Deju gets a beau – II

The lights decided to come back just as the taxi veered out of sight. The old man turned to Deju.

“I don’t know what to say, my dear lady. I understand you were trying to be helpful, but you really were off the mark. These three are students and we are all used to their odd ways,” he told her.

“Can’t blame you, though. We must all thank you, in fact. At least you were alert to a potentially dangerous situation,” a languid voice spoke up from the back of the crowd.

Deju and her beau by the lamp post.

Digital sketch: Harjeet

The gathering parted to make way for a good-looking guy in his late 30s who ambled up to Deju. “I salute you, ma’am. Few of us would have done this. You are truly brave.”

He walked up to her nonchalantly, and pinned her against the lamp post to see her face more clearly. “Did you sometime in college create a similar scene?”

Deju was almost furious, struggling to get free. “What may you be suggesting, sir, if I may ask?”

“I am suggesting that you are the same girl because of whom I got caught in a women’s hostel one night,” he said, grinning. “I can’t believe you still pry on people, that too at night!”

“I don’t like to let thieves get away,” she snapped.

“I assure you I share the sentiment,” he replied, loosening his hold nevertheless.

Then he addressed his neighbours who, curious at this turn of events, were still hovering around without wanting to look intrusive. 

He was only too happy to explain: “Some of you have asked me why I did not marry. Behold the reason for my bachelorhood. She exposed my affair with her classmate, but we broke up soon after. Why? Because I kept thinking of the girl who had had the guts to raise a hue and cry at finding a stranger where there should have been none.”

He could see some nods and a general sense of approval on the faces of the people he had been living among for some years now.

“I was confused. By the time I realised I was in love, you had left college. You stole my heart, and I can’t let you off, now that I have found you. Umm, I hope you are single too, or I’ll insist you get a divorce,” her smitten beau was speaking to her again.

An appreciative murmur rippled through the crowd. The sleepy boy was now wide awake. He could sniff a romance, a live one, the very first he would witness first-hand, perhaps. “No, she shifted here alone,” he said helpfully.

Deju made a half-hearted attempt to fend off the man. “Aren’t you giving your imagination too much rein? How do you know I’m the same one? I haven’t said so myself. And I don’t know you from Adam.”

“Have you heard of signature tunes? You have a signature yell that trapped me then, and again today. So don’t you play games with me, my lady,” he purred.

“It is not a yell. Hoot, I call it a hoot,” she corrected him weakly.

“Call it by whatever name you wish, but it has been haunting me ever since,” he breathed into her ear.

It was an intense moment. The old man quietly motioned to the rest to disperse.

Then he turned to Deju. “From what little that I have seen of you, let me assure you, ma’am, he is a man after your heart. And I’ve known him long enough.”

“Oh-ho, if you needed credentials, you have them now, but I assure you I am after your heart, pun intended. I have waited long enough, and I won’t rest till I have it,” Deju’s admirer said with determination.

The crease on Deju’s brow cleared. “Then you shall have it,” she said in a low voice, overcome by uncharacteristic shyness.

The old man decided it was time to exit the scene, wondering at yet another of the mysterious ways of the One above.

Concluded

Deju gets a beau – I

This was ominous, Deju thought as she heard yet another thud. A do-gooder at heart, she felt it was her bounden duty to investigate. She threw off the covers and stepped out of bed. It was pitch dark outside. The power breakdown seemed never-ending. It was not going to be easy, she told herself.

She had shifted into this flat just two days back and did not really know her way around the place. In the darkness, she could only guess the general direction of where the staircase was located. Groping along the wall, she ran slam-bang into its banister. She rubbed her temple gingerly, and peered down what seemed to be the stairwell. Slowly, she felt around with her toe to ascertain where to begin descending. Once she gained a firm foothold, the rest was a cakewalk.

Deju could see two dark shapes in the lane.

Digital sketch: Harjeet

Deju had done this climbing up or down stairs in the dark often enough. Like the time the smart alec of a postman thought he could return at night to steal her roses from the lawn below. Or when the fishmonger tried to dump his smelly bag of stale fish next door in the hope no one would be around to stop him. There had been other occasions too. But she had sharp eyes and ears, she did. She had caught many a miscreant in the act, and been applauded for her daring too. Nowadays everyone was scared of looking around just in case they ran into trouble, she thought a little snootily.

She had reached the landing, and stood uncertainly against the wall. Exactly where had the sound come from – the left or right side of where she was standing? She wished the lights would come on soon. It was difficult to make out where the lane was leading to. Still, she bravely blundered on, brushing against a number of shrubs jutting out from fences that ground-floor residents had put up. Twice she tripped over some flower pots but managed not to tip them over. That would have surely tipped off whoever was responsible for those sounds.

