Chapter Two - Jab We Met, Phir Se
“You don’t love me anymore!”
“But baby look around! Everything is just the way you wanted it. The walls, cushion covers, curtains, crockery, tea set and heck, even my earphones! See they are all pink?”
But his super model girlfriend was far from satisfied.
“I told you! I told you a zillion times I want RV embroidered in Mexican Pink over Cherry Blossom backdrop. But this is Hot Pink! Is it so hard to remember such a small thing?” she whined as he looked about helplessly wondering how to placate his annoyingly demanding girlfriend and he tried to remember what on earth was RV. He knew he had fulfilled every dumb whim of hers, but did she really expect him to recollect every one of them in great detail?
“Errr…. baby? What is RV exactly?” he asked her tentatively.
By the looks of it, he had probably committed a capital offense by even voicing out his thoughts aloud as her eyes widened in shock glaring accusingly at him before breaking down in hysterical sobs.
“I knew… I knew it,” she wailed taking out a pink custom made lace handkerchief blowing her nose on it.
“How insensitive of you Ram! You really don’t love me anymore!”
“Shhhhhh…… Vedu baby I am so sorry!” he pleaded her hoping she would lower her voice by a couple of decibels, but Vedika was in no mood to relent, and his eardrums were beginning to hurt now.
“You forgot? How could you Ram? It was our initials. R for Ram, V for Vedika but no! You can’t even remember this?” she yelled at him brandishing her pink clutch like it was a sword while he flinched.
“Baby I will make it up to you, I swear! I will get them replaced, all right?”
“You know I had planned a surprise for you but you ruined it Ram!” she sniffed ruefully.
On hearing the word ‘surprise’ he gulped down nervously since any surprise she had in store for him was not good news.
“Er…. surprise? Really?”
Just then a large furry object the size of a boulder came bouncing into the living room and rammed straight into him knocking off his breath.
“What the….”
When he glanced down to see what had struck him, he realized with horror that the furry ball was his labrador who had been –
“You got him dyed pink?” he yelled at her outraged while his dog bounced about happily unaware of the monstrosity it had been subjected to, but she pointedly ignored him pretending to be miffed about their earlier disagreement.
“Are you f**king crazy Vedika? What have you done to him? And who gets a colouring done on a dog?”
“He needed a makeover, and besides don’t you think he looks gorgeous?”
At the last remark all he could do was just stare at her incredulously and only think how on earth had he gotten himself into this situation.
“And what’s with your face?” she asked him frowning.
“Wha….? My face?” he asked her puzzled feeling his face for anything unusual but only his crazy girlfriend knew what exactly it was.
“You look white as a sheet! Your face is drained of all colour baby,” she exclaimed and pulled out a brush and a blush and he watched in mute terror as she marched towards him purposely dabbing her brush with some colour.
“No ways Vedu….. No…. Stay away from me….NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Vedika paid no heed to his words and brought the brush closer to his face.
He could feel a soft brush against his face.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
He tried hard to push the brush away and when he felt his cheeks, it was wet. Panting he jumped up with a start, but he could see his surroundings had changed.
Ram Kapoor was no longer in his studio apartment in Paris but the familiar walls of the bedroom of his penthouse in Bandra greeted him. And the tingling sensation on his cheek was not that of a blush brush but it was his dog that greeted him every morning by licking his face who had not been dyed in pink. He breathed a sigh of relief at that and ruffled the mutt’s fur hugging him.
“Whiskey, my babu! It was just a nightmare. She is out of our lives! Out for good and I won’t let anyone dye you in pink! Like EVER!” he promised his dog and just then the door to his bedroom creaked open and his friend Vikrant peeped in with a grumpy look on his face. Whiskey ran to greet his master’s friend who scratched his ears carelessly before scurrying out.
“Yaar why are you shouting so early in the morning?” he asked Ram yawning and rubbed his head. “You know it doesn’t help if you are dealing with hangovers.”
“You think you have it worse? You get drunk and I deal with the aftermath. That was one hell of a nightmare I don’t ever wanna think of bro,” Ram replied getting off the bed.
“Vedika?” he teased him walking in and sat down on the bed.
