“Look that side, seems to be anaccident”, Sanky said by pointing Sunil to the direction of the accident.
They got down immediately and went to the spot. People who were surrounding the scene gave way to them seeing their police uniforms.
A girl was arguing with a bike guy. It appeared as though a guy had hit the vehicle and the scooty was lying down by the force the bike hit it. She was holding her elbow tight and it was bleeding.
He recognized her, RAGINI the girl whom he met in PES Institute. Sunil too recognized her.
Sunil reacted quickly and grabbed the bike guy’s shirt collar and yelled,
“Has Govt given license to kill people, loafer, show me your license”. The bike guy kept quiet after seeing him and searched his purse to get the license.
Sunil said, “Sir, I’ll take care of him please take madam to hospital”.
“Ragini, please come with me, it is still bleeding, he said and asked her to sit in his vehicle.
She was not sure if she can go with him and seemed hesitant to go in a police jeep. But he convinced her that it would be better if she gets treated first and so saying he took her by hand and did the first-aid in vehicle.
On reaching the hospital, she was treated for her injury and they provided a room for her totake the rest for some time
they were left alone in that room.Both had different thoughts going on in their mind.
Sanky was thinking,“What is going on here? What I’m doing here? Why am I worrying like this for her when she met with an accident? Being in duty I’m not supposedto spend my time like this. Would I care if someone else was in her place? Off course, I would have cared, but how far?Maybe I would have called an ambulance and send them in it, but definitely not taken thempersonally to the hospital”.
He was caught in an unknown feeling. He couldn’t decide as to what is going on with him. He liked the feeling though and felt his senses were not in his control when she was near him.
And what she was thinking is a mystery! A girls mind thinks a lot than guys under such situations…Is he falling in love ??????????
She opened her eyes and looked straight at Him with a mesmerizing smile,
Ah… when he saw her looking into his eyes with such a smile all the preparations he had done to talk to her was of no use.
He couldn’t take his eyes off and heard her saying, “Thank you so much”
he smiled and said, “Your welcome but, As a police officer it’s my duty (really????)“
She said, “I have a feeling that Ihave met you before but am not sure when and where”
He literally blushed and said, “Glad that you asked me now, was wondering if you will remember me or not”
“Yes, in your college. And of course it was by accident. I do remember your name, Ragini”, he smiled.
She grinned, “Now I got it!why you called me ragini when you asked me to come to the hospital”
he said”i read ur name on ur file yesterday.”
“ohh so u thought my name is ragini. she said
“thought means ur name is not ragini?”he asked
“n my name is not ragini that was not my file”
“what then whats ur name?”he asked
“swara”she said
Swara he mumuled
“did u said something?”she said
“no nthing ”
He was fascinated by the way she expressed herself and so lively to watch her expressions.He scolded himself for flying inthe air with admiration for her and finally came back to realityand said,
“Let me know your parents phone number, I will inform them”.
“No, it’s fine. I don’t want them to unnecessarily worry about me and moreover if they knew am in hospital definitely they will come to see me despite their work. Frankly, I don’t wantto scare them off for this little accident. With that bike guy’s help I have happily bunked college “, she laughed.
On seeing her laugh with such childish mischievousness, he remembered a quote that he read somewhere,
“Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.
”Every time he saw something new in her he was captivated by it. He knew he hasn’t felt these feelings before with anyone.
He too laughed and asked, “What is your father name?”
“Hmm… started Interrogation, ha?” she smirked.
He said, “No… No… I just asked casually”.
“I was just kidding. My father has his own farm and with my brother’s help he takes care of it and my mom is the world’s best home maker”, and my native is Malur.I stay with my uncle’s family here in Bangalore and studying engineering”.
She felt proud and happily said, “I am the first person to study engineering in my entire family”.
He awed her and said, “Excellent, I appreciate your effort to have come this far and all the best of your future”.
“Now, it is your turn. Please share your family details”, she leaned a bit towards his chair to listen care-fully.
He smiled and said, “My father is a retired military cornel and my mom is a wonderful home maker. We stay in Yaswant Pura … I had an elder brother, he was also a police officer buthe passed away in a naxalite attack.”
She observed his shaky voice, understood the pain and emotions when he mentioned about his brother’s death. She didn’t expect a Police officer tobe so frank about his feeling and sharing it with a person hemet only few times, but still even she couldn’t bare his painand she knew death may end life but not the feelings and memories that one felt for another.
“You know, I have never spoken to any police officer before. You are the first”, she deliberately tried to divert the topic.
He chuckled and said, “Yes, it’sthe same here. I have never spoken with any girl this much”.
“What? Don’t tell me lies… a handsome guy like you should be having many girlfriends?” she had thrown a stone in dark.
He blushed hearing “handsome guy….”, and caughtoff guard when she knew that he felt shy abt her comments.
“I had been busy with my work and have strived hard to get to the position where I am now and earning a good name is hard these days… It’s hard being an honest cop! … So, I missed the opportunity to engage with girlfriends and do parties… also not impressed byanyone till a few days before…” saying that he left the sentence unfinished and left it to induce her curiosity.But she was more careful than he had thought and so she flooded him with questions and asked
“how did you become a police officer? I hopeyou won’t mind to tell me”.
“It’s my pleasure to tell you. When my brother passed away it was a big shock to my family.After that incident, my mother forced me to do either engineering or medicine she didn’t want to lose me like my brother at such a young age… Since childhood, my father andbrother inspired me in lot of ways and I respected them for what they are and what they have become and what they did to serve the people… Though my mother refused, myfather encouraged me a lot andconvinced my mother and …” he stopped and smiled at her trying to guess her expression.
“Great!!!” he thought as she is not giving away anything from her expression. She is difficult to read.
“Was I boring you with my auto-biography?”
“No way it’s so awesome to hear, please continue”, her voice seemed firm.
“I respect this job and more than anything I love what am doing. It presents so many challenges and I love solving it… Even my mother wanted meto become software engineer with its 5 to 6 figure salary… I have wondered if anyone of them dreamed becoming a software engineer or just joined the job for its salary andstatus symbol”, he said.
“It is very nice to know about you. I wish that I am bit determined like you are”, she said.
He had opened up to her more than he never had to anyone inhis life.
“This is not correct”, He chided himself.“OK, Swara, I’ve to go now. Ithink, you will get dis-charged after some time, take care”, he said and was ready to leave the room.
She got up from her bed and said, “Once again thank you very much for your help. Sometime later when you free please come home, I will introduce you to my uncle. He is fond of police officers”.
“Sure, I’ll come. Bye”, he almostasked her phone number but controlled himself and left her room.
“What is happening to me? Why I need her phone number?I should keep