My first fiction story-Railway Track

Right now i am living a fulfilled life. Got married to a very beautiful girl which to my good fortune was the only child of her multimillionaire father. My wife’s name is Geeta. We met in college when i was doing my MSc in Physics. It was love at first sight. I had many crushes before, but this one was special. Within a month we got married and inevitably i had to walk into her father’s business. I got a big office in Ballard pier. My Father in law had a business of office furniture. He had a big clientele list.

Eventually i took over the business from him. I not only maintained the current clients but also increased the number of clients. I would boast that any new office in Mumbai would first approach me for their furniture designing. Such was the brand image i had created. My father in law would come to office every afternoon to look after the proceedings. But after certain passage of time he stopped coming to office and i was the whole and soul of this business.

Everything was moving smoothly until one morning. It was the weirdest day of my life.

Early morning i heard weeping noises, and felt my chest getting heavy. I got up due to the rising pain in my chest. To my horror i noticed that it was my wife crying with her head resting on my chest. I asked her what happened, why are you crying. Then she said with her watery eyes that she didn’t want to go away from me. I got more confused, and asked her who is taking you away from me. To that she replied she had to go shopping with her friends and she feared losing me. I brushed aside her idiocy and tried to console her that everything is all right.

I was totally stumped by this early morning incident. Even after eight years of marriage u still don’t understand your woman. My mind was completely filled with innumerable questions as to why geeta feared losing me. I got started with my daily chores, but everything seemed changed today. I had my shower without using my bathroom singing skills. Also had quite breakfast. Then i left for office.

After settling on my desk, i suddenly remembered that i had received a letter some 20 days back which for some wierd reasons i had not read. I reached for my drawer and got hold of that letter. I hastily opened it. To my surprise it was the letter from Gauri.

Suddenly i was dragged back to my childhood days in the chawls of grantroad. We were a bunch of friends and Gauri was the only girl in the group. At that point of time I was 14 years old and Gauri was 12. All the boys in the group would address us as a couple. At times the teasing would go overboard. Gauri used to get freaked out by that persistent teasing. So we would stray away from the group and get on the railway track.

Strolling on the railway track eventually became a daily activity for us. Suddenly Gauri would start running on the track and ask me to catch her. There were rules laid down by us. The rule was that you have to run only by stepping on the sleepers between the tracks. If a train comes by we would hop on to the adjacent track and continue running.

17th march 1956
We were running on the track as usual. Gauri was running on track no 1. I noticed a train coming towards us from grantroad on the same track. I thought Gauri would jump off the track. But to my horror she still kept running towards the train. I called her out “Gauri get off the track”, but it fell on deaf ears. Finally she noticed the train but it was very close to her. She froze on the track. I had this feeling that everything is over now. Suddenly i felt the burst of energy in my feet and i leapt towards her and brought her down on the track. The very next second the train passed over us. It felt like darkness had enveloped the broad daylight with the earth shivering with the fear of death. Gauri hugged me tighter; i was acting as a shield saving her from the train.It was a close shave as the distance between me and train was less than a inch. Those 10 odd seconds felt like a lifetime. I gave a sigh of relief when the train was finally gone. I got up and helped Gauri to get up. She was shivering with fear, she looked petrified and shocked. I helped her calm down. We walked away from track and enterd our society chawl. Her clothes were torn at some places owing to that incident. I asked her what she was thinking while running towards the train. To that she replied that she did not notice the train as she was lost in some other thoughts. Then she became emotional and asked me “will u save me if i get caught in any such incident for the rest of my life”. To that i replied that “i promise i will always be there for you” and we both cried in each other’s arms.

This incident brought us more closer to each other and we started seeing each other more often. Some years passed by and then my dad had to move out of Mumbai for work. So we shifted to pune and the contact with Gauri was lost. I moved on with my life, and started seeing other girls. This is how i met my wife geeta.
From the letter it was evident that Gauri isn’t leading a very good life. In the letter stated that Gauri’s mom and dad were dead, and Gauri wasn’t well educated to earn a living respectfully. It was imperative that she had taken up to prostitution to make her ends meet. In the letter she mentioned “I waited for you to come and save me from labyrinth of this evil world, but u didn’t come”.

I was shattered on reading this. How could i forget her, How can i be so oblivious to her condition, I felt like a criminal. I wanted to meet her and correct all the mistakes ive commited. I got the address from the letter and immediately left to see her. On reaching at the address, the neighbours told me that she moved out of that home last week. I felt hapless and came back home.

The thoughts of Gauri just wouldn’t go away from my mind. I asked jenny ,my servant to pour me a glassful of scotch. I had alcohol for about an hour. As darkness began to settle in, the door bell rang, I opened the door and to my pleasant surprise it was Gauri on the door. She was looking very feeble and dainty with white saree. I out rightly started pleading her to forgive me as i could not stand by the promise i made. She said its ok, and asked me if we could go on a drive. I nodded, took the bottle of wine along with me in the car. I started the ignition of my Mercedes and were on the road. She asked can we go to the same railway track on which we played in childhood days. I obligingly drove towards the chawls of grantroad. We got down near the railway crossing. Gauri took to the tracks and suddenly started running. I followed her asking her to wait. But she didn’t budge and continued running. I noticed a train coming towards her. I screamed out of horror “Gauri stop there is a train coming over”. But she kept on running towards the train. At one instance i was very close to her and i felt that i can save her this time again, but she increased her speed. The very next moment the train passed through her. I was intrigued by that site. And suddenly the world around turned red. I was damn confused as to what is happening around me, is it the effect of alcohol.

After some time i saw Gauri , I asked her what is happening around me. She handed me a newspaper which dated 2 days back. I read the headlines stating “ Prostitute committed suicide on railway track near Grant road”. This added to my confusion. To that she said now we will live together till eternity and no one can separate us.