Ram did not bother to reply but just rolled his eyes that seemed to reply back to Vikrant with What-Else-Did-You-Expect look.
Vikrant sniggered.
“Serves you right though! You dated her just because you wanted to piss your mo….” he replied but when Ram gave him a do-not-go-there glare he amended, “Err… Niharika. I mean seriously who does that?”
“But hats off to you dude! You start dating Niharika’s business associate’s daughter who has annoyed the crap out of her by doing the interiors of her office turning it into a pink candy factory…”
“But Vedika did score brownie points on that one. You should have seen Niharika’s face!” Ram recalled with glee.
“Yeah, and also your face when Vedika made you tag along like a French poodle everywhere,” Vikrant replied wiping the smirk off Ram’s face.
“I was wondering when she will get a pink leash for you,” he added suppressing a laugh as Ram threw a pillow at him giving him a sour look.
“That’s so not funny Vik! Anyways I broke up with her two years ago, so….”
“You mean she broke up with you,” Vikrant corrected Ram.
“Whatever! I wanted to do that since ages….”
“But you did not want to hear Niharika say I told you so.”
“Well, Vedika would have thrown a fit anyways and I didn’t want any drama. She gets bored easily and I was counting on her to get bored of me, which she did. And speaking of dating debacles, how is Rose by the way?” Ram asked Vikrant savagely, touching a raw nerve for getting back at him who threw him a dirty look.
“You seem to be getting a kick out of torturing me about my ex. So, let’s speak about yours.”
“Whoa! You are the one who is hallucinating over your ex, dude. Not me. Besides Rose was hot man,” Vikrant replied with a moony faraway look in his eyes. Ram shook his head and walked- into his washroom.
“By your definition of hot Vik, were you inspired by horror movies?” Ram asked him sarcastically.
“Chuck it na Ram? Rose must be happily holidaying in Madrid with her lesbian partner,” Vikrant muttered morosely reminiscing his time with his girlfriend who had ditched him to be with her Spanish lesbian partner.
“And you are dousing yourself in alcohol,” Ram muttered under his breath turning on the faucet lest his friend hear him. He knew Vikrant still had a soft spot for Rose though to this day he could not fathom what was it about her that made his foolhardy friend pine for her, long since she had dumped him. Heck he could not figure out which was worse – Rose’s gothic fashion sense or Vedika’s obsession with pink. In the dating arena, both of them had failed miserably.
“Why are we even having this discussion? It’s summer and we should be out there having fun but no, we are stuck here having a heart-to-heart conversation about our depressing, non-existent love lives,” Vikrant replied glumly picking up an empty beer can. After inspecting it for a while he threw it aside disdainfully.
“And all because you had a nightmare,” he pointed out accusingly at Ram.
“Hey, speak for yourself,” Ram replied stepping out of the washroom after having brushed his teeth.
“Break up was the best thing that happened to me. I still can’t figure out how I tolerated her for two years,” Ram heaved a sigh of relief and Vikrant chuckled at that remark.
“That’s a million-dollar question,” Vikrant replied in a mock serious tone.
“And we can have this discussion over a round of tequila. What say?”
“Vik you partied with your band last night,” Ram reminded his friend who had got drunk just the previous night and landed at his doorstep.
“Oh c’mon! Don’t be such a dork. Besides Brinda needs to chill and this is her first week here. Don’t you think we should show her around?” Vikrant asked him pulling an innocent face.
“Nautanki saala,” Ram mumbled under his breath.
“You just need an excuse to party hard and booze,” Ram taunted him turning away and opened his cupboard to takeout some fresh clothes.
“C’mon yaar. It will be fun. You, me and Bri! Wish Adi was here too. It would just be like old times na?”
Ram’s hand froze midway as he sifted through his wardrobe. Together like old times!
He tried hard to shut down the flood of memories that were forcing its way through the depths of his mind. How could anything ever be like old times for him? They could never be the same, not without….
He mentally tried to tune out that voice but try as he might he could not shut out the images that were flashing before his eyes, like they had happened yesterday.
“Buddy we’re gonna kill it. Saint T’s will never forget this night!”
----------------
“Whoa! You gotta be kidding me man! A Harley-Freaking-Davidson?”
