We

We

I wish I could hold you back at that moment when you came down from the train with me like an angel. It was a frozen night below the Aravalli, and you in your beautiful face looked excited. The long train journey was of no stress to you and when you came through the station and hold my hand, and said, 'Thanks, for bringing me here', I saw your eyes shining and you were breathing white smoke through the mouth. I found my blood rushing through my heart and I hugged you tightly and wanted to kiss you there, in that old station below the hills, beneath the age-old forts that stared at us in silence perhaps blessing us for the moment we lived there. Your hands were cold and I took you quickly to a tea stall and ordered a cup of hot steamy tea. We both needed that warmth in the terrible cold and the smoke of the kettle felt heavenly and you leaned your face towards it, so that you can be warmer. Ah! Your beautiful face, that one face which is always preserved in my heart and nothing can erase it. When the chai was made and served out in the station, color in your face returned and you sipped one more chai. Then at four in the morning we walked through the rail tracks with a cold moon looking down at us, some porters crossed the rail tracks, some engines stand whistling. Amidst all, I grasped your hand like the most precious treasure and walked to the opposite platform and then outside the station. We took an auto to the hotel through the marvelous old city and knocked loudly on the door of the sleeping hotel! We broke out in laughter, the laughter of youth, of a couple in love! Then when the dawn broke, we within the warm blanket cuddled together made love and then slept very happy and fulfilled.

Subhadip Majumdar