Because it won't do you or the author any good to know the inner workings of my mind, I have offered to present only dialogue and action, without the narrative. Trust me when I say this: to espy the winding labyrinth of any one person's sanity or to squint at the immense light in their lunacy, never did give away the absolute truth - notably, my thoughts hold antithetical arguments on every subject I have been made aware of, which you needn't be concerned with, for every man's reality and illusions are his own making.
With that discourse, you perhaps, already know that there was only one obvious place to be the next morning, besides the second self-evident choice being Shyama's home. But again, it had taken me three months to break Arnav, induce an interest in lesser, but essential pursuits than the ones he chased at his age and so, it was only natural that I would first land in his office.
For someone who had left too early at daybreak, he was still not in office. I took the couch to attempt at shuteye over the long night I'd endured keeping Shyama at Arnav's place. Even as I was beginning to drift into slumber, he barged in.
"Oh! dude, Vishwa. Don't you have your own office to sleep in?" He sounded more exasperated than I expected and I knew it would give me immense pleasure in toying with him today.
Meddling with a man's temper was a fine art - with the right stirring, it never took much to knock out the truth hidden under the covers of that irritation; a rattle; a push and there it would come gushing out any second.
Anger, at times, let out words we would not speak even from love or pain.
"Isn't that the point, Arnav? To not sleep in your own office so people think you are outside doing something important."
He scoffed, rushing in and dumped his archery gear behind his desk. "I have tons of work to do today and you are the last person I want to deal with."
"Common, Arnav! That's no way to greet your cousin." Subha walked in, as I straightened to sit up on the couch and stretched my feet up on the table.
"Greet? He just left my place like an hour ago," Arnav said, spinning around to switch on his monitor. "And here he is in my face again.
"Vishwa Bhaiya, how are you?" Subha was as ever welcoming, offering a smile in contrast to his frown and came to sit next me. At ten years of age, Subha had conned me into giving her 20 rupees, by binding a simple red thread as rakhi on a day that didn't mark the celebration of the bond between siblings; the rakhi being Arnav's idea, he'd stopped by the door to stick his tongue at me and they had later run out to treat themselves to sour candy and paper windmills. Despite their separate destines, little did she know then that the thin red thread would weather beyond the seasons of their friendship.
"Hey, shall I order in some tea?" Subha asked. Arnav settled into his chair, but had no intentions of speaking to either of us. It appeared he knew what was coming.
"I could use some," I said, tapping her hand.
That moment struck her. "It's been a while since I saw you here," she said, shaking her head fondly.
"Very well then, I will drop by your desk, once I'm done asking Arnav about his date from last night." I declared with a raised brow and waited for him to respond.
Slipping secrets to a chosen audience always did its share of good. Subha's forehead creased. "You went on a date? And you didn't tell me?"
His eyes shifted from the monitor; filling with annoyance, he exhaled. "You didn't get the office memo? Geez! I shall do better next time."
"What? You are not going to deny it?" I countered, not comprehending why he hadn't gone for a rebuttal.
"But, isn't that the point Vishwa? To not give you the responses that you are expecting me to come up with."
"You learn fast," I said nodding with approval. "I have to tread carefully from here on."
Ignoring my presence again, he drew back to work and picked up the phone. "Vimal, can you bring me the campaign reports from Win washing powder? I want to check it again. Tell, Ajay I want to hear that jingle from yesterday." His voice held a distinct uneasiness; his focus dithered - a state I had hardly seem him fumble with. He wasn't the kind who reviewed presentations a second time - content was either in or out. Jingles, never reconsidered.
"So, how was your date?" I asked going for the kill. Subha wiggled both her eyebrows in curiosity and smiled at him.
He sighed. "You set me up with your partner's daughter. I drop her from Point A to Point B. I can't see how there can be anything remotely going about it."
"You are telling me nothing happened?" I called his bluff. "You two must have waited somewhere...a chai shop? You must have talked, exchanged stories, laughed about something."
Catching Subha's eyes, I nodded to get her assent. "Of course, given the crowd moving in and out of Mumbai trains, you are bound to have had a moment or two. And with all that was going on in your street last night, I can never really tell if yesterday was only a date or more?"
His head fell back, laughing, a small shake of the head from disbelief - over what? I wanted to ask him, but he spoke before I could. "You speak like you had someone following us. But, I'm not so sure you had your operative following the two right people."
