Miss Lovely

June 24, I was travelling back home from Delhi. The time was of summer vacations all over the country’s colleges and I had taken the AC bus going from Delhi to Ludhiana at ten in the morning. Last night’s sleep was still pending in my eyes. I wasted no extra time on settling up my luggage and went into a deep nap. This chain of events occurred during the whole journey until bus stopped on some nice restaurant for the lunch. I was hungry till the time, so I missed no chance to fill up my stomach up to the epiglottis. Through the filling process I totally forgot about the bus which was waiting for me outside. I completed my meal and after paying the bill, proceeded towards the bus. The bus was not at its place. For a moment I thought everything happened around me is a sort of some nightmare but soon I came back to my conscious and heard the horns of a bus stopped at the edge of the highway. Most probably those horns were for me. I rushed and got into the bus and continued my journey. After moving few kilometers bus came to halt at the bus stop of the area. My gaze was stuck at the beautiful small town when a woman in her early thirties wearing black shades and west dress stepped into the bus and took one seat before mine. I saw her tiger patterned bag which she kept aside on her seat. That woman was an above average looking but still I was so into her. The main thing which grabbed my attention was that she was wearing earring in only one ear. She at first seemed like one of those playgirls to me who always attempt their ways to hunt gentlemen everywhere. And when bus conductor arrived, she took a ticket to the destination city and intentionally dropped the ticket and passed a smile to him which clearly was a sign of her tricks. The conductor too felt attracted by her smile and picked the ticket from the floor and handed her. The doubt turned into sure till then and I realized that I was travelling with a prostitute- Miss Lovely as a movie with a same name and theme was released in that month. And I started carving the further story in my mind which probably seemed to relate with all the practicalities I was about to experience during the journey. The stop from where she came into the bus was nearby to a famous brothel and often normal people are confused with those types of people. She was wearing a single earring which looked like she had accidentally forgot to wear it in rush to catch the bus coming outside the brothel to a bus stop. Well I had never seen any call girl before. I was continuously shifting my gaze from her ear ring to her shabby hair. Whenever she turned to look outside the window I avoided direct eye contact and pretended as if I was listening songs in my earphones. Till then she had comforted herself into her seat and I into her. It bothered no difference among the rest of travelers what Miss Lovely was doing. But why she was concerning me the most? We were travelling through a rough and rugged road. It’s more fun to watch other people jumping from their seats and laughing upon their reactions rather than just getting irritated. Within this hopping and jumping I managed to look onto her from back. She took out her mobile phone and checked out the text messages. The bus was trembling beyond its limit and I however succeeded in noticing the last text which she was typing. The text conveyed- “darling I’m on my way….pick me up from g.d. road”. These people have their business opened 24 by 7. I was wondering if she had been married, she might not have to do such odd jobs. But soon my thoughts were intervened by a sensual yet beautiful voice. Miss Lovely in a sudden turned back and it was the first time during that whole journey I witnessed her pretty face and eyes as she revealed her face from her curly hairs which were coming before her face due to heavy wind flowing from the open window. She asked my permission to close that window and I simply replied in affirmative. She again put that smile on her face and thanked me. It made me feel great but at the end it was their regular job to make others feel pleasured.

The further 2-3 hours were passed and my journey came to end in the evening. The bus reached to its destination covering seven hours of journey and I started collecting my bags from the luggage shelf. Miss Lovely was already standing on the door looking for her darling. As soon the bus stopped at its junction in Inter-state Bus terminal, I saw a man standing in the formals met Miss Lovely and hugged her. She was gone and I waited for another bus which I had to change up for my hometown. Well after some time the bus going to my hometown came to the terminal. While the bus was about to initiate the engine, I was thinking of that tale of Miss Lovely and her darling when far away I saw a bus leaving from the terminal and one girl stepped onto that bus waving her mother a goodbye. It felt like déjà vu. Suddenly I recalled the series of events happened with me since that woman-Miss Lovely came into the bus. I recalled that she also entered the doorway of the bus waving a hand to somebody on the bus stop. The old lady I misinterpreted for a newspaper hawker since the cart was there at the corner might be her mother. The ticket might have accidentally fallen down from her hand and because she was carrying a lot of luggage with her, she might have found inconvenient to pick it up and the man who came to receive her was none other than her husband. When I deeply gave a thought about it, I remembered having a lightest of the glance on her fingers while typing that text in the bus. She was wearing a wedding ring in her ring finger. It was me who was pretending before her. She was as honest as the mirror. Sometimes misconceptions and misinterpretations leave us into such regretful and guiltily manner that we are ashamed of our own personality. Meanwhile the sun was at the horizon and was about to set down for the clear dark sky ahead.