Translucence - Finished. - Page 76

Man, the road ahead for Maan -sure is winding before he reaches the end of path!!😲

Disclaimer 2: Haven't edited the chapter. Apologies for errors.

Chapter 21:

She was restless. She was thirty minutes early for the meeting at the coffee shop and she had already finished drinking two iced teas. She was on to her third one when she saw the young woman walking in. The young woman looked around the caf before the searching eyes fell on her. She gave the young woman a feeble smile and a tiny wave.

"For a minute I thought you wouldn't come," she said as the young woman sat in the chair opposite to her.

"How are you Geet?" The voice held fondness and nostalgia.

"I am fine Damini aunty. What do you wanted to talk about?" Geet asked signaling a waiter. The older woman was little taken aback at the hostility. She had braced herself for the worst from her son's best friend but it didn't mean it wouldn't hurt.

"I was in town and so I thought…"

"You thought we should catch up?" Geet asked. "Cold milk," she said to the waiter who hid his surprise to hear her order. Damini looked at her in surprise.

"A friend of mine advised me to drink cold milk when I am in middle of a heated argument or I will be getting into one. It has worked for me till now," she shrugged.

"You have a smart friend," Damini said gulping down iced tea. Geet didn't reply. She had decided to let Damini do all the talking. She wouldn't help starting a conversation or lessen her effort during a conversation.

"How is Maan?" Damini asked without wasting too much of Geet's time.

"Healthy, as far as his last medical report goes. He is working but I think you already know that." Geet finished. She knew that she would be asked this particular question so she had practiced the answers in front of her mirror. She hated that a tinge of emotion had managed to creep in to her voice.

"Here," said Geet taking out a business card from her wallet. "This is Maan's business card. Ask him yourself," she said. Damini took it slowly and without even looking at it, dropped it into her purse.

Geet wanted to scream at the older woman.

"He will not talk to me," Damini said softly. "He hates me now, you know?" She added.

"I know he won't talk to you. You abandoned him after all." Geet said flatly. Damini looked stricken. "And as far as hate goes, I don't think he hates you."

"I didn't abandon him Geet. I told him that I was getting married." Damini said her voice still soft.

"You left him a bloody note Damini aunty. He is your son for f**k's sake and not some distant relative." Geet hissed. Damini looked at her sharply. She took a long breath and looked at Geet. The worst was yet to come. But she would tolerate, she told herself. For her son's sake, she would.

"Please Geet. Tell me. How is Maan?" Damini pleaded. Geet rubbed her temple slowly. She didn't want to answer in all honesty. She didn't want to get into a conversation e where she would end up telling the older woman everything she had meant to say for the past fifteen years. But Damini's desperate face dissolved her resolve.

"Clueless. Confused. f**ked up." Geet replied her voice reflecting mild anger towards the older woman. Damini looked at her wide eyed.

"He doesn't know what he wants, like always. He is dealing with your disappearance abnormally, like always. He blames everything that has gone wrong in both your lives on Dileep Khurana, like always." Geet replied. She took a sip of cold milk that was served in a tall glass.

"I tried talking to him since we moved to that house. He wouldn't listen. He never did," she said hoarsely. "He hated Dileep's children and he hated everything they stood for. I tried Geet; I tried very hard to be a good mother and an understanding parent when he was young and didn't understand the world. So don't go on slandering my parenting skills because my son threw tantrum as an adult," Damini replied her ego bruised.

"You tried? As a young boy he didn't know why his father didn't talk to him or be like his friends fathers. He didn't know why his step siblings hated the sight of him."

"What did you want me to do Geet? Stay away from Dileep?"

"Wasn't that better than being treated as an outsider inside the same compound? You weren't even using the same gate as people from main house for god's sake. Living separately would have at least avoided unnecessary insults on Maan. He wouldn't be carrying this level of hatred now."

"Maan needed his father," Damini's voice was hard.

"No. You needed Dileep Khurana." Geet didn't back down. Damini looked at her sharply. She swallowed and took a deep breath and tried to calm herself.

"Why did you do it?" Geet asked half a minute later. Damini looked up, confused. "Why did you marry in secrecy without telling Maan and ran away with your new man?" Geet didn't hold back on her insults. For a moment Damini stared at the young woman who she once treated as her own daughter. No, scratch that, she still saw her as her own daughter. Damini took a shaky breath and shook her head untangling the images of the past.

"I was lonely; terribly, pathetically and abysmally. Dileep was always busy, Maan was in school and I had very limited number of friends. And then I met Kaushik. Before I realized what was happening to me, I realized that was in love with him." Damini said. "I was in love Geet; truly and wonderfully in love. I was looked after, cared for and here was a person to who everything I did, mattered a lot," her voice had become softer when she spoke of love and her husband. Geet stared openly at the older woman. Damini, in her eyes, looked several years younger when spoke of love and romance.

