Ranveer watched the rain from his balcony. He had wanted to spend the night at the nursing home but Dr. Arora forced him to leave. She said it was important that he look after himself if he wanted to take care of his sister. There was a long way to go yet and he had to keep his spirits and energy up. And so Ranveer had returned to an empty home. He thought of calling Suhanidi and Nikhil Bhaiya up but he stopped himself thinking of the time difference. It would be middle of the day for them in Baltimore and they would be at work. On further reflection, he thought it best that he wait a while before giving them any news about Rajju. The doctor had warned him about not getting his hopes up. After dinner, he found himself walking down the passage to the room he had not stepped into since his return to Mumbai. But tonight the house was full of voices. Memories of the past flashed through his mind and try as he might, he could not rest. Ranveer pushed back the door and stepped into Amal jeeju's room. Ratankaka had not neglected the room while cleaning the rest of the house. There was a smell of dampness and the air was stale as it is in a room where the windows are never opened. But it was clean. A fresh cotton sheet was spread on the bed. The table tops and bookcases gleamed. Ranveer's eyes swept across the room. The bookshelves, the coffee table next to the window with its stacks of books on it, the table next to the bed with its assorted photographs--everything was in its place. It was almost as if Amal jeeju would step in any moment followed by Rajju teasing him about having his nose always in a book.
Ranveer sat down on one of the wicker chairs and closed his eyes. And the past engulfed him.
**************
The night Ranveer and Rajeshri Randhawa's parents died, seventeen year old Ranveer had thought his world had ended. A twenty tonne truck had overturned on the car in which his parents were returning to Mumbai after attending a friend's marriage in Pune. They had been rushed off to a hospital along with the truck driver. It had been raining and Ranveer was woken up from his sleep by Ratankaka and rushed into a taxi along with Rajju. The two siblings had huddled together in the stark white brightly lit corridor of the hospital as strangers had come up to them and spoken to them in hushed voices and they had nodded and not understood a word. When Prem uncle came up to them and led them into that room smelling faintly of antiseptic and blood, Ranveer had expected to see his mother ready to assure him that all will be well. But his parents had laid there covered in white sheets, not moving, while Prem uncle had continued to say words that made no sense.
Ranveer had just entered college at the time. Rajju was working. She had joined a bank only six months back. But it was as if with a single event, their lives had completely and inexorably changed. The house that had once rung with laughter, screams of fighting siblings, scoldings from their parents, now lay silent. Rajju went to work and returned home, her face never losing the drawn expression. Ranveer's friends tried to comfort him but it seemed as if they spoke to him from behind a glass wall. Their words, while kind, could not change his reality. He withdrew himself from all his circles. Once outgoing and full of mischief, he spent all his time either in the library or on the track field. Ratankaka took care of the two of them and became the only thing that held the family together.
It was when Ranveer was in his second year that Rajju came home one day with a troubled look on her face. She restlessly paced around her room and Ranveer saw the lights on late into the night.
The next day over breakfast, Ranveer had prodded her gently and it came out that some guy had asked her out. Only it wasn't just some guy. It was her friend Suhani's brother. Suhani and Rajeshri had been friends since high school but her brother had been away studying in the U.S. and it was only recently at a party at Suhani's house that Rajeshri had been introduced to Amal. They had got talking and Amal had paid her a visit to the bank the day before and asked her if she wanted to go out to watch a film with him. Rajju didn't know what to say and had agreed. But now she didn't want to go. It was risky and she didn't want anything to spoil her friendship with Suhani.
"What does Amal do?" asked Ranveer as he tried to wrap his head around the idea of his sister dating, having a relationship or even getting married.
Rajju shrugged. She didn't know but guessed that he was employed in some MNC. Corporate job.
"Well, it's only a film. Don't tie yourself up in knots over it," Ranveer tried to assure her.
The movie date turned into an invitation to have dinner and Rajju returned with a smile on her lips, her face glowing. Ranveer felt a twinge of jealousy even as he tried to be happy for his sister.
Amal had been diligent in his wooing. He broke down all the walls, one at a time, that Rajju had built around herself. He made her come out of the shell she had crept in ever since the accident. But Rajju wasn't ready to declare herself in love with him. Whenever Ranveer asked, she said, Amal and I, we are good friends. There's nothing like that between us.
And then one evening, Rajju had stormed into the house. She had shut herself in her room, not had dinner. Worried, Ranveer had tried to cajole her into coming out but it was all in vain. And then, late in the night, Amal had appeared at their doorstep. Not waiting to speak to Ranveer, he had run to Rajju's room. And she had opened the door. Outside in the passage, Ranveer had stood and tried to listen.
"Not my girlfriend! She means nothing to me!" came Amal's voice.
Rajju had not said a word. Amal had poured out his heart and Ranveer had listened. "You know what I feel for you. You are the only one who matters to me."
The wedding had been a simple affair and Ranveer had tried to feel happiness for his sister even as he knew that now truly he would become all alone. Ratankaka had been over the moon and kept saying how glad their parents would have been to see Rajjubeti so well settled. Ranveer would have given the world to see them show that happiness in person.
