2. Jab We Met
Present Day
“You don’t love me anymore!”
Rohit looked baffled at her reaction. Just when he thought he had it all sorted, things seemed to be spiraling out of control.
“But baby look around! Everything is just the way you wanted it to be,” he said pointing out to every corner of their room. “The walls, cushion covers, curtains, crockery, tea set and heck even my ear phones! See they are all pink?” he added pulling out his earphones which was a make to order custom ones which he had only bought to entertain her. It made him cringe every time he looked at it but if it came down to putting up with her whims vs a showdown, he’d prefer the former any day.
“I told you! I told you a zillion times I want R&R 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 recollect what on earth was R&R. He knew he had fulfilled every dumb whim of hers but well he could not recollect every one of them in great detail now, could he?
“Errr…. baby? What is R&R exactly?” he asked her tentatively thinking whether he was expected to remember it and by the looks of it, he had probably committed a national crime by even voicing out his thoughts aloud. Her eyes widened in shock glaring accusingly at him and the next instant she broke down in hysterical sobs.
“I knew… I knew it,” she wailed taking out a pink lace handkerchief blowing her nose on it.
“How insensitive of you Rohit! You really don’t love me anymore!”
“Shhhhhh…… Raima baby I am so sorry!” he pleaded her hoping she would lower her voice by a couple of decibels but Raima was in no mood to relent and now his eardrums were beginning to hurt. It had been a herculean task for him to bear her shrilly voice on normal occasions and when she threw a fit, it only got infinitely worse.
“You forgot? How could you Rohit? It was our initials. R for Rohit, R for Raima but no! You don’t even remember such a small thing?” she yelled at him brandishing her pink clutch at him like it was a sword as he flinched.
“Baby I will make it up to you, no matter what!” he promised her.
“You know I had planned a surprise for you, but you ruined it honey!” she sniffed ruefully.
On hearing the word ‘surprise’ he gulped down nervously since any surprise she had in store for him was bad news.
“Er…. surprise? Really?”
Just then a large furry object the size of a boulder came bouncing and rammed straight into him knocking him off his breath.
“What the…..”
When he glanced down to see what had struck him, he realised 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 Raima ignored him pretending to be miffed about their earlier disagreement.
“Are you f**king crazy Raima? 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. While he was pondering over his love life debacles, Raima was intently staring at his face.
“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 could spot something which never existed in the first place.
“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 with a purpose, dabbing her brush with some colour.
Great! Now she wanted to colour him too!
Even as Rohit looked horrified, she marched on undeterred tapping the excess blush off the brush.
“No ways Raima….. No…. Stay away from me…. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
But Raima 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 away the brush and when he felt his cheeks it was wet. Panting he jumped up with a start, but he could see his surroundings had changed.
Rohit Sippy was not in his studio apartment in Paris but the familiar walls of the bedroom of his penthouse in Mumbai 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. And thankfully he had not been dyed 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 cuddled his dog and just then the door to his bedroom creaked open.
“Yaar why are you shouting so early in the morning?”
Rohit’s best friend and cousin, Ajith peeped inside wondering what the commotion was all about.
Whiskey ran to greet his master’s cousin who scratched his ears carelessly and scurried out.
“You know it doesn’t help if you are dealing with hangovers,” Ajith added grumpily rubbing his forehead and plopped down on Rohit's bed.
“You think you have it worse?” Rohit muttered sarcastically. “You are the one to get drunk and I deal with the aftermath. That was one hell of a nightmare I wanna forget bro,” Rohit said getting off the bed.
“Raima?” Ajith teased him.
Rohit did not bother to reply but just rolled his eyes and gave him a What-Else-Did-You-Expect look.
Ajith sniggered.
“Serves you right though! You dated her just because you wanted to piss your mom. I mean seriously who does that?”
Rohit pointedly ignored Ajith.
