Bicycle And Lilac Afternoons

We grew up together in a small town where roads to the outside world were covered by dark-colored trees. The train lines were side by side, up and down in a serial, counting all the apertures and departures. Every afternoon the Kali temple near Ganga will be lit up in a glaze of tradition.

We grew up together on several bicycles. Many consenting lovers ride side by side not knowing the future but in the daze of early teen love. I wasn’t different, that girl with the lilac bicycle gave me butterflies.

I believe every teenager in love had a lilac heart at one point or another. I always imagine first love and the feeling to be the sweet color of lilac. Silly teen boys will run from their classrooms as soon as the final bell rings and will come in front of the girls’ school gates.

And a storm of butterflies would come out of those girls’ school gates. That girl with the lilac bike called me friends but I never wanted to be friends. I looked for something more in those monolid eyes, I have never witnessed such beautiful eyes in my life, even after all these years.

Her beautiful hands were strong on the bicycle handle and how it used to grip harder when she run the cycle fast. Did she try to catch my trail or silently run her bike side by side? We went to schools together and to all the tuitions. People thought my academic interest was the reason behind me attending all the coaching classes, only I and the girl on lilac cycle knew I was hoping to see that love-colored cycle parked outside the door. Just to be assured when I will enter the coaching room my eyes will meet my Sunday morning prayer.

I lived my life on a lease, like a beautiful bonsai tree my parents took me from one city to another. Maybe this is why I became a gypsy and an underground cellar of memories. I knew the last day of parking my blue ladybird cycle and her lilac cycle side by side was coming soon.

Soon the orange summer sky was going to turn autumn lilac sky. She had someone else in her life and I collected her smile, her favorite shade of blue, and her handwritten class notes in my curio shop heart. The day of my departure came and the girl in the lilac cycle was still riding side by side like two lines of rail.

And I had my bags were packed I was ready to move to a new uncertain life, in a new city where nobody rides cycle anymore, my wings are about to get chopped. And The girl with the lilac bicycle came, she still wasn’t talking but the autumn lilac sky talked on her behalf. Who knew eyes could be that beautiful, who knew lips could be that soft, who knew love was like a lilac afternoon.