Part – 01
Episode 01– First Meet
A gentle breeze, a picturesque garden, lush green lawn magically lit by sunshine and a girl in white happily running down the path. She is so lively and he seems so peaceful and heartily in love with her. They both walk hand in hand and after sometime he says it’s time for him to leave, she looks at him with her big beautiful eyes asking him to come back soon without actually saying a word. He smiles and leaves.
Pranay was suddenly awakened by the continuous tapping on his bedroom door and the endless snooze of his alarm. This dream had been haunting him for years now. It was always this same dream , that same girl and that same garden. He had tried hard to find out the meaning of this dream but got no answers. Personally he was in a committed relationship and was happy too. But he didn’t know the reason why this dream kept recurring to him. Mr. Lovestruck – the stage name with which he was popular among the young mass was this generation’s best selling pop artist in the country. He started his career as a club singer and DJ but went on to become a successful superstar over the years. He had bloomed from an average small town boy to a creative artist with a lot of honest effort, encouragement, luck and a die hard fan base. His raw talent took him to heights. He lived in one of the city’s biggest mansion , that he had only dreamt of living in; when he was a boy.
” Wake up bro, it’s already 6:30, you have to catch your flight at 7:30 you don’t have time to book the next flight ticket, you know that ? Wake up,” shouted Rohan on the other side of the door. He was Pranay’s long time pal and manager, they both promised each other to be brothers for life. They started together from streets and now were in the most privileged phase of their life. “Alright Ro, coming down in 20 minutes”.
Pranay was going to Hope City to work on his next project and meet his girlfriend supermodel Leila. They were so busy with their own work life schedule that they had not spent time with each other lately. So they had decided to meet up in Hope City and celebrate Pranay’s birthday which was just few weeks away. Pranay got out of his room in 20 minutes as he said. He and Rohan grabbed a quick breakfast and left for the airport. Pranay usually took early morning flights to avoid encounters with his crazy fans. But they somehow always did find him. Though Rohan had booked business class tickets for both of them he was given a different seat and Pranay was in a different seat. Nevertheless they both made themselves comfortable in their seats. The flight was due in 15 minutes. The airhostess was announcing the last call for a passenger named Nayanika.
A girl then came hurriedly and boarded the plane. She looked confused for a few seconds searching for her seat. An airhostess helped her. The girl thanked and turned to her seat. She was dumbstruck as she saw her co passenger was none other than the rockstar himself Mr. Lovestruck! She was big fan of his music and secretly admired him. She sat beside him with a wide smile on her face.
Nayanika was a literature graduate who was on her maiden solo trip to the cosmopolitan city. She was just 21 but had already published her first fiction work and was going to attend a conference where she was presenting a paper about her book. She was beaming with excitement on meeting a celebrity on her maiden flight. Pranay sensed her excitement and thought she would trouble him with her bantering. But on the contrary she only asked for a selfie which he obliged politely and she then introduced herself, “Hi I am Nayanika”. He just smiled and said “Hello”. “I am a big fan of all your music Mr. Pranay, I just love it.” He was bit taken aback, because nobody had called him by his name until now , most of his fans screamed Mr. Lovestruck everytime they saw him. But this girl had called him “Pranay” without a second thought as though they knew each other. Nayanika too wondered for a second that how come she called him by his real name? Like this was their first meet.
Well this got him interested in her. So he asked, “what do you do Nayanika?”. She was glad that he asked, she told about her book and why she was going to Hope City. She even took out a copy and asked him to sign it for her. He signed and read a few lines from the book. It was a story of girl from a village who migrates to the city to become a successful entrepreneur. “Feels close doesn’t it?” asked Nayanika. He nodded. It was a three hour long journey and Nayanika was dozing off, she excused herself from him, put on her headphones and went to sleep. Pranay looked at her as she lay there sleeping quite comfortably. He felt like he remembered something, this girl was not like any random fan or a stranger, there was something around her that wavered him. She said she was his biggest fan, yet she spoke to him so naturally, she didn’t do any of those crazy antics which others did. Is she the one that……..?
It was almost 10:30 and the airhostess announced that the plane would be landing shortly. Nayanika woke up and looked at her watch. The plane landed on the runway of Hope City international airport. “It was nice meeting you, Mr. Pranay” said Nayanika as she smiled and got off the plane.” Ya me too” said Pranay. He looked at her one more time thinking that maybe she was really just some random stranger whom he would never meet again
But destiny has some other plans for both Pranay and Nayanika I believe. Well, we’ll see….
To be continued…
Words from within... 