He eyed his buddy’s new bike green with envy for possessing a beauty like that.
----------------
“No ways buddy! I can’t take it!”
“What difference does it make? I ride it or you do, it’s the same and I know you want to. So, take it.”
----------------
“Buddy but our performance…….”
“We still have a good two hours to go. Besides we can go for a quick ride, and we’ll be back in ten minutes.”
He eyed the keys in his hand with longing and his friend’s encouragement was tempting enough for him to break his resolve.
----------------
“Buddy relax! Take it easy,” he told him time and again.
Ram was excited and nervous at the same time. He had never driven a bike on a busy road before and though he loved the feel of air as it rushed through his ears, he had an inkling that something would go dreadfully wrong.
----------------
He never got to see the speeding car that came out of nowhere and everything spiraled out of control. Next thing he knew he had rammed into a water tank and everything blacked out.
“Ram are you listening to me? Ram?”
Vikrant’s voice broke Ram out of- his reverie and the familiar mask was back on. The one he had worn for eleven years without letting anyone in to see the real face behind it.
“Look you don’t want to party, that’s absolutely fine. Talaiva can wait.”
“Nope! It can’t. You’re right. We should hang out. Talaiva it is.”
************
“Sara I can’t do this anymore OK?”
“Piu honestly can’t you just be normal for once?”
“Yeah right! By normal you mean hook up with some guy every now and then?” Priya replied getting off the metro almost knocking into the person who was getting on at the stop. She mumbled a hasty apology to the angry passenger while her cousin cum bff continued to rant at the other end.
“Don’t blame me now for every-now-and-then part. Each time I try to set you up with some cute guy you chase him away and you better cook up an innovative excuse this time.”
“Great! So now that you know I will get rid of your date sooner than you even set it up for me, why do you even bother Sara?”
Sara was livid at Priya for spoiling yet another date she had set up for her. And all Priya had to say was that he was just not her type but Sara could not figure out what exactly would qualify as her ‘TYPE’.
“What about my promise to chachi, huh? I had told her I would find the perfect Raj for you!”
“Offo Sarangi!”
“Hey, don’t call me that,” Sara cribbed but Priya promptly ignored her.
“You and mimi need to step out of your DDLJ universe! I am not Simran and neither am I on an adventure trip to find my true love that probably got extinct in the dinosaur era. And let me remind you, we have more pressing issues to deal with.”
“Huh?”
“Look I am done going out on meaningless dates you try to set up for me, OK? Next time you do that I swear I will not turn up. And if you are so interested in this match making business then I suggest you join hands with mimi but mind you, find another scapegoat,” Priya told her in an irritated tone as a passer-by stared at her and in response, she fixed him with an angry glare like he too was a part of the conspiracy being hitched by her cousin and aunt.
“You’re impossible!”
“Anyways I am near the apartment. What did you say her name was?”
“Brinda. Brinda Sehgal. But Piu don’t change the topic. We need to……”
“Sara not again,” she told her warily checking out the name on the building before entering in.
“You should be enjoying your vacation instead of trying to sort out my non-existent love life. Anyways I gotta go and give loads of love to Taiji from me OK? See ya,” Priya cut the call just as the elevator door opened before her.
“Wha…”
Her words got stuck in her mouth as a huge blond labrador made a jump for her startling her and she stumbled backwards losing her balance falling hard on the granite floor.
“Whiskey NO! Get back here!”
She saw the dog streak past her with a lanky guy at its heels who was running behind it with a leash, but the brute ran right through the open door of the building. The contents of her bag lay strewn around her and wincing she got to her feet to gather her things.
“Damn that thing,” she cursed loudly and threw her bag angrily around her shoulder when she realized something. Pulling the bag back she fished inside it wildly, but she could not find her cell phone. She looked around but it was not to be found.
“Crap!”
************
Ram was having a tough time restraining Whiskey after he had spotted a retriever entering the adjacent elevator with his owner. He reluctantly dragged him to the lift and tried to put the leash on him but the mutt happily pranced around him barking excitedly not letting him get anywhere near his collar and when the elevator door opened, he leaped out terrifying a girl who was right outside. He saw with alarm as Whiskey made a beeline for the cell that had tripped from the girl’s hand when she fell backwards catching it like a Frisbee and ran away. Ram had no time to apologise to the poor girl or even spare her a glance as he dashed after his pet into the lawn. He clutched his side puffing looking for the dog and there he was lurking behind a bush waiting for Ram to get to him.
