"Dad, why don't you get, I don't want to get married" I said to my dad and in return I got a tight slap on my cheek.

"What's wrong with you? How can you just slap your 24 year old son?" My mom questioned my dad.

"Do you know what he just said to me?" My dad questioned my mom.

"What?" My mom asked my dad.

"He's not interested in getting married, we're standing on the railway station and he's saying he doesn't want to get married." My dad said with a disgusted look.

"But.." I tried to speak but how is it possible that my dad would listen to me.

"Get inside the train right now." My dad ordered all of us.
I didn't want to pick an argument that moment that's why I stepped inside the train. I made my family and relatives comfortable on their respective seats and walked toward the entrance door to get some fresh air. I'm Manik, Manik Malhotra - name sake MBA, that's what my friends call me. I belong to a small town in India, while I studied in Delhi, I was there for like 6 years, I've changed a lot but I failed to change my dad and his backward thinking, he made me study business but he wants me to join our family business, I'm getting married to this girl Alya, whom I don't love. Maybe she's a nice girl or maybe not, I never met her. Never in my life, I've talked to her over phone, she didn't sound my type but what is my type? I don't even know.
I was busy in my own world when I felt some bags hit my body, one after other, 4 bags altogether and then a girl stepped inside wheezing.

"Oh thank god! Thank you ayyappa! I didn't miss my train, my dream didn't come true." She spoke to herself.

She stood there for sometime to catch her breathe properly.

"Uh, Hey! You know what I dreamt that I missed my train. I never miss a train, thank god I didn't or else mera record toot jata!" She said to me.

"Hmm." I said, I don't talk to strangers and that too with a girl who's wearing denim short, a sleeveless tank top and a short shrug covering her slim hands. Wait, why am I checking her out?

"What hmm, you're damn weird." She said annoyingly and she smiled maybe she remembered something.

"Araaay! What are you doing inside till now? You wanted to get out of the train na, chalo chalo.. train ain't that fast now! Step out fassstttt!" She said and pushed me towards the door. She was too adamant.

"Are you out of your mind?!" I yelled at her stepping back inside.

"Dude, you wanted to jump na, so I'm just helping you out." She explained calmly.

"Dumb head." I sighed angrily.

"Ayee! How dare you call me that?" She glared at me angrily.

"Because you are!" I said and moved back in my compartment, she followed me.
Call it my good luck or bad luck, she'll be in the same compartment for next some hours or maybe days.

"Hello aunties and uncles." She said gleefully, pressing the word uncle looking at me.

"Namaste." My mom replied with a smile.

"Ops, yeah. Namaste." She said with a smile, and made herself comfortable on her seat. Pulled out her iPod and ear plugs from her bag, plugged them in her ears and started to enjoy her music.

I couldn't take my eyes off her, a carefree soul, her cute pouts, that spark in her eyes and that smile playing on her lips. "How beautiful." I muttered.

"Araay, it doesn't seem like we're going to attend Manik's marriage, no music, no dance - lag hi nae raha baraat ja rahe hai." One of my mom's cousin sister spoke.

"Yeah, actually. Chalo aunty, lets dance. I've speakers and good music in my iPod not-so-shaadi types but.. we can manage." That girl spoke this time.

In the blink of eye, she removed speakers from her bag and turned on music, all of them started to dance, while I, mom and dad chose to sit there silently. Dad made an annoyed face. I supposed, he didn't like that girl, tbh, why would he. She's modern era girl, care-free, who wears short clothes, listens to loud music, who greets with a hello instead of Namaste, but.. I like her, technically I'm fascinated by her way of living life.
They all were busy in dancing but then I saw someone ogling at her bare waist, at first she didn't realize but then later on that person's gaze on her made her uncomfortable, I saw that thing on her face, I got up from my seat and stood behind her, that guy got scared or something, he moved back. She mouthed a thank you and walked back to her seat, while others danced for a little more time.

"I'm so tired." My mom said.

