the expressway), He is going to Mumbai to appear for an interview (in fact his life depends on this interview). Tensed about the interview the guy is all nerves. The guy boards a bus from the nearest bus stop with nothing for luggage except his file the guy seats himself near the window. Fighting it out to get his mind away from the concern for the interview he tries to push himself into snooze mode; but to no avail and settles down to alternating his sight between the window and the TV in the bus.

The tormented soul wants to get the damn interview over with but then again the larger question. What will happen in the interview room takes over? Bathing in self pity and remorse for not preparing adequately, he shuts his eyes as the bus inches away from the stop. The bus goes about doing its daily ritual of picking us people from the pick-up points. As the bus is about to enter the E-way it comes to a grinding halt. As the doors open a feminine figure seems to get on the bus and makes her way to the seat (right beside the nervous guy). As the girl seats herself she breaths a sigh of relief and utters “Finally”. After the initial few minutes of silence the bus comes to life as a movie starts “Munna bhai MBBS”. The guy realizes that’s the best thing to happen since morning now can have a hearty laugh and reduce the tension he’s under. So he as the movie proceed the guy starts laughing and enjoying the movie (kind of forgets about the interview for the time being). After thinking that he has had enough of self indulgence he decides to make the first move and initiate a conversation with the girl sitting beside him. He asks her “How long would it be before we reach Mumbai” (though he knows the answer), The girl politely replies “4 hours” then comes the next question “Are you from Mumbai?” to this the girl replies “No I’m from Pune and I Work as a CA in Mumbai”, And so the talks begin the two of them start off talking about Mumbai and the why they were going there. Slowly with every passing milestone they start to open-up (I mean getting acquainted, Shame on you!!).They talk about their backgrounds their schooling etc (after all 4 hours is a long time). As the Bus stops at the food plaza they get off together, go to have a cuppa a coffee (obviously the girl pays ;)) it seems like they are on a date (an unarranged one I must say where the guy does not have to beg).

As the bus is about to leave the food plaza both of them get on back in (by now no-one cud have guessed that they never knew each other before 1.5 hours). The guy goes on and starts talking about his personal life (love …..) and the girl adds in her experiences. Both of them can see some form of chemistry between them but abstain from talking about it .Another hour passes and the guy decides to hold her hand, the poor thing panics and pulls away her hand with a jerk, the guy ever so conscious feels like shooting himself, He pretends that it happened unknowingly and apologizes, the girl buys his bluff (at least he thinks so). As the bus arrives at Mumbai the guy asks the girl her name (he did not do that earlier) And she asks the guy his name, they exchange phone numbers vowing they will keep in touch now that they are friends and finally get-off with an handshake (the guys always succeed). The guy soon realizes why he’s in Mumbai? (His interview) and returns back to his initial state. He gets over with his interview in another 2-3 hours and plans on calling up the girl he meet on the bus, but as they say castles in air don’t last for long he realizes that he misplaced the paper which carried the girls number (the interview form basically , Jab kismat hi jhaandu toh kya karega Pandu) . All disillusioned he returns to the bus depot thinking that at least she will call some day, but the call never comes. Every time the guy gets a call from an unidentified number there is a spark of hope which always dies down with the sound of the phone.