All of us have loved. We have loved. We have lost and then we moved on. But then there are some stories which stuck to us. Forlorn love, abandoned feelings, long forgotten and less remembered. And then, on one fine evening, all the memories turn on you, haunt you, leave you shattered with the unrequited love.

We all know that feeling and I recently recounted that long forgotten love when I stumbled upon this tree at dusk in Nashik. A handsome soldier boy, fair, a heavy voice with a North Indian accent, a train, fight for a city berth, patching up with a newspaper in the hand, discussing Army women and then parting ways with a yellow chit that had a number written on it.

Now all is past, the chit is lost. The handsome guy gone. But the memory lives on. As vivid as it can……