Guftagoo

"Chai par milte hain?" he finally managed, drawing all the courage he didn't know he possessed, like sucking water from the depths of an almost-emptied coconut.

He often saw her in the bookstore that he manned. For years he had believed his to be the happiest job in the world, but as her visits became frequent, he made it 'happiest and luckiest'. He loved to watch equally the joy on her face when she found dirt-cheap a book she'd been wanting for ages, and the dejection that clouded her as she put back a book on the shelf after checking the price. They always exchanged silent smiles for hello. The only conversation they ever had was books-related, and isn't that all one needs? That day as she was paying for her second-hand Faulkner and Faiz, he asked her.

"Main chai nahin peeti," she half-teased.

"Ummm... Coffee par milte hain?"

Dragging in one Chhotu to fill in for him, he walked to the nearby Sakina dairy that evening, and found her sitting on one of the two tables it boasted of. Tea and coffee arrived, but they drank from the cup of silence.

Next day as she dropped by ostensibly to look for a certain title, he asked, "Silence par milte hain?"