Once Upon A Hullabaloo!

CHAPTER 6

I could feel my face heating up under the concentrated rays of sun piercing through the window. A sharp pain returned to my numb back as I rubbed my eyes open. My thumb found it's way to the wet corner of my mouth. Darn! I had drooled in my sleep. That is one thing a person might not wish on doing when they are dozing off on the back seat of an almost-stranger's car.

I sat up straight on the seat to stare at the tiny pool of drool damping it's fine leather finish. I started dabbing  that wet blotch of embarrassment with my scarf. Satisfied with my job on the thing, I looked up and my sleepy eyes met his radiant ones in the rear view mirror. I immediately broke off the eye contact and shifted my attention to the vehicles pacing with us and the trees rushing behind on the highway.

"Slept well?" He looked up in the rear view mirror again.

I nodded in response too lazy to take the pains of forming words and letting them out.

I could see his large hand reaching for the car stereo in front from the gap between the two seats while the other efficiently controlled the wheel. He grabbed the volume regulator and twisted it into an appropriate direction. I silently grimaced at the thought of the blast of music that might burst out of the speakers any time now.

'Chehra hai yaa chand khila hai

Zulf ghaneri shaam hai kya

Saagar jaisi aankhon wali

Yeh toh bataa tera naam hai kya'

The familiar melody of the Bollywood 80s filling the silent air of the car surprised me. He whistled and hummed with the song passionately as I happily strained my memory for the lyrics, desperately wanting to hum with the singer and him. I remembered papa putting up these songs on that rusty radio in the mornings back when I was a kid. I was too busy accusing the music of ruining my sleep to realize that I actually, kind of liked them.

There is this thing with the old stuff like old books, old friends, old music, old movies. All of them come with a priceless, irreplacable treasure of memories. We tend to relive the glorious past with them which gives us a chance to get past the harshness of life and gather that no matter what, it is still worth living!

"Maybe the world is still not spinning in the direction convenient to me but I think I can still take a chance and request you to join me in front here. Should I pull over?" He asked over the soft music.

"Nah. It's fine." I whispered in a 'just-woke-up' voice.

Hunching over to the forepart, I got up and grabbed the head-rests to push myself forward. Landing my feet safely in the leg-space of the front seat, I successfully settled on it next to the wheels. Next to Kshitij.

"I could have pulled over for you to change the seat conveniently." He gave me a brief glance, laughter in his voice.

"There was no need. I managed. See." I smiled.

With that we sat back in a comfortable silence with the song in the background. Well, 'comfortable'?- I was not sure but silence was definitely something that I preferred rather than striking a conversation with a handsome not-really-a-stranger.

"What, are you still sleepy after snoring for almost three hours?" He asked, probably questioning my silence.

It's weird how I could effortlessly slash him with sarcastic remarks just yesterday night when he was nothing but a stranger who had walked into my house. Now here I was, sitting in his car and we had grown something more than the two random strangers but believe it not, that improved and seemingly favourable equation between us was making it difficult for me to have a conversation with him.