"I don't think you will ever understand what loneliness can do to a person Geet; the harshness it brings to your thinking, the silence that envelopes you and the longing that the heart demands." Damini said. "I stayed away from marriage scene when Maan was young. I didn't want him to be more confused than he already was. I accepted Kaushik's proposal almost after six years Geet. Maan was almost twenty – old enough to understand what I wanted from my life," said Damini.

"You know Damini aunty, I am a person who always roots for personal choices. I am extremely tolerant person and even when Maan led the life he did, I shrugged it off under the massive carpet called choice." Geet said slowly.

"But somehow I am unable to do so in your case. I hate the fact that you brush off your own wants under the most pathetic and lamest escape reasoning called 'love' and expect others, including Maan, to understand that. Guess what? We don't; not me nor Maan." Geet replied. Damini didn't blink. She wanted Geet to be angry and cry and shout at her for leaving Maan.

She didn't expect to be stripped off her own sense morality.

"To be honest I can't stand the sight of you because you managed to damage Maan's sanity that was repaired after he spent time in collage. You think were the only lonely one? Newsflash ma'am, Maan was lonelier than you were. You think your situation was worse? Thanks to your amazing choice of being a family with Dileep uncle, Maan was repeatedly insulted and ridiculed in school – the parents, kids and even teachers; his high school was probably the worst. His step siblings weren't kind to him either and his father didn't care for his existence." Geet breathed heavily.

Geet emptied a glass of cold water in one go and poured another glass from the jug. She closed her eyes and prayed for the images to go away – images of Maan in school confused by the words used by an adult in ridicule, an early teen Maan swallowing the hurt caused by the words of a senior boy. Tears pricked her eyes and she pinched her eyes tighter to make them go away.

"What happened to you Geet? I never expected you to become so…bitter." Damini exhaled without really saying anything to what Geet previously had said.

She realized that Geet's point of view would never accept her choice. Had it been someone else in her shoes, Geet wouldn't even bat an eyelid and simply say – "It's your choice." But when Maan was in equation, Geet's rationality took a back step and she became fiercely protective of him.

She always believed that it was Geet's blind love towards Maan that made her so biased and prejudiced. But she was wrong.

Had it not been for Geet, Maan would be truly lonely in this world. It wasn't love that made Geet stuck to his side all this while. It was much simpler and much needed for a person to survive.

Acceptance. She had accepted him in her life with all his faults and shortcomings. And from then on, she had never let go.

"I grew up, Damini aunty. And your completely derailed son pulled me into the process of personal destruction damaging my sanity and leaving me alone to tend to myself along the way," replied Geet and got up picking her bag in process.

"Your father got remarried Geet and I don't see you or Nayantara messing up your lives," Damini got up and said urgently.

"Unlike the twenty year old Maan, neither me nor my sister saw our parent f**king someone else," Geet snarled and walked out without caring to look back.

Damini's eyes filled with tears and her right palm covered her mouth as Geet's words hit her. She collapsed on the chair as she realized what might have gone through Maan's mind seeing her like that. She closed her eyes and allowed the pain to envelope her.

-- o00o --

'What the heck am I doing here?' she asked herself for the thirty eighth time since she left the coffee shop. She was standing in front of Maan's cabin not understanding the sudden impulse she had to see him after her meeting with his mother.

She was reminded of the seven year old Maan who had asked her if she knew what "bas***d child" meant. Vikram had called him that and he hadn't understood what those words meant. So he had asked her and both of them had looked at the dictionary trying to find the meaning. They hadn't fully understood the meaning and somehow had refrained from asking their parent.

That memory had shaken her and it was that memory that had brought her there. She sighed annoyed at her own behavior and knocked the door. When she heard a faint "come in", she exhaled loudly and pushed the door.

"Hey," she said. The three people who had their noses buried in some files, looked up in surprise at the visitor.

"This is a surprise," Emily said recovering first. Maan was still gaping at her while Satya sent a polite smile.

"Is everything alright?" Maan asked, once recovered. She sighed.

"Everything is fine and dandy Maan. It's a beautiful evening and I realized that I was hungry. So I came here looking for some company," she replied in annoyance. His eyes betrayed confusion.

"I thought we could go and get an early dinner," she said slowly. Maan looked at the pile of paper in front of him and exchanged looks with Emily and Satya. Emily was smiling like a lunatic nodding her vigorously forgetting the word 'subtle' while Satya simply begged with his eyes – 'Just go'.

Maan and Geet bid their goodbyes and walked out.

"What do you want to eat?" Maan asked.

"Maggie," she replied instantly. He turned and peered at her. "We can eat, can't we?" She asked. Maan didn't miss the underlying question. Are we okay?

"Of course. Let's go home." We are, like always.

She smiled brilliantly in response.

To be continued.

Music companion for the day: Drops of Jupiter by Train

And: A little love by Bryan Adams