Beyond 'S'

I was excited; I was going to make a legendary journey in a train, not just any train… The Navyug Express, from my home town, Mangalore to Jammu Tawi… must be one of the longest journeys by train, with 61 halts covering 3609 km in 68 hours and 20 minutes…. I was excited It was also supposed to be one of the loneliest trains, because less people preferred to travel to Jammu by this means and especially in the A/C sections… I was waiting for the train to leave, when a girl just comes in and sits in the seat, exactly opposite to me… she looks at me and smiles and I smile back… “Hi, I am Dr.Priya”, she says continuing her smile. “I am Darcy”, I say… She suddenly gives me a “What??!!” expression… “Just kidding… the copy of Pride and Prejudice you were holding in your hand as you came in tempted me to say so, I’m Rohan. I’m a writer” “What do you write?” she asks me… “Just about anything , anything that inspires me… this journey is my next project, it might be the journey or

I trip on the stairs, and I wake up…, it’s around 2 in the morning and I was dreaming. Mom’s calling my cell, the alarm is ringing…its 6, I go down, get on with the usual processes and trying to recall the dream. I remember bits and pieces of it, and I discuss it with myself, it was Kashmir right, I was attending some marriage and someone was there… forget that its 6:30...you are late… and I get ready, and I leave to college…still thinking. I’m in the bus, listening to the latest bollywood tracks… still discussing about the dream. I reach college, and make my walk towards class… and I go and sit in my usual place… in the middle row. Two classes go by, some parts interesting, and most of them boring. In the recess, we get to know that the next class is cancelled… and I had almost forgotten the dream… Until the group of girls in the first two benches to the left of me were listening eagerly to a story that one of them was telling… “I was in Kashmir walking in the streets with y