“Whiskey be a good boy. Come back to papa now,” he crooned to his labrador who wagged his tail clutching the phone in his mouth. He tried to corner the dog by gently coaxing him, but Whiskey evaded him every time. Finally, he could catch hold of him when a boy playing basketball in the garden came to his rescue cornering Whiskey and Ram wrestled the phone out of his wayward dog.
“Freak!” he swore under his breath when he saw the damage his dog had inflicted on it.
“We are about to get into big trouble for this one!” he murmured running his sleek finger over the display or what had once been before his dog had gnashed it with his jaw.
“You’re the world’s worst dog, you know that?” he admonished the mutt while tying the leash around him.
“Phew! You don’t get your act together bud, I swear you’ll be tied to this leash for life.”
“Hey!”
It was a girl who appeared to have run a marathon and she stood before him huffing, trying to catch her breath. A round face with almond eyes, symmetrical nose and lips that had a natural tint of pink encased by long tresses that fell to her waist, she resembled a porcelain doll he noted mentally in his head. But a doll with an angry glare.
Being a fashion photographer, he surely had an eye to observe the finer details but right now was not the time to dwell on them and he was fairly certain who it could be.
“Your dog…….,” she told him gasping and pointed to the phone in his hand. “That’s mine….”
“Ummm yeah….,” he mumbled apologetically handing her the phone. He winced inwardly as he saw her expression change from worry to shock and the next instant, she looked like a fire breathing dragon.
“About that I can explain……” he began but he never got to finish his sentence.
“What the f**k?” she shrieked.
She ran her fingers over the panel of her cell phone that was adorned by a long gash with the display nearly smashed.
“Errr…. I can fix that….,” Ram offered but she glowered at that remark throwing daggers his way and eyed Whiskey with distaste while he wagged his tail at her trying to jump on her but was being restrained by his master.
“The only thing that needs fixing,” she said pointedly, “is that monster of yours!”
Ram opened and closed his mouth like a gaping fish trying to say something, but the girl did not let him utter a single word.
“If you cannot control that beast, why do you let it loose, huh? That thing broke my phone and not to mention nearly ate me! Why bother having pets when you can’t teach that brute of yours some manners? And to top it off, you find it perfectly all right to let it loose like a canon” she yelled keeping her hands on her hips.
At this Ram lost his cool. He knew the girl had full right to be angry, but he felt her accusations had been uncalled for.
“Look, stop overreacting, OK? It was just an accident and I know your display is broken. I even offered to get it fixed for you….”
“Right! So now you’re throwing attitude at me when all you should have done is apologise to me!” she exclaimed indignantly while Ram looked at her disbelievingly.
“Hark who’s talking!” he told her throwing his hands up in the air.
“Did you even let me say anything? I am trying to be nice but instead of appreciating the gesture you’re giving me a lecture about etiquettes, calling my dog a monster and what not? The poor thing was only having some fun. Cut him some slack, OK?” Ram defended Whiskey who had sat down on his haunches staring intently at the scene unfolding before him. He did not seem to mind that he was being called names, but his master did not share his sentiment on this matter.
“By fun you mean harass other people in the vicinity?”
Ram rolled his eyes in exasperation.
“Are you done? If you are not, then that’s not really my problem. My offer still stands good. I stay right over there,” he pointed to a plush complex facing the seaside. “If you happen to change your mind, you can drop in your phone there and I will get it fixed for you. I have better things to do than stand here and listen to you insult my dog. Have a pleasant day but I guess given your attitude that’s a near impossible feat. So good luck with that!”
With that he walked away blowing a breath he had been holding for long, Whiskey trotting by his side while the girl headed in the opposite direction hurling abuses at him that only fell on deaf ears.
-----------------------------------
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know the story is set in a completely different universe. Bur hope you guys enjoy reading it. If you did, please hit the like button and share your feedback as it means the world to me.
Edited by BeyondHorizon - 3 years ago
Anupamaa