"Mom, go and sleep then." I suggested.

"Ya, but I can't climb up, my back pain." Mother explained her problem.

"Oh, so aunty you come and sleep here, I'll sleep there, it isn't a problem." A voice from the other side said, that girl. She said pointing towards mom's seat.

"Listen girl, we don't need your help." My dad said in sternly.

"When did I say you need help? But aunty do, I'm just trying to help. I won't charge. Let me." She said and got up from her place.

"Don't try to act smart you spoiled brat." My dad yelled at her.

"But uncle you can't boss on her, she can't climb, she has pain in her back and she's tired too, let her come and sleep at my seat." She tried to explain my dad, but she doesn't know she's just banging her head on the wall.

"Listen, it's not called bossing on someone, she's my wife and it's her duty to listen to me and follow my orders." My dad being the stubborn one said.

"But uncle, you're being unreasonable." She said, she's no less - giving tough competition to my dad.

"You're no one to tell me what to do! Just shut up. You spoiled kid. Maa baap ne tameez nahi seekhai. Wonder if your parents know about you or not." My dad glared at her angrily.

"Uncle, please. If you don't know anything about my family, please don't speak about it, I just tried to help. I didn't know - helping people is a sin." She said and sat back on her place, with some tears in her eyes. Dad said some harsh words which he shouldn't have, he doesn't know anything about her and judging someone in some minutes ain't the right thing. She turned her face on the either side, I could see pain in her eyes.
After some 30 minutes - she got up from her place and walked out of the compartment, I so wanted to hug her that moment and tell her that it's okay - stay strong, but then I can't. I waited for her like five minutes, but she didn't return. 

"Beta, take me to the washroom." One of the aunty said to my mother. Woah! This was needed; a reason to walk out, I stood up immediately and signaled my mom that I'll take her to the washroom.

I dropped her on the way, and went to look for that girl - whose name is still a mystery but I want to cart off that pain from her heart and soul, something is breaking her inside that's what I figured out in some hours. I stood behind her, gathering the guts to speak; obviously after what my father said to her and now I'm here to ease her pain.

"You want to jump off?" She asked sheepishly and turned towards me.

"Um.. no.. wo.. I ca..me.. he..re for.." I fumbled, My vocal cords ditched me that moment.

"Came here to apologize for your father's behavior. Isn't it?" She said. No wait, I never mentioned that I'm gonna apologize.

"No!" I said with my smirk on. She frowned and rolled her eyes.

"You need help." I said with a low tone.

"Dude, I don't need any help, you need help, look at yourself. Do you have any idea what you're doing with your life? You're a 24 or 25 year old guy and you don't have guts to tell your dad what you want. Till now I've figured out one thing that you're not happy with this marriage, so what are you waiting for? When are you planning to tell this thing to your family? After two kids?" She said glaring at me.

"It's not that simple."

"Then make it simple silly or you'll regret this one decision all your life."

"Yeah but my family is different, it's not like yours, they're not gonna like this attitude of mine - my dad has a lot of expectations with me, he had spent a lot of money on my bachelors and then on my MBA, I can't do this to them."

"Oh man! Konsi duniya se so? What he did was his duty, he hasn't done any favor to you, you owe nothing to him. If you want to help him financially then take up a job and do that, do what's your will not anyone else's. " She said in a rigid yet explaining tone.

"Listen girl, things are really different. We both belong from two different worlds."

"Yeah, two different world - you're from mars, an alien and I'm from earth, a human." She laughed.

"Dumb head." She said and playfully hit my head.

"You're so happy in your life na?" I questioned her, smiling.

"What your eyes see is not always the truth." She said and smiled, she took steps to walk out. I pulled her back towards me.

"You can share." I smiled at her. She smiled back but didn't speak a word for a minute.

"I can't believe. I'm going to share my life story with a stranger I met some hours back." She said.

"Erm, I believe sometimes people you know don't understand your situation but some strangers can, you don't hesitate, go on." I passed an assuring smile to her.

