Was It Me?

By Ajabithi Sarma

Business wasn’t going the way I had planned in the initial half of the year. I was standing on the glass covered cabin of my office and stood gazing at the upcoming city of Guwahati, the city known yet unknown to me. I ran a real estate business and had a boom in the initial years, received big projects for the Government of Assam and on that particular year we had also set foot outside the state to setup various projects in Kolkata. The projects taken outside the state were making rapid progress. I was totally distressed about the projects handed to us by the Government. My employees had reported a scandal in the handling of project, a classic example of a Government project, and now because of which our employees were being thoroughly enquired. I looked at my watch, “11:30 pm. Perfect time to return home.” Now, you might think that after owning such a successful business, I might be dating someone. Well…It was far from reality. Being so much indulged at work, I was unable to manage time for such activities. I was 30 and ought to have looked for someone and settled down, but constant ups and downs at work never really let that particular thing come to my mind. I wanted to be settled once I had ensured stability at work. “Seems like you need to marry post-retirement, better post-retirement plan for a person like you.” taunted my mom. And I guess she was right, cause Business could never be stable at any point. Having such thoughts in my mind, I got up on my Audi Q4 and asked the driver to start. At this point at night, you mightn’t find such heavy traffic on the streets of Guwahati, but the flow of traffic was surely moderate. And with the tiredness of the day’s work, I dozed off as soon as the driver started his car.

“Can’t you look and drive… YOU COULD’VE JUST HIT ME!!!” I heard a voice to which I was totally unfamiliar with. Having woken up from my nap, I found my driver getting scolded by a woman. Now the sight of the fight must’ve been menacing for someone totally tired and tensed like me. But, the sight of the woman, or girl specifically, had awe stricken me. She was pure serenity and having a glance had made me forget that the rest of the busy city actually existed. Her eyes spoke more than her words would. Her hair had totally spelled a cast on me. While I was admiring this beauty, I suddenly found those beautiful eyes looking at me. And after the guitars had ceased to play in my background, I came to reality to actually understand why she was looking at me. She was waiting for a reply. And just like a dumbhead, I asked, “Huh!! You saying something?” wow! A great way to start a conversation with her. “Why don’t you tell your driver to actually stop arguing and accept his mistake?” said she. Manohar, my driver, defending himself said, “Sir, but it was madam who crossed the road at a green light.” But me being totally biased towards her, accepted that she was right and told Manohar to accept his mistake. He being a loyal companion accepted it. And at that particular point, out of nowhere I asked, “Would you mind if I dropped you at your home?” woah! I actually pulled it out. She was hesitant a bit, but eventually agreed and sat at the backseat with me. Now, I got to know her name and of course her address. And to my delight, she stayed at an apartment in the same locality where I did. Now getting butterflies wasn’t my kind of thing. But I was getting something which I couldn’t express in words.

The next day while going towards work, I glanced towards the bye-lane her apartment was situated in. Manohar had understood the assignment and took it through her street and to my delight she was there, waiting for an auto. “Hey!” I called out. She waved back at me with her beautiful smile. I offered her to drop her to her workplace, and I sensed her relief when I offered it as she readily accepted my offer.

“So, where do you work?” I asked her breaking the awful silence that had occupied the volume of the car. “Cyberspace” she replied within a short time. “And you? You seem pretty rich.” Said she pointing towards my car. Now this question had taken me aback a bit. I had wished that she knew about my work. I told her about my company and the current situation I was in. 

She gave a smile, held my hands and said, “I know you’ll come out of this situation.” And as soon as she said it, her office arrived. I wanted to shift it somewhat more behind this particular point. But it wasn’t possible. She waved at me, and then I suddenly blurted out, “Would you like to go on a coffee with me? In the evening?” she smiled and accepted the offer. And from that day on there was constant meeting of me and Sunita. Once she and I were taking a walk in our neighbourhood and I said how much her support meant to me. She faintly smiled and said, “This support was long lost for me.” Now that was cryptic. I knew that she was from Dhemaji District of Assam and didn’t have parents. They were killed in an accident which she had also met. But somehow, she came out of it. “Strong girl..” said I. But she just faintly smiled. 

The work related issues began clearing off. Business was back on track. It was the motivation to work for Sunita, to give her the best life I could, that drove me to clear all the issues that crept. I loved her and she now knew that for sure. I decided that I would propose her for marriage and also to be my girlfriend until we got married. She and I spent much time together and it was kinda impossible for me forget her and not stay with her. The last day at court where we’ll be officially declared innocent in the scandal case, and our company will be signing another big deal to develop a commercial property at Bangalore, was the day I decided to propose her for marriage. Every good thing together.

The day arrived. The aforementioned things had already been successfully completed and now, I had texted her to meet me outside her office from where we would be going to a splendid restaurant and that would be the place for me to present my proposal. And while I waited for her at work, I saw various other couple walk towards one of the malls in Guwahati. We waited for 3 hours straight but there was no record of her. Later Manohar decided to go home and asked me to ask her out from her apartment. I agreed at his suggestion and went there. I went inside her apartment and asked the guard about Sunita Baruah. But to my surprise, he said that no one of that name stayed there. I took my phone out to show him the pictures of her with me. But the photos were mine only and her part was totally missing. Even one of my favorite selfies with her was only left with only my photo. Even her workplace reported no such employee. I don’t know who she was or what she was, but I will surely continue to love her.

By Ajabithi Sarma