Love, Unrequited [Thread 2 : Pg 140] - Page 27

29. Opportunity

‘Biplab, you’ve been watching TV since the whole morning now! Give us a hand, will you?’ Kirti called out from the room inside where she was removing the suitcases and attaches from the upper wall shelves. Diwali was two weeks away; her grandmother and Kirti were on a sprucing and decluttering spree. Only this morning, she had sold all metal and paper scrap to a ‘raddiwala’.

‘It’s the climax, Di. Last ten minutes.’

He was watching Ajay Devgn’s Phool aur Kante for the nth time! 

Once he had fixed the TV, he had gone to find out the whereabouts of Manoj Bhaiyya, their muhalla’s cable operator. With DTH on rise and new key players entering the market, Manoj after sustaining losses for around three consecutive years, had finally moved to the plumbing and tiles business in 2017.

‘I don’t do that anymore,’ he said. ‘I can give you Lalan’s number.’ Kirti would have given up but Biplab, undeterred by the whole exacting process of calling up the dealer, buying the services, seeing it through to the end as the antenna was set up, quickly jumped in.

He stood by Lalan, the very eccentric Lalan as she drilled the holes and connected the wires. She had a feathered hairstyle, a brow and chin piercing; wore ripped jeans with chains and all. 

‘I thought you were a guy!’ Biplab had  said.

‘So I have a heavy voice! You got a problem?!’ 

Biplab had immediately shook his head, afraid to offend the technician. He wanted to watch TV that day itself. So, he stood there, his eyes seeking her out unintentionally.

‘Abe khajjal jaise kyun taad raha hai?!’ She said in a rough Bambaiya language, without looking up. [Why are you ogling like a fool?!’]

‘I am not!’ he protested. A few seconds later, the rebuked guy ran to his sister. ‘Di, You go up and supervise! I will not.’

‘Why?’ Kirti, who was chopping vegetables for the dinner, asked.

‘She thinks I am ogling her!’

‘Hah? Were you?’

He bristled at the accusation. ‘Nooo! It’s just that...I have never come across such a TV technician. Doesn’t she look like a druggie?’

‘Tsk..tsk...someone was lecturing Prasanna on generalization. Hypocrite much?’

Kirti had gone up, her brother in tow. In a moment she had understood why her brother hadn’t been able to keep his eyes to himself. 

‘You have a very distinct style for a cable technician,’ she said to the girl. Very Hippie.

When the girl looked up with ire in her eyes, Kirti put her hands up in the air, ‘Not judging. Just curious.’

‘’I like the style and it's a free world,’ Lalan answered.

‘They allow you to wear it. No uniform as such?’

‘I own the business! Who will dictate me what to wear? You customers?’

‘No, obviously not! In fact, it’s nice for the customers. Uniforms are boring! Now, this is like a...sight of fresh style?’

‘Where did you get your hair bleached, Lalan? It has come out so natural and beautiful.’

‘Lily, I prefer Lily. And I did it myself!’

‘Wow! The piercings suit you too. Do you have a tattoo? I have one!’

The girl looked taken aback by the confession.  ‘You don’t look like someone who’ll tattoo their body.’

‘Oh, what do you know?! I have double ear piercing,’ Kirti showed her ears. ‘It’s a pity my grandmother did not allow me to get my chin or brows pierced!’

‘It’s a blessing!’ Biplab said, gatecrashing the conversation. ‘I would have disowned if you did any such thing.’

‘Men!’ Lalan scoffed. ‘Think they own us or something!’

Smarting from the comeback, he said, ‘There’s something about respecting what God gave us, as well. And, I was not ogling you, okay?’

‘Whatever! Doth protest too much.’

'You are far from Lily. Should have gone for Holly, Duranta, L-actus, maybe?' He had said, storming out. Biplab had been so embarrassed by the whole conversation that he had taken to his room, not coming out until Lily-lalan had left.

‘Guess what? She’s Manoj Bhaiyya’s daughter!’ Kirti had filled him in later.

‘So old?’

‘Hmm. Seems Manoj Bhaiyya was actually an uncle prancing as Bhaiyya all the time!’ They had chuckled among themselves.

Now, as the house was drowned in the jarring background scores of either action or melodramatic scenes playing in movies, all day long, Kirti was annoyed beyond limits. 

‘Has the movie ended, Biplab? If yes, then switch off the bloody thing! It’s giving me a headache now.’ 

‘Just ten more minutes, Di’

She walked into the living room, a broom and a dusting cloth in her hand. Her brother had moved to Set Max channel watching, Arya Ki Prem Pratigya, another one of South dubbed movies. Incensed, she yanked out the TV wire from the switchboard.

‘Dadi and I are slogging like a donkey there, and you…’ she thumped the back of his head.

‘Dadiii, seeee, this girl will never reform her ways. She’s calling you a donkey!’

‘Shut up! Go and clean the cobwebs of your room.’

‘Aye, captain!’ He saluted her and then went to put the TV cord back again.

‘Hey! No TV!’ Kirti objected. Ignoring her, he put on the music channel where old classics were played. ‘I can’t work without songs,’ he said.

Tired of bickering, Kirti went away to dust the sofa, as Sunny Deol’s ‘Tu Dharti Pe Chahe Jahaan Bhi Rahegi...Tujhe Teri Khusboo Se Pehchan Lunga…’ filled the room. She did hate the constant noise of the TV but it also reminded her of the old times. Biplab was very much like their father. Her father also was a movie buff watching all the 90s movies on repeat, listening to the songs on the radio in the auto. She had found a small diary while cleaning the house. In fact, she knew she'd find it. It had become a ritual of sorts to find her father’s diary during Diwali cleaning; she’d dust it, clean it, read it and keep it back, the next Diwali again pretending to find it for the first time all over again.