"My life is not simple as much as it seems like, I'm from a middle-class family. One year back; do you remember that train crash that took ?" She said, I nodded. "Yeah, so I was in that train, with my family - me, my mom and my dad. You said my family is different, yeah they're really different from yours, they've become stars now. They died in that train crash. Now I'm living with my cousin sister and I'm going to meet a guy for my marriage, I found him on rishta.com." She said and giggled on the last line.

"I'm sorry for your loss." I said, she just smiled and walked back, I followed her. We sat on our respective places. She removed a novel from her backpack and got busy in that novel, while I kept on admiring her. Sometime passed and my mom got up from her place, she tried to climb that ladder but she couldn't, that girl saw my mother struggling and then peeked out to see my dad - he was sleeping peacefully, she sighed and asked my mother to sleep on her seat and she climbed the ladder instead not giving my mom time to protest. I just smiled at her helping nature, despite of knowing my dad she didn't waste a minute to think twice and helped my mother. I placed my head on the head cushion behind and closed my eyes, I opened them again in a second as I saw a phone lying on the floor, I supposed it was her phone, I dialed my number and called on it, I don't know why I did that but it seemed right to me so yeah.
She saw her phone in my hand, "Aye! That's my phone, give it back to me." She frowned and held her hand out to take it from me.
It had been a long day for me as well, I thought to take a nap, climbed the ladder and lied down on the mattress, "Let's message her, stranger." I mumbled and smiled. I pulled out my phone from my pocket and saved her number as 'Stranger' and typed a message. After some seconds her phone beeped. "Unknown number." She muttered and frowned.

"Hey stranger!" She read. She frowned, "Who's this stranger now?" I heard her talking to herself then raised her eyebrow up and turned towards me, I made a 'caught red-handed' face. She pointed her index finger towards me and then to her mobile phone. I smiled sheepishly, she lied back on her stomach and started to type a text.

"Such an ill-mannered stunt." I read.

"Okay, if you think so, just delete my number and I'll delete yours." I replied to her, I got offended for no reason, weird. It's not so me. She read and frowned.

"No no, It's not like that. It's okay. :)" I read her text.

"So?" I messaged her. She frowned.

"What so? Got nothing to talk about?" I read her text, I don't know, there's a lot to talk but it's just that I don't know how and what to start with, I know about the harshest reality of her life but I don't even know her name. Should I ask her name first? Argh, it would look so weird, asking her name after having a deep chat, but it's necessary to know her name as well. Giving my thoughts a break, I typed a message.

"So, you're gonna meet that guy for the first time? How is he?" She read my text.

"Trying to know me?" I read her text.

"Is it a bad thing to do?" I replied.

"No, it's not. Shoot. ;)" She replied.

We chatted for a while, none of us asked for the name, weird. We had one hour chat but we did not ask the main question. She dozed off, maybe she was sleepy, after all catching a bus at 4 AM in the morning isn't everyone's cup of tea. I pulled out my phone to check the time, it was 3 in the afternoon, I snuggled more in that hard pillow on my seat and slept. I woke up after one good hour, had a sound sleep. I turned to see my stranger, but couldn't find her, I panicked at once but then I saw her bags, I sighed and climbed down. I don't know why but I felt strange, she just disappeared. I checked my phone if she dropped a message or something but she didn't. I panicked and started looking for her in the train, I was passing by the washroom - I felt a sudden pull and I stepped in the washroom, someone covered my mouth so that I don't shout. I opened my eyes to see who this person is, I saw my stranger standing in front of my eyes.

"Are you crazy!" I shouted at her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She apologized.

"Yeah, you should be sorry for disappearing like that!" I said.

"What! About disappearing? I thought you got scared because of this sudden pull." She smiled sheepishly.

"Huh." I let out a sigh of annoyance.

