"I spy you!" - 47

She would have loved to marry Pushpahaasa. But her face clouded when she remembered that he is already married.

In fact, she had discussed this matter with Durjaya during lunch time one day.

“What? You want to marry a colleague?” he had raised his voice.

She shushed him. But she need not have worried. The canteen was a place which has umpteen numbers of voices speaking together.

“Hey! Did I ask you like that?” she said indignantly. Then continued, “All I asked was whether the office allows colleagues to marry each other?”

“Oh, have you found a girl for me?” he asked with a lot of hope.

She had punched him in the shoulder and changed the subject.

But Durjaya insisted on telling that the company does not encourage marriages among colleagues. The reason given was that the husband and wife are bound to bring the problems of their home to the office and the office work is sure to suffer.

She had left a day after that. She had not seen Pushpahaasa anywhere though her eyes searched for him everywhere in the office.

The worst part was she started seeing him everywhere though he was seen nowhere!

Then she had applied for leave and left in a hurry. She had taken the cab to the hill station down South.

She found the surrounding to be very beautiful. She started climbing small hillocks which were around. She found a good number of flowers, vividly colorful and pleasing to the eyes.

She thought, ‘The rains have made the place so breathtakingly beautiful’.

But what she did not anticipate was the dangers brought out due to the rains. Her foot slipped twice and she had hang on to the branches of trees nearby.

She thought she had enough of climbing and decided to return to her hotel. The sun was going down spreading out pinkish light.

Pinkish? Oh God, which means the time is past the safe time as far as climbing alone is concerned.

She hurried back to reach the hotel. The steps became faster and reckless. The result was that she suddenly felt the ground below her feet giving way and she slipped!

Her heart skipped a beat and started chanting ‘I am falling I am falling’

She must have slipped at least 6 feet. She tried to hold onto some hard portion to break the fall. But it did not happen. She slipped 2 feet further. She groped and tried to hold on to something again.