“What the hell were you thinking dude? You got into a relationship with chachi’s business associate’s daughter who annoyed the crap out of her. Can’t forget the time when she offered to do chachi’s office interiors and turned it into a pink candy factory!”
“But Raima did score brownie points on that one. You should have seen mom’s face!” Rohit recalled with glee.
“Yeah and also your face when Raima made you tag along like a French poodle everywhere,” Ajith replied wiping the smirk off Rohit’s face.
“I was wondering when she will get a pink leash for you,” he added suppressing a laugh as Rohit threw a pillow at him giving him a sour look.
“That’s so not funny Ajith! Anyways I broke up with her a year ago, so….”
“You mean she broke up with you,” Ajith corrected Rohit.
“Whatever! I wanted to do that since ages….”
“But you did not want to hear chachi say I told you so.”
“Well Raima would have thrown a fit anyways and I didn’t want any drama bro. She gets bored easily and I was counting on her to get bored of me, which she did. Well speaking of dating debacles, how is Shanaya by the way?” Rohit asked Ajith 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,” Ajith said matter-of-factly. “And say what you want to, Shanaya was hot man,” Ajith replied with a moony faraway look in his eyes. Rohit shook his head and walked into his washroom.
“By your definition of hot Ajith, were you inspired by horror movies?” Rohit asked him mockingly.
“Chuck it na Rohit? Besides Shanaya must be happily holidaying in Madrid with her lesbian partner,” Ajith muttered sullenly reminiscing the long-stolen hours he had spent with his girlfriend who had ditched him to be with her Spanish lesbian partner.
“And you are dousing yourself in alcohol,” Rohit muttered under his breath turning on the faucet lest his friend hear him. He knew Ajith still had a soft spot for Shanaya though to this day he could not fathom what was it about her that made his foolhardy cousin pine for her, long since she had dumped him. Heck he could not figure out which was worse – Shanaya’s gothic fashion sense or Raima’s obsession with pink.
“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 love lives,” Ajith replied morosely picking up an empty beer can. After inspecting it for a while he threw it aside disdainfully.
“And all because you had a nightmare,” Ajith pointed out accusingly at Rohit.
“Hey, speak for yourself,” Rohit replied stepping out of the washroom after having brushed his teeth.
“It feels liberating you know? I still can’t believe I hung out with her for two years,” Rohit heaved a sigh of relief. Ajith chuckled at that remark.
“That’s a million-dollar question,” Ajith replied in a mock serious tone.
“And we can have this discussion over a round of tequila shots. What say?”
“Ajith you partied with your band last night,” Rohit reminded him.
“C’mon ya Rohit! Stop being such a bore. Besides Tanya needs to chill and this is her first week here. And she’s been dying to check out that new pub! What's it called? Talaiva? Let's do this for Tanya na?”
“Nautanki saala,” Rohit mumbled under his breath. “You just need an excuse to party hard and booze,” he said turning away and opened his cupboard to pull out some fresh clothes.
“Oh, c’mon yaar. It will be fun. You, me and Tanya! Wish Ananya was here too. It would just be like old times na?”
Rohit’s hand froze midway as he sifted through his wardrobe. Old times…. When they had been together in the true sense. Old times that would never come back….
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. Theresa’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 that beauty.
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“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 assured him time and again.
He 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 hard and everything blacked out.
“Rohit are you listening to me? Rohit?”
Ajith’s voice broke Rohit out of his reverie and the familiar mask was back on. The one he had worn for eight 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.”
************
“Dimpy I can’t do this anymore OK?”
“Sona honestly can’t you just be normal for once?”
“Yeah right! By normal you mean hook up with some guy every now and then?” Sonakshi replied getting off the metro almost knocking into the person who was getting on at the stop. Sonakshi mumbled a hasty apology while the passenger gave her a cold look before boarding the metro. On the other hand, Dimpy continued with her rant.
“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.”
“Pefect! So now that you know I will get rid of your date sooner than you even set it up for me, save yourself some trouble!”
