He looked back at the dargah after exiting and saw a legion of people from the main gate till all the way inside. On the other side of the dargah were huge rocks on which people sat with their relatives; there were married and unmarried couples too. They sat there looking at the sea and enjoying the cool breeze. Probably also waiting to witness the sunset. Hina climbed up the rocks and put her feet in the water. The area had a lot of sharp rocks around. Hina carefully placed her feet while she moved forward. Asrar followed her. They finally sat on a huge rock where a lot of black and brown crabs were crawling and there were corals too.

‘I wasn’t sure that you will come,’ Asrar said.

‘I was sure that you will,’ she said, spreading her handkerchief. ‘When did you come?’

‘Around five forty-five. I met you at five thirty the last time.’

‘I come near the maghrib on Saturdays. That day I came early.’ she smiled.

They kept talking till sunset. They were amazed at the coincidence that had brought them together. They repeated ‘anything is possible in Mumbai’ many times. This meeting had reduced their strangeness and hesitation to a large extent. They thought each other to be trustworthy and shared what had happened or was happening in their respective lives. They lied a little too. They veiled many stories within themselves with the objective of revealing them when the friendship became a little older. Both were worried about the impression they would make on each other. Was this boldness and openness, giving out a wrong message to the other?

There were fears, reservations and hesitation still in their hearts. These fears were overcome by a small ray of hope of ishq in some corner of their hearts which rose to the surface and cleared their hesitation. They knew in the depths of their hearts that this incidental meeting wasn’t a mere coincidence, but in this moment of coincidence there was a concrete sign which had a hidden pleasure for their souls. The very first time when they had met last week, they felt like each other’s mirror image. The wish to meet again had taken birth in their hearts but on the day of the first meeting they had expertly hidden their desires. Even on that day they were trying their best to veil their emotions. One more misgiving that each had was this: What if the other did not reciprocate those feelings? What if the other loved someone else? Hence, they took this meeting to be just a start of a friendship. Another reason was that their hearts, bodies and souls were not fresh pages any more. Time and desires had already written so much on those pages.