She turned her back towards me, "Remove my shrug." She said pulling all her hair on one shoulder. I hesitated at first but then she insisted, I don't know why does she wants me to do that. I pulled it down from her shoulder. What I saw, an awful sight; a scar on her right shoulder.

"Such a dreadful view? No?" She joked.

"Are you crazy! How did this happened? It looks old." I said sternly.

"Gift of that accident." She said and made a cute pout.

"Uh. I hope it doesn't hurt now." I asked a random question.

"Haha, no. It's one year old now." She said caressing her scar and pulled her sleeve back on her shoulder.

"This is the reason I keep on running, rather people keep on running." She said and laughed.

"What? I didn't get you, sorry." I said.

"It's like.. ermm. Yeah listen from the start; It all started after that accident, I told you na about my cousin sister, I live with her after I lost my parents. That time government had announced 5 lakhs for the dead people and 3 lakhs for the people who survived that accident. Altogether I have 13 lakhs in my bank account, this guy - my cousin's husband he's like give them to me, he's joined some political party and for that he needs money. This all started when I recovered from that trauma. He asked me for the money politely first but when I refused he started to threaten me like he'll kill me or rape me but I did not pay a heed to it and ran away after staying for 3 months there, since then I'm just running away. I don't know for how long I'm gonna run, when this journey is gonna end! I don't know anything." She let her pain come out in front of me. I lost my hold over my speech.

"Listen, things will fall back in place, stay strong and stay positive." I tried to motivate her.

"Yeah, chalo. We're still in the washroom, if someone's gonna catch us here, they'll get ideas." She gathered herself and smiled again and winked at me. We both stepped out of the washroom one after other. I saw my father standing in my way, he let that girl go and I stood in front of him.

"You know that Alya's parents are going to give you money and they're going to sign some property on your name?" My dad said, I just nodded. "Yeah so keep that in your head and heart, and stop what you're doing." He said sternly and left from there.

I sat on my place, I saw her, our eyes met, we both smiled at each other and she started to read her book again. That day somehow passed.

Next Day.

I woke up because of the sun rays falling on my face. I saw the most beautiful view. I saw her enjoying her deep slumber with a beautiful smile playing on her lips.
Next I felt, our train stopped suddenly as if someone pulled the chain or something, then some goons entered our compartment and one of them climbed ladder of her bed and made her up, she woke up rubbing her eyes and then she saw that man's face and her face went pale.

"Jiju! What are you doing here!" She yelled.

"I came here to take one spoiled brat back home." He said and gripped her hand. She tried protesting but then she's a female.

"Jiju, leave my hand, that house ain't my home. Let me go!" She tried protesting. He made her climb down. She kept on protesting, but then no use, I tried to help her but then my dad gestured me not to say a word but I couldn't see this happening too.

"What happened? What's the matter?" My dad questioned her jiju.

"She ran from house, spoiled kid she is." Her jiju said with an evil smirk.

"I knew it! I said earlier, she's not a nice girl." My dad said with a disgusted face. They all kept on arguing and she kept on protesting but her protests didn't help her at all.

I peeped out of the window if someone could help me here, I saw three police constables standing, I got down and walked to them, I explained them everything. They agreed to help me. We rescued her from that jerk.

"Thank you so much! Means a lot to me, I can never forget this." She thanked me for rescuing her.

"Uh, It's my stop. I need to go thanks for everything. I hope we'll stay in touch, I have your number." She said and winked at me, grabbed her luggage and walked out of the train bidding bye to me and my mother.

---

I lost her, I wouldn't see her again. In 24 hours I feel attached to her, Her smile, her chubby cheeks, her pouty lips.. everything. My mind and heart is just full of her, just her. Time with her passed in seconds and now it's not passing only.

Somehow it passed, I reached my destination, she might be with her Mr. Perfect from shaadi.com or whatever now. I smiled like idiot. My mom asked me to follow them, I heard that my in-laws are here to receive me and my family. I got down, greeted them by touching the feet of elders and stood back in place.

