Knotty Affairs Page 10

  Aneri’s words earlier in the evening echoed in his mind, ‘I wonder what would be the next! A hospital or a court!’

  Aakash felt like laughing even in such a tense situation. In an attempt to make things lighter, he said to Aneri, ‘Tell me, do they teach you to read the future in law school? I mean, look, you predicted a hospital, and here we are!’

  He giggled and Aneri, though sad, eventually ended up breaking into a broad smile. She said, ‘I guess Dad eavesdropped on us when we were talking at the clinic.’

  She was feeling much more relaxed now since her father’s condition was stable and he was recuperating. She put a spoonful of spicy sambhar in her mouth and gulped it down with a swig of water. She looked at Aakash through the glass. With her mom not around, Aakash had managed to allay her fears all this while.

  As Aneri smiled at Aakash, he immediately felt he had seen the same smile before.

  Aneri’s smile reminded Aakash of Kashish.

  ‘You know why I am taking so much time selecting a partner?’ Aneri asked, looking out of the hospital lobby window at the vehicles whizzing by on the main road. The streetlights and the compound’s neon lights illuminated the vast lawn of the hospital.

  Aakash, who was tying his shoelaces, looked up and saw Aneri’s reflection on the glass panel and beyond that, a dark sky. They were standing in the lobby, next to the observation unit where Bharat Doshi was admitted. After making sure that Aneri was completely stable and mentally calm, Aakash sought his leave, albeit promising that he would be with her in a flash if she needed him at any time during the night.

  Aneri insisted that she see him off.

  As they walked across the lobby to catch the elevator, she said, ‘It’s not simple for anyone in my place to make a decision in a jiffy, although my family and friends want me to do it at the earliest. I am my parents’ only child. My dad suffers from diabetes and has been hypertensive for the last five years. I used to like this guy in college, but he never got along with my parents. Their rift was always a trigger point for stress in my house. The more I tried to get them closer, the more friction there was. The more we tried to sort it out, the more we disagreed…Now that you have met my dad, I’m sure you kinda know how he is. He, at times, has no sense of time and place when he is working. There was a lot of pressure in his firm a couple of years ago. That is when he eventually separated from his partner, Jitin Uncle. They were together for fifteen years and had worked on most of the clients jointly. Even though Dad and I worked hard after this split, the work is still quite demanding. We feel drained at times, handling all the issues on our own.’

  As they walked past the lawn, she looked at Aakash and added, ‘I do not know why I am telling you all this…it is just the second time we have met…and yet…. It is a little simpler for men to zero down on a choice. You like someone, feel she is suited to your lifestyle, and a call lands up at the girl’s place in no time that you want to take this ahead.’

  ‘Whenever my dad received such a call, he’d just look at me… and we would both be at a loss for words. Although I have never felt like going ahead with any of these proposals, my parents and I would invariably wonder about how difficult it would be to manage life without one another. What if…what if something happened to Dad when I am not there…would Mom be able to take care of everything? Which neighbour would we call for help? Whatever lifespan my parents are left with, I’d like them to live it without constantly worrying about who’d give them the required care and support.’

  Aakash listened to her with a sense of growing respect, as she continued, ‘Dad just asked me yesterday why I am not ready to settle down with a family in Pune or Ahmedabad? What is wrong with settling abroad if the proposal is really good? I am not able to convey to him that tomorrow, if some Sudhakar calls me up when I am away from this city, saying that he has to take my dad to hospital, how helpless would I feel at that moment. I know I have to leave them someday and spend my life under a new roof. I have asked them many times for an extension period and, yet, I always feel like I need some more time to be with them.’

  Suddenly, she looked straight into Aakash’s eyes and said, ‘You know what the problem is with our society? It tears us apart from the people we love and yet it expects us to be concerned and anxious about their wellbeing every passing moment.‘Have you ever been in love, Aakash?’

  Aakash said nothing; he only gestured a salute to Aneri before hailing a taxi. His thoughts oscillated between the past and the present as the cab drove him to his destination.