However, the biggest and best surprise had come when Rajju and Amal returned from their honeymoon trip. That evening which once again would change his life, was etched onto Ranveer's mind. They all sat on the balcony of Ranveer's house and Amal had said that if Ranveer so wished, Rajju and Amal could live in that house, with him. Ranveer had been shocked into silence. He had looked away to avoid tears spilling from his eyes and had felt Amal jeeju move towards him and place his hand on his head. And Ranveer had let out a sigh that he didn't know he had bottled up within himself. So they had once more become a family. Amal jeeju's apartment was put up for lease and the house in Bandra had once again rung with happy voices. Ranveer no longer had to return to an empty home and Ratankaka had a house full of people to fuss over. Amal jeeju became the elder brother that Ranveer never had. He encouraged Ranveer to try for the UPSC and he did. Jeeju was the one who signed him up for the extra tuition classes and workshops. While Ranveer never became the carefree soul that he once had been, neither did he remain the cloistered young man he had grown into over the years after his parents' death. With jeeju to support and encourage him, he put his heart and soul into his studies and joined the swimming and track team in the university. But the biggest source of happiness for him was to see the change Amal jeeju had wrought upon his sister.
Rajju had always been the shy one. Quiet, almost timid, Rajju had never given his parents a moment's worry. However, neither had she ever been short of good humour. But the accident had turned Rajju into stone. She had become cold in a way that made Ranveer feel as if she was a stranger. She had seldom smiled and never laughed. Ranveer didn't blame her. Neither had he.
But with Amal jeeju around, Rajju again became a whole different person. She laughed again, but more importantly she displayed a boldness in spirit and action that Ranveer had never seen in her before. Take for example the time she flew into a rage because she saw Amal jeeju with another girl. This was the incident that led to jeeju proposing to her and her accepting the fact that she indeed considered him to be more than just a 'good friend'. Ranveer watched in amazement as his normally timid sister would tease and joke with her husband and with him. It was as if Amal jeeju had breathed life into her.
Soon another bundle of joy came into their life with Rajju giving birth to Oman. The child was everything they could have hoped for. Ranveer remembered clearly waiting in the corridor outside the maternity ward with Amal jeeju pacing around, full of nervous apprehension. The four long hours of labour, Amal jeeju had spent mostly on his feet. Ranveer had felt sorry for the man. He deserved to be inside the Operation theatre, beside his wife. Ranveer wasn't sure what to feel about his sister becoming a mother but had decided that his feeling veered towards excitement more than anything else.
Ranveer remembered the expression on Amal jeeju's face as the nurse brought the child out at last. It was a sight worth capturing. Jeeju's family was there in full force. His parents, Suhanidi, his sister, and her fiance, Nikhil Bhaiya. For the first time in his life, Ranveer had seen Ratankaka cry as he was taken to see the child. When they finally brought mother and child home, Ranveer had been mesmerised. Every day at university, all he could think was when he would be home again so that he could watch the child laugh, cry, poop, pee and mostly sleep. Ranveer was in love. Amal jeeju called Oman 'Apu' after some character he loved from some film and so they all took to calling him Apu. It was a nice name. The first time Apu peed on Ranveer's shirt while giving him a wide toothless grin, Ranveer felt like he had won a trophy. Life could not have been more blissful.
But Ranveer should have known that his life was a cursed one.
***************
"Prinku, I need to talk to you."
The girl turned towards the door. She had curled up on a window seat looking out at the grey sheets of rain that blurred the world outside and ran in streams down the window pane.
Standing near the door was Rudra Bhaiya,his face wearing that familiar look of nervous confusion that he always had whenever there was a crisis in the family. It was either that or that ultra cheerfulness that Priyanka had seen on this brother of hers lately. But for now, she was glad to not have him try to cheer her up.
Rudra walked up to her and sat down on the empty space on the window seat.
"O's upset." he said, pulling a face.
"You should stay with him," said Priyanka, not taking her eyes off the rain.
"Well, he isn't the one getting married." Rudra said, his voice carrying a tremulous note that made Priyanka fix her eyes harder on the blurred edges of the trees outside.
"How can you be sure?" she said, softly.
Rudra gave a nervous laugh. For a while the two siblings sat quietly, watching the rain. At last Priyanka spoke, "Has Papa come home?" She turned to look at Rudra who shook his head.
"When does Papa ever return home so early? And today..." he trailed off uncertainly. He cleared his throat and began anew, "Don't worry about what he said. He doesn't really mean half the things he says."
Priyanka's face twisted into a mockery of smile. "I deserved every word of what he said."
Rudra was quick to interrupt. "Oh come on! You have been a perfect daughter to him all your life! When have you ever made him worry? Not that he has had much time to worry over us."
He reached his hands out and placed them on his sister's shoulders. "He should be grateful you didn't run off with a lunatic!"
Priyanka couldn't stop the smile. Rudra beamed at her. "That's our Prinku Pehelwan!" he said with exuberance. "Don't worry over the marriage! You do have three bodyguards at your service! If that ACP tries anything fishy we'll take care of him."
"You should be with O Bhaiya," Priyanka said, smiling faintly at her brother. "He needs someone around now."
Rudra nodded at her and raised himself up with a sigh. "You should come along. He needs to see that you are not struck down by the tragedy of it all. That will bring him out of his grumpy mood."
"I'll go to him." Priyanka said. She watched her brother leave the room and let out a sigh. How could she face O Bhaiya now? He didn't know half of what she knew! She had not told him of what the ACP had revealed before she went to the meditation camp. If what he had said was true, then it was time for her to stop running and face her past.
Udne Ki Aasha
Anupamaa
Cricket
