Adeeva’s evening with Gautham- by Pawan Kumar

It was an evening on a day just before the winter to set in. Gautham stood on the top of a dam, a walkway so neatly laid. He stood leaning to the abutment on the left side of the walkway, facing the east, his one hand folded supporting the other hand slanted with his fingers partially folded, about his chin. The last light rays of the sun slowly going down the horizon behind him cast a long inclined shadow in front on the road. The evening was serene. One could hear the soft burbling of water due to the tides.

Gautham was waiting for Adeeva. The one girl in his world whom he loved to meet. It has been a month that they met in person and Adeeva called Gautham, last night, just to have a casual meet. Gautham was looking at the city far away in some random thoughts.

As he turned to his right, he found Adeeva approaching him. She was in cotton chudidar, in a shade of indigo blue with white dots in an organized fashion till the waistline. The design below the waistline contained flowers connected with creepers. The neck beautifully designed. The starched cotton fit her body well. The sleeves covered her beautiful arms along the length till the wrist. The dupatta, white and stiff hung on the left shoulder along the length till the knees. Her light skin tone made her look divinely beautiful in the outfit. Two thin strands of hair fell forward and made her look complete. As she walked, Gautham looked at the gracious movement of her curves in the elegant outfit.

Adeeva felt a little jolt of emotion when she saw the posture of Gautham, the sheer intensity of his eyes. It wasn’t an attractive posture for his thin body, but something about the posture revealed his personality. She admired that.

Adeeva stood in front of Gautham. With a gentle smile, she said, “Hai.”

Gautham did not reply, he looked straight into her eyes and gave a smile. That smile had a voice, Adeeva heard it.

“You look complete.”, Gautham said.

Adeeva found in the tone, Gautham’s fascination for beauty.

She said, “You don’t wait for people, you never did.”

Gautham replied, “Because they are not as real as you are.”

They both sat on the abutment, facing the west. Below their feet, the embankment of the dam with rocks of different profiles, lay inclined to the abutment, separating it from the thrust of powerful tides that would break the edifice of the abutment. The water was quite with the tides hitting the embankment with a subtle force. Far in the distance the sun gradually setting behind a huge hill, which looked pale and blue in the ebbing light. The water looked mellow red with the reflection of the ebbing sunlight. The sky looked like a painting, painted on a blue drawing board that turned grey over time, the orange colour like an ocean and blue, grey streaks in random.

Adeeva sat closer to Gautham, her hand around his arm. Her head lay on his shoulder. The cool, gentle evening breeze swayed her hair and left a few fine strands over Gautham’s face. They sat still looking at the beautiful scenery. A group of birds made a long black streak on the orange painting.

“How has it been working for that new project?”, asked Gautham.

“Well, was a great time and experience. I loved the way my team handled it, better than the last few projects.”, Adeeva replied.

There were moments of silence. It has been ten months of their relationship. Adeeva doesn’t know many little things about Gautham, not even his birthday. It is still a wonder for Adeeva, that she came closer to a man in a very natural course. Her first encounter with him was when she read one of his radical ideas on women. The philosophical concept left a lasting impact on her. On the next morning, she met Gautham and had a long conversation. It was only then for the first time that Gautham was impressed with a woman. Gautham’s thoughts inspired the way Adeeva looked at her life. But she wondered now. She knows not a single personal detail of Gautham’s life. Perhaps, she found his personality in every statement he made, so she found it unnecessary to know his personal life.

Now, breaking the silence, she asked, with a gentle tone, “Gautham, what is your birth date?”

“I don’t remember.”, replied Gautham.

“Is that a kind of joke?”, her tone little bewildered.

“Not a joke.”, he said smiling.

She looked at him. Gautham added, “I was not conscious enough to look at a calendar, the clock to record the date and time when I was born. Someone has recorded it. So I don’t remember it… Now it is a joke.” He said laughing.

“You never told where you came from, you don’t belong here, do you?”

“I belong nowhere. I belong to nature. The place where I come from is immaterial, because, four years ago, I was at home, now out of home, years later, I don’t know where I would go.”

Gautham found Adeeva curious to know his roots, but he did not want to remind himself of his past.

The breeze became calm, his tone clear and composed, Gautham said, “Adeeva, I give no space for anything from my roots in my mind. Because I was never me in my past. Whatever I am now, this is me, a personality I have built on a vision that gave me life. I don’t consider physical birth significant. I was born four years ago, from a thought, from a vision to live my life as I wish to. A man builds his real personality through his philosophy, a philosophical thought formulated from art, from the ideal view of his own existence.”

Adeeva listened to the voice, the cold logic. Gautham seemed inhuman, abnormal, but he was real. She has now understood the difference between the men she rejected, the most handsome and the richest of them and Gautham. It was his fundamental view of existence that made him so real a man, she thought. Her admiration for him reached a step further in this little conversation.

Adeeva, in a tone of admiration, said, “Gautham, I don’t know, what is it about you that makes me feel an admiration so intense for you. Now I got it. It is your view of life and your philosophy. You are the only man with whom I felt like a complete woman, your presence always reminds me of my self-esteem.”

Gautham said, “Adeeva, you are a woman with individualistic values, you have a real character and an uncompromising vision for your life. You are a woman of self-esteem, my presence only multiplies it as our values match. It is only your values that make you look more beautiful than you are.”

Adeeva felt a faint tinge of anxiety, now when she held Gautham’s arm. She felt a little movement in her lips. She was a bit hesitant but couldn’t control herself. She lifted her head, looked at Gautham in admiration. Her lips gently touched his cheeks, the last rays of the twilight gradually ebbed from the little space between her lips and his cheeks. That was the final sealing for their love. The moment was as if the sun waited to witness the beauty of love between two real people.

Gautham felt the gentle touch of Adeeva’s kiss. He knew that it was her expression of admiration. They enjoyed each other’s presence. The moment was an elegant celebration…