They all got busy in pooja and stuff, I felt a tap on my shoulder, I turned to see, a girl hugged me, hugged me real tight.

"I love you." She said breaking the hug, she was no other girl but my stranger. My eyes popped out, she just confessed her feelings. Like what! why? no! I turned to see all my family members glaring at us angrily.

"What shit is going on!" My dad yelled angrily.

"Uncle, It's not shit. It's Love and I love him, I love your son with all my heart." She explained.

"Hey you! He's mine." My fiancé said and tried to pull me on her side.

"You brainless bimbo! I just said I love him, so he's mine." She yelled angrily and pushed me behind her.

"He's mine, can you see this?" Alya said flaunting her engagement ring.

"So what! He'll buy me a new and better one." She smirked.

"Manik is mine! Mom tell this bitch, he's mine, only mine." Alya yelled and then turned towards her mom.

"Manik." I heard her mumbling my name lovingly.

"What is this Mr. Malhotra?" Alya's dad asked my dad.

"Nothing, wait, I'll figure this out." He said and turned towards us.

"Manik, what is this! Hadn't I asked you to stay away from this brat?" My dad questioned me.

"Dad.. Please.." I opened my mouth to speak but Alya jumped in between, "Uncle let me talk to this bitch, she can't take my manik away from me."

"Yeah, you tell me for how long you know him?" She questioned turning towards her.

"24 hours maybe, but bimbo I know him better than you do." She passed a victory smile.

"Whatever, Haah yeah right. I know him since 5 years and you're challenging me. Tch tch tch." She made a fake apologetic face.

"Dude back off!" She yelled, I was enjoying two cats fighting over milk - milk which is me right now. I kinda liked my stranger's possessive nature.

"Chalo Manik." Alya said and gripped my hand.

"I'll see how you're going to take him." She said with an evil grin. Her next move left me spell-bounded. She attacked on my lips with her and kissed me real hard, sucking, chewing my lower lip, she made way to get inside my mouth, made me taste her tongue, we kissed each other passionately forgetting the fact we're standing in a public place with my family standing next to me. We broke the kiss, panting hard.

Alya's family passed some disgusting comments and they just walked away. Alya kept on protesting but they did not listen to her. They disappeared from our sight.

"You!!" My dad yelled and raised his hand to hit her but I came in between and stopped him.

"No dad! Enough is enough! You've already said enough now I won't let you speak a word against my girl! Not a single word!" I yelled angrily.

"Disgusting." My dad said.

"Uncle, you need money na, I heard you guys talking. I have money, I'll give that you but please let him follow his dreams, please. Don't take his dreams away from him. I've my check book with me, I'll sign it now. Please don't do this to him." She pleaded in front of my dad, but showing no mercy my dad pushed her and walked away.

"Go Manik, she's the right girl for you. Stay happy, your dad will be fine in some days, maybe months or years, I don't know but you won't find a girl like her." My mom kissed her forehead and walked away with some more people. She went down on her knees and started to cry. I went down to her level, wiped her tears.

"What happened?" I questioned her.

"Nothing wo.. A lot happened in just one day na, so I'm tired bas isi lye." She said and smiled, I kissed her forehead. I made her stand up and made her sit on the bench there. I sat beside her.

"What happened to that guy from shaadi.com? I laughed.

"He got scared seeing my scar, so he ran away." She said wiping fake tears and laughed. I pulled her in a hug.

"Wese, Miss stranger, what's your name?" I asked and bit my lip.

"We just kissed and you don't know my name." She giggled.

"As if you knew my name until you heard alya saying my name." I said smirking, she pressed her eyes and smiled meekly.

"Nandini, Nandini Murthy." She said and forwarded her hand for a hand-shake.

"Manik Malhotra." I said and shook hands with her.

"So my man, lets follow our dreams." She said and smiled.

"Together." I said.

"Forever." She said and kissed my heart.

"My nandini express, I love you." I confessed.

"I love you too." She said. We both got up and walked out of the station.

x-------------------------------------x