Episode 37

‘You are going to sleep just like that’, Karthik softly talks into my ear.

We were at a disco. It was the party we threw ourselves for the fifth meet of the BLANK group and we actually have thirty members who have consistently attended all meets since the second one and our last meet had an attendance of a little over eighty people. We had our third meeting in my apartment grounds again, the fourth one was in a coffee shop and the fifth one was in the gym Aditya used to work for as a swimming instructor. The owner’s daughter was impressed with what we were doing and she came to the fourth meet and ended up getting a few students to her weekend dance classes which she conducted in the same aerobic studio we gathered in.

So I posted an open invite to members to meet at a disco to celebrate the minor success. Lot of people are interested in discos than in doing useful stuff, what a shock. I had gotten more than hundred RSVP’s, I ended up making a group booking of seventy five and had whopping discounts. People had to come in groups and had to just say the invite name and get discounts. I am pretty sure lot of people were going to misuse this, but who cares? It is a party.

Anitha and I had gotten dressed up and the whole gang had made an appearance, again it’s a party. Karthik had been busy so he had come in later and he looked tired, but still made an appearance which I secretly liked even though I made a fuss about him needing more rest. The truth is, he made time for me however busy he was and I loved him for it. I didn’t need to be constantly reminded of the fact but I appreciate feeling appreciated. That is always a good sign in a boyfriend.

So, I was slightly beyond happy high and I had begun dancing with Karthik sometime back. Okay, dancing is a stretch, I have been moving around clinging to him. Okay, that is a stretch too. I am clinging to him and he is lugging me around as he doesn’t have any other option.

‘I am not going to sleep’, I tell him turning my head and blinking my eyes open to prove the point.

‘You are, you aren’t supporting yourself at all, I can support you, but you are.. how do I say this politically… you are very healthily formed and I am not healthy enough to support you for a prolonged duration of time.’

Oops.

‘Sorry’, I say and I try to put my legs to use. I am not that far gone away, as I said, only slightly beyond happy high. Wait, did he just call me over-weight? It’s a party. Who cares?

Karthik chuckles.

‘Sometime I look at you and don’t see the stubbornness and the strong sense of self that you have.’

Well, not my fault is it? I bat my eye lashes at him for emphasis, sarcasm without words.

Karthik laughs, bends down and brushes his lips against my temple. That’s it? Well.

‘You wanna leave?’, he asks me.

‘Umm.. let me check…’, I say and try locating Anitha.

I find her by her flashy beige gown with lot of sequins having a serious conversation with Naren, who is holding her by her upper arm and looks like he doesn’t believe what she is saying. Oops, that doesn’t look good.

Karthik looks the same way I do and steers me towards them.

Naren sees us approaching and drops his hand from around Anitha’s upper arm.

‘Is everything alright?’, I ask him as Anitha refuses to make eye contact with me.

‘I don’t think so’, Naren says, rubbing the tips of his fingers against his temple.

‘Can you take her home when you leave? I need time alone.’

Vivek approaches us at that time., takes a look at all of us and shakes his head as if he understands everything.

‘Naren, let’s go man’, he says to him and looks at Karthik and asks, ‘You got them?’, presumably meaning Anitha and myself.

Aditya reaches us the same time. ‘What’s up? You guys planning to leave?’, he asks. He has Ishwarya and Ishitha, both flanking him.

Vivek looks at him and there seems to be some communicating going on between them. ‘I will drop them and meet you guys?’, Aditya asks Vivek and he nods. He pats Naren on his back, gives me and Karthik a small smile and a stiff nod for Anitha.

Okay. What is happening? I look at her and she still won’t meet my eyes.

‘Let’s go’, Karthik says.

I pull on Anitha’s arm. She moves but not steady.

‘Is she alright?’, Karthik asks me, I look at Anitha, she stares right ahead.

I shrug. I can only guess what has been happening. She must have told something to Naren along the lines she has been thinking. It isn’t a difficult guess.

We silently reach Karthik’s car.

I open the door for her on the backside and she wobbles in. I close the door for her and move towards the passenger side and get in.

‘Are you alright?’, I ask her. Karthik begins to drive.

I hear a sigh from Anitha.

‘I don’t know Priya.’

‘It’s okay Anitha, it will be fine’, I tell her. ‘I am sure you did the right thing.’

‘Did I? Nothing good ever comes by having a serious conversation when drunk. God, Naren’

Karthik looks at me his left eyebrow raised in question. I shrug and mouth ‘later’.

We reach home in silence. Anitha washes up quickly and falls onto her bed.

‘Do you know what is happening?’, Karthik asks.

‘I think so, although not sure what exactly is happening, but I don’t think you should be worrying. She will be fine.’

‘Are you sure?’

Right. I only know Anitha has been telling me and she has only told me few words on how she feels things aren’t going anywhere with Naren.

I shrug. ‘Don’t worry about it Karthik, she will be fine. I will take care of her.’, I will try as much as I can.

‘You are meeting my parents again remember? Tomorrow..’

Of course I do. I may or may not have had this party today on account of brazing myself for this meeting given how well it went the last time.

‘Yup, can’t wait’.

Karthik gives me a quick peck.

‘I will pick you up at say 9?’, he asks.

I nod.

‘Take care’, he says pointing in the direction of the room where Anitha is now sleeping and leaves. 

I quickly wash up and collapse into my bed having set up an alarm for eight in the morning.

