Sanjana

2: SANJANA: MAN IN THE TRAIN The train stopped suddenly. It took me more than a minute to realize where I was. That showed how much I was engrossed in the book. The way Akash narrated the prank was awesome! Seriously!!! How could one play a prank like that!! Boy!! That was awesome!! I was impressed. I rewinded four hours back. That's when I was rushing from office at Excenture, Shozhinganallur. As I was rushing out of my office on a Tuesday evening November 8th, 2016, I heard someone calling me. “Sanjana!” my colleague Pooja walked fast towards me meeting my pace. “Received your coins today from your fan?” She winked at me. “Not again Pooja! Please! It has become a big puzzle to me. I really wanted to see that person who is taking the pain in sending me those flowers and coins frequently. Seriously, what kind of a fan he/she is?” I said tapping my head. “Anyway, happy journey! Enjoy your trip to Hyderabad. See you on Monday. Now rush soon before you miss the train.” She waved her hand and smiled. I smiled in return and turned back. I literally was running along the pavements to catch a bus or an auto whichever I get first. It was the auto rickshaw that I finally got on. “Can you come to the Chennai Central?” I asked in a typical Tamil accent to the driver who followed my instructions thankfully and I was at the Central in not less than an hour. I reached pretty fast considering the city's traffic. I felt grateful to the auto driver and walked the platform where my train was sitting ready to depart. The station was packed with people as though there's a sale. That had always been the same way there. I found my train moving. I ran towards my coach B2, two-tier AC, with my luggage and I was trying my best to catch the train just like Kareena in the movie Jab We Met. I gave a final push to my feet to run fast but the train also picked up its speed and I thought I would miss it. To my utter surprise, a guy stood at the door of the coach and noticed me running. I kept up my speed when he gestured me run faster. He held his hand out and was waiting for me to take it. I handed him my bag first and he pulled me with it inside. I reminisced about Shahrukh Khan in Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. Lol! Yeah, it was because of him that I got onto the train. A line of sweat covered my forehead and I was panting heavily. The guy noticed my condition and took the bag from my hands smiling at me. I gave him a grateful look and smiled at him. “Relax. You are on the train now. No need to worry. I will put your luggage in your place. What's your berth number?” “It's B2 14,” I said. He started walking towards the berth and I followed him there. We reached soon and he placed my luggage on at my place, which was an upper berth. He climbed on to the berth that was opposite to mine and said, “Looks like I'm your neighbor on this journey.” I smiled at him politely, settled on my berth, and sat facing him. I had noticed Kindle placed on his chest. He was skimming through his phone for songs, I guess, as he had headsets plugged in. I could not resist myself from asking if that Kindle had any interesting novel. “Is that a novel, you reading in that?” I asked. He grinned at my enthusiasm and said, “Hmmm sort of. Do you want to read it?” he handed over me the Kindle. The novel started directly from the first page of the story without any book cover, title page, acknowledgments or author name. I asked, “What's the name of the book? Who is the author by the way?” I asked in a rush before I could think. ‘Great! I had shown this unknown guy my interest in books. Can I be more obvious? Now he will think of me as an impatient brat. Cheers to me. Yay! (Note the sarcasm)’ My innerself scolded me. He smiled and that irritated me again. He reminded me of Monalisa's smile. A smug feeling that he knew something that I didn't. However, I was not stupid to let my face show any emotions and hence I threw a smile at him in return. “I'll tell you once you are done with the story or at the end of our journey. Whichever comes first” he said. Well, that sounded reasonable, for a person who wanted to keep the details of book suspense. Before I could fire him with another round of questions, he plugged his headsets on. I started reading the first chapter “Akash: Nightmare.” --------------------*---------------------*--------------------*------------------ The train started moving and I found my Kindle lender asking me something. He noticed that I didn't catch his words and repeated, “Where are you? Looks like you're in deep thought!!' I came to the current world and was looking at him expectantly. He asked, “How's the story so far? Done with the first chapter?” “What a wild plan! This Karthik guy doesn't seem to know his limits to pull a prank on his friends. What a mischievous guy. How can he be like this?!” I said. He smiled at me and said, “Yeah, He is. Continue with the story. You can find him more interesting here onwards. And I would like to share a strange unbelievable thing with you.” He said. I looked at him, puzzled. “Whoever reads this book, their character appears in the book at some or other point. To say it in another way, if you read this book, there are high chances to meet yourself in this as one of the characters. I read this book and I found my character in this book in some chapters. Later few others read it. They were surprised to see them as a character in this book.” He said which was hard to believe. “Hey…how can that be possible? I don’t believe.” I said. “I swear it had happened.” He said pinching his neck. “Ok let me see how and where can I meet myself in this book,” I said. I felt my excitement bubble and was quite curious. I started reading the next chapter soon.