11 am – Saturday 13
As he walked around the main market road – Army Road, in Wardha . He called up Aarti and asked her to casual ask Seema when she can about her whereabouts.
Wardha is a town built largely by Bajaj family. There is a statue of Bajaj in the centre of the town which is next to a river.
Half an hour later he got his first bad news. Seema had lost her phone and now was not reachable. Rohan realized now, that tracing Seema would not be as easy as he imagined.
Some how he found out that Seema was in Kapsi.
4 pm – Friday 12
It was a normal office day in the cubicle of Janak Industries. Rohan had just spent his 6 minutes of break chatting around near the water cooler. His life was okay, he had a job in Mumbai which meant that his bills were paid on time, a girl friend - Seema he met mostly and perhaps only on weekends and a family back in Baroda.
Seema considered Rohan as a good guy but he felt that they could have something more. She felt Rohan did lack something in him. Seema was an adrenaline junky and she worked for an MNC as a free lance photographer.
Seema used to call Rohan the most predictable person on the face of the earth.
For Rohan everything was planned, strategized and had back ups. Seema usually just went with the flow.
He knew that Seema was going in the interiors of Maharashtra for some work this weekend.
24 hours later he was in the interiors of Maharashtra with no idea where Seema was.
4 pm – Saturday 13
After asking for directions in Kapsi in Wardha Maharashtra and hitching a ride in local seat sharing rickshaw, Rohan reached Waigoan also in Wardha and he decided to enquire about Seema to local people in the shops, the bus stand, the richshaw walas, and after talking with around 10 to 15 people, he was told by one person that he had seen a lady and a driver in a taxi at Patri.
Rohan decided to hire a rickshaw but no wanted to go to Patri right now. He offered money, but no one was bulging. Instinctively Rohan waved a truck going towards Patri and started his journey towards patri. On a normal day this activity of hitch hiking on a truck itself would have been his Facebook message but today was not a normal day.
The fields of Wardha were very beautiful as the green crops moved about in gracious wind in the golden sunlight. It was a great view, but Rohan had his mind elsewhere.
Friday 5 pm. 12
As Rohan was unsure what to buy for Seema on her Birthday, he called up a common friend Aarti. Aarti suggested a few things but said that what she (Seema) would love the most is to spend some quality time with you. Rohan thought let me find her and meet her in her project right now. That shall be a great surprise for her. He did ask her where she was ofcourse over the phone. But he did not know that finding her would lead to him finding himself.
Thus Rohan started on to the journey which started on a train in Dadar, and began in Wardha.
7 pm Saturday 13
As he asked the local shops and the main centre in Patri, Rohan knew now that Seema was in a taxi which had a Kolhapur number. He immediately used net to call up taxi services in Kolhapur and 20 minutes later he knew the taxi service provider who had rented out a taxi to go to Wardha and then to Degloor in Nanded. Now he knew that he had to reach Nanded tomorrow to meet her and to surprise her. He saved the taxi operators number and started towards Nanded.
A short story by Ninad Tatke.
To be continued...
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