Deju now had a good view of the lane. She could make out two shapes. One was bending over a piece of luggage. Another was propping a travel case against the wall. And lo! There was yet another shadowy character looming in the balcony above.

She did some quick calculation. Two suitcases on the road now, and God knows how many more probably still with the thief upstairs. If she raised an alarm right now, the two in the lane might escape but the one in the balcony would be trapped.

“Thud!” went yet another bag thrown from the balcony. It was followed by a smaller bag. A large basket was slung down a rope. The two people below unfastened it and the rope was pulled up.

So more was to follow, it seemed. Deju decided she had to act fast. She recalled the time when the police trundled in much after the thieves had scooted when she threw a trash can at them through her window. The can had landed on a car’s windshield, as a result of which the owner created such a shindy that there was no way anyone could have spared a thought for the thieves.

Should she try the hooter method? If she let out sharp, loud hoots at short intervals, would that alert the neighbourhood, or would these people make a break for it before anyone emerged? She was fairly sturdy, but even she could not grapple three of them single-handedly. 

In her college days, this had worked fine twice. The entire hostel was awake in an instant. It was a different matter that the first time she had mistaken their warden for a hulking robber. The second time her classmate had been hugely embarrassed because it was her boyfriend sneaking in.

While Deju was weighing her options, the third person had shinned down the rope and looped it back into the balcony. So the loot was all in the lane now, she thought grimly. She had always been cat-footed, so when she pounced on the surprised man nearest to her as she let out a loud hoot, he lost his footing and was eating dirt in a matter of seconds.

Deju yelled again and again while pounding the second person to the ground. The third one turned out to be a woman, who fell upon Deju using her nails to good effect. She scratched and shrieked as loudly as Deju, confusing the good Samaritan. Just then a car turned into the lane, and its headlights shone upon the strange spectacle of two women engaged in fisticuffs and screaming at each other while two roughed-up men stood dusting themselves down and watching as if in a daze.

Deju had succeeded in rousing her neighbours. About eight or ten people tumbled out of their flats, surrounding the foursome. The car had come to a standstill just a few feet away, and the baffled driver had left the headlamps on low beam. So it was possible to see faces clearly.

An old man spoke up. “Ma’am, may I ask what you are doing here?”

“Oh, and you won’t ask them what they are doing here, stealing stuff from that flat there?” Deju flared up. Calm down, she told herself silently. You are new to the place, and they don’t know you yet.

“Who, these three?” asked the old man. “They live in that flat. Why would they steal from it?”

“Really?” she retorted, a bit sheepishly now. “So is it normal to throw your stuff down and climb down a rope from your flat? And no one heard a thing but me?”

More people had joined them. One sleepy boy admitted to hearing some sounds, but said he had been too tired to wonder about it.

“You actually did that?” the old man turned to the trio.

“She just came yelling down at us,” said the young woman who had scuffled with Deju. “She had no business creating such a ruckus.”

“Yes, indeed, but did you really throw these bags down?” the old man looked at them quizzically.

“We did. We have a train to catch, and couldn’t find the key to lock our door from the outside. We burnt all the candles trying to look for it. Our phone batteries have nearly run out because we were using them to locate the key. Finally we decided to keep the door shut from inside and take the balcony instead. On our return we would have called a locksmith,” replied one of the flatmates.

“See, that is a taxi waiting for us, and we’ve already lost 15 precious minutes,” he added, complaining.

“It’s okay, don’t miss your train. Away you go!” the old man sent them off as Deju fumed in indignation. 

More next week

The fraternal twins

Tonu thumped his son’s back, happy with the terms of the contract Diga had drawn up. He looked up at his daughter in the family picture on the wall opposite him. Digna too had done him proud that morning, making such a good pitch overseas for the project.

And to think that just a few years back he had almost written off his son, though he never let his disappointment show. Of the fraternal twins, Digna was the prankster and the daredevil, and her brother the tame follower. But the tide had truly turned one day. 

Digna lost her footing in the strong current.

Digital sketch: Harjeet 

That was the day they had gone to Haridwar.

Pradya’s face had lost all colour. She saw the strong river current carrying away her daughter while Diga stood rooted to the ground. He couldn’t swim. And he was terrified … terrified of any and every adventure.

Minutes before, he had just dipped a toe in the holy Ganga waters and receded to a safe spot away from the bank. Digna would never do that. She must take risks all the time. Diga was afraid to even sit by the river, lest it sweep him away. Digna knew no such fear, though she too could not swim.