Sonakshi’s bff Dimpy was livid at her for spoiling yet another date she had set up for her. And all Sonakshi had to say was that he was just not her type but Dimpy could not figure out what exactly would qualify as her Sona’s ‘TYPE’.
“What about my promise to chachi huh? I had told her I would find a perfect Raj for you!”
“Offo Dimpy! I am not Simran and neither am I here to search for my true love that probably got extinct in the dinosaur era. Not my fault if my chachi and bff cannot step out of their DDLJ universe. I am perfectly fine with sacrificing Raj for Mandira or whoever it is and go on a world tour, live my dreams, celebrate my freedom while fools like you assume, I am trying to get over my heart break after an idiot - who I was never interested in dumped me! Works perfectly for me, don’t you agree?”
“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 matchmaking business then I suggest you join hands with chachi and open a marriage bureau but mind you, find another scapegoat,” Sonakshi told her in an irritated tone as a passer-by stared at her and in response she fixed him with an icy glare like he too was a part of the conspiracy being hitched by her friend and chachi.
“You’re impossible!”
“Anyways I am near the apartment. What did you say her name was?”
“Tanya. Tanya Mirchandani. But Sona don’t change the topic. We need to……”
“Dimpy 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 Preeti kaki from me OK? See ya,” Sonakshi 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 tall 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 belongings.
“Damn that thing,” she cursed loudly and threw her bag angrily around her shoulder when she realised 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!”
************
Rohit was having a tough time restraining Whiskey after he had spotted a husky 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. 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. Rohit 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 Rohit 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 managed to catch hold of him when a boy playing basketball in the garden came to his rescue cornering Whiskey and Rohit wrestled the phone out of his dog’s mouth.
“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.
An oval face set in a petite frame with long tresses that fell to her waist, she resembled a delicate porcelain doll noted Rohit mentally in his head and added, a porcelain doll who looked like she would bring down the inferno on him. Being a professional photographer, he surely had an eye to observe the finer details.
“Your dog…….,” she told him gasping and pointed to the phone in his hand. “That’s mine….”
So it was the same girl he thought with trepidation as he glanced at the damaged phone in his hand.
“Ummmm yeah…..,” he mumbled apologetically handing her the phone and 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 smashed.
“Errr…. I can fix that….,” Rohit 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 pointing an accusing finger at Whiskey, “is that monster of yours!”
Rohit opened and closed his mouth like a gaping fish trying to say something, but she 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 you don’t seem to have any issue letting that thing loose like a canon!” she yelled keeping her hands on her hips.
At this Rohit lost his cool. He knew the girl had full right to be angry, but he felt her accusations were uncalled for.
“Look, stop overreacting OK? It was just an accident and I know your panel 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 Rohit looked at her incredulous.
“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 etiquette, calling my dog a monster and what not? The poor thing was only having some fun. Cut him some slack OK?” Rohit 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 views on this matter.
“By fun you mean harass other people in the neighborhood?”
Rohit rolled his eyes in exasperation.
“Are you done? If you are not, then that’s not really my problem. My offer still stands good and let me tell you this – I am a Sindhi but yet I am being generous,” he said it like it settled the matter while she looked at him in utter disbelief.
“I stay right over there,” he pointed to a building opposite the street. “If you happen to change your mind, you can drop in your phone there and I will get it fixed for you. But I am not going to waste another minute listening to your ramblings. And honestly, I have better things to do. I wish I could ask you to enjoy your day but given your attitude I have a serious doubt if you are capable of it. 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 too headed in the opposite direction hurling abuses at him that only seemed to fall on deaf ears.
NOTE: Ok, so the chapter ends here! Do hit that like button and I would love to read your thoughts about it 😊 So please do comment. And yes the characterization of RoNakshi is opposite in every sense to what it is in the show not just their professions. While Sona loved dogs and Rohit hated them it's vice versa here 😆 So let me know if you are liking this shift in dynamics!
Edited by BeyondHorizon - 5 years ago
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