The cool evening breeze blew her hair over her face and she closed her eyes. He gently moved the long strands away from her beautiful face, tucked them behind her ears and smiled. The setting orange orb glittered off her eyes as they met the affectionate dark brown eyes of her husband. The patio, where they sat in each other’s arms, was now lit by warm neon lights. The music was playing in the living room but it could be heard where they were sitting. The soft musical rhythms echoed in the spectacular evening air.

“Guess the song, beautiful.” He whispered into her ears and softly kissed on her neck.
“This is the song we danced on…”she paused and with a shy smile said “our wedding.”
“Then madam, could I have this dance?” he gestured by holding out his hand.
“Yes of course Major!”

And they danced into the night, slowly moving to the song, in each other’s arms. Lost, lovingly gazing into each other’s eyes, each song made them smile as they remembered some sweet memory. It was like falling in love all over again. As the music was about to end, they heard distant gunfire and cries of people being shot. She panicked and her eyes glistened,” You have to go right?”

“Five minutes, please stay with me.” he pleaded but the noise grew louder. The blood could be seen in the sky as bombs exploded and the houses nearby caught fire. She pulled away from him, her hands trembling as she held the door knob and went inside closing the door behind her. She couldn’t see him now, only a faint recollection of him standing at the door in his uniform and the screams of dying people. She cried the whole night, praying that he came back home safe so that she could see him again. That never happened.

The alarm clock startled him and he woke up with a headache, again. He looked on the other side of the bed. Empty. Her scent was long gone. He picked up her photo from the night table, kissed the beautiful face of his dead wife and whispered “I love you.”

In the bus, at 8 o’clock in the morning the only thing on my mind is a nice pre-office nap. But somehow I’m always next to people whose phones buzz when I’m about to doze off. Then I am a forced listener of their hushed conversations. In most cases eavesdropping is not intentional. In buses, trains, elevators we all end up picking up conversations between random strangers. But there seems to be a unique frequency in which committed people converse in, particularly over-the-phone conversations. Since I’m a ‘people in 10 meter radius know what I’m talking about’ person, it fascinates me how I don’t catch a word of their conversation. And mind you, I have really sharp ears.

One of the biggest giveaways that a person is in a relationship is the relationship he/she has with the phone. They are endlessly glued to the device. I’m not being unromantic here. There is absolutely nothing wrong with talking to someone you love. What they talk about for so long (each and every day) is not my concern at all; it is the subtle art of speaking in hushed voices which gets me all curious.

At first, I thought it is just girls who talk this way, all coy and whispering sweet nothings and maybe their boyfriends endure it for god knows what reasons. But the stories that I’ve heard from committed men and their friends are just awe inspiring. So these days, I’m not shocked to know that some person used to talk to his girlfriend for 17 hours at a stretch and to top that in that super amazing unique frequency.*rimpoche*.After listening to such endless stories from them (yeah, committed people like to tell singletons how amazing being in love is.:P) I had to know the secret of how to talk like they do on the phone. So I rolled up my sleeves to do some serious research on this. As you get older (like I’m) the number of committed people drastically increases or maybe you just start noticing it more now. Most singles find this very depressing but I on the other hand look at the brighter side. Now, I simply have more specimens to observe. Pathetic maybe, but being an optimist never hurts.

Every day in the bus, the office corridor, sidewalk, etc I started to observe (committed) men and women while they are on the phone. There are times when they plainly shoo me away, some like the fact that I’m staring at them*wink*, some don’t give a damn and I’m sure some find me creepy even. But such things shouldn’t deter one. I have even tried to apply all the observation in practice but in vain. All I got from my friends was “why the hell are you whispering?” and “I can’t hear you, is there a network problem?” and this was enough to induce an uncontrollable fit of giggles. The people, with whom I’ve shared my curiosity and the unaware committed junta, to whom I‘ve asked some really stupid questions, seriously think I’ve gone nuts or probably evolved to a higher level of absurdity.

Maybe someday I might be able to master this great art or may be not. For now, when the person sitting next to me picks up the phone to murmur to his/her love, I simply doze off.