She had gone down the steps and grabbed one of the stout chains grouted into the embankment for holding on to when taking a holy dip. The icy waters thrilled her no end, and she made bold to wade a little farther into the gushing river. Suddenly there was no solid ground under her feet. The current had lifted her off the steps, and in the unexpectedness of it all she let go of the chain.

She could feel the water washing her away, but an iron hand caught her before she had gone too far. As he clung to a chain with one hand and to his sister with the other, Diga called out to his father to help bring her in.

Pradya rushed to her husband’s side to haul their children up the slippery steps. Diga wept from sheer relief. He took Digna to a dry, secluded patch where their mother dried her. Then he stood guard while Digna changed behind the large towel Pradya held around her. All this time he and his mother tried to hush Digna, for she was almost hysterical with laughter.

Of course she was in shock, but she was also used to laughing off her troubles. Her brother, in sharp contrast, was a conservative lad. It was as if the genes of the fraternal twins had got mixed up. Digna was an aggressive girl with don-like looks, and Diga timid and very girlish. Their dissimilarities never failed to astonish.

Like the time she had tried to dislodge a drain pipe on the terrace just because the nuts and screws holding it in place were somewhat loose. Diga simply stood by helplessly, unable to dissuade her.

Or when she ambushed an old man and nearly gave him a heart attack. Another time she poured oil into a pail of water the manservant Aastu was using to wash the porch with. Had he slipped on the oily water, he might have ended up with a broken leg or back. It was sheer luck that Diga warned him just before he splashed it on the floor.

Diga had been overwhelmed by his sister’s sheer presence, perhaps from the cradle. She used to bawl loudly while he scarcely whimpered, lying beside her. As they grew up, it was Digna’s peals of laughter that rang out loud and clear, not Diga’s protests. He had pretty early in life learnt not to mind her shenanigans, happy to just watch.

At school, Digna participated in every activity and won medals and certificates. Diga was known more as Digna’s brother. His teachers took few pains with the self-effacing boy. He attended every class, submitted assignments on time, never asked a question, spoke when spoken to, and stayed in his seat during recess. Apart from the compulsory physical education classes, he shunned every sport and contest, but he did well in academics.

Digna’s near-brush with death changed Diga forever. He had grown older in that one second when she was nearly gone. A self-centred and headstrong girl till then, Digna too began paying heed to her brother and his advice. A fine balance developed between their personalities – she picked up some grace while he gained confidence. 

Her dangerous adventures found a new monitor in her brother. She could no longer stand in the middle of the road and wave down an unwilling cabbie. Diga would push her back to the pavement. She had to wear properly matched clothes, too, not any slapstick combinations. Those weird hair colours and baubles also became a thing of the past.

A relationship in which she took Diga for granted had now transformed into a more caring, sharing attachment. Digna sought his advice when selecting her college course, and consulted him when they chose to go abroad for higher studies. They were now the twins their parents had always wanted them to be – highly telepathic and mutually respectful of their strengths and weaknesses. 

It was not just Tonu who was thankful for the change triggered by that one act of bravery. Pradya was equally grateful for it, grateful that Digna was finally giving her twin his share of space and place in society. Digna picked for him a trendier wardrobe. She bamboozled him into taking up golf, and involved him in the young people’s society she had helped set up. She even talked him into attending social get-togethers, so important for their chosen careers.

They had both decided to join their father’s business after studies, and soon became popular in Tonu’s office. Diga’s keen sense of the law and Digna’s architecture degree had boosted their company’s prospects, and chances of a regular profit and a handsome dividend for their shareholders had created a cheerful environment both at home and at work.

Tonu packed his laptop and stood up to go home. Diga was at his side in a trice, taking charge of his father. As they drove home, Tonu confessed to him for the first time how his feelings had changed towards him, from bare tolerance to pride, revelling in his son’s achievements. Diga smilingly heard him through. Tonu at last asked him where he had picked up the courage to leap to his sister’s rescue.

Diga said with a smile: “The impulse to save her. The mere thought of losing my sister made me rush in. Not in my wildest dreams would I have done that otherwise, Dad! With due apologies to you and Mom, she was even then my universe and remains so.”

“I’m sure it’s mutual. And why apologise? Which parent would not want that?” Tonu retorted. 

They laughed at the nettled look that Pradya gave them. She had heard the last bit as she met them in the porch.

“All’s well,” Tonu reassured her. “It is your daughter we are talking about. We’ll worry when one or both of them fall in love and have to expand their universe to admit someone else into it.”