  Next morning, as Aakash retraced his steps to the hospital, his mind reflected upon Aneri’s words the previous night. The irrefutable logic and pragmatism of what she had said had sent Aakash’s own beliefs and perspective into a tailspin. It was all so correct. If he loved his parents so much that he could not think about parting with them, how could Aneri be wrong if she felt the same intensity of attachment and affection for her parents? The more Aakash thought about it, the more he realized that Aneri, just like anyone else, was feeling increasingly concerned about her ageing parents. She was especially concerned because she knew that marriage was looming large on the horizon and she might not have long before she was be forced to leave her parents. Suddenly, Aakash’s heart welled with a strange surge of warmth and empathy for Aneri.

  Aakash quickened his steps. He was excited about meeting Aneri so early in the morning. As he neared the observation unit where Bharat Doshi was admitted, he was surprised to hear a cacophony of chatter and laughter emanating from the room. As he neared the door, he recognized some of the voices.

  ‘Ya, it’s a cocktail of kokum sharbat and pomegranate juice.’ Aakash saw his father chuckling as he talked to Bharat Doshi, who was trying to get up from the bed. The colour on his face had obviously returned.

  ‘My wife, Kinnari, likes to experiment with fruits. The blend in your hand is going to make you wonder whether you are in a hospital or a lounge bar!’ Ashwin Mehta winked and then said in a whisper, clearly audible to everyone in the room, ‘Thank God, she did not zero down on a mixture of karela and palak with methi seeds. It would have sent you scurrying away in no time!’

  Everyone laughed as Kinnari, with a blush on her face, nudged her husband to stop. Chhaya, Bharat’s wife, helped him finish the juice and then took out a box of homemade snacks for everyone.

  Looking in through the glass door, Aakash smiled to himself. So, this is where his parents had disappeared to early this morning! He stood there for a few moments, taking in the happy scene. Suddenly a voice echoed in his head. It was a proverbial blast from the past. Vishwas Banerjee, Kashish’s father, was speaking in his booming voice, ‘I will be giving my best friend to another family and, in return, I would want like-minded friends.’

  Mr Banerjee had made this declaration when he and his family had come to Aakash’s house to meet his parents. The entire episode flashed before Aakash’s eyes. Somehow, instead of making him feel bitter, it had the effect of an epiphany on him.

  Aakash thought to himself, ‘So, this is what Kashish’s father had meant at that time.’ Already parted from his son who left India for higher education, he was clear that if he had to part from his remaining child, Kashish, it had to be on certain conditions. As Aakash stood there, that momentous meeting four years ago assumed a whole new meaning for him. Aakash had always remembered that day as the one on which a love story had met its doom. But, today, he realized that it was just one of the ways to look at a multidimensional reality. On the same day, another love had been saved from meeting its end – the love between a daughter and her parents. Kashish had been right, Aakash thought. Their going ahead would have completely sabotaged her relationship with her parents.

  Had they somehow convinced Kashish’s parents, maybe they would have been smoothly cruising along the ‘happily married’ path by now with their blessings. Yet, deep down today, Aakash felt that it would still have been a risk. A risk that had only half a chance of paying off…. Yes, they ha
d talked about risking their parents! A risk that Kashish was not ready to take…. Fair enough!

  He entered the room lost in these thoughts, but immediately saw Bharat Uncle’s face light up on seeing him. Chhaya Aunty extended a glass of juice towards him. The warmth and the affection touched Aakash’s heart.

  Aakash stood on the road facing the grand structure of the Mumbai High Court and gazed at it in awe. The towering structure of this monumental heritage building reminded Aakash of the conversation he and Aneri had had earlier. He just shook his head and remarked to himself, ‘Aneri, I just fell short of completing our list of weird hangouts.’

  Aakash had missed meeting Aneri at the hospital that morning. As her dad was out of action for the next few days, she had decided to get an early start with her client meetings and document filings. When Aakash had called her from the hospital, she had told him that she was tied down with work until noon, but proposed a lunch date later in the day. The two had finally agreed to meet at Oye Kake, a restaurant in the Fort area, which was famous for its authentic Punjabi cuisine.

