SS : Handa- The Loner, Part 13 Pg 35[19/03/19] - Page 13

Seventh Shot

Dr.Gupta had not been lying when she'd said that the neighbor was good for her patient's mind. It was in the sense that he was a good distraction but in no way it meant, he was a cure to Ms.Geet Handa's illness.

Her healing would begin only when she'll reveal her problems.

When she'll decide to come to terms with her repressed emotions be it her fears, anguish, rage, and trauma. Until then' they could go on forever with such sessions, and still they would reach nowhere. The doctor wondered if it was time to set her foot down.

The neighbor, whoever he was, had a different mental constitution from Handa and thus was proving to be quite an anomaly to her patient. The pull, as it so often happens in such cases, was their contradictory characters.

Ms. Handa had time and again, reiterated that she hated that man. He annoyed her and nothing else.

But there was always a possibility of more. At the moment, she didn't have enough information to predict if the attraction was on a physical level too.

He should have taken advantage. That's what people do.

Dr.Gupta recalled how the simple humanely act had taken aback Geet Handa. Either she had been through a lot of abuse, and trauma or she was very good playing at innocent. The doctor had come across many such players in her career.

Had the patient purposely got drunken and found her neighbor? Did she want the neighbor to take advantage of her? Was she counting on it?

Usha flipped through Geet's journal, halting at the page where Geet had mentioned her relationship with men.

The very first one, she had met in an outhouse party. She was drunk and the guy was not very sober too when he had proposed. It hadn't lasted more than six months.

It was getting boring and we had parted amicably, she had written.

The second was a guy she was doing an internship with and they were partying in a club, drowned in drinks when he had confessed to her. Four weeks, it lasted.

He was a non- performer in bed and often left me unsatisfied. We'd soon gone on our different roads but are friends, still.

The latest one, whom she was still dating, him, she'd met in a night club. Again. Had the time arrived to dump him? Will they still be good friends after the break-up? Would she double-time her present boyfriend with the neighbor?

The doctor had to wonder if there was a pattern to it. Was her patient a victim or a perpetrator? A predator and the neighbor was nothing her new prey in her game?

She read the journals again to look for more clues. Her style was bitter and detached even if the happenings were all too rosy. It was 120 pages notebook and filled, yet not a word more had been revealed that she didn't want to.

How much of it was only fictional, that was also a question.

Dr.Usha jotted down some notes in her diary.

*Problems - 1.Trust- Abandonment issues

2. Pessimism and Loneliness

3. Family history, life major events- Unrevealed.

4. Relationship with men - Unstable

5.Defense mech- Rigid

*Focus on the timeline 12-20 yrs

Geet, in her opinion, was an experienced patient. She had admitted to being subjected to such sessions once in her teenage years and knew all the procedures and tricks enough to not be outsmarted by them. She'd opined that she didn't have much hope from the doctor.

Dr.Usha Gupta really hoped she could help the woman for that is what her profession was all about.

To extend hope amidst despair. To reaffirm faith in oneself, in humanity and in life.

Eighth Shot

"I'm saying something Aditya. What are you typing away on your phone?"

Pinky and Aditya, were lounging in the sofa of the living room of their shared apartment.

"Just one-minute Pinky. There's this employee having dating issues. I'm just giving him some advice."

"What are you now? A Love Guru? And who's this unfortunate person who has to take advice from you?! Someone who's not even introduced his 10-year-old girlfriend to his family."

"And yet you're here with me. That says something about my skills, doesn't it?" He winked at her looking up from his phone.

"No, my self-obsessed dating master. It only speaks of my pigeon like activities."

"Pigeon abilities, now what's that?" He asked now, all too interested and put his phone away.

"Okay tell me the word that comes to your mind when you think of pigeons?"

"Uhm...Aah...aah...ohh..ohh," Aditya said while enacting the act of spreading grains for the pigeons to eat.

"Sounds like orgasms. You'd never be able to feed the pigeons with such skills. While the young pigeons' ears would bleed off hearing such sounds..."

"and as for their parents, they will come to peck at your tongue for exposing their children to such scandalous sounds," Pinky finished between her giggles.

"The ears will bleed off only if they are prudish and I don't believe the younger generation is anymore. Why only the other week you were away and I was missing you and feeling horny so I put on an adult movie and then I get a feeling that I ain't alone. I turn and guess who do I see. Yes, your young pigeon was sitting right at the window and enjoying the movie. I bet his eyes were not bleeding," Aditya said.

Pinky couldn't help but burst into a laugh.

"And anyway, there's a huge difference between inviting the pigeons and making orgasmic sounds."

"Is there now?"

"Of course. The difference is in the length and stretch of the word spoken. One is short like Ah. Ah. You drop your jaw and exhale the words and along with it the invitation. Whereas the other one is a long stretched drawl. Aaah. Aaah. It is throaty and breathless..." His phone beeped several times facing an onslaught of messages. He ignored them too caught in the conversation now.

"Enough keep your gyaan for unsuspecting individuals like your employee. And you're digressing. Tell me what comes to your mind when you think of pigeons apart from these sounds."

"Amreesh Puri?"

"DDLJ? Maine Pyaar Kiya? Kabutar ja ja ja...kabhi mat aa aa..aa...these peoole are delusional...nal...nal..?"

"Dirty Droppings."

When Pinky kept expecting for more. He threw his hands in despair.

"No more...m...ore..ore...ore. What do you have in mind?"

"Laziness, Dodo Adi. L.A.Z.I.N.E.S.S."

"Ohkayyy! FIiine! That was so obvious! And I'm sooo sorry I didn't guess that! Oh my Gawd why didn't the sky collapse?Dharti Mata, just swallow me up. Now."

"Fine. Enough with the drama. The pigeons are lazy. It's a universal truth."

"And what does this universal truth have to do with us?"

"The reason I'm still with you is that I'm so like my little sister in New York ?"

"You have a sister in NY? I thought you were an only child."

"No. I have one in NY. She along with her friends take the subway to get off at the next station. Because they are too lazy."

"I think everybody uses transport to commute. We all do that too. And we're not being lazy, for sure." Aditya contributed not understanding the turn of the conversation at last.

"But they have wings!!" Pinky filled in at last.

"OH!"

"Yes, I'm like my NY sister. Just too lazy or you can say, too fat to fly. Fly away from you."

"No my pigeon," he said pulling her in his arms, "You're with me because with the all the dodos being extinct I'm the only one around. You've no option but to put up with me. And because even amidst so many pigeons, it is this fat little pigeon that suits me."

The phone was still beeping with messages.

"Answer your pupil. He'll have no rest until then."

"He doesn't get it the first time, I explain. He had been depressed because of being dumped. Trust me he's too obsessed with that old girlfriend of his. Move on. Period."

Aditya picked up the phone at last.

"Maybe he should take some time off. Spend time with friends."

"He doesn't have any friends. Real friends, I mean. And he's always getting into problems. And he was trying to help his neighbor and she said he was taking advantage of her unconscious state."

"Oh dear. That's cruel."

"I know. She's a bitch. Cold and antisocial, according to Maan."

"You know. I have a junior like that too. She's so weird. I don't know if she's ever dated too. I think I should advise her to take it easy and maybe date."

"You should. I just fixed Maan a blind date."

"Should I also do that for Handa?"

"If she's willing why not?"

"Do you know of any single candidate, Adi?"

"Uhm...lemme check."