Diga had no time for such talk yet. He was already splayed across the sofa, making a long-distance call to his sister.

Jiggs and the cat

Jiggs snarled. This was getting too much for him. The cat had dragged out his favourite bone after having upset his basket for the umpteenth time today. He raced menacingly towards the door, out of which the cat had bolted after her mischief.

He stopped short when a shadow crossed his path, and looked up to find Huh-huh eyeing him quizzically.

Leashed, Jiggs was unhappy with Huh-huh.

Digital sketch: Harjeet

Jiggs was very unhappy these days with Huh-huh, his master who had given him his strange name. He had heard Huh-huh say a number of times he was an ardent fan of Mr Jiggs, but little did he know that it was a comic strip character Huh-huh was referring to. To him, Huh-huh was simply reiterating his love for his hulk of a pet.

Huh-huh? Well, that was how Jiggs thought of his master, for those were the first words he learnt to comprehend. It did not matter to Jiggs if Huh-huh had another name.

And of late Huh-huh was quite of favour with Jiggs. They had been quite a pair. They used to go for long walks when the sun was still a little yellow globe up there. If Huh-huh was at home all day, they would play in the shaded garden when the globe glowed warmly. Once the sky turned a dull blue and the sun went down on the other side, Huh-huh would take him for a short run around the apartment blocks.

A large ball, an assortment of bones, a convenient hole in the garden to bury them or dig them out whenever it pleased him, a smart leather collar, a lavishly done-up basket, a bagful of old shoes and socks to tear apart, lots of meat, dog biscuits and other stuff to gulp down – Jiggs had all these and much more.

Huh-huh had never failed to comb him down daily and take him for a weekly swim ... till the cat arrived. She didn’t just wander in. She was planted there by the woman who had moved into Huh-huh’s apartment. He seemed to like being with the woman a lot, even more than he did being with Jiggs. She wasn’t bad, no, sir. She took turns with Huh-huh to feed him and walk him and all, but it wasn’t the same thing any longer.

She couldn’t be a friend friend, you see. Jiggs and Huh-huh, Huh-huh and Jiggs – that had been a great combination. But Huh-huh was often distracted now, sometimes forgetting to pet Jiggs even though he wagged his big, bushy tail till it hurt. He no more checked if his pet was well stocked for the day. Jiggs missed his run around the apartment block, but it seemed Huh-huh did not, because he went out with the woman instead nowadays.

When they sat down for the meal after dark, they kept holding hands and smooching, ignoring Jiggs’ dripping tongue that at one time used to attract savouries throughout dinner. Of course, his bowl was hardly ever empty when he felt like eating, but previously table time was reserved for treats from Huh-huh. Even that change was bearable, for when Huh-huh spared time for Jiggs, it was like the good old days. Jiggs firmly believed that Huh-huh still enjoyed himself more when they were together than when he was with the woman.

He would not have minded the woman so much, had she not brought the cat soon after joining the household. Just as Jiggs had no name for the woman, he refused to call the cat by any name.

The cat had an injured foot when she arrived, so Jiggs was not much concerned about the intrusion. Once she was back on her four feet, however, there grew a silent hostility between them. 

The cat was wary of him, and he possessive about his territory. The woman sensed his discomfort, and demarcated their domains to avert any disastrous encounters. The dog was free to roam around without a leash when the woman had to go out and the cat was locked upstairs. On her return, which was always too soon, the woman would bring the feline down to the ground floor and his freedom was curtailed.

Jiggs began to resent the way Huh-huh humoured the cat, just because the woman had brought her. Huh-huh let the cat paw his sofa, his plush rocking chair, the rug next to the dinner table … wherever the cat wanted to be. He did not remonstrate when the cat spat or shed her hair – ugh, so much of it!

What hurt him most that Huh-huh could not … rather, would not … see how the cat was making Jiggs’ life miserable. Now the occasional fly could buzz around his wet nose but he was not free to chase it down. He was chained, that’s why! He could see a rat scuttle by, but the cat was free to pounce on it and play with it before killing it, not Jiggs. 

Not that Jiggs would kill a rat. Them dirty creatures were no prey for him, heaven forbid! He had better things to do. Like barking at strangers who dared to stop by the house, let alone enter it. Like chasing away the birds that soiled the window sill. Like digging in the garden to his heart’s content. Like huffing and puffing with a ball or a bone in his mouth and making Huh-huh laugh at his antics.

