5. Dawn and Dusk.
7. Perception was the pillow, the eye was the adorning salve,
Heaven and Earth were the seat, when Suryaa drove to her husband.
8. The elegies were the cross-bars, chhanda was her veil. The Ashvins were her wooers, and Agni was the leader.
9. Soma was the bridegroom; Both the Ashvin were her wooers, when Savitar gave Suryaa to her husband, as she proclaimed her vow with her whole consciousness.
10. Mind was her wagon, and heaven was her chhatra. Sun and moon were the draft-oxen, when Suryaa drove to her new home.
11. Your two oxen, tied by verse and melody, went together.
The ear was you two wheels. The path to heaven ever meandering to and fro.
12. The happy Heaven and Earth were your two wheels as you drove. [Your very] Breath hammered as the axle.
Suryaa sat upon the wagon made of consciousness, as she went ahead to her husband.
— The wedding hymn, Rig Veda 10 : 85 : 7-12 ( Translation credits to the translator).
What is it to want to be loved, and to love, and to not be loved? Imlie remembered the first time Babusaheb had kissed her, er, pecked her shoulder. She'd thought that it would feel like stardust and volcanoes erupting, and her life altering in a singular moment. All the things that girls in her class talked about in shied whispers. She'd felt nothing though, and she'd tried. Maybe the girls in her class exaggerated like they did so many other things. Maybe something was wrong with her that she couldn't feel the physical passion that he felt. What she felt for him was beyond physicality anyway.
In that moment, her eyes had fluttered close, and she couldn't help but blush vigorously. But as the moment broke, she'd felt cold, inert. She'd cried herself to sleep. Maybe she only knew how to love and not how to be loved.
'Was she selfish to want to be happy?'
She handed over a cup of hot chocolate to Amma. "Woh Aryan babu apan haath ki patti badalvane jaye rahe" "— Kahe? Ka hui ga— Nani, doctor babu bole rahe ki tohka shakkar se parhej kareka padi. Toh tohka kebal khichdi aur dhuli daali hi milvat rahe. Theek hai?"
So, she had been observing him the entire time, his intuition was accurate. He walked into the room, looked into her eyes, picked up one of the two now-turning-cold cups of hot chocolate from the bedside table, and muttered a quiet "Thank you."
That was all that was going to be said between them apparently. So he let out a resigned sigh and turned to the people who wanted to talk to him. "Haanji, Ammaji, aapke liye maine bol diya hai ki daal-chawal acche se de, dahi ke saath, woh sukha bread nahi denge. Auntyji, baaki sab reports theek hain, ek hafte ke andar-andar discharge mil jayega."
He impulsively wanted to answer her outburst, he towards her, focusing on the wall above her head, "Mera ghao septic nahi hua hai, doctor ne kucch painkillers diye hain. Kucch ek din me theek ho jayega."
Meethi had been feeling like bit of a god, if she could please be forgiven. A person who could see things synchronously but couldn't really interfere in things.
She could see Aryan babu doing everything selflessly for them. For Imaliya. She could see the disquiet on Imlie's face play-out at these gestures. He wasn't doing them out of sympathy, or charity, but to see that was to acknowledge why was he doing what he was. Alas, she couldn't spell it out to her till she asked her the question. One way or the other, she had confront the truth and make her decisions this time around.
It would have been easier for her to stay back at the hospital. But, damn the man! Whatever could she do in that premier hospital suite? Had Amma or Nani ever seen such comfort in times of health let alone sickness? She'd have to pay him back.
"Maa, doctors said that my arm is healing well, main parson se phir office jaunga." Imlie realised that she was lost in her world, barely moving the food around her plate. "Ham bhi jayi tohre saath office— "Nahi, dekho tum rest karo aur waise bhi tumhara sick-leave abhi khatam nahi—" "Ham mange rahe tohse chhuti? Ham jayi aur tum humka rok nahi sakat samajhe rahe?"
"— Imlie, beta, yeh sab batein toh baad me ho jayengipar chalo abhi kitchen me chalke turmeric latte banane me meri help karo, please." "Toor-Turmeric latte ka hovat hai Kakima?"
Narmada didn't get to do much in the kitchen, alas! All she could do was watch an indignant and furiously blabbering Imlie pour two huge cups of haldiwala doodh without any rhyme or reason.
Imlie saw Aryan pick a bottle of chilled water out of the fridge. "Waise toh duniya bhar ki phikar karat ho, igaroh businesson ke malik rahe—" she snatched the bottle away from his hand, shoving a hot cup of haldiwala doodh instead— "tum aisan Kahe rahe?"
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
