“Dear Vatsal,
This year school has been extra lively. I hope you find time to read my letters. I wonder if you get any. I have been stealing envelopes and stamps without Dad knowing. The term exams went well and this year finals are about to happen. It’s spring here. It is my most favorite season of the year. I wish we can spend spring together sometime. Dad is taking us all to the beach. I have never seen a beach in my life. This would be the first. I went with Dad to Kodak Films today to buy a new reel for the camera. Dad loves to click pictures. He is the best photographer. I have been cycling a lot and now I feel a little big. I hope you miss me too. I can’t wait to ride into the evenings with you.
I know my letters are going long and longer now. So this one is going to be short. I miss you so much.
Can’t believe the holidays are just two months apart.
Yours Bhaumi”

I seal the letter and I feel overwhelmed. I have been writing for almost a year and haven’t heard back. Are my letters being posted? Are you getting them? What would you be responding I’d keep imagining.

I yearn to spend evenings with you, what is this feeling that doesn’t fade away. This excitement, whenever I play whatever I do, I feel and I wish, you could see me, you could be here. I wish to go to school with you and we would be best of friends. We would be the best mates, we would nail every game together, every subject together and we would grow up together.

I think, you also miss me, you also think about me, maybe I was something more to you and not just a summer buddy whom you played with.

2 months pass by in a jiffy. It’s the new session and a new class. I am officially in middle school now. I come back home from school and I see the railway reservation forms lying on the table. I see names written in the order and Destination Kota, Date of 1 week later.

I am doing a happy dance, school closes this Friday and we were officially ready to start our summer holidays. I would be finally visiting you and granny. I rush back to my room and pick up all my favorite clothes to be packed. I love trains. Especially the one that would now take me to you.

On this train journey, I keep recalling all the things I have collected for you, all the new things I want to tell you, I keep looking outside the train window. Lost in the shimmering night lights, waiting to reach near you, to meet you. To see what all changed in a year. Do you remember me? Have you found any of my letters? Are you also eagerly waiting to meet me?

I lie down and think of all the ways we are going to spend this summer together. I have learned football. I bought new shoes. I can’t sleep at night and the upper berth of the train is my favorite spot, to think about you.

Finally, the next morning, lost in your thoughts I reach my granny’s home and as soon as I am about to enter, I look at the park. The place where we first met. I can see the empty swings in the broad daylight. I am so near you. I look at the roads and I look farthest until around the corner I see a little glimpse of the beautiful Bougainvillea tree, behind which is your house. I go inside and I wait for the evening.

All I want is to run to your house ring the doorbell, call you out, and hug you. See you and talk to you about everything that I have in my heart. I want to see you so badly and I am getting restless. Why days have to be so long and why nights have to be so long and the only time I get to spend with you is the smallest.

I can’t keep up and I randomly walk out and walk in hoping to see you passing by, hoping to run into you. Do you know I am here already? Are you also so desperately waiting for me? I wait for the evening anxiously.

I am tired and it’s still afternoon. I go out and I enter the park, there is no one inside, it’s too hot. I exit the park and walk towards your home. I walk and I remember all those beautiful feelings I have been feeling for the past year, your beautiful face, all my words in the letters. I walk and I stand still outside your house address.

Vatsal Kunj.

I keep staring at the black main door and the bell. I look at the three-storeyed house with pink Bougainvillea flowering with tiles smothered with pink beauties. I look at the bicycle and I am staring inside the house, holding the bars of the door just like a criminal behind the bars, and as the person wishes for independence from behind, I wish for you.

I ring the bell. I am anxiously waiting for you to come outside. I ring the bell again.

…….and I see you, world stops for a while and I stare at you.

I see you coming out. You have grown taller. You are looking so smart. You are wearing a green t-shirt with brown shorts. You come on the door walking towards me. For a nanosecond, after I saw you, My heart pounded like I forgot to breathe, my heart forgot to beat. At that moment, I captured your face, that inevitable smile.

You see me, you try hard to find words to speak. That gorgeous smile of yours. You come rushing towards the main door and you shout

“Bhaumiiiiii” with a twinkle in your eyes. I see your priceless expressions and I am floored.

TO BE CONTINUED