"You should totally hire me next time," Subha interrupted, "I might even do it for free."
Getting up from his chair, he took a few steps to sit by the edge of his desk.
"Arnav, that was an insult on so many levels," I said. "Nothing that I'm proud of, but you forget that I'm not devoid of the experiences of going on a date with a complete stranger, before marrying Riti."
The many dates, I had pursued - it might amount to sixteen or sixteen thousand - who knew? - had begun with a different searching: a distraction named Shradha that refused to leave my mind those adolescent days. Today she - an unfinished seeking - was a definition of my past and in that way, a part of my present and my future too.
"Hey! don't blame me," he shrugged. "Your description of last night was nothing short of a movie script."
I couldn't believe this conversation was lasting this long.
"Ok, you won't give me into a willful admission. Then will a bribe do the job?"
"What do you have in mind?" he asked, folding his hands - a particular stance I wasn't too excited about, when he was already withholding the details of the previous night.
"I hear from the grapewine that the Marketing VP of Vosey Audio is going to dinner at the Lisbon towers," I said dusting off nonexistent linen from the crease of my arm. "I could arrange for you to make him run into you."
"It's Vosey," he punctuated his words for effect. "Not like you are offering me Bose to place my life history at your feet."
"Fine," I said rolling my eyes. "If bribes don't work, then we will resort to extortion by force."
"I would like to see you try that." His voice rose in pitch with a challenge, though he continued to hold a smile.
"Are you sure, Vishwa bhaiya?" Subha scooted next to me and placed a hand over mine with mock concern. "Perhaps you should reconsider. He does tower you by a full feet and has all of 10 kgs of muscle more on his frame."
Narrowing my eyes, I turned to her. "You know I'm beginning to doubt whose side you are on."
"I'm just looking out for you," she said, dusting the same invisible lint I had swatted earlier.
"So no sparks worthy of a mention?" I addressed him.
"Not even that of a dying firecracker," he said shaking his head again with some effort to show resignation.
"Alright, I have to receive a client at the airport," Subha jumped up waving to us, after glancing at her cellphone. "Will call you later to get the rest of the scoop."
"Too bad then," I said once the door shut behind her - after all, I was dying to remark something to provoke him. "I will have to tell her father that he might have been wise in his judging after all - about you two being from different worlds."
He returned to his chair without a response and so, I decided to take the incitation a notch above.
"We'll have to wait and see if it works out with Aditya," I said folding my arms behind my head.
He perused a few print-outs at the desk and picked up the phone to scream at Vimal over a typo in the presentation deck. Then a few more papers down, he finally faced me.
"And she approves your little scheme to have her meet Aditya?"
"She doesn't have to know," I said and it was my turn to shrug now. "Like she didn't have to know she was meeting you last night."
Tilting his head up to the ceiling, he took a deep breath. "She hugged you at the restaurant in the open." He paused and I couldn't tell the emotion that came into his eyes, though a biting harshness overemphasized his censure. "Anyone could see that she looks to you more than she asks of Dhri. You are more of a friend than anyone will be to her, but I doubt she wants you to run her life. I'm beginning to question if she does like to leave you with the illusion that you sure do."
The idea was an interesting one to deliberate later, but that instant my tongue burned with the retort I'd wanted to offer all night long.
"Help me understand, Arnav," my doubts having cleared, I smiled with relief, "I'm not clear what you seem to have taken more offense to? Is it because I'm that friend she could hug without forethought? Or are you spurned because she tolerates my decisions to find her a groom?"
"I'm afraid there are no right answers to the questions you ask." With a hand braced over his head, along with the hint of surrender in his voice, he sounded as though he'd given up already.
I stood up, picking my jacket ready to leave.
"Wait, the chai will be here soon," he said, as he searched for something on the desk.
"I think I have heard all there is to know about last night," I said and threw the jacket over one shoulder.
"And what might that be?" he asked after a moment, as I opened the door.
Halted at the threshold, I gave him a knowing smile; ambiguity was an essential construct in every gentleman's agreement with another. "That you couldn't have been more right about you two. Not even a dying spark of a firecracker."
Surely, not that of a firecracker - of this truth, we both knew. Now, it was only left to find out what the other thought of the little spark in the depths of their denial.
Note: To indulge you all, here are the other women in his life - but, I have no plans to bring them all into the story, except Subha for a little bit.
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