Sigh! That was all in the past. Now the windows were no longer open for the birds to flit in and out. With a cat in the house, Huh-huh had called some men one day to fit the frames with mesh so that the cat did not attack the birds. The cat was so slender that she could sneak out of the iron gate of the garden, so some mesh was fixed on it too. Now Jiggs could not see much through either the windows or the gate. How was he to guard his master’s house?

Why couldn’t Huh-huh make out what was happening? Jiggs was not exercising enough, he was becoming ungainly in gait, his coat of hair no longer shone as much, he did not prance around his master because of the leash, the house was almost unguarded, the cat kept tipping things over, and she irritated Jiggs.

As the days grew colder, Jiggs got more irritable. He longed for the sun, but he was forced to sit next to the heater most of the day. He began to look forward to the woman leaving the house, for then the cat was locked up and he was let off the leash. To feel this way was not good, he knew, but he could not help it.

Today the woman was away but Huh-huh was at home, and he had let Jiggs roam around without securing the cat upstairs. Jiggs wanted to make the most of it, tearing around and generally amusing his master with tricks he had almost forgotten. But every so often he found the cat in his basket, pulling at his rug or sniffing at his tin of biscuits. He chased her out each time, sometimes discreetly, at times with short barks so as not attract Huh-huh’s attention.

Now she had attacked his favourite bone, and he was not going to let her off lightly. He had decided she must be smacked, and hard. But Huh-huh appeared in the doorway just then, and Jiggs braked hard, almost knocking him down. Huh-huh recovered his balance with some effort, and caught hold of Jiggs by the collar.

“What’s gotten into you?” he asked absent-mindedly, patting Jiggs.

Jiggs barked, and licked his master’s feet. Then he bounded out and back in, out and back, hoping Huh-huh would follow him into the garden. He wanted to lead him to the cat and somehow make him put her on the leash instead.

Someone entered the gate that Huh-huh had left ajar. He called out to Huh-huh, but Jiggs dashed out first and was at the intruder’s ankle in a trice, barking madly.

The agitated man was holding the cat in his arms. She was purring and purring. Huh-huh shushed Jiggs into silence. The two men exchanged some words, and behold! The stranger took away the cat.

Jiggs could not believe it. Was the cat not coming back? Was he going to have his master back, all to himself? Had the woman also gone? That was too bad a thought, he chided himself. But he restlessly followed Huh-huh in.

Jiggs felt his master was not perturbed that the man had taken the cat with him, and he positively perked up when Huh-huh gave him his undivided attention after many, many days.

The woman was back when the sun was gone. The couple had a long chat, but they did not tie up Jiggs. He kept to his territory, lest his unexpected freedom drew the woman’s attention. But she seemed somewhat upset and paid him no heed.

The cat did not return the next day too. Jiggs relaxed.

Soon after, when Huh-huh and the woman were at home one whole day, the men who had put up the wire mesh came and took it down from the windows and the gate. Jiggs was now sure the cat was away for good. He could have an unimpaired view of the road outside again. And the birds would be back too, thank heaven!

He could live with the woman around. That was a small price to pay for freedom, Jiggs thought to himself, curling up in his cosy basket after setting his rug just the way he liked it.

‘Papa, you kiss him’

Jeet Uncle, who always dresses smartly himself, is surprisingly indulgent regarding his wife’s fetish for garish pinks and all shades of red.

I have always liked to watch them, especially Nola Auntie. I am not as well versed in the ways of the world, but even I have to admit her gaudy magenta salwar kameez suit complements her rosy cheeks; the cherry red outfit, in which she dazzles with a twinkling red and gold bindi stuck on her forehead, would be difficult for most young women to carry off.

The couple lives within walking distance of our house. When they were newly married, the two would drop in once or twice a week after dinner. They said it was to look us up, but I suspect they wanted to spend time together, away from his large family. 

She was fair, plump, and very girlish when I first saw her. I mean, I was an impressionable 16, and Nola Auntie, who was Mom’s first cousin, was just 20. She had lived in another town before her marriage, so we had never met, not even on family occasions.

I quite looked forward to their visits, for it was a big change from my dreary transition from school to college. Not just that, most of our visitors are pretty senior in age. My parents are a happy-hosting couple, and there is nary a day their friends or sisters or cousins do not show up – so boring for me. I have few friends nearby, so I stay indoors mostly.

Back to the newly weds. Nola Auntie tended to prattle like a child, but Jeet Uncle was clearly besotted by her. I eagerly drank in their exchange of romantic looks, their pleasant banter, and their playful complaints about each other to big sister, that is, my mother.

Little Kaunu made everyone laugh.

