OS Series - Songbirds [P10 : Pg3]

Index

1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10

1. In a Nano-Second

He sees her...finds her too late. He’s already engaged by then. To her sister. 

It is now over a month since he got engaged. It was arranged. First, his and her parents met. They liked each other. Then they met - he and Ruma. One time only. It was an awkward meeting. She was outspoken. He was shy. She loved cricket. He liked golf. She was a model. He, a chartered accountant. He thought she was beautiful. She was of the opinion he was handsome. She said she hated waking up in the morning, he agreed it was a punishment. She told him she still watched Tom and Jerry. He confessed to waking up early to catch episodes of Courage, The Cowardly Dog. They clicked. A few weeks later they got engaged. 

Now, as he stands with a bouquet of pink tulips - she loves tulips - in his hands waiting to surprise her, he’s nervous. He has not done this before. He’s twenty-six and has never dated. He would have not come today but for his brother’s insistence. Flowers, movies, dates unnerve him. He’s more comfortable spending time with his siblings at home or toiling away at his work.

He presses the bell once again, his heart ricocheting in its cage.

When the door is pulled open. It isn’t Ruma. It is someone else. 

Short stature, straight hair, brown-eyed girl in a long-sleeved midnight blue salwar-kameez. There are tiny white flowers threaded around her neck and the ends of her sleeve.

She looks at him with round eyes filled half with uncertainty and half curiosity.

‘Di is not at home,’ she replies, her voice soft and soothing like a river flowing 

‘Oh,’ he utters. ‘I am…’

‘Gaurav,’ she says before he can introduce himself. Then smilingly, she introduces herself, ‘Simantika, Ruma’s younger sister.’

‘Ah’ He remembers now of the mention of a younger sister. 

‘Di had to go out for some urgent work. Ma Papa is out shopping,’ she explains further.

‘Oh. Okay,’ the flowers feel heavy in his hands.

‘Please, come in,’ she opens the door wide.

‘Uhm no. It’s okay. I’ll leave. The flowers…’ He waves the bouquet awkwardly between them.

‘I will give it to Di,’ she offers.

‘Yeah right. That will be a good idea.’

He leaves. Half his heart and the flowers handing both to her.

2. Darkest Drawer

‘I like to collect jhumkis, Di. You know that,’ she whispers wanting not to be heard.

‘But you already have so many, Sim. And you never wear them!’ 

‘And I want one more pair, Rim!’

Gaurav and his brother Vigyan share an amused glance as they walk behind the girls.  They are here for the wedding shopping.

‘Simantika, why don’t you and I go and check out some of those earrings you’re so interested in while Ruma and Gaurav go to the clothes section.’ Vigyan suggests.

Gaurav watches her eyes move to her sister, asking if she’s alright with the arrangement. 

‘Okay, Vigyan. But we don’t have to go to buy the earrings. Di was right. I do have too many of them. We can go anywhere else you like.’

‘Movie?’ Vigyan offers.

‘Depends on what is on,’ She replies.

Gaurav is watching the discussion going to and fro when he feels a tug at his arm. ‘Let’s go,’ Ruma says.

‘Yes, let’s,’ he follows her fiancee. But his eyes follow his brother and the woman with him.

A week later, when he is out on a company trip and loitering around a cultural mart of the city, he comes across a pair of oxidized silver jhumkis. Tiny ferns embellished with bells. The shop woman talks about boho earrings and how it’s been made, he nods his head politely. No words reaching his ears. Passing a few notes he accepts the wrapped package and pockets it. 

As soon as he buys it, he begins to feel the familiar guilt and loath rear its head. 

At home, he hides the package in the furthest and darkest drawer. Only if his heart had such dark drawers too.

3. Dilemma

He has always been a simple man. As the eldest son, he has borne the responsibility of his siblings and the house efficiently. He has met every expectation of his ambitious parents and has made them proud. He never erred, never wandered. Like Yudhishthir, he has always chosen the path of justice and honesty. So much that his younger siblings and cousins make fun of his sagacity. 

When teachers by mistake would give him extra marks, he himself went to get those deducted. 

So how come, he finds himself in the path of such a dilemma.

He paces to and fro. It s better to call off the marriage if my heart is not into it. I cannot ruin lives like this.

He stomps out of his room with determination but the decoration and the gaiety of the house sucks out some of it. Whatever of it is left, it evaporates seeing his grandparents and parents smile. 

The cards have been given out. And, he remembers his fiancee’s joyful face. She loves me.

He pulls out the earrings and throws them away out of his balcony. Hoping it will exorcise his feelings for her too. 

4.Success

When he decides on something, it becomes a truth set in stone.

This time he decides on her non-existence for him. And he’s successful in pulling it off. As long as he doesn’t see her. 

What is it he thinks? 

Infatuation? Temptation? 

Love, he dares not utter. Things one does not understand, one must not speak of it. 

What is it about her that pulls him?

Whatever it is, he needs to get over it. 

He manages to get over it too by the time his wedding date arrives. He is able to look past her. He’s able to converse with her when necessary. Without his heart going on a frenzy. 

Told you, he always achieves what he determinedly sets for.

5. Commotion 

He is sitting in front of the holy fire. The priest is chanting mantras. The mandapam is artistically decorated with strings of flowers. Orange. Red. Yellow. Clothes replete in these colors adorn the mandapam. 

He looks through the string of flowers hanging from his headwear. He’s hungry and exhausted by the rituals. Bored out of his mind too. There is nothing to do except sit and look at others enjoying his wedding. He glances at the diamond-shaped mirror decorations hangings reflecting the red, purple, and magenta pink of the sarees of women. Gaudy, and brightly colored clothes apt only for a wedding.

He watches his to-be father-in-law wipe a sweat bead off his forehead. A square briefcase in one hand and a square handkerchief in another.

Then, he sees her. Traipsing to her father’s side, pulling him aside and whispering something into his ears. The older man blanches. Looks around before they both shift and vanish away.

Moments tick by. He waits. The priest is also done with all the hymns. 

Then, someone asks him to stand up and come aside. It is his father.

‘Vigyan and Ruma have eloped.’

‘Sorry?’

‘Your brother has eloped with your bride.’

The relief he feels at the revelation is unmatchable and inappropriate. 

6.Compromise

‘You two marry. It is a matter of our honor,’ they say.

And so he goes back to sit in the mandap. 

A few minutes later, she comes by and sits next to him.

He goes through the rituals and mantras knowing it is her beside him. Others don’t know. 

During sindur daan, he pinches the vermillion and fills her parting. His heart throbs hard.

He leads the first four rounds, she leads the next three. Seven rounds around the holy fire. He had read somewhere that since 360 degrees is indivisible by seven...their marriage has become indivisible.

She cries long after the bidaai and till they are halfway through the city. 

‘This is so unfair,’ she mumbles. ‘To you and me. How could she be so selfish?!’

He doesn’t know how to console her. He hasn’t consoled a girl before.

‘How could they tie us into such a compromise?’ She sobs further.

He looks out of the car's window letting her exhaust her emotions.

In a Nano-Second

He fell for the sister. What will he do now? It will be tough to explore these feelings further. The situation is awkward.

Darkest Drawer

He gave in to impulse and bought those earrings. Will she ever get them?

Dilemma

Throwing out the earrings might not work. The cards have been handed out so he waited too long already.

Success

Is it really? He is just avoiding her. He is not over her.