He stared blankly at the lamp shade. It’s glimmer too bleak to inspire. Yet, he searched for something within whatever the lamp gave out. He was a lone man on the empty street. No honks of cars and rustle bustle of people distracted him at this hour of night.

Mumbai had a habit of quieting down at this strike of 2 in the morning. Only the winds were allowed to talk and trees supposed to react.

Samarth was very strongly reminded of his past years at this time of the day. A face as quiet has the night he stares at, and as beautiful as the sky he now stands under. The charm quite as bright yet not at all blinding, just like the lamp he stared through. Garima. He remembers.

Regrets and not any thing else form tears in his eyes, that he kindly , so very gently holds back .

He doesn’t want the watery eyes to blur the night for him. Though only in his mind, her memory, seemed to project through his eyes.

How he had held her and danced with her on various occasions. Her giggles and how they uplifted him from his morose days. How she always leaned on his shoulder, and pulled him close, how she needed him. So badly. And how he had let her go.

“I’m sorry Garima ! I have to find myself ! I know my calling is that of being an actor, I have dreamt of being one since I was a child. Don’t take my dream away !” He had screamed at her after a 4 year old relationship of theirs.

They both were 26 and Garima wanted to settle down.

“I have dreamt of having a family with you.” she quietly told herself, not loud enough for Samarth’s ignorant  ears.

“I am going to Mumbai tomorrow.” Samarth informed her as he walked away from the cafe. Leaving her with nothing but a door swinging open, and a few sympathetic glances at her from strangers around her.

Now she must be 48 he thinks to himself. And hopes that she is leading a happy life with someone else. He knows she deserved a lot. And he knows he was too selfish to make her feel that.

After he came to Mumbai he struggled a lot, slept on the street, ate  from the litter, waited for auditions like he used to wait for his dates with her. But till date he had simply managed to do very less with his life in his industry. It was a dog eat dog world, that he had come to, leaving a beautiful fairytale of his.

An attractive man and a beautiful girl walk hand in hand on the street. And the camera only focusses on them, while only Samarth’s side posture is being captured.

“Cut” the director shouts.

“You can go now, you..” He calls for Samarth.

“Hey old man, You , EXTRA !.” He shouts at the dazed Samarth who finally comes back to reality and clears the screen for the next shot.

His part was done. He would now retire back to his house, to wake up for upcoming auditions of such small parts in other movies.

It was the sleep he would find solace in. If the streets wouldn’t be as cold as his heart had been.