She said "I hate you ", my eyes was battling badly against tears with clouds of lamentations surroundings me. Air gushed inside my lungs harshly, I was manic, frustrated with feelings. The bus was rattling on rugged road. The madness of jenny's words crept into my ears, striking the ear drum heavily. I sat like an insignificant insect beside her.

 "Ticket", said the conductor dressed in kaki with a bill book in one hand.   I searched for some coins in my shirt pocket, it was not there. I took out my wallet from my pant packet and verified all the compartments of it. I found barely three rupees. Within seconds there was a handoff between money and ticket. I griped my open wallet and my eyes encountered a small green paper of 1" X   2" peeping out from one of the compartment. Without minding Jenny  I pulled the green paper. It had some inscription as follows

  Dear Albert,

                   Wishes on your b' day

                                                With love

                                                   Jenny

It was a small card given with a big heart to me by my Jenny on my twentieth birthday. The green paper was a lovely note pasted on my birthday gift. My thoughts were heavily flooded on the events which made my twentieth birthday. It flashed on my inward  eye.

 On that 20 th birthday, I rushed with enthuse to my lecture hall. My friends made many pranks by smashing cake on my face for fun and wished me. "Excuse me", prayed a pretty voice in a green tessellated dress. I gave a encyclopedic look at her .She was wearing a costly classical laced black foot wear which was pretty than the footwear which Cinderella dropped in kings party. There was no metaphor or simile to portray her beauty. It was non other my Jenny. Her outfit was opulence in beauty, glossy flower embroidery work were running round the border of her garment. The contrast of her embroidery art and color of the dress was beckoning my youth. A reddish lip with Mona Lisa smile was halting my heart. Her eyes filled with glee and sensational romance tempted me to sketch an ode on her. The fairy relished in tales came alive near me. She stretched her hand towards me. It owned a golden ring in Saturn finger and every nail was trimmed with precise accuracy polished in crimson red. I readily accepted her in a polite genre. 

"Many more happy returns of the day" With clarinet softness she uttered .It was the best melody I ever witnessed, it sounded better than Mozart's symphony. With laughter blended with orchestra piano pitch "Albert close your eyes", she said. As per her instruction I closed my eyes. Within few second "Open" she said. She was watching me with a serene beauty in her brownish eyes. I unsealed my vision. I witnessed a   gift in green with a small note adhering on it. Within moments I uncovered and discovered a wrist watch residing in it. It had a brown strap , green dial, roman numerals in golden yellow around the boundary of the dial with three sharp needles.

  I knew it would cost around 250 to 300 rupees. Even 250 rupees was huge and lofty amount for me, since I was from a lower middle class family. I had no wrist watch till my 19 years of survival. My home was small. It housed nearly nine members including my dad and mum. I am the Benjamin of my family, tiny in appearance, thin, haggard, excited in happiness, crying in sorrow. Deriving equations, stating theories and theorems, admiring scientific personalities were my hobbies which consumed only time and not money and for this prime reason I nourished them heavily. Sickness was like my shadow giving me company in all circumstances. I had troubled lungs at small age and eventually ending with tuberculosis. Whenever I encountered sneeze or cough, my lung laughed by erupting blood through mouth. It was pathetic, but I hate self piety. The word uncertainty crept in my life through her. My rigid life was made elastic and then stochastic by the girl beside me. Every girl even jenny liked boys with mobiles, wallet with credit cards, bikes, glossy footwear etc. They see everything but not heart. I don't know why? It may be the nature of their ancestor Eve who ate God's forbidden fruit.

 "PAM ,PAM ", the sound of the horn was deafening my ears. The moment once again I come to the world where I sat. The girl beside me showed her flint face and muttered "Bye". Then she went near the door and made an exit through the entrance of the bus. Thus she got down from the bus and from my life willingly without my concern. I never ever wanted her to do so. Fate has its own destiny. Yea it is true. Then the bus departed, I watched her moving till she got faded in distance. I got down in my usual place with a heavy heart and walked alone for first time towards my home without her. I made my mind "a futuristic man has sorrows but he always dauntlessly battles for victory till his eternal sleep".

 Even today I just remember the day I first saw her, the letters and gifts she gave me during birthdays and Christmas. All were bliss during solitude.

Vijay.... 

PS: Inspired by my friend