How many of us have experienced déjà vu? Well, most of us would have.
Getting a strong sense of déjà vu can
be exciting and cause your hormones to move to a higher than normal state. That
moment, where you will feel “Oh! Yeah, I knew that was going to happen” or
“Holy Christ! I know that guy” or “Come on! I know this place! I have been here
before” can be an experience by itself. The irony is that- you would not have
truly known that it was going to happen, you would have never met that “Holy
Christ” guy in your life and you would have never been to that place before. It
is simply more exciting that way! Isn’t it? Welcome to the world of déjà vu.
Sitting in an almost-empty (there were only 3 people, including me)
waiting room, at a railway station, that too in a totally strange small town
called gooty ( It is a beautiful town in Andhra Pradesh, where people speak
Telugu which we don’t see or hear in any Telugu movies) can be a near to deadly boring experience. I was waiting for
Kacheguda express, which was scheduled to arrive at 22.28 pm and depart at
22.30 pm from gooty. I had reached
the station well in advance (2 hours in advance to be precise) to avoid the
last minute confusion and also because I didn’t know that place and the
language (though I could read Telugu).
I had just finished eating my supper (the
mandatory southern-railway- special idli
vada) and was sitting like one clueless duck at the waiting hall. Slowly,
my attention was diverted towards this guy, who was sitting right opposite to
me (Yeah, I was fortunate to spot a young man there rather than an ageing bald
man). When I saw him minutely, I could strongly tell that he resembled someone
I knew real close. It was an intense thought process which I went into but I
couldn’t get back to whom he resembled.
He was wearing a stripped blue (dull
blue) shirt with perfect jean to match, Levis I guess. His hair was trimmed
perfectly (not too much cropped and not too stylish), it had little waves, only
at the extreme ends. His eyes were blueish to some extent but they spoke
innumerable words (If only I could describe them). A small stud in the left ear
was the “wow” accessory. He kept tapping his foot while his red Lumia earphone was plugged on to his
ears. It was Dark blue sports shoe with red colored lace. Finally there was his
black color medium sized fast-track
back pack. He seemed pretty rich to me.( Lets call him Lumia )
On the
other hand, I was listening to the same evergreen Ilayaraja songs on my phone
and was pretending as though I didn’t even know that he existed in that room
(though it was obvious to the other man in that room that all my eyes were
glued to Lumia. I was trying to relate his resemblance, you see).
Time passed slowly and a call broke the
chilling silence of that room. Lumia answered the call and spoke to someone in
Telugu (This was ‘the pakka movie Telugu’ and so I could understand). From what
he blabbered over the phone I guessed it should be either his close friend or
his girl because once he kept that call he started texting and was silently
laughing at the texts.
When all this was happening, I had this constant feeling
that we would travel together. I felt we had travelled together before! How on
earth was that even possible? I don’t know what made me think that. There were
4 trains scheduled at around the same time as that of mine and were towards
Secandrabad, Bangalore, and Mumbai. The worst case was that, my ticket was waitlisted
and I had very less chances of getting a confirmed berth. Amidst this hard
situation, I had that thought of travelling together with Lumia (Ok, who
wouldn’t expect a varanam aayiram scene
in their every single train journey. If you don’t know the movie, watch this link).
So, yeah, time flew away and it was 22.25,
already. Time had come for my train to arrive. No announcement was made till
then and so I picked up my bags, gave Lumia my last sight (slow, melancholic
back ground tune-may be) and started walking towards the station master room to
enquire about the arrival timings. I was informed that train was late by 20
minutes and would at around 23.00 pm. With a little disappointment and excitement I went back to the waiting hall! YAY! And again there he was, Dear
Lumia, smiling at me this time. He started the conversation in kannada “Chennai train ge wait madthidhira ??
Yaavaglu adhu late e kanri, 11 o clock ge train barodhu” (Are you waiting
for Chennai train? It’s always late. It’ll come only at 11)
Mind
voice:
Wow! So, he knew that I knew Kannada.
How? Oh! I talked in Kannada over phone to appa. So, he listened to my
conversations as well. So, he was also noticing me. YAY!! But, he speaks Kannada;
he must be waiting for Bangalore train then :(
I thanked him but didn’t ask him where he was
headed to, simply, to shut off my train of imaginations. Soon, Announcement was
made about the train and I waded away in search of my platform number and coach
number. My mind still didn’t believe all this was happening. My situation two
hours before was just pathetic and opposite. I had met (okay; just saw) that
man few minutes back and I was feeling that I knew him all long? I asked my
heart to stop ringing tunes and then came the train. I boarded S8 compartment
and randomly sat in one empty berth (remember? my ticket was waitlisted).
Guess
what! Lumia was there- right opposite to me - again- in my train. I told you?
Didn’t I? He started the conversation again and this time, I didn’t stop my
heart from ringing. It rang loud and beautiful with Ilayaraja Background score.
We indeed travelled together! It was the
picture I had in my mind. It was the timing which I had imagined. Everything
was so picture perfect. It seemed so familiar yet strangely new. It felt so relieved
yet so very confused. Or was it an omen just like Paulo Coelho wrote in The Alchemist “When you want something,
the entire universe conspires in helping you to achieve it”
Or simply, It was déjà vu.
