Part 25
She ate her frankie and slept the whole way. When she rang the doorbell at her place in Chandrapur, it was almost 5pm. Her father opened the door, talking on the phone.
“Arrey pahunch gayi. Haan ..haan...ek minute” he removes the phone from his ear, and gives it to her as she enters and shuts the door. She takes the phone confused.
“Hello” she says
“Hi ..” he says tentatively
“Hi” she replies as she glances at her father take her duffel bag inside.
They hold the phone listening to each other’s silence for some time.
“Traffic bahut thaa kya?”
“Hmm”
“Frankie khaake so gayi thi?!”
“Hmm” she smiles
Silence ensues. He waits for her, she holds onto herself.
“Abba ka phone hai, koi unhe call kar raha hai, rakhti hun”
“Ok”
She hangs up and walks into her bedroom, and gives the phone to her father. He take the call and shuts her door. She sits on her bed and lies down with her lower body off the bed and feet touching the floor. She is exhausted. She pulls her phone from her bag, there is an email from Wockhart, they need certain documents, hard copies. She hits her head, she was supposed to take care of these, but then she rushed to come here. The documents are on the coffee table in the living room. She texts him..
Aap busy ho? Ek chotha favor tha.
She waits, keeps hitting the phone to her chin, hoping he will text back. Her phone pings.
Depends.
She shakes her head confused, replies.
Matlab?
He turns his lips amused, and texts back.
Matlab favor pe depend karta hai.
She rolls her eyes.
Vaha coffee table pe mere teen papers hai, ek form hai aur two certificates.
He scrouches his eyebrows and walks from the bedroom to the living room. And finds the papers on the coffee table. The form has all her details. But what gives him a rush, is that she put his name down as emergency contact, with his number and the flat as her permanent address. He grins and lets his fingertips rest on her handwriting. His phone pings.
Miley?
He chuckles.
Nahi, yaha nahi hai.
She gets up from her position and stands in front of the bed. She calls him. He startles, and quickly hides the papers behind a cushion on the sofa. The phone keeps ringing, he picks it up.
“Haan!?”
“Itni dair lagadi uthane mei?” She wails.
He hides his smile and says, “Arrey forms ke liye dhund raha thaa”
“Video on kijiye na”
“Ok” he presses his lips from smiling, flips the phone and stands with his back to the sofa and shows her the coffee table.
“Coffee table kyu dikha rahe ho?? Vaha nahi hai na, alag alag jagah dikhao” she panics
He pans the camera around the room, not on any surface, just walls and Tv and the main door, all the time biting his cheek while making her more panicked.
“Nahi Aise nahi, Aise kaise milega forms? Aap kya kar rahe ho? Vahaa nahi. Aise nahi..please!” She howls.
“Arrey, tumne kaha alag alag jagah dikhao, toh mai puri chaan been kar raha thaa” he says with seriousness, the camera facing a wall.
“Hum koyi criminal nahi dhund rahe, forms hai, voh media cabinet ke upar dekhiye na?” She pleads.
“Achaa Achaa, tum kitni bossy ho” he holds the phone with one hand, and the other hand, he opens drawers. There are no papers.
“Kaha hongey? Mujhe samajh mei nahi aata, maine fill karke table pe hi rakhe the.”
“Hirabai ne kachra mei daal diya hoga” he says matter of factly.
“Nahi, maine aane ss pehle baare the” she laments.
Which means the information was filled after their fight, his mood is even more upbeat, but he maintains the charade, because this maybe the only way she can be on the phone with him longer. He holds the phone up, momentarily forgotten that the camera is flipped from his side, stares at her face and says
“Toh abb kya kare?”
“Voh kya hai?”
“Voh kya Voh?”and then he sees his camera has panned over the sofa and the papers peeping from behind the cushion. He grits his teeth and winces.
She yells. “Sofa ke peeche kisne dale?”
“Tum hi ne daale honge”
He removes them. She glares.
“Aap se toh jhoot bhi nahi bola jaa raha”
“Tumhe lagta hai maine rakhe?” He continues into the phone, again not realizing she can’t see him, but he can see her.
“Lagta nahi, Mujhe pata hai” she says into the phone.
“Main aisa dikhta hun tumhe”
“Camera ke peeche chupoge toh dikhoge kaise?” She narrows her eyes to him.
He rolls his eyes and flips the camera. They look at each other, and he grins at her, she resists her smile and says with mock anger
“Bina stubble ke toh aur bhi lagte ho jhuthe”
“Achaa, toh nahi dikhata tumhe mera chehra” he says with mock anger and flips the camera again.
“Abb apne forms se hi baatei karo” the camera faces the sofa.
She rolls her eyes,
“Form ka bus yehi kaam hai, ki envelope mei chala jaaye aur Wockhart se ek admi aayega kal subah pick up karne”
His voice in all seriousness
“Forms keh rahe hai, ki Wockhart se kaho pick up neeche reception se kare”
“Kyu?”
“Kyunki kal subah Mujhe naye station mei preliminary reporting karni hai”
“Achaa? Sach!?”
She switches off the video and puts the phone to her ear.
“Excited ho?”