  As Aakash waited patiently near their meeting place, listening to songs on his iPod, someone tapped his shoulders. Turning around, he faced a smiling Aneri clad in her black blazer and formals. He immediately pulled out his earplugs and greeted her warmly. She looked pointedly towards the open store of Prakash Florist right behind them, winked at Aakash and asked, ‘Flowers or chocolates?’

  Aakash was pleasantly surprised to hear his own line from Aneri’s lips. Before he could think of buying flowers from the store, Aneri produced a bouquet, which she had kept hidden behind her back, and gave it to him. Aakash gaped at her wide-mouthed for a while and then chirped, ‘Wow! Someone seems to be working on her wooing tricks!’

  Aneri gave a sly smile and walked ahead, saying, ‘Aah! Don’t get ideas. It was a gift from a client. Our firm helped him procure necessary papers and I prepared the arguments before filing them for him. He wanted it all done today as he was flying to Amsterdam tonight. I ensured that and, in exchange, he left me that bouquet and a cheque.’

  Aakash looked at her and thought, ‘This girl always manages to catch me off guard, and I admire her for it.’

  ‘You know, this Monday, I was watching an episode of the Big Bang Theory called ‘Intimacy Acceleration’ in which the characters talk about an experiment designed to make two people fall in love with each other in a couple of hours,’ said Aakash as he ate a delicious piece of paneer tikka. ‘The participants throw a series of questions at each other designed to promote intimacy and…’

  ‘And then they finish it off by staring into each other’s eyes for four minutes, right?’ Aneri said. ‘I watched that episode, too. In fact, I am a big fan of this series. It’s so funny and it just de-stresses me after a long and hectic day. Seems like you enjoy it, too, huh?’

  Aakash nodded his head and laughed. Then imitating Sheldon Cooper’s style of talking, he said, ‘But here is a fun fact. Rajesh Kuthrapalli in the episode forgot to mention that the experiment is quite similar to the one followed back home in India. Look, Aneri, haven’t we Indians been trying to perfect a variation of this experiment of making two people fall in love with each other in a couple of hours and selecting a life partner, for centuries? That’s arranged match-making, right?’

  Aneri looked at him interestedly. She placed her fork down and, with a mock expression of shock, said, ‘I sincerely hope you don’t end up staring at girls during your dates. That would be so creepy!’

  She laughed but immediately became somewhat serious and said, ‘Jokes apart, what are you driving at?’

  Aakash paused and glanced over at the hotel staff hovering around them. They quickly ordered a butter naan, a plain tandoori roti and Amritsari mixed vegetables. After the staff left their table, Aakash looked intensely at Aneri and answered her, ‘Basically, we all devise our own ways of finding love in this world. You meet someone, they make you feel good and we are quick to declare, “Hey, that’s love!” See, that’s what happened to me.’

  Aakash took a deep breath and went on, ‘Four years ago, I believed that I knew all about this feeling of love as I stood there admiring and staring at it…for much longer than your four minutes…’ he paused before continuing with a wink, ‘Then, wham-bam! God snatched it away as if He wanted to tell me, “Who asked you to volunteer here for this experiment, huh?”’ Aakash bit his lower lip and swallowed. He was now lost in a distant memory.

  Aneri placed her folded palms over her chin and attentively looked at Aakash.

  Over the course of their meal, Aakash let Aneri into his world. He spoke about Kashish, their first meeting, their friendship, which subsequently bloomed into much more, and their concern for parental consent, ultimately leading up to their calling off their relationship.

  Aneri remained silent during most of it except for an occasional nod or a smile. Finally, when they were washing their hands in the finger bowl, Aneri casually asked, ‘Where is she now?’

  Aakash answered further questions regarding Kashish’s current status in life as he and Aneri walked down a couple of lanes and settled down at a Starbucks in Colaba for coffee and dessert.

  Starbucks, Colaba, is evidently famous for its unique and exquisite décor and ambience. The chic one-storied café in a heritage structure in the Fort area of South Mumbai combined the styles of Iranian teahouses, Mediterranean-styled bar stools, and European-styled coffee shops. Corporate executives working in the area, along with the usual young crowd from neighbourhood colleges frequent the café.

