Across the universe.

Of the few odd fortnights when you sit down and let out a sigh for none of the moons in particular, just a sudden act of simple contentment which surprises you,too. You blink a little more often with a silly grin on your face trying to realize the sudden lightness in your head, which has generously stopped buzzing.
Almost as if the universe was listening, the next track beautifully tunes on to a familiar, forgotten Beatles song. You literally roll your eyes at thin air, a mental salute at impeccable timing.

The head starts bobbing to the slow beats of Come Together and you can almost see yourself right in front of you, dancing to that very song with your closest pals into the night, the laughs, the girls shrugging off their heels and the boys loosening their ties. You remember the three pairs of hook ups around you and the thirty or two hiccups around the dimly lit terrace.


Michelle starts playing, and you're taken back to that one particular yellow afternoon when it was hot as hell and you were stranded in the middle of the road with a pair of torn green flip flops. That afternoon was your first proposal, ever. Well you saw one, anyway. A boy on his cycle with quiet lilies tucked in his school bag while the girl looked down at her feet blushing, who finally said Yes.
Boy, you remember fist punching the air and walking past them barefoot, grinning like a madman with eyes as big as almonds.

And the next thing you know, you find yourself standing in the corridors of your old school with the English teacher you literally preached; listening to stories of her time and her lady secrets hidden into yet another Beatles number. You remember her humming to Love me Do and complaining about how your friends and you have not a clue of the real songs by them Mc.Cartney and the boys.. about how Ringo would always be the Star. The first and the last time your 53 year old English teacher looked like a little dreamy girl to you.

"You say goodbye, and I say hello...hello hello hello! I don't know why you say Goodbye, I say hello" was the first and the only line of Hello Goodbye you remember of the one real drunk night in a far away city with a friend who's as good as a stranger, now. It was a happy night, and they were good times, and all good things came to an end, and you left it at that.
"You say goodbye, and  I say hello.."

And finally, the song your mother sang to you since you were five.. Lovely Rita, probably one of your youngest and oldest memories. You laugh at your mother all by yourself tonight, remembering her pretending to play the piano like a drunk man every time she sang the song with her checkered apron on and red platforms.

The night rolls on to the last song.. you know it's the finale when you hear the song of young days and younger hearts singing to And I Love Her. He was the one boy and you were the one girl, and that was the one song. And you keep telling yourself it doesn't make your heart skip a beat, still. You keep telling yourself that it was long time ago, and you just keep telling yourself a lot of things. And finally, you give up and smile.


.........and once silence fills in the room again, you realize how stiff your body's become from sitting on that chair for a while now, you come back to reality and grow up all over again.
Yes, sir. You grew up with all those songs. And whoever you are, make sure that 'one odd fortnight' happens a little more often, and make sure you salute those four boys with impeccable timing. Make sure, you remember those songs, cause the universe is listening.
The universe is listening to The Beatles, right now.
 

(Because I'm in my yellow submarine..yellow submarine..yellow submarine.)
-Nil.