My Love Story — The ‘Drainage’ Affair

Don’t ask me how I fell into that drainage, she must have seen it probably,
Such hysterical laugh, I must accept the fall was funny,
But that laugh caught me off-guard,
Not everyday you get to see 16-something Woman wearing a bharathanatiyam attire, eternally laughing at you.
That laugh I longed to see again and again.
I visited the drainage road every day from then,
Just to get a slice of her laugh, I endlessly waited in the opposite football ground to see her take the road, and then then plan to bump into her,
I did bump into her once or twice,
She didn’t recognize me, or even if she did, she didn’t take too long to go past me.
I am sure she must have thought that I was stalking her, but I am sure it was way more than just fooling around or should I call it love at first sight!
It so happened one day, when I finally made up my mind to go and talk to her, something else caught me off-guard.
Just as I was about to open myself, a football hit my face,
She was there in her favorite attire, but this time I saw her give a loud cry,
She was frightened, She ran away.
The boys soon came towards me, tried to help me, but then I was okay.
I still had the ball and returned a nice kick.
I never saw her again. Probably she was taking the other route to her house.
Days passed,
I soon started to visit again the drainage road , this time for football,
Football in the football ground,
Such immersive experience,
I was the goalkeeper,
Sometimes I miss, many a times balls hit me on the face, but when I save, the team cheered and guess what, I also knew how to kick back.
Soon I was the favorite goalkeeper of drainage road, and few a times my wild kicks landed up in her house, But I never saw her again, let alone her laugh.
Days passed, Drainage soon became a bit of worry for the commuters and residents, sometimes the drain runs on the road, onto the ground,
Not to forget the Filthy football with drain dirt landing on their verandahs. All this was a cause of concern for the commuters and the residents.
But luckily for them the Place came into city limits. The corporation all set to take care of the filth.
Football ground was soon to be converted into a botanical garden, a lush green place which would host rare breeds of flowers.
And hence even the name ‘drainage road’ was about to be changed to ‘garden road’.
It was on the day of inauguration of the garden, I saw her again after a very long time. She was in a saree, with a kid. She instantly recognized me. She gave me a smile.
I returned the smile. Both of us saw the nearby drainage where I fell, but It was no more.