  

*********************************************************************************

I snoozed the alarm at least a couple of times. The third time my alarm chimes, I panic as I realize I need to meet Karthik’s parents today. I wake up and it is twenty minutes past eight. Shit.

I see Anitha still in deep sleep, so I send her a message as to where I will be and when I might possibly be back.

I hurry in the shower, pick my most comfortable cotton kurta which was in a shade belonging to the saffron family, pair it with off-white bottoms and dupatta. I need all the help I can get. I quickly make myself presentable with the time tested hair style of leaving my hair mostly free, but pulling a few strands from the top-centre and pinning it away from my face. My only make up is a thin line of kajal. I add tiny dangling ear rings in black metal and have an internal debate as to whether I should wear a bindi or not. I go with not. I don’t normally wear bindi and I don’t want to do it now.

I hunt my off-white sandals and look for a small bag and find a white one. Around five past nine, I hear my door bell. My stomach kind of makes its presence known at the same time too.

I open the door to find Karthik dressed in khakis and a linen shirt. My heart skips a couple of beats looking at him, but I ignore it.

‘I didn’t eat, I am hungry’, I announce, an edge of panic in my voice.

‘Hi Priya’, he says, sounding unreasonably cheerful.

‘Ummm…’, is all I manage to say.

Karthik walks into my house, opens the fridge and finds an apple.

‘I haven’t had breakfast either, mom has made breakfast for all of us. Let’s go.’, he says, stuffing the apple in my hand.

Okay.

‘You look good’, he says, once we reach his car and are on our way. Sure I do or at least that is what I want to hear.

I nod.

‘Pri, relax. You are too tensed’.

I nod.

‘You need to relax, my parents are probably going to be difficult, but if you aren’t relaxed, you are going to screw this up.’

I know. I roll my shoulders trying to loosen up my knotted muscles and try to stretch my legs.

Karthik reaches for my hand and holds it his thumb drawing circles while his other hand is on the steering. I really make an effort to calm down.

‘Pri, no matter what happens, we aren’t going to not happen. You know that right?’

Okay. So this happened because of my parents. My father couldn’t not do his part and he called up Karthik’s father to try and begin the mending process and let it slip that he met Karthik and is fine with things. This resulted in Karthik’s parents confronting him and that whole situation ended in Karthik promising them that if they looked past what happened, they would like me.

So, I am meeting them again and although at this point I am not sure whether it is good or bad, my parents are going to be there as well. Karthik had somehow convinced my parents that he would pick me up and not them. The man has my parents believing he is the best thing that can happen to their daughter. How am I to convince his parents that I am the best thing for their son?

So we reach Karthik’s place and I see my father’s car parked outside the gate. I all but run inside when Karthik stops his car. I find my father and mother seated in their huge sofa and talking to Karthik’s father. The situation doesn’t look very tense.

‘Hello uncle’, I say to Karthik’s father. He nods and even gives me a smile.

‘Pramilla, they are all here’, he calls out to Karthik’s mother. Okay, so he is shouting for her all the way from the living room. They are normal people. Good to know. I sit beside my mother and ask them when they arrived. They had arrived only around ten minutes back. ‘You didn’t find a new kurta? This one is old and is beginning to fade..’, my mom would never understand the comfort this kurta has.

Karthik comes in and chats with my parents, asking after them and all that. He sits beside me but in one of the huge plushy chairs and not on the sofa. His father was seated opposite to him. The chairs and the sofa were arranged in a rectangular fashion. We were on the sofa, Karthik sitting on my end and his father on the other end, near my father on another sofa but not as big as the one we were seated in.

In a few minutes Karthik’s mother comes out from the kitchen.

‘Sorry, was making the Pongal and couldn’t get away’, she says.

‘That’s okay, not an issue, not an issue’, my father says.

‘Ya ya’, my mother agrees. ‘No formalities’. Oh no. No formalities, I know what it means. That’s what my mother says when she is trying hard to get along.

‘You must all be starving, let’s go have breakfast?’, Karthik’s mother asks.

‘Sure, sure’, my parents mutter very agreeably and we all get up. I feel Karthik’s hand squeezing mine reassuringly. I squeeze back quickly.

‘This way aunty’, he says, leading my parents to the dining hall. I haven’t been to their house. My parents of course have been, but I am not sure if they went to the dining room. We all follow him and the dining room is adjacent to the kitchen.

‘How are you doing Priya?’, Karthik’s father asks me.

‘I.. I am good uncle. How have you been?’, I ask very cordially.

‘Not bad. Come, Pramilla makes very good Pongal’, he says and shows me to a chair.

I sit myself down dutifully, confused about his cordial behavior. I look at Karthik and he looks suspicious as well. What is going to happen?

Karthik’s mother really does make good Pongal. There was Pongal, idlis and a very good sambar and an even better coconut chutney. Karthik is used to having tasty food, how is he going to adjust to my cooking or lack of cooking?

Karthik’s father had retired so he asks my father a lot in detail about his work and stuff. My mother speaks to his mother and they compare each other’s Pongal preparation methods. Then my mother compliments Karthik’s father on his fit person and so on.

I slowly eat as much as I can and try to talk to Karthik who unfortunately is not seated next to me, but across. Since neither of us wanted to start anything accidentally, we don’t talk much, except for Karthik trying to make me eat more and me trying to serve him more sambar.

We all finish eating and I feel like a sheep being fattened deliberately. I pick up my plate to the kitchen and am surprised to see a traditional one, not drawers and modular. Lