Entry#7
Moh-Moh ke Dhaage..
It had been four years. Four years since their abrupt marriage and similarly abrupt separation. One couldn't call it a divorce since there had been nothing official about it. One fine day, the one month grace period lapsed and Veera walked out, that was all to it and nothing more. It was not that these thoughts never ran through her mind before but today she was feeling bit different while turning the memory page in her head. She was feeling kind of expectant; like she was waiting for some surprise..
It's just hormones and nothing else' she told herself and began walking towards her destination, the bus stop. In all these years her life had settled into a placid routine -Wake up in the morning, pack breakfast and go to office, come back in the evening, make and eat dinner and sleep-. The same cycle would repeat most the days except few of them. There were one or two days in the month when TV or Music would fail to fill the place of a real human being and a tear or two would escape through her eyes and a dinner less night would follow. But those nights were so rare because she had hardened her mind not to look back into the past or ever think about it.
Dragging her feet through the crude road, Veera finally reached the rickety old bus station which looked about to collapse with one bout of rain. She looked at her watch and it was already 6PM. Oh no! If the wretched bus didn't come on time today, maybe she'd have to walk since it was risk waiting here in the dark.
There was a sudden bout of thunder and crackle and sudden rain drops began to fall on her head through the holes in the bus stop's broken roof. Veera almost stomped her feet in despair. One, the bus was late, two, it was raining! Great.. now she couldn't even walk home in this downpour..
"Why are you doing this to me!!" she shouted theatrically at the sky. Just then, the sound of an upcoming bus's horn was heard and she looked on eagerly only to find out that this was a different bus and not the one she waiting for. As her eyes were momentarily blinded by the headlight's glare, she could only see the silhouette of a man unfurling his umbrella while alighting from the bus. Her heart skipped a beat and her tongue went dry. The man looked just like..
Nope, she was thinking too much. She scoured her bag for the spare umbrella she always used to carry in her bag and sighed once more when her hands came up empty. How could she forget, her colleague had borrowed it just yesterday..
That man came into full view and all her doubts melted away like ice in the sun..Baldev hadn't changed at all in all these years.. was her mind playing tricks on her? Or had the rain broken through her skull and entered her brain?
He hadn't seen her yet because he was still busy adjusting his stubborn umbrella and something made her pull her dupatta over her head and hide her face with it before he could see her. She went to the farthest corner of the bus stop and stood there, hoping that he'd not see her in this darkness.
Ten minutes passed like ten hours and then Baldev spoke up.
"aap, aap yahan bus ka intezaar kar rahi hain? Shayad aapke paas chaatha nahi hai..meri bhi haalat bilkul aap jaisi hai..chaatha hai par khul hi nahi raha.." he tried to strike a conversation and she could only say hmmm and ummm.
The rain looked like it was never going to stop and then something happened which blew her cover quite literally. A sudden gust of storm blew away the decrepit roof of the bus stop and Veera screamed in horror. Her dupatta fell away from her face and Baldev saw her in the partial light of the lightening coupled with the moon light.
"Veera tu!!" he exclaimed.
She was too mortified to answer and he walked to where she stood.
"tu abhi bhi bilkul nahi badli na..itni si bijli se dar gayi" he was saying when another deafening noise shattered through the sky and Veera caught hold of him tightly in fear.
He stayed carefully still and she slowly released her hold on him, almost jumping two feet away in embarrassment.
"chal..ab tu yahan hai toh yeh chaatha kholke dena..dekhna kabse try kar raha hoon par yeh hai ki!" he spoke up after a minute, probably trying to dispel the cloud of awkwardness that had built a wall between them.
His words managed to break the ice and Veera was suddenly back to her sherni mode.
"tu na, kabhi nahi sudhrega sach me! Itna bada hogaya par ek chota sa chaatha nahi khulta tujhse..idhar de!" she snatched his umbrella and pushed its release button. As if the umbrella had been waiting just for her fingers, its handles moved effortlessly and it opened without trouble.
"yeh le, khul gaya" she gave it to him and the awkwardness raised its head again.
She walked to the farthest corner of the bus stop and stood there, mentally pleading the rain to stop before it got too late. She didn't want to, but she had to look up when the falling rain drops suddenly seemed to stop. He had quietly moved nearer and was holding the umbrella over her head!
"yeh kya kar raha hai tu?" her words came out broken.
He didn't answer.
Standing under the same umbrella as him was nothing short of a dream, a fantasy, something that could only happen behind closed eyes and not in real.. She quietly pinched herself to see if this delusion would break, but nothing happened.
Time seemed to be moving at a really sluggish pace and Veera noticed two things. One, the rain had turned even more furious as if it was unleashing some forgotten anger upon the earth..two, she should be coveting in fear by now under these circumstances; it was dark, it was cold and she was in the company of a man she was meeting after a lifetime..But, the fear was missing and a strange sense of comfort was spreading over her mind..
Nobody spoke for a long time and it wasn't clear if the rain got tired or if it took pity on two helpless human beings, but it slowed down to a drizzle. She sat down on the floor of the bus stop and he did the same.
The rain drops were dripping from every corner of the umbrella and their fall really fascinated Veera. The drops looked like tiny pearls in the faint moon light as they fell into a puddle at their feet.
She extended her palm to retrieve them and she could tell that Baldev was smiling beside her. She collected them in both her palms and let them drip through the gap between her hands, thoroughly enjoying every bit of her new game.
After a minute, Baldev placed his hands next to hers and began to mimic her actions by collecting the rain drops and smiling so widely.
She had collected a handful of water in her palm and she splashed it on Baldev's face making him stagger in surprise.
"teri toh!" he splashed back the rain drops that had fallen on his hand. The coolness of the raindrops felt nice and all their worries about being stranded in this place vanished.
The game turned out to be real fun and they played until both felt sleepy and tired.
"chal thodi der aaram karte hain" Veera was almost in a semi sleeping state. She closed her eyes leaning on the supporting pillar of the bus stand; sleep took over in minutes and she was fast asleep in moments.
But Baldev felt no hint of sleep behind his eyelids. To say that this night was incredible would be an understatement. Now he could see why he had got down at this bus stop in particular and why the rain made them its favorite target. As they say everything in the universe happens for a reason; this too, was god's will.
He could feel some strange and immeasurable emotion taking shape in his heart.. yes, he hadn't searched her all these years but that was due to his own guilt about sending her away and not because he didn't want her back..if he could only freeze this implausible moment and lock it in a jewel case, he would keep it close until eternity..
Veera stirred a little in her sleep and he sat directly next to her so that she wouldn't fall on the cold floor unawares. It was only natural that he bend and brush his lips on her forehead ever so lightly. She was so precious..
It was 4 AM in the morning when Veera woke up and checked her half soaked phone. Last night she had dreamed that she was in a beautiful garden and Baldev was with her. A bee had stung her and to lessen its sting, he had kissed her and all her hurt had gone away with that. The dream felt downright silly now; it was sheer luck that she had been given a night to spend with him.. It would be stupidity to expect that this night held the same value to him..
The love she felt for this man was like a diamond, never losing its sheen in centuries. Just like one takes care of a precious rock, she had locked her love away in her heart for all these years but now it was time to wear it on her heart where it would shine until eternity.. But would he accept it? Perhaps yes, perhaps no..
She spent the rest of the night in deliberation and finally morning dawned. For the first time she noticed that the rain and the dark clouds had disappeared completely. There was no hint of previous day's gloominess anywhere.. The morning was getting brighter by the second as if a bride was decking herself for her groom..
She felt Baldev sit up beside her and exclaim, "kitni jaldi subah hogayi, abhi toh raat thi!"
For some reason, her heart jumped up and down in anticipation and she felt palpitations down her throat.
"kal raat ko maine ek sapna dekha" he began to say.
"kya- kaisa sapna?" she asked, feigning lack of interest.
"bina baat ko ghumaye phiraye, main tennu batana chahtha hoon ki..ki kal maine khwab dekha ki hum saath the..pehle jaise.."
He looked at her squarely for a second and then continued, "kal raat bitaye hue har pal ne mujhe bata diya ki tu mere liye kya hai..kya tu- kya tu is khwab nu sach karne me meri madat karegi? Mere naal ghar chal Veera" he said with so much conviction.
It was his chest and her face in the next minute as Veera hugged her husband with all verve she had. Her dream had descended into reality and bloomed into a flower that would never wither..
"tu bulaye aur main naa kahoon yeh kaise ho sakta hai..chal ghar chalte hain" she said.
Real Estate
Anupamaa
