The Walk - Last Step.

 
Queen's Walk, is a beautiful pathway constructed alongside the river Thames. This pathway does have a good distribution of pubs and eateries along the way that one could stop at, if felt compelled to have a bite.

So, descending a set of steps from London Bridge to reach Queen's walk...we began...

"So, how has work been?" She continued.
"Oh, it has been hectic! This is the second stint of mine in UK, and this has been the most hectic" I explained.
"When were you here, last?"
"Oh, that was about two years ago. I wish, I had met you then. I would have seen you both as a couple". I ranted.

These words just slipped my tongue, involuntarily. I had made a note to stop making references to her past! This time, virtual slap wouldn't suffice. I slapped myself on my forehead and put up an apologetic face.

She dismissed my statement, rather nonchalantly.

"Perhaps, you still might not have seen us, as a couple". She retorted.

Soon, we reached the pergola close to HMS Belfast. The view from the pergola was fascinating, to say the least! To our left was the London Bridge in all its beauty and to our right was the illuminated Tower Bridge. Ahead, of us was the illuminated warship. The breeze was picking up. Time just flew by and soon above us was clear starry sky.

It was a rather perfect night!
But ... here I was with someone, who was a tad aloof and remained silent for most of the time! It was not surprising actually. Even during our training days, she always seemed to maintain a certain distance from everyone. Ironically, that was the quality that had impressed me! She appealed the most, when she spoke nothing at all!
If Love was blind ... infatuation was definitely cockeyed! :-)

"So?" I tried to break the silence.
"Oh! Sorry, I was a tad lost" She attempted to explain.
"That's fine. So, how has your work been?"
"Work? What's that?" She smiled.
"You are on Bench and at Onsite?" I persisted.
"Ah  ... Bench/Onsite...! It's quite a while, that I had heard those words" She uttered laughing out loud.
"Oh ...! I didn't know you had quit!" I covered up.
"Well, you don't know, so many things, crickyboy! I quit many more things, quite a while back !" She continued.

Crickyboy! That was my nick name in our training. Thanks to my obsession with that sport. I was even surprised, that she remembered that name even now! I would be lying if I said that she remembering my nickname didn't warm my heart a wee bit.

We continued our walk, heading towards the Tower Bridge. Ah! Tower Bridge. Perhaps, the most recognized structure of London, I thought to myself. Also, the most incorrectly recognized structure of London. Folks often tend to confuse this bridge as London Bridge. One can't mistake them for that, anyway. This looked far more fascinating than the rather bland London Bridge :-).

"So, how is your captain Ganguly, doing?" She asked.
I sensed a hint of sarcasm!
"Well, he is doing well for himself. Sadly, his career had to end rather abruptly." I was a tad peeved.
"Oh! You still support him?" She checked.
"What do you mean, 'You still'? Of course! Although I have no regrets about it as MS Dhoni, is doing a great job!"
"Who is MS Dhoni?" She questioned.

This was puzzling and perplexing. Is she trying to put me off, i thought!

"Stop being sarcastic, ok. You really, don't know who MS Dhoni is?" I shot back!
"Hey, chill pal! I don't follow cricket, that much!" She offered an explanation.
"Still ... I can't believe you don't know MSD!" I shook my head in disbelief.
"Oh, come on, he is not Tony Blair or George Bush!" She explained.
"Huh!! Well, even they have moved on, you know. It's Gordon Brown and Barack Obama now!!" I was getting wild.
"Oh, when did that happen?" She asked innocently.
"When you were hiding under the rocks?" I snapped.
"Oh, don't even remind me of those times. FYI, it was rocks and mud! She burst out laughing.
"What about Tennis? Are you going to tell me, Roger Federer is not the Number 1?" She enquired.
"Yes! Nadal, beat him fair and square, in the longest match of Wimbledon history. Damn! Wimbledon village is so close to London. Plus, it's covered so extensively in media. Yet, you don't recall that event? Huh?" I fumed.

I wasn't sure, why she was trying all this. We had walked a considerable distance by now. It was a rather pleasant evening and I was enjoying the walk. Although, to be honest, I was unable to comprehend the reason she kept annoying me.

"By, the way, what's your mobile number?" I asked.
"Well, I shall tell it you, if you let me enter the number myself". She quipped.

That was a weird request!

"Ok. By the way, you have got a tad weird" I said, as I handed her my Iphone3G.

"What's this?" She asked.
"My damn phone!" I exclaimed.
"WOW! This phone is amazing! How do I enter a number and a name? I haven't seen this phone before" She marveled.

I helped her with the keypad.