Glossy cover, yellowish pages, blue ink seeping in on blank pages.

Aapke aane se zindagi mein jo raunak hain [The radiance your presence has brought in my life...]

Lagta hai maano barson aap hi ke intezaar mein the [It seems for eons I had been waiting only for you] 

Urmila, I love you

Aap sab kuch hai meri [You are my everything]

Small hobbles into the poetic world. How love incapacitates and empowers at the same time. 

Her father must have loved her mother very much. The very reason he never remarried. 

Lost in her musings, she was beating the furniture with the cloth, when her phone began to ring. Biplab had returned to the room on the pretext of drinking water. Ever, the sluggard!

Since he was nearer to the phone, he picked it up from the rack.

‘Who’s it?’ 

‘Unsaved number. Truecaller says, Arun Kambli, Coaching’ he read out handing her the phone. It didn’t ring a bell.

‘Hello? Yes, This is Kirti Singh. Who’s this?’ She answered, shrugging her shoulders when Biplab raised his brows in question.

‘Oh...yes, yes, I remember. ‘ She gestured to Biplab to switch off the TV. ‘Yes, I had come. I remember talking to Shivaji Sir. Huh? Ok.kay...yes, yes, I’m listening…’ 

‘Sir, CSE branch, yes! Government Polytechnic College, yes Sir. First division, 82.78%.’

The change in her expressions occurred too quickly to be discernible, and Biplab was left on edge. ‘What? What?’ He jumped from one foot to another. She stayed his restiveness with a gesture of her hand.

‘Actually, Sir, I’m out attending a marriage so this week won’t be possible. I can come next week, maybe?’

‘Let me see. Can I call you later? Thank you!’

She gave out a long sigh once the call got disconnected and then,’Dadiii...Daadi...Where are you?’

‘What happened? Who was it on the call? I also want to know. Where are going, Di?’

‘Come, come, I will tell both of you together.’

Their granny was brooming the backyard.

‘Dadi, do you know who called me right now?’ 

‘Who?’ Karuna asked, blowing an air of dust with a sweep.

‘Sai Coaching Classes!’

‘What is that?’ Karuna had no recollection.

‘First of all leave the broom, and come inside,’ Kirti pulled away the coconut stick broom from her grandmother’s hands and pulled her inside. Karuna washing and wiping her hands in her sari, settled on a cot, finally saying, ‘Now, tell me'

‘Hahn, so listen. Biplab and Dadi, I am not sure if you remember in 2019 I had applied for a teacher post in the coaching institute that tutors the polytechnic appearing as well as polytechnic studying students. They rejected me saying they had accepted the other candidate. So today, they called me up asking,’

‘If you are still interested in the post?’ An excited Biplab shot out.

Kirti nodded. ‘The other person is moving out due to their marriage, so the post has opened up once again.’

‘Wohoo!!!’ Biplab cheered.

‘I told you, if you keep trying some or the other thing, today or tomorrow, will materialize. Hey Ishwar!’ Karuna joined her hands, began thanking her house deities.

‘But...but..Dadi, Biplab, there’s a catch. They are in a hurry I think. And I have not been in touch with my subjects for years now. What am I going to do now?! I did make an excuse of attending a wedding but I don’t know that will be enough. Oh no, what am I going to do now?!!’ She moaned, leaning on the trustworthy shoulders of her brother, feeling dispirited just as quickly as the thrills had hit her nerves when they said they wanted her. Biplab patted her head affectionately. It was so good to have someone to lean on.

‘That is why I kept telling you! Don’t give up on studying. Now suffer! You don’t listen to a word I say!’ Karuna groaned. 

‘I will tell them I am not interested.’ Better than failing the test.

‘And let go of the golden opportunity? Say such stupid things and I’ll shave your head! Go and study, now. Prepare as much as you can, girl. You will be able to make it. My blessings, your father's blessings are with you. My heart says, this time you’ll definitely make it.’

‘Yes Di, no problem in trying.If you can’t make it, you can’t make it. Simple. You have nothing to lose, do you?’

Picking up her head from his shoulder, she dropped her chin on her palms. ‘Confidence,’ she muttered under her breath.

‘I will see,’ she said aloud.

‘What you will see? Leave all this to me and go and study! It is so important...Such an opportunity...Oh ho...God be kind. Give her the strength! Once she gets this job, maybe we'll find better prospective grooms. Some engineer or government official in a high post...Only if she studies hard…’

Annoyed, Kirti cried out, ‘Now, don’t start all this Dadi.’ It added to the mental pressure to perform. ‘I am the biggest fool! I shouldn't have told you all!’

‘Don’t argue with me. Go and study...go!’

‘I will not! I am not even appearing for it, jao!’ She got up and left.

‘Do whatever you want! It is rightly said, you cannot teach a stubborn head! When doom approaches, your mind starts working perversely.’

‘Dadi, my beloved Dadi, O the glow worm of my night, O Dadi, why are you getting distressed. You know how Di is. You think she will let go of it? Give her some time.’ Biplab, caressed his grandmother’s papery cheeks, cajoling her.

‘No, Babu! Let her do her mind, one day I will pass away nagging like this, and then she’ll have no one to care about her...and then she’ll remember this old woman.’

Kirti appeared once again. ‘Arre yaar...Fine! Fine! I’m going to study. But give me some time will you? Can I at least take some time to mentally prepare myself?’