VALENTINE’S DAY – Capt. Prem G Nath

I had gone to the capital city of Thiruvananthapuram to meet a friend of mine who had been hospitalized and, on Valentine’s Day boarded the Janashatabdi for my journey back to Ernakulam. The train was scheduled to reach Ernakulam around six in the evening which left me with enough time to reach home, freshen up and go to the Taj with my wife to enjoy the Valentine dinner that I had planned. She did not care much for the Valentine dinners and had ridiculed me the first time I had suggested the idea two years back.
“You want to act like a teenager at sixty!” she remonstrated. “My dear hubby, you forgot all about romance when we were young! And now when you have become a ‘senior citizen’, you want to romance!”
She was right because when we were young, I was busy with my job in the corporate sector and did not have time for such frivolities. I went on the defensive and said, “Dolly, you know I didn’t have the time those days. Now I have the time and the money. So let’s enjoy.”
For the past two years we had been celebrating not just Valentine’s Day but also our marriage anniversary, our birthdays and the birthdays of our children by always throwing a party. Booze and music would flow along with the delicious food organized by my wife who loved cooking. She grew to like these bashes more because of the gifts I always gave her during the celebrations.
I had been an incorrigible romantic and my wife too had been one during the days when I had wooed her. With the birth of children, and my entry in the rat race for career advancement, the streak of romance in both of us slowly disappeared. At times I wondered whether I was the same guy who while on a boat trip just before we got married, had jumped into the dangerous backwaters of Kochi during a boat ride, to recover the kerchief that had fallen from Dolly’s hand.
I had got into the train well in time and found the air conditioning in the coach a welcome relief from the heat outside. I had an aisle seat and a young couple, both in their twenties were in the adjacent seats. I had always considered myself to be a good observer and even assumed that I was a bit like Sherlock as far as my powers of deduction were concerned. The girl was pretty and had a charming smile, which in combination with her big kohl lined wide spaced eyes could set even a dormant volcano like me on fire. Her straight hair fell below her shoulders and a thick streaked strand of hair kept falling on one side of her forehead almost covering her left eye. They were both wearing jeans and she had a short kurti while the guy wore a white t-shirt which accentuated his V shaped torso. He was a six footer and the girl who was short statured looked puny sitting next to him. He had a clean shaven face and long hair that kept falling down on to his forehead giving him a boyish charm. He smiled at me in a cursory way when I looked at them and after that, the couple were fully engrossed in each other. They held hands, with her head resting on his shoulder and I noticed that both wore gold wedding bands on their fingers.
“Must be a newly married couple, in the first beautiful summer of love”, I philosophized.
The ticket examiner came around, and when he checked our tickets I came to know that the guy’s name was Sukesh because the examiner called out his name from the list. The couple was in a world of their own and I did not want to introduce myself and disturb their romantic journey on Valentine’s Day. I called my wife on my mobile and told her that I had boarded the train and reminded her about the dinner I had planned for the evening. She answered in a very matter of fact manner, “Yes, I remember”, and did not sound at all very enthusiastic.
I made myself comfortable in my seat and began listening to her litany about the Oriya boy, our gardener who she said, was spending more time on his mobile than working in our garden. She went on and on until I told her that I had bought her a surprise gift so that I could break her monologue. My ruse worked and she immediately wanted to know what the gift was.
“Let it remain a secret,” I told her. “It adds to the romance”.
“I hope it’s not another Kancheevaram sari like the last time,” she replied. “I shall love you more if it is a bracelet, hopefully one of those new ones encrusted with diamonds they have been advertising this past week”.
The gift I had got for her was a diamond bracelet. After years of marriage couples not only learn to understand each other but also read one another’s minds. I had seen her looking at an advertisement for a diamond bracelet in one of the magazines a few days back and I now knew that I had chosen the correct gift.
“Just wait my dear Dolly”, I said and disconnected the call.
I had all along being talking softly because I did not want my neighbors to overhear. I need not have bothered because the couple next to me had shut themselves into a world of their own oblivious to everything else. I picked up the Forsyth novel I had brought along and began reading it along with sips from the cup of coffee which I bought from the vendor.
An hour into the journey, the youngster next to me called the vendor as he passed by, and got a couple of cokes. He smiled at me and I too smiled back but there was no conversation. I continued with my Forsyth novel nibbling on biscuits which I always carried with me. From the corner of my eye I saw him give the girl a small gift wrapped box. She quickly opened the box and took out an exquisite watch attached to a gold bracelet, which appeared to be very expensive. She squealed with delight and rested her head on the boy’s shoulder, holding on to his hand. I guessed that what she really wanted to do was to kiss him and probably abstained from doing so because the compartment was well-lit and full of passengers. She now opened her hand bag and after keeping the watch inside along with the gift box, took out a small elongated box and gave it to the boy. He opened the box at once and his face lit up when he saw the pair of stylish Ray Ban aviator glasses inside. He immediately wore them and turned his face towards her. She took out his mobile from his pocket and clicked a picture of him proudly sporting the new pair of Ray Ban glasses. The exchange of gifts, which was obviously Valentine day gifts made me emotional and I blessed the couple silently.
I was hungry and I opened the container of Biryani which I had bought from the station. The girl had brought along some burgers all packed neatly in a box which they ate, intermittingly feeding each other small pieces. The girl would break into giggles whenever the young man daintily picked up pieces of the burger which fell on her kurti during the mutual feeding process. I finished my Biryani, went to the wash room and after depositing the empty carton in the bag for waste kept in the vestibule, returned to my seat. The biryani had been really tasty and I was feeling sleepy after the heavy meal. I stretched my legs out and with the back of the seat reclined to the maximum, went to sleep.
I woke up after a long siesta when the train was moving out of Kottayam station. I got myself a cup of coffee from the vendor and resumed my reading so that I could complete the book in the hour or so which the train would take to reach Ernakulum. I noticed that the couple next to me was not asleep but had become quiet, with no more giggling or muted chatter. Her head was on the boy’s shoulder and he was holding her close with one arm around her. “Probably resting with passion spent”, I thought mischievously and continued with my Forsyth.
The train had reached the outer signal of Ernakulum station and was slowing down before entering the station which was another five minutes away. I shoved the book into the small satchel I had with me, got up and moved towards the door of the compartment. I glanced at the couple who were now sitting apart and smiled at them to bid them good bye but they did not appear to have noticed me. I moved on towards the entrance and was one of the first to get down onto the platform when the train reached the station. I got down and was jostled by the crowd of passengers who were in a hurry to get inside the compartment because the train had just a five minute long halt at the station. I extricated myself from the crowd and started walking towards the main exit of the station which was quite far away. I had hardly crossed five compartments while walking on the platform, when I heard the engine hooting indicating that it was moving, and looked back. To my surprise I saw the girl who had been seated along with the young man on the train, also walking a few steps behind me. She appeared to be following a man in his thirties of medium height, who fell short of being handsome because of his stern countenance, walking just a step ahead of the girl, carrying her bag. I guessed that her husband, who had been in the train, had continued his journey due to some reason and the man escorting her would most likely be her brother.
The strap of one of my slippers had come loose and I stopped for a moment to adjust it. By the time I resumed walking again, the man and the girl had gone ahead of me and I followed them close behind, to the exit. I saw that the girl was walking with her head bent down and a gloomy look on her face which I thought was due to the hangover after the cuddly time she had on the train with her husband. She did not appear to have noticed me and I walked just behind them, admiring her straight hair which reached below her shoulders.
We, the man, the girl and I had just come out of the exit onto the front lobby of the station when a person who came in a hurry into the station, smiled at the man in front of me, stopped and asked him,
“Coming from Trivandrum?”
“No,” said the man who had received the girl who had been along with me in the train. “My wife was coming home”, and pointed to the girl standing just behind him. “She is doing her P.G in medicine in the medical college in Trivandrum. She has come home for the midterm break”.
The other man smiled at the girl and nodded his head. “I have to pick up my niece who must be waiting for me on the platform. I must hurry” he said and rushed inside the station.
I was flabbergasted, all my supposed skill for deduction having gone down the drain. I had until the moment been under the impression that the girl and the guy in the train, Sukesh, were a married couple very much in love, celebrating the spirit of Valentine’s Day. I watched with my mouth wide open in surprise, as the man who had come to receive her, and the girl whom I now knew was his wife, got into the back seat of the chauffeured car waiting outside in the car porch.
“Valentine’s Day was definitely for those in love, but not necessarily for those married to each other”, I thought as I walked out of the station.

Capt. Prem G Nath- Has published two collections of short stories- ‘Twists and Turns’ and ‘Thrills & Chills’.