I was finally sure that the other ‘W’ in Wind, Window and.. was a Woman, a woman with a beautiful hair and a pleasant fragrance who incidentally had a very sweet voice. I don’t want to make this filmy and say that I started dreaming about that person and all that. But one thing was for sure, there was a curiosity to know the face so that I could complete the picture in my head. Well I could have imagined and put a face as well, but I wanted the real face of that woman. I had no other feature or details to look for that person and it could be anyone in the crowd. Days rolled by and this incident had gone behind in my memory lane. But things tend to happen when you least expect them to.
I wasn’t that desperate to look for that person anymore, but I could see her coming in my sixth sense. The same time and the same office bus but unfortunately not the same seats. Well, not that unfortunate because we were sitting beside each other. I was at the window seat and she was sitting beside me. The window was to my left, her neck had turned 90 degrees to her right which gave me a look of her reddish brown hair which seemed natural. (I mean the hair color). That’s when I realized that it’s the same person, I was not interested romantically, but just curious for the face. I was waiting for her to turn towards me, and after a while she did turn towards me. I didn’t have any opinion when I first saw her face.
She had left her hair open and probably had straightened them. First of all she was definitely fairer than me wheatish if I can say, she had raised her eyebrows which created some lines on the forehead. Her nose was not that sharp but it didn’t look out of place. By the appearance of the face she looked healthy and fit and she did wear a Bindi (red dot) between her eyebrows. When I tried to look at her smile, I hardly found it. Both her lips were stuck together and there was no chance of her going to smile at that time. She also had two orange colored ear-rings, made of terracotta I guess which suited her kurti. They were balls of orange and the brightness of the color increased gradually on the ear-ring. It was the brightest at the bottom or tip which faced the ground and sometimes touching her cheeks just below the ears. Considering there was no smile, the face didn’t impress me as much as her hair. By this time the bus had crossed the traffic congested areas and reached the highway which means the driver could put more weight on the accelerator. As he did that, there was an increase in the air-flow from the window which resulted in unsettling her hair. That is when I noticed the red dot or Kumkum that she had placed at the tip of forehead which is also called as the maang tikka (Not the kannada word). There is a belief that only married woman have that and so I came to a conclusion that she was married.
I am not sure if I was really disappointed by that outcome, but now I had very less interest on the same hair and fragrance. Moments passed and we were heading closer to office and I suddenly could see her wiping away drop of water from her face. My 30 degree right turn of the face and a glance to the right by my eyes gave me a sight of sadness. I clearly noticed tears dropping from her eyes and she wiping it with great difficulty , keeping her head down so that no one notice it. In a moment I had got all interest as to why was she crying, is it happiness or sadness or harassment by someone. I failed to understand her emotions and felt keeping silent would be the best thing to do amidst so many people. Curiosity which had died, was now back for a different reason and my mind had already started working. With a bold mind, I poked her shoulder with my index finger just before we got down from the bus and when she turned towards me I mimed (No speech, only action) showing that a smile will make her look good and not tears. She gave a brief 2 sec smile and walked away leaving me perplexed about her story.