Images - They never let us know what they know.

He looked up and he saw her.

First Mistake.

Drama has this bad habit of sensationalizing things. This holds true even for romance.

He gave her a smile as she walked upto him and greeted her with a warm Hello. This of course was the full bouquet of formality, Hug et all. So could she feel his pulse quicken and his heartbeat go ballistic as he held her for that brief instant? He probably would never know. But I guess she would. Girls have a knack for knowing things like that. What’s worse, they never let us know that they know.

The first few seconds are what tells both the parties what they need to know. All he knew in those first seconds is that he wanted to know her. But what did it tell her? He probably would never know. As I said, they never let us know what they know.

So there he was, with her finally. He had thought about this for a long time. He had wondered how it would be, what he would feel or alternatively what he would NOT feel. His hopes, his expectations, all resting on the fantasy of this one moment that had given him hours of anticipation and provided the food for a million thoughts. We tend to do that sometimes. Spend hours living through one moment that has not yet arrived, wondering about how it will be, what will happen and how it will feel. Even then, he did not know if she had thought the same. As I said, they never let us know what they know.

It was drizzling as they got out on the street walking towards the sea shore. As the light faded, the lights grew in prominence, highlighting the beauty of the old architecture, built once when this city was still Bombay. But he noticed none of that. But he did notice her eyes, the way she walked , the way the rain drops fell on her hair. And the way she laughed. But he did not know what she noticed about him. As I said, they never let us know what they know.

As he walked down marine drive with her by his side, the wind in her hair and her image in his eyes, he felt the world lighten. He knew that the world would never be the same again. The ice cream that he shared with her, he knew that the next time he tasted it alone, it would not taste half as nice. The coffee in the rain, the ‘bhutta’ that they ate. All of it. But he did now know if she knew any of this. As I said, they never let us know what they know.

And when he dropped her home, he knew that he was crazy about her. And he hoped she did not know this. But then again, he would never know.

They never let us know what they know.