Digital sketch: Harjeet

They would go on tours frequently, which meant Jeet Uncle’s office sent him someplace and Nola Auntie would accompany him each time.

I derived a lot of vicarious knowledge about places I have still not visited, despite having left my teenage years behind. Jeet Uncle was very good with word sketches, for I could vividly imagine the lush green of the coast down south dotted with the sloping red roofs of mud cottages, or the lights of a merry-go-round in Rajasthan when Nola Auntie wanted to keep riding a particular wooden horse painted red, white and gold.

Two years into their marriage, Nola Auntie decided to get pregnant and was so cool about it. I mean, in my protected little world, no one could so unashamedly display a swollen belly! Being with child, Nola Auntie was advised to take a walk every day, so their visits turned into daily affairs.

Living in a small house meant I could not be shooed away to a remote corner while the women discussed morning sickness and baby clothes. So I learnt a lot about pregnancy and calcium doses, mood swings and hospital visits.

Jeet Uncle turned into a harried man obsessed with the health of his wife and their unborn child. I got rather tired of his endless fuss over blood pressure readings, diet charts, queasiness, doctors’ reports and what not. So it came as a big relief when Nola Auntie delivered a baby, a boy they named Kaunu. Now life would be back to its earlier fun years, I thought to myself.

How naïve could I be! The baby’s arrival changed the couple forever. No, no, Nola Auntie still dressed in her reds and pinks, Uncle still drooled at the sight of her. But now there were no travel tales, no romantic banter, only talk of baby, baby and more baby. Thankfully, the couple could not be at our place as often as before.

Instead of walking, however, they would bring Kaunu on their two-wheeler. I stopped minding his presence after a while. I guess a child takes to people that its parents feel happy with. He would extend his chubby arms towards us and we would coo over him. Soon he learnt to preen himself in the face of so much adult adulation.

When little Kaunu learnt to crawl, our house was cleared of all breakable items that he could possibly pounce upon. He was so much like a family member that we made minor adjustments in furniture to give him a free run of the house.

Kaunu took his first baby steps before our eyes. He uttered his first coherent words in our presence, and we were about as ecstatic as his parents were. His broken sentences still leave us in splits.

Though he is a boy, many of his clothes are red or pink. I have tried to impress on Nola Auntie a number of times that boys wear green, yellow or blue. I read somewhere that pinks and reds were meant for girls. But she shuts me up by saying if that were the case, manufacturers would not be selling red T-shirts and polo necks and pink shorts and trousers.

I have yet to come up with a solid counter argument. Kaunu, meanwhile, continues to sport bright red, mauve and pink clothes. 

Last month, Nola Auntie, much plumper and with even rosier cheeks than when she got married, waddled in with Kaunu in tow. He was dressed in a pair of crimson trousers offset by a white shirt but with a red bow. His mother was looking stunning in a matching crimson sari, her hair stylishly rolled into a bun.

Jeet Uncle arrived later with some relatives who were to stay behind with us. He was taking his wife and son to a party straight from here. When we were all gathered around Kaunu and encouraging him to say cute, naughty nothings, an old aunt said teasingly, “Little boy, your mother is looking so lovely. Go kiss her.”

Kaunu smartly trundled up to his mom and gave her as sound a buss as a little child his age could. He turned around, beaming with the satisfaction of a task well executed.

Next my mom offered her cheek, and Kaunu obliged. But when my father urged him to give him a kiss too, he turned to Jeet Uncle and said in a wonderfully steady voice: “Papa, you kiss him.”

We all laughed heartily, but Nola Auntie turned as crimson as her sari when the old aunt remarked tartly: “See! He didn’t ask his mom to kiss on his behalf … he’s already a sensible young man.” 

Oh, really? I thank my stars I did not join in and seek a kiss from the toddler that evening. 

Reunion on the beach – II

“Why did you leave town so abruptly?” Sumedha asked Medha as she pulled her long-lost friend away from a particularly vicious wave that could have swept them out to sea.

The question that hung between them was now asked, the thin ice broken.

“You did not feel the need to tell me about the way Mridul was behaving. Souraj told me,” Medha retorted.

Their linked hands formed a 'V' against the setting sun.

Digital sketch: Harjeet

“Did he? He never told me that. What could I say to my best friend, my only friend … that her husband drops in way too often?” Sumedha had tears in her eyes.

“Indeed you should have had the courage to say that to me, your closest friend,” Medha cried. “I was your friend much before I became his wife. That is why I insisted that we shift out, so that I could shield you. I was also ashamed of my husband. I thought we could make a fresh start. 