  Ordering a caramel frappuccino, they settled in a corner that looked like a Persian Durbar tea stall. Aakash suddenly asked Aneri, ‘How is your dad now?’

  ‘Umm…ya, he is stable. And quite bullish about being discharged today itself,’ replied Aneri cheerfully. ‘I just had a word with him while you had gone to place the order.’

  Aakash prepped up his collar and raised his hands for a high-five, ‘Hadn’t someone told you that he’d be home by tonight?’ He was happy to see Aneri bubbling with joy.

  Playfully snatching the coffee mug from Aneri, he looked into her eyes and said, ‘I have heard a lot of my friends talk about how breakups have caused them irreparable hurt, how someone made a mess of their feelings, and how they damaged their lives for a worthless relationship. But tell you what, it gets you closer to the opposite gender; you begin to understand them better. This whole thing about ‘I can’t understand my girlfriend’, or ‘I don’t know why my boyfriend did so’, vanishes in a moment. Today, when I see you beaming with joy for Bharat Uncle, I realize why it was not meant to work out with Kashish. When she did not find her parents and me on the same wavelength, I can understand why she left me for them.’

  ‘Relax, Aakash! You have two options. Gulp down a few shots in a pub and wash her down, or shed a few tears in the washroom and flush her out. In fact, both these places are close by, in case you need one,’ Aneri winked with an obvious smile.

  ‘Aneri…you and your sense of humour,’ Aakash laughed out loudly, joining his palms in namaste to her and shaking his head helplessly.

  Then he became thoughtful and spoke in a serious tone, ‘Aneri, I totally understand your concern for your parents’ welfare, especially in your absence. But I am sure they would love to see you move ahead in life. I don’t know what you were about to say that day in the coffee shop, before you got the call informing you about your dad. I also don’t know what you think of me, or if you think of me at all, or whether you want to take this ahead with me. As for me, our interactions have given me a relentless urge to know what “Aneri” is all about. I am sure that, someday, you will zero down on someone to settle with. So, what’s wrong with me?’

  Aakash heaved a sigh of relief as he finished speaking. If nothing else, at least this confession was not affected by the jinx of weird venues. Here he was, once again sitting in the relaxed environment of a coffee shop with a girl, who loved her parents way beyond his understanding –
the same quality, which had brought him close to Kashish. Could he let a girl go out of his life once again?

  Aneri’s heartbeat increased and she blushed with happy embarrassment. She knew that Aakash was not in a mood for their usual banter. She also knew that whatever he had said was bound to have come out, sooner or later. She took time to put her thoughts in order and to gauge if they were both on the same page to have this discussion right now. Finally, she said, ‘Aakash, I feel that I am not yet prepared to relinquish my duties as a daughter. In fact, no one in my place would be. I’m torn between two questions right now, one, how long could you wait for me? And, second, would it even be practical if I asked you to wait for me until I was ready?’

  The pleading look in Aneri’s eyes made Aakash’s heart skip a beat. What she was asking meant just one thing: Aneri had started developing feelings for him…

  Chapter 12

  ‘HOW LONG DO you want me to wait?’ Aakash asked firmly. ‘If we both are sure about this, we can get engaged…That way we can buy some time before marriage; till the time you feel you have prepared yourself adequately for the separation from your parents. In fact, in a way, that really sounds good. We both can get to know each other better during that period…’

  ‘Don’t know ya, Aakash…’Aneri threw her hands up helplessly, ‘It’s not that I am not aware of what is to be done next. If I were to select you as my partner, it would make no one happier than my parents. Dad has called me several times today, asking me what I think of you. This morning when I went to see him, Mom looked at me with a glitter in her eyes, patted me on my cheeks and asked me to thank you for being with us in this time of crisis. As I was about to leave, your mom and dad, surprisingly, entered the unit and embraced me. I was filled with so much warmth and affection that I had tears of happiness. It was so wonderful seeing everyone get along so well with each other!’