October Junction: Some Meetings Are Different

I just finished reading October Junction by Divya Prakash Dubey. It is a story about two strangers who meet by chance at Assi Ghat in Banaras and make a pact to meet again exactly one year later.

I am a slow reader. But I finished this book in just a few hours. There are multiple reasons for that.

First, it is in Hindi. So, it is easier for me to comprehend. Second, it is an 'breezy read'. The writing is uncomplicated. For the most part, it is written the way we think. There is nothing elaborate about the language. You don't have to pause and make an effort to understand what the author is trying to say. You just keep reading.

And I like the author's writing style. This is his second book that I have read, after Musafir Cafe. One thing I have realized is that the author knows how to keep you hooked.

While reading Musafir Cafe, I had this lingering emotional yearning to know what happens to Sudha and Chander. I experienced something similar with October Junction. This time, it was Chitra and Sudeep.

There were so many things I wanted to know. What happens to them? What happens to Sudeep's company? What about Chitra's writing career? And why did the Sadhu say, "सब ठाठ पड़ा रह जावेगा, जब लाद चलेगा बंजारा।"

I must admit, I could guess or predict quite a few of these answers. Yet, the book kept me hooked. I wanted to know how things would unfold, even when I had a fair idea of what might happen.

So, the book is in Hindi, it is an easy read, and it keeps you curious about what happens next. Is that why I loved the book? Or is there something else?

Indeed, there is.

I think it is the relationship between Chitra and Sudeep.

The central characters themselves are not particularly unique. We all know a Chitra and a Sudeep. We may have met people like them in our own lives. But I am not sure we know anyone who shares a relationship like theirs.

It is friendship, but something more. It is love, but not quite the kind of love we have seen or are used to reading about.

Their first meeting is not uncommon. Several books and movies have shown two strangers meeting by chance, having a conversation, and developing a connection. There is nothing particularly extraordinary about that.

But the way Chitra and Sudeep meet again...and again, is rare.

There is something beautiful about the idea of two people living their separate lives, following their own journeys, and yet having this one meeting to look forward to. No matter what happens during the year, there is this one person, this one place, and this one date.

The settings make it even more beautiful. There is something aspirational about it all.

While reading the book, I kept wondering whether there is someone in my life whom I would want to meet in this manner. Someone I would look forward to meeting after a year, irrespective of what happens in between.

Unfortunately, I couldn't think of anyone. 

Perhaps that is what stayed with me the most. Not the story itself, but the idea of such a relationship. The possibility that two people can mean so much to each other without necessarily fitting into the conventional definitions of friendship or love.

And then there are some lines that I loved.

"बनारस आते बहुत लोग हैं लेकिन पहुँच कम लोग पाते हैं।"

I found this particularly beautiful. There is a difference between visiting a place and truly arriving there. Perhaps that is true not just for Banaras, but for people and relationships too.

"बनारस चढ़ने में टाइम लगता है।"

Some places grow on you. Perhaps some people do too.

"आस-पास देखकर पता ही नहीं चलता कौन कितने आँसू लेकर भटक रहा है।"

This is such a simple observation, yet so true. We meet people, talk to them, laugh with them, and rarely know what they are carrying within themselves.

And then there is a quote from Haruki Murakami's Kafka on the Shore that I kept thinking about:

"But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what this storm's all about."

Perhaps that is also what October Junction is about. People moving through life, going through their own storms, changing along the way, and meeting each other at different points in their journeys.

I don't know whether I loved the book because of its story, its characters, its writing, or simply because it made me yearn for a relationship like the one Chitra and Sudeep share.

Perhaps a little bit of everything.

But I do know one thing. I finished the book in a few hours, and yet I continued thinking about it long after I had turned the last page.

And for me, that is always a good reason to like a book.