“But do you know, you were only the first one? Wherever we went, Mridul would see something in another woman that he felt I did not have, and begin to chase her.”

“Oh no, my poor Medha,” Sumedha held her friend’s hand tightly. “I hope he has mended his ways by now.”

“I don’t know. I divorced him three years later,” Medha said.

The pain Sumedha felt was about as intense as her friend’s. The salt that the waves splattered across their faces did not sting their eyes as much as the memory of their days together and the long years of separation. The tears flowed freely. They left the loose, wet sand and headed to a bench.

The cool breeze made them shiver as they shook their beach sandals free of the sand.

“So you have been on your own since then?” Sumedha asked.

“No,” came the rueful reply. “ You know me, the ever rebellious Medha.”

Sumedha puckered her brow at that. “You are living with someone, but you are not married,” she stated crisply.

“My, my! Someone’s really up-to-date with trends!” Medha laughed. “Of course you would disapprove of it, though.”

“So you are in a live-in relationship, aren’t you!” Sumedha exclaimed.

“I do live with someone, but our relationship is not a live-in one,” at last her friend laughed, causing the greying bun at the nape of her neck to wobble somewhat. “That someone is a young man who has just completed college. He is my stepson,” said her friend.

Sumedha seemed nettled. “What? Did you marry again?”

“Yes,” Medha said, adding: “I met this widower at a family get-together. Mitull loved sightseeing and he reminded me of you … same serious nature and sermonizing at the first opportunity; a great one to spend time with. He had a four-year-old son and was all at sea about bringing up the child single-handed. So I joined hands with him,” she chuckled.

“But we had not known about his weak heart. He left us all last year suddenly,” she added softly.

“Are you happy at all?” Sumedha put an earnest question to her friend.

“I am at peace and, yes, in many ways, quite happy,” Medha was dead serious now. “My son loves me, he cares if I am down in the dumps, and he sent me here so we could meet.”

“You don’t say! I thought this was just another coincidence, like it was in school,” Sumedha said wonderingly.

“It was well planned and executed, my dear friend. I have known all about you through the years. I know that you changed course and began teaching in a college, that now are a budding educationist in your own right, that Souraj is also a respected academic figure, that you have been lucky to have a husband by your side who gave you free rein … I even know you have two daughters.”

Sumedha was speechless. “You almost shattered my life, walking out without a word, and you have been tracking me all along?” she finally managed to protest.

“I was true to my friend but not to my friendship, I confess,” Medha said. “It would have been too big a strain to try hiding the truth from you, and too uncomfortable for you to be at ease with Mridul around. So I made a clean break. Your hurt healed with time, but the wound I would have given you could have infected your whole life.”

“Make no mistake, the hurt has not healed. And you did not think you needed a friend when you yourself were going through so much?” Sumedha was almost livid, glancing at Medha’s prematurely lined forehead.

“I wanted to pick up the threads after Mridul and I parted ways, but I did not want to upset your life when you were blazing a new trail. I decided to keep tabs on you from a safe distance. I read every word written or spoken about you, online, in newspapers, on television. My son also brags about having such an aunt, so what if he has never met her,” Medha smiled.

“You said your son arranged that we meet?” asked her friend.

“He aspires to be a professor, like you and Souraj. He has set up a Google alert for me so that I do not miss any mention of you. He assiduously follows your programmes on TV as well. In fact, we watch you together,” Medha told her.

Her eyes brimming with tears, Sumedha egged her on. “Just how did you know I would be here?”

“He said you were coming here to deliver a guest lecture. He booked me into the only five-star hotel this town boasts because he was sure you would stay here. He said it was time we reconnected. Was he right?” Medha asked anxiously.

Sumedha was crying once more. “Indeed he was, silly! I can only say you are blessed to have such a child. We must all meet. Souraj will be beside himself with joy. We often talk about you. My daughters too know all about the Aunty they never met … well, at least what I knew of her till she cut me clean out of her life.”

Medha held her till she stopped sobbing. “God has been kind to both of us. He brought us together once. He has done it again, and surely this time it’s for keeps. Come, we have a lot to catch up with,” she stood up, tugging at Sumedha’s hand.

“I have thanked God daily for all he has given me, and always prayed that you were happy wherever you were,” Sumedha said. “I had no friend when you came into my life. You taught me to live, and with dignity. For the first time in years, today I feel God has blessed me with a complete life ... my family, and my true friend.”

As the reunited soulmates walked to their hotel, their linked hands seemed to form a ‘V’ sign against the setting sun.

