"Laut jati udhar ko bhi nazar kya kije ,

Ab bhi dilkash hai tera husn magar kya kije .

Aur bhi dukh bhi zamane me magar mohabbat ke siva ,

Raheten aur bhi hai basl ki rahat ke siva ."

- Faiz Ahmed Faiz

It won't be wrong to say these lines of Faiz found their destiny in their story. It won't hyperbolic or demeaning to either

It was his first class . It was her first class. It was their first class . He was not aware who was she . She didn't know who was he . They were both ignorant.He was her student . She was his teacher.

Lani was one of the most active students of the class . Quite talkative and funny and frank. To the extant of being irritating. Yet he's the charm of the whole class .

Ms. De was one of the most plain creatures in the world . Minding her own business , she always so informally and so simply , given that her young age , she was mistaken for a student many times .

" Where is the class of 2nd semester?" she said .

" Oh , it's there . " he told pointing it out to her ," Go to the class . Ma'am will come to teach . "

He was shocked when he entered the class . For she was the teacher he was waiting .

It's difficult to say what's it but it's something in between a feeling of love at first sight and just infatuating crush . But it's certainly something. The mirror of his eyes reflected it .

She was shy in the beginning . Quite difficult to open up , she was finding it difficult to join them . However, the time passed and she became one of them .

Her residence was quite far . It was always very tiring for her to come and go by walking all the way up there . Poor lady ! She was so weak. Lean and thin ! I too sometimes genuinely felt for her health .

Lani had scooty . Everytime, he saw her walking , he would offer her the ride . She would decline it , however. This went on for some days . After all, the craving for comfort is corrupting .

One day , she eventually gave in to the offer . Lani was happy . His joy knew no bound . His dream has came true after all.

She would come by walking and he will drop her back on scooty . This went on for so many days. No one knew what pleasure did he get by dropping her . No one can guess why she trusted him to drop her . Indeed, everyone knew something but no one knew anything. Only they knew that they had know something .

He , sorry we , planned to give her a party on the culmination of Ramadan , after exam . Lani was excited about it . It would have meant meeting her once more during this sabbatical of Corona . Just once more for the last time, he wanted to see her . He wanted to take her to Menga Mandir . Lani wanted to tell her about everything there

It was the last class of the session . Ms. De came to class . She was in a kind of hurry . But despite that , she felt something missing . She saw everywhere and asked ," Where is Lani ? " . No reply came .

Late in the night , she saw his status. He went for picnic . She wished she was there. She wanted to tell him , what she wanted him to know . But something stopped her . Maybe , she was going just out of her boundary . Of course, there are many things,which no one should know . She switched off her phone .

One day , suddenly, I got a call from Lani

" Hey , did anything happened ?" he asked .

" No , I don't think so ." I said .

"Are you sure ? Ms. De has left our history group and her WhatsApp account is no longer there . Is she angry on us ? " he told me .

" Is it ? I don't know . We just had the photoshoot at our last class . She was so happy at that time ." I told .

" Don't know . Jesh and I were at the bar and then we saw she left group. And her account was also deactivated . I don't what happened . How will we contact her ? " he said to me .

A week later , Lani went to the same place he used to drop her . He went and asked everyone there .

" Do you know anyone, a lady , here with long hair , who used to teach in the college ?" he inquired.

"Oh that girl ! Well , she left without any information. She had her three months' rent in advance and security also . She didn't even come to collect the extra rent she gave us . Poor girl! Evening I saw her and morning when I came , she was gone . I wonder how and where she had gone . "

Lani tried calling her number. It said ," The dialled number doesn't exist ."

Ms. De left but she left us with so many questions unanswered . No messages , no wishes . Not even a " Best of Luck for your exams" wish . What happened ? No one knew . Only she knew and Lani knew . Others thought they know but no one know anything .

"Where you are Ms. De , you will be always in our hearts.

We will miss you, Ms. De." messaged Lani once and for all .

" I will miss you too " she said and sighed and broke the sim .