..."Lets go out...", suggests Raj as he points at Swami's car. "At this hour !! Are you nuts !", Tia smiles as she looks at the car. "C'm on...", says Raj as he garbs the keys and pulls Tia towards the door. "What if some one wakes up..." complains Tia as she hurriedly puts on her footwear. "Here, I am leaving a note for Swami...", says Raj. "This is not good." Tia, as she stealthily closes the door behind her.-----------------------------------------
Tia, is Raj's friend from Bombay and has come down South with her roommate, Nisha specially to meet him. The guests are put up at Raj's place for this four day trip. Raj and Swami have been taking the girls around the beautiful city for the last three days and the HDFC credit card is sponsoring this lavish tour and travels for Raj who does not know how much he exactly earns or shells out on music, drinking, fag and friends.
The engine shrieks and comes to life. The seemingly eternal darkness of this haunted locality is set aside by the piercing energy from the headlamps and Raj maneuvers carefully through his winding unmetalled street. As they hit the main road busy with the intercity transports at this late hour, this infidel of sorts offers a rare reverence to the beautiful church at the end of the street. The church is a special landmark for Raj as it is the 'adda' for his intellectual sessions with Swami late on the high Friday nights. This is where lots of brainstorming happens when the drunken engineers call it a day with a last smoke. Today, Raj is up to some thing special and has to do it without fag or drink. A sort of challenge of its own kind.
Raj is driving slow and smooth on the free roads washed by the first of the monsoon showers in the evening. Both the occupants of the vehicle seem to enjoy the sensuality and charm of the night as they go past one signal to another towards the sea shore. Tia is looking out of the open window as the glaring city lights race against them portraying a beautiful dream sequence, the only difference being that this dream is happening real big time in her life. Raj is beaming with the excitement of being with his special friend and steals a glance every now and then as Tia enjoys the sights outside the window.
The couple has been together, and enjoying the companionship since three years. They met during the company's training period and never lost touch since then. Friendship has graduated into love (well, its disputable which relation is higher, but still...) and Cupid has set the stage for admission of the beautiful emotion.
The shore is lonely at this unearthly hour in the buzzing small city. Raj parks the car besides a closed soft drink shack in the sand and the couple set out for a walk on the moonlit rocky shore. The mood is bright, exuberant and different, for Raj has not felt this special in a sober state, since a long time. The couple falls silent as they walk the shore towards a darker and beautiful stretch of rocks where the energy from the powerful halogen lamps fade away.
The roars of the Arabian sea provide a romantic background score. The sky is clear except a patch of distant lonely clouds on the eastern end who seem to have been traveling towards the other coast and have lost track of their joyous and prosperous caravan. This small collection of impregnated gases seem to be rocking to and fro, aimlessly, as if enjoying the beauty of the shore in the swing of the monsoon winds. Then there are, tender little white crabs, who have come out of sand and crevices to make love (I am not very sure though...) on the sand but these dangerous creatures are very shy of the human presence and clear the path for the couple at the very first sense.
Tia is anticipating a move from Raj who has kept quiet now for an unusually long time. This silence is slowly consuming Raj's confidence and pushing him deeper into the hole from where he has resolved to come out today and express his heart to his love. A sudden energy urges Raj to take Tia by her hand and do the necessary talk, instantly. He contemplates for a while and then finds himself weak again in the very next moment. In these couple of heart throbbing moments for Raj, Tia has taken a lead by a couple of steps towards the rocks to find a place where the couple may sit. A strange restless little baby cloud is pulling itself apart from the small family at the eastern sky. It seems to have been attracted to the beauty of the full moon. A fisherman is headed towards deeper waters to start his fishing business for the coming day. His canoe is spotted by the bleak light from his lamp. Meanwhile, Raj is feeling nervous and tries to reach for his fag. He gropes for his cigarette but realizes that he left them at the dashboard.
Raj gathers himself and quickly moves toward the rock where Tia has found a comfortable place. Being a woman, Tia is well aware of her friend's state of mind (well, they say that women have this sixth sense). “So...now that we have come here...is there some thing special...” utters Tia, with a mischievous inquisitive look (also, add a tiny bit of shyness to this mischief). In fact, she knows very well what's so special about this moment and is trying to stoke Raj so that he crosses the threshold and says what she is willing to hear. The stray baby cloud is traveling faster towards the moon.
Raj concentrates into a distant nowhere and turns to Tia in the next moment. He is still nervous but gains an immense strength as he locks an eye contact with his partner. Tia tries to roll her eyes off Raj but is helplessly very much into the affair. “Its hard to find a verbal expression for my thoughts...” says Raj, convincingly enough. “either I am bad at it or, language may undermine my feeling...” and he bends slightly towards Tia to kiss her. Tia endorses her friends' admission and covers her distance to kiss Raj. The restless baby cloud has now covered the ever resplendent moon and the fishing boat has been lost into some distance. The young couple enjoys this amateur contact and it soon graduates into a deeper kiss within a matter of seconds.
Soon, the playful baby cloud moves ahead and the moon now gleams bright over the couple suggesting a mischievously inquisitive worldly behavior. The couple stays at the shore till the light breaks in the eastern sky. The restless baby cloud has traveled more distance and probably forgotten its emotion for the moon for some other infatuation. It will pour down some day when it realizes its relation with the earth and the earth's longing for it, as Raj and Tia realize today for each other...
