'Loved and lost' or 'lost and loved'

She was like a fresh whiff of fragrance from first drops of rain, had the rythm of a ripple created when a child pops a stone into unsuspecting water of a pond and the depth of a clear blue sky with a lonely bird flying in the distance. she was always a little shy with a permanent smile on her face and the way she looked at him, it sent shivers down his spine. She had that unmistakable marathi beauty and her permanent smile revealed a somewhat irregular teeth structure which reminded him of yesteryear's cine actress mausami chatterjee.

Their conversation started with a fight over bad infrastructure in mumbai and why should one travel for one and half hours fighting one's way out amongst the madding crowd. He was trying to tell her what it means to travel to school by a fifteen minute ride on a bicycle and go out in a cycle rikshaw for buying vegetables with parents. As she was born and brought up in mumbai, she was trying to boast of the clockwork discipline with which local trains run in mumbai and how they have enjoyed their days on local stations with friends. The friendly banter did not last long and soon they dig their heads back into the laptop screens and started hitting keys modifying their respective excel sheets. He had joined the organisation on a temporary assignment and she was an analyst working here for the past one year or so. They talked very irregularly then onwards and just exchanged furtive glances now and then. He knew there is no point taking things further as he would be gone back in a month or so and he could never gauge what she was thinking. Before leaving he wanted to at least ask her for a cup of coffee but either she was occupied with her friends or he was just short of words and ended up asking her about the weather or location of printer on the floor, and could never ask her email id or any other contact. May be he wanted it that way, to just remember her smile, her hands carelessly brushing against his own, her presence sitting on the chair next to him, or he was short of courage or just did not want to disturb her sanctity, thinking that he would not be able to have her. The last day of his assignment came and went. He left Mumbai. They never met again.

Not every love story has a happy or sad ending, it is better to just leave some meetings at a beautiful juncture.