Concluded

Reunion on the beach – I

They stood silently by the seaside, shoulders close but not touching. There was no need for words. The lapping of the waters at their feet said so much in unspoken communion. They had both wandered onto the beach and come face to face, meeting after nearly 20 years. 

First it was school, then college, where they were known to be inseparable companions. Their classmates would joke: “Look for one, find the other one free.”

Two old friends reunite on the beach. 

Digital sketch: Harjeet

Medha and Sumedha … a wonderful coincidence had brought them together in class. From the moment their teacher called out their names during roll call, they felt they were meant to be friends, forever bound by their names. Soon they discovered that their tastes matched, and their likes and dislikes were equally strong. They looked unbelievably similar too.

Medha had joined the school when her family shifted to the metro Sumedha had been born and grown up in. To Medha, urban life was something to marvel at; for Sumedha, it was a boring routine with oh-so-familiar sights and sounds.

A mutual need sprang up between them. Medha longed for a life she had not seen before, while Sumedha pined for companionship. She was the youngest of five children, whose ageing parents were struggling to keep ailments and financial troubles at bay. They had little time for her, as did her four brothers who were grappling with their own manhood issues. The youngest of them was eight years her senior. Their huge age gap made her a sister they would much rather not have had, and a liability they grudgingly had to protect.

Sumedha was timid by nature, but Medha was carefree and fun-loving. They were such a perfect foil for each other that the days melted into months and years, but their friendship stood the test of time. When Medha’s family moved to another town, she stayed back in a hostel to complete her graduation. Being with Medha had helped Sumedha shed most of her reserve, while her friend had at last acquired some tact.

As their college days drew to an end, their respective families began hunting for bridegrooms for them. Oblivious of these plans, the two friends were busy mapping out career possibilities for themselves. Sumedha was keen on teaching, but Medha wanted to enter the travel trade. When Sumedha told her parents she wanted to take up B.Ed., they were horrified. All her brothers were by now married and settled, and their wives were happy homemakers. “How had she imagined she would be allowed to work?” they wondered.

Sumedha wanted a life of her own, one in which she had a say. This was a big change from the girl who would not utter a word at home. Her family began to resent Medha, firm in the belief that she had set Sumedha on this rebellious path.

But Medha had similar problems with her own family. They would not hear of further studies, least of all a course where she would end up travelling on her own. And they blamed Sumedha for infecting Medha with this travel bug … Sumedha, who had never stepped out of the city! “Yes, but she has spoilt you too with her sightseeing tours and bargain hunting,” came the unreasonable retort.

Sumedha was used to living without much money, but Medha was luckier. She was often rash in her deeds, but very prudent when it came to spending. Thus she had built a neat pile of savings in her bank account. Medha had not thought such an exigency would arise, but now she used the money to pay for admission to her hospitality course and for the small fee needed to get Sumedha into B.Ed.

Both families were aghast at the girls’ boldness. Each thought the other was stoking the rebellion, but neither was willing to accept that their daughters had matured into young women who knew their own minds.

As luck would have it, the families could not find eligible bridegrooms in time to stop the girls from launching into their postgraduate studies. Now that Medha and Sumedha had to part ways to pursue their respective careers, they met rarely but kept in touch over the phone.

The first to fall in love was Sumedha. This departure from tradition came as yet another shock to her family, but the young professor who had set her heart alight managed to win over her family as well. They were married as soon as Sumedha completed the one-year course.

Medha was very happy for her only friend, who was now pursuing a master’s degree. She managed to find time to occasionally drop in at Sumedha’s new home. They were a cool threesome: Medha, Sumedha and Sumedha’s husband Souraj.

A fourth person soon joined them in the shape of Mridul, Medha’s husband, whom she had first met at a travel conference. But the party broke up within months when Mridul began showing up too often at Sumedha’s place, sometimes without his wife being aware of it. 

Souraj objected to it, but poor Sumedha did not have the courage to turn Mridul away for fear of offending her friend’s husband. She was certainly not the timid schoolgirl of yore, but she still lacked the steel to tick off Mridul. Souraj finally stepped in and asked Medha to rein in her husband. 

It struck her like a thunderbolt. She confronted Mridul, who blandly confessed he had developed a liking for Sumedha’s quiet disposition. It shook her to the core, but she did not have the heart to let her friend know why she began shying away from taking her calls or visiting her. 

With things now out in the open, Mridul could not as nonchalantly walk into Souraj’s home. The chasm between Medha and Mridul also began to widen. Meanwhile, Sumedha began to sicken, and Souraj had a tough time keeping her spirits up as he tried to fill the vacuum created by prolonged spells of Medha’s absence from her life.

More next week