16. Ansh 2

From that day on it was like a part of daily prayer to find her in the campus and have one good look at her with all my love and tenderness. And that was not very difficult, I usually found her near the IT department, café, verka booth or pec market. On most occasions she was with her one or two friends and on others patiently waiting for her friends, tall slim ‘a babaji ki potli’ type bag hanging from her shoulder. At college she was always dressed in jeans and t shirts tops, she always looked so serene that my heart went out for her. I just felt like taking her into my arms and caressing her. I remember one particular incident when it tempted me so much; it was during the times of our physical education examination in early march, where each one had to run around the athletic ground for about twenty minutes. At the end of this they measured how much distance each one had run and this contributed to our grades. When we reached the athletic ground for our run, the IT branch students were in the middle of their run and there she was amongst them, jogging. She looked so exhausted I feared she’d collapse any moment. I just wished I could go and pick her up in my arms and get her to the sides and then relax her down, put some water in her mouth and set her hair around her ears with my fingers, then wipe the sweat off her face with a handkerchief. By the time she was done with her run, there were many others to take care of her, a couple of her female friends. I was too far to have that opportunity.

The next time I felt this way was the day when I saw her in the auditorium a few days later. She was volunteering to donate blood. So sweet of her but I really wished she didn’t because she looked so tender that I didn’t want any needle pricking her soft forearm and taking out even a tiny drop of blood. I thought she’ll faint if she ever donates blood; I wanted to be there to hold her in case she’d faint but then guys think alike, many would have dived to catch her (god break their knuckles). I had fallen in love with her there was no doubt about it and the response was positive she would smile back whenever we crossed each other, though we never talked she didn’t try to avoid me at any point of time. But what next was the question in our camp…