"By the way, remember the phones we used to have sometime back? When someone called it used to suffix, "is calling"! Sad that feature no longer exists, in today's phones" She asked.
"Yup. That used to be an inane feature. Time has moved on, you know! If you so want that feature, store the name itself as 'Name is calling'!" I explained.

She seemed to have taken that idea seriously. She kept fidgeting with the handset for a while. Women! I thought!

"Infact, those days ..." I controlled the words...
"I know! You had my number as 'Life'. It would display as 'Life is calling'" She continued from where I had left off.
"How did you know?" I was embarrassed.
"He he. Here is your phone. One of the days I shall answer all your questions. We are going to see a lot of each other, anyway" She handed my Iphone to me.
"I hope, Today is 'one of the days'!" I expressed.

She flashed a dry smile.
Slowly, we had reached Tate Museum. We were near the Millennium Bridge. This was my second favorite spot in London. On one end was the St. Paul's Cathedral's dome on and the Millennium Bridge connecting to the other end, which was the Tate.

"You know something? From, my childhood, I had always wanted to have a rather simple life. I got married, expecting just that! Sadly, I never got what I had desired, all through my life. Infact, the only one who had come close to understanding me, was You!" She burst out!

Now, this was surprising! I had not expected this after such a long time! It was a tad too much to take, too quickly! I was puzzled. What were her intentions? Why is she talking about all this, now??!

"Then ...why did you refuse my proposal" I found myself questioning her!
"Ok. I'll take leave now. Will call you later, tonight" She remarked.
"Relax. You don't have to answer that question!" I offered.
"Nope, I have to leave NOW! We shall discuss later." She persisted.
"Why are you leaving so abruptly? I'll drop you to the station" I tried to reason!
"I know my way around" She said, rather coldly and walked away ...disappearing amidst the crowd of folks walking on Millennium Bridge.

I was a tad offended. Chauvinism is always misconstrued by feminists, I thought. I walked towards St.Paul's Cathedral and took a turn heading to the Bank Underground station, to head home.

Later that, night, I was online for a short while in Yahoo. I had logged in perhaps four or five times in Yahoo, in all this years. I had about 3640 unread emails. I logged into YMessneger as well. So many lost contacts! These were not so close friends, who were just in Yahoo and not in GMAIL. :-). Only one of my contacts was online. It was Pravs! What a co-incidence, I thought. Pravs, me and her had worked on one of our projects together. It had been a good three years since I had chatted with him. Since his marriage he had re-located to Pune. It had been four years ago, he had re-located. I was about to ping him… when surprisingly, Pravs pinged me on messenger.

An excerpt of our conversation….

Pravs: Sirjiiii!
Me : Hey!!
Pravs: Where are you man?
Me : London, dude! You?
Pravs: Good, mate! How long, have you been there?
Me : A bit dude.
Pravs: Dude what's wrong with you man? No contacts at all? I thought, you were actually dead or something?
Me : I wish, I were, considering the work man!
Pravs: Cool!! It's been almost four years right? By the way, I thought, you were dead, because, you didn't even respond to mails regarding Her!
Me : By the way, I met Her today. She is still in London.
Pravs: What?
Me : Her, dude!
Pravs: Okie, How many pitchers have you had?
Me : I am still a tee totaller, pal.
Pravs: Ok, go to sleep.
Me : Dude, she is still the same. We walked for quite a while!
Pravs: WHAT??!!
Me : WHAT?!!!
Pravs: WTF??!
Me : DUDE!!
Pravs: WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?? YOU ARE FREAKING ME!!
Me : WHY??!
Pravs: Dude! You got to be kidding me!!
Me : Cut the Crap pal!
Pravs:
Pravs:
Me : Type, something for God's sake!
Pravs: DUDE!!! She is NO MORE man! She passed away, in November, one and half years back!! She was stabbed multiple times near some bridge, in London about two years back. She was in coma, for six or so months before succumbing! We had so many emails, in our Yahoo. DONT YOU REMEMBER??!

I froze for a moment! I felt Goosebumps, all over! My head was spinning. It was too much to take! What did he just say ... I felt a sick sensation. My mind was in overdrive. The windows seemed to be shaking violently....

Pravs : Dude! U there?!
Pravs : U thre???!??!?!?
BUZZ!
BUZZ!!
BUZZ!!!

I was almost into a cardiac arrest. I put the laptop down and rushed to the washbasin. I was a tad sick. I was shivering throughly. Goosebumps all over my body! The window was still rattling! I headed to the kitchen to have a glass of water. From the window, I saw the trees swaying wildly.

Amidst, all this my phone was ringing. I decided to shut out this entire episode and stretched out to pick up my phone.....

The display read ... "DEATH IS CALLING ..."
 
 
 
Author: Unknown