A lazy Sunday
afternoon, there she sat in the remote corner of the rich state Library of Bangalore with the book “A knight in shining armor” spread on the library desk.
After a long
tiresome week she had decided to free herself from the clutches of the lethal
office and home rut by losing herself into a romance novel and opened the list
of 10 most romantic novels on the internet. In the list the title “A knight in
shining armor “caught her special attention and had almost pounced at her mind
with a question mark. “?” A big question mark that had been bawling in her mind
since time immemorial. “Where is my knight in shining armor??”… She couldn’t answer the questions raised by
her own tormented self but she surely could delight her strained mental
faculties by reading this surreal saga. And so she reserved her Sunday at the State Library for this fascinating read.
She retired to bed after uttering her usual ritual prayers and swamped by
gratitude of having been able to find something to engage herself in.
Outside, the grey
clouds scudding across the sky were in sharp contrast to the semblance of order
prevailing inside the vast hall lined with book racks and with seats occupied with the readers. One such ordinary reader’s rushed eyes
rummaging through the aisles for the best book that could come to his rescue
for completing the report due tomorrow, fell on this carefree damsel rapt in
some seemingly arousing novel. He could almost read the open pages from far with
the aid of the expressions on her face. With her two brows furrowed and
forehead creased with lines of anxiety she was a book easily readable to this
reader at least in that second of time. She seemed to be pondering hard over the
difficult answer to some easy question.
Driven by an
urgent inexplicable desire to find out the question that seemed to be etched in
every line of this pretty face he advanced towards her seat with an air of
casual sociability and sat in the vacant seat across hers. He spread the book
in his arms on the table and started reading through the pages, intermittently
taking his eyes off to scribble in his notepad. His eyes on one such flight
from the notepad to the book managed to steal a view of that face with surprise
and questions written all over.
The story on
the open pages is to this effect:
“Help me,” she whispered, her hand on the marble hand
of the sculpture. “Help me find
my
Knight in Shining Armor. Help me find a man who wants me.”
“Sitting
back on her heels, with her hands covering her face, Dougless began to cry
harder.
After
a long
while, she slowly came to realize that someone was near her. When she turned
her
head, a stream of sunlight coming from a high window hit metal and so blinded
her that
she
sat back on the stone floor with a thud. She put her hand up to shield her
eyes.
Standing
before her was a man, a man who appeared to be wearing armor”
……..“Well, witch,”
the man said in a deep baritone, “you have conjured me, so what now do
you
ask of me?”
And then as
though in extension to the story, she heard the boy seated across the table say
“hi,
what’s going on??” to her, to which she replied…”Oh she ‘s finally got
her knight in shining armor..” At this
his lips twitched into an admiring smile, then parted to introduce himself to
the lady..“
“I am Arjun”
Smiling she
replied “Priya ”.
And then she
suddenly put her hand up to shield her eyes from the sunlight flooding in
through the windows.
Smiling, Arjun said , “looks like the sun has driven
off the clouds…”
Dazed by the
coincidence of the events of the day and those in the book, Priya arranged her
features into an evasive smile and dropped her eyes back to the book on the
desk.
As though in
response to some silent words , he said “ Carry on please, I won’t detain you
from this interesting read any further”.. And waited for a second to have his
eyes meet hers… but they seemed to be too glued to the pages to give so much as
a passing glance to this boy who seemed to be as interested in her as she was
in the story.
The light of
the afternoon started fading into the dimness of the dusk as the two stories
advanced , with the creaking of chairs heralding the close of the day.
“Hellooo, wind up .. fast…
we’re closing ..”
The strident voice
of the library attendant snapped the only two readers left in the vast hall,
out of their respective remote worlds.
Arjun and
Priya slammed their books shut and rose from their seats in order to leave. In
the process his eyes met hers again, and found them as blank as a white paper
now.. Everything that was so clearly written in them was gone with the slam of
the covers of the book.
Just when her
lips started parting to say bye… the sound of his words interrupted her, “ So
how was the book?”
She replied
evasively “ very good, thank you”
He smiled at her , she gave a brief concluding
smile too, a smile that left him wondering about the riveting maiden , hidden
behind that mask of cool civility, that appeared so well covered and yet so persuasive and
alluring…
He’ll have to
find out..
To be continued.....
P.S: That's my first attempt at writing a story and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Let me know through your comments if you like it.. I may write further ;)