“Haan, naya team hoga. Excited hun” he notices she is off the video and turns audio on his phone too. They are quiet for a few seconds.
“Agar neeche drop kar rahe ho, toh seal kar dena envelope. Voh vaha ladki baith ti hai, 100% kholke dekegi” she says impishly.
“Kaun , Karen?” He asks casually, while he collects the forms and gets an envelope from one of the drawers and packs it, takes a pen and writes wockhardt and Dr Sai Joshi on top.
“Mujhe nahi pata uska naam, buss itna pata hai, ki jab bhi mai reception se guzarti hun, voh puchti hai, ‘hi ma’am Virat Sir ghar aa gaye? Unke liye post tha’. Toh Mai kya karu, Virat Sir ke post ke saath nachu?!” She says animatedly.
Virat bursts out laughing.
Sai makes a face.
“Hasiye mut, nahi toh mai phone rakh dungi”
Virat laughs even harder. Sai grits her teeth and hangs up.
She makes a face and replies to the email from Wockhardt letting them know they can pick up the forms. Her phone pings and she sees a photo, she opens it and he has taken a pic of the envelope and a message from him
Dear Karen add kar dun?
She glares, and makes a face, knowing fully well he is smirking there, which he is. So she types
Add kar dijiye, lekin Dr Sai Joshi ke neeche
He grins at her text. He types
Dr Sai Joshi ke neeche sirf Virat Chavan hona chahiye.
She blushes at his text, She types
ACP Virat Chauvan neeche nahi, Dr Sai Joshi ke saath mei hona chahiye.
They stare at that line together for a long time. They smiles into their phones, until the sides of their mouths ache. She types
Thank you
He knows she is talking about the forms, he types back
It’s ok.
She grins and types
Vaise thank you aapko kehna chahiye
His mouth now officially aches and he types
Tum Mujhe sone se pehle call karna, Main keh dunga.
Before she can reply, Maavshi comes into the room and yells at her,
“Hey kay hai? Shaadi ke teen din pehle aayi ho, itna saara kaam baaki hai, phone bajju mei rakh aur aaja bahut saare baatein karna hai, Shilpa aati hi hogi. Tu jaldi shower kar le aur aaja. Phone rakh vaha”
She nods and enters the bathroom.
It’s been a few hours, she hasn’t replied, but in his heart he knows she will call. He is to meet a few of his colleagues from his previous posting for dinner. They are generally joking around, but soon begin to get serious and start discussing the rumors they have heard at the MIDC station’s dealings with certain cases. Virat realizes he will have to start afresh to build a network. He checks his phone, but no text from her, everyone wants to go their favorite adda for drinks before Virat Sir moves to another station.
He agrees, he anyway had walked to this joint, he will get a ride back home. The car was in the garage for puncture and detailing. While drinking and joking around, he slips that next week he will be a married man. The others are shocked and ask to see pics of bhabhi. He doesn’t show any of them, saying he trusts policewalla as much as gundas. The grown men are heard giggling and slightly slurred in their chit chat. And then he announces how she never texts or calls him from her fathers home.
“Arrey voh call nahi karti, toh aap kar lo. Meri bhi baiko aisi hi hai, apne maike jaake mujhe bhul hi jaati hai, Mai allow hi nahi karta jaane ke liye”
“Achaa, Tu allow nahi karta aur voh maan jaati hai”
“Pagal ho gaye ho kya, itna chillati hai mere upar, phir mai hi jaake chodh deta hun, chillana band karne ke liye, aur phir mereko call hi nahi karti”
“Toh phir?”
“Toh phir kya? Mai call karke bahut gaaliyan deta hun”
“Aur vapas aati hai kya?”
“Pagal ho gaye ho kya? Extra hafta rehti hai”
“Toh phir?”
“Toh phir kya? Mai jaake usse leke aata hun, uske baap ss thoda sunna padta hai. Lecture deta hai, main ignore karta hun. Biwi ko raaste mei hi hotel overnight book karke....” animatedly joins his hands in a loud clap in a namaste flow.
Virat in his inebriated state nods his head vigorously, as though he understands the situation very deeply.
He is dropped home. He removes his clothes, he knows he is inebriated, but also sober enough. His phone is ringing, he falls on his bed with his lower part of his body off the bed, feet touching the floor. He looks at his phone, it seems like Sai’s father is calling, he makes shocked eyes, why is he calling? Kahi lecture dene ke liye toh nahi?? He better not pick up, he will know he is slightly drunk. He lets it ring and keeps it aside on the bed. He moves his upper body on the bed and shuts his eyes sleeping perpendicular on the master bed.
In the middle of the night, He gets up with a start. Gasps and thinks ‘Sai ke baba ne kyu call kiya, Sai ko Kuch hogaya hoga toh’ he sits up and stars hunting for his phone on the bed in the dark. He switches it on, there are messages from her father.
Hi, voh mera phone terrace se gir gaya. Pls Abba ke number par call kijiye
He stares at the message, SHE was calling him, not her father, but calling from her fathers phone. He makes a face like a child who has lost his favorite toy. He can’t call now, it’s too late. He types a message but doesn’t send it, and holds his head and sleeps again,
Mai kal phone karunga, pls apna phone repair karvalo.
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