Epilogue

Eight months later…

‘Well.. hurry’, Anitha shouts at me.

‘Hey, this is my first attempt at making a delicacy where I have reached the last step.. Chill’, I warn her. I can actually hear her roll her eyes, in my head, of course.

The delicacy I am attempting is well, kesari, which my mother assured me is the easiest sweet. I guess easiest is a relative term. But my calling it as delicacy is something that isn’t being well-received.

‘I am hungry Pri. I think everyone is.’

I hid the store bought thattais and pakodas. I knew no one would wait for my kesari.

‘It smells amazing Pri’, I hear Karthik calling from the entrance.

‘Well, cashews frying in ghee… of course it will smell great’, says Anitha, in an aren’t-you-an-idiot tone.

It is only five in this Sunday evening.

‘Call Vivek, we need to make coffees…’, I tell Anitha.

‘Vivek’, she calls right from next to me practically screaming into my ears. Right.

Karthik has now propped himself against the counter next to me and is munching on cashews from the open pack.

I pour the ghee and cashews and the raisins on top of the already done kesari as final touch.

‘Get the hidden bags’, I tell Karthik, who leaves to find it in my wardrobe in the room where I hid it. I am pretty sure all my  clothes are going to smell like pakodas, but I know these people, they wouldn’t give me time to make anything and would have eaten all these snacks and by the time I make whatever delicacy I all but killed myself to make, they would have lost their appetite. I also know they would never look into my cupboard because well, the guys would never do it and Anitha dreads its very existence.

‘He knew?’, Anitha asks on a gasp. I just smile and shrug.

We carry bowls, plates and spoons and my kesari to our coffee table. It is the usual gang there with the addition of Ishitha there. Bala usually hung out too, but he and Karthik didn’t get along always.

Anitha and Naren are civil and have even come to the stage of being able to spend time with each other in moderation without much supervision. Vivek and Karthik have grown into being good friends and they often did their thing. Aditya was initially not so great with Karthik but they got along after a great show down. Naren, well, Naren’s relationship with anyone except Anitha depended on his mood. Anitha still got pretty upset at times on seeing his behavior and feels immensely guilty, but hey, things happen. You break up with someone who then goes on to remain in your life constantly, it is gonna suck.

On the other hand Karthik and I have learnt a bunch of lessons and are happy and I am pretty sure I don’t mind ending up with him for the rest of my life.

Now my BLANK group, well, we reached more than two thousand members last month with at least four hundred members active every month. Given the scale of things and with the app, we added a lot of sub groups and pages within the main group and we are in the process of planning a party for the members expecting at least a five hundred to join.

Because of all this, I resigned my job from my big corporate and joined a currently successful startup where I work only for four seven hour days a week leaving me with a lot of time. I also am taking up trainings in event management now and seeing if that can go anywhere as I really do enjoy organizing this. Maybe I should try to be a mike controller. I am into all these event type of things ever since BLANK happened.

‘Okay, then.. Whats the news? Must be big for you to make a sweet and everything…’, Aditya asks.

‘Actually not bad’, Naren says licking his spoon.

‘Thanks Naren’, I beam as if we said he would pledge his life’s savings for my cooking ability.

‘Okay, guys, here is the news.’, Karthik says, grabbing my hand to pull me by his side.

‘We are getting married’, he announces.

‘Cool’, from Vivek.

‘Congrats’ from Ishitha.

‘Great news’, from Naren.

‘Yeah, as if we didn’t know this would happen’, from Aditya.

An excited ‘Yayyyyy’, from Anitha even though she knew the news.

‘When?’, someone asks.

‘In four months’, I say.

‘It is not going to be a big affair as my parents think I am making a mistake and her parents think we should wait for mine to come around, but are agreeing as they don’t have much choice. But we are done waiting, so it is happening’.

‘Sorry man’, Vivek says, everyone else nod with him.

‘Come on.. Sweet and snacks for this news? I know Priya is cheap’, Aditya says and I leave Karthik to go smack him on his head.

‘We can go out for dinner guys, on me’, Karthik announces, ever the sucker. Well, he does make a lot of money.

Aditya and Naren decide to rag me until we go out and safe to say everyone except Karthik and Aditya got drunk, Karthik because he never got drunk and Aditya never drank.

Karthik had fought pretty badly with his parents and ended up moving out and into an apartment not too far from my place. I ended up going there with him once we dropped Anitha safely back.

This was a two bedroom flat, too big for him. Since he had moved there a few months back, I visited often, although both of us still preferred my place. Probably because he has the bare minimal essential stuff only and it was really bare, white walls staring at you with very less stuff. I stayed over at his place at times and sometimes Anitha and I both of us spent weekends here when there was nothing else to do and I happened to not visit my parents. Karthik, isn’t the tidiest person I know but he is much tidier than me. So that’s a good thing for my future.

I find myself reclining on his huge comfortable sofa cum recliner which I fell in love with when I saw it and plan to retain it when we get married.

Karthik comes back from locking up and switching on the air conditioner and walks to me with a bottle of water for me. While I drink from it, realizing that I am thirsty, he drops the question.

‘So, it is only four months, you want to move in here?’, he asks all casual sounding. I concentrate a lot not to spew the water all over him and concentrate the next few minutes in just trying to think. I can’t move in with him. Is he crazy? It doesn’t happen here.

‘You know… move in here?’

‘Umm.. I… I am here a lot of time.. I…’

He chuckles. ‘You are still scared of you parents…’

‘Naa.. It is more than that.’

‘Oh?’

‘My parents have been extremely supportive this year. They supported me through our drama and then with all the changes. I am pretty sure moving in with you would.. well… would not sit well with them. They might lose the respect they have for the both of us.. I..’

‘That is not just an excuse is it? It seems to make sense to me’, he jokes.

‘Karthik!’, I warn.

‘Well, you are almost living here anyways’, he says, plopping down next to me.

We both know that isn’t true. Visiting someone and living with someone are two different things, no matter how close the said someone is.

‘Karthik’, I now say, with a lot of emotion in my voice. I really wouldn’t mind moving into his place. Okay, I do want to. Karthik pulls me to him and shows his appreciation for the emotion in my voice in ways he is extremely good at.

‘Pri.. as long as you feel that way, it is just four months...’

‘Well, I wish my parents didn’t believe in the auspicious day thing and horoscopes. Four months!’, I sigh.

Karthik chuckles. ‘I thought you didn’t want to get married’.

‘Huh? Well, I thought so too’, I tell him and show him my appreciation for his part in changing my mind.