An encounter with a young woman!

An encounter with a young woman!
Even as I stuffed my luggage in my car, my friends cautioned me against the night travel in the treacherous ghat section from Ooty to Gudalur. They warned me particularly against taking the Naduvattam road that cut down the distance by about 15 kms. The sun was already sliding down the hills and looked pathetically inadequate to create even a feeling of warmth. There was a nip in the air that bit into the bones and the sky was ominously overcast.

I had no choice as I had an important meeting to attend early in the morning at Bangalore. The driver that was assigned to drive me down reported sick and I had to take the wheel myself. My friends filled me in with all the tips should I get stranded in the National Highway. They pleaded with me again and again to take the Highway and not the shorter Naduvattam road. I flashed a big smile at them and revved the engine to life. I could see their withdrawn look in the rear view mirror as I maneuvered the car down the driveway.


After driving for a while with nothing else to keep me company except the enchanting voice of Mohd Rafi, I arrived at a junction where the Naduvattam Road branched off from the highway. I hesitated for a second and swung the car into the dreaded branch. The dying light of the dusk was still strong enough to see the landscape around. The sky was getting darker and it started raining suddenly. What started as a linking of heaven and earth through strings of silver escalated soon into a torrential downpour. The hills reverberated with the deafening thunder and the blinding streaks of lightening set them on fire. It was as though the skies wanted to empty all its contents in one split second.

I started wishing that I had heeded to my friends’ advice to stick to the national highway. Driving in that rain became extremely hazardous and I peered through the windscreen for any sign of life on the roadside.
I drove on with great difficulty for what seemed an eternity and my heart leapt with joy on perceiving a few feeble electric lights dotting the roadside at a distance. I brought the car to a halt at the first lamp post where I could see a small tiled house. I got down and knocked the door a few times. The door finally creaked open to reveal an old man who could be anywhere between 60 and 80. I explained my position to him and sought a place to sojourn for the night. He directed me to the Forest bungalow a few yards away and shut the door on my face. I drove on to the bungalow and got down from the car. I collected a few essentials for the night, locked the car and went in. A strikingly similar looking old man was there and he showed me into a dilapidated room with a feeble bulb trying to cope with the menacing darkness. In the center of the room, there was a cot with a dirty mattress but I was in no mood to complain. I closed the door behind me, changed into something dry and hit the bed.

How long I slept I wouldn’t know but I woke up suddenly hearing some voices in the corridor. I got out of the bed, walked out of the room and there I saw a young girl arguing with the old man with tears in her eyes. I asked the old man if there was any problem and he replied that the girl was also stranded like me and needed a place to stay. He was unable to help her as the only room available was occupied by me. I looked at the tear soaked face of the lovely girl and my heart melted. I told the old man that she could share the room with me if she had no objection. The girl accepted my offer gratefully and stammered a few words of thanks, which got drowned in the furious sound of the rain and wind.

Inside the room, I started removing my pillow and sheet to the ground to accommodate the girl on the bed but she implored me not to do so warning me that it was dangerous to sleep on the cold floor in this weather. I was hesitant to share the bed with her but she persuaded me to stay on. I occupied one portion of the bed and stayed stiff in order to avoid touching her even by mistake. I soon fell asleep and so did the girl. We kept the light on for obvious reasons. I woke up in the middle of the night and found the hand of the girl on my chest. I gently removed it and placed it by her side and closed my eyes. Within seconds, it was on my chest again and I knew instantly, she was not asleep. My heartbeats went haywire and I started sweating even in that cold weather. I had always a big opinion about myself but I never even imagined that I had anything that could arouse the passions in a young and beautiful girl. I found all my reasons flying away through every available hole on the roof and I lost control of myself totally.
I got up from the bed to switch off the light but the girl restrained me. She gave me a bewitching smile and put out her hand towards the switch on the wall, which was about ten feet away. I froze in my bed as her hand grew longer and longer until it reached the switch!

PS: I hope that I have been able to take you all out of the boredom of my incessant talk about old age with this story! Dont worry! This is just pure fiction inspired by Sujatha!

 

Dear Vandhana
You almost tempt me to start a serial now! I wont embark on such a venture unless and until I take a few precious lessons from my younger Brother Sri! He is the uncrowned king of serial stories!
Sri

 

Dear Chitra
Of all the things that I love most is rain! I get awfully fascinated by sheets of water coming from the heavens above. I always wonder how so much of water that can flood a whole city and even parts of the country can remain floating in the sky.
Once Gandhiji was asked to visit a great waterfall in Africa. He simply smiled and remarked,'Is it greater than rain?'
Coming to the encounter,the story is purely a figment of imagination, the first part though is more of a fantasy of mine!:mrgreen: But I know that if at all I get a chance like this, this is how it would end too! Unlucky me!!:icon_frown:
Sri

 

Dear abha
I know that I have narrated a story leading everyone to expect the 'best' in the end but made it a great anticlimax! But dont you think that if I had ended it any other way, I would have been the first to be booked under 'Infractions'?
But honestly, as I had told Chitra, if at all I did have an encounter like this, it was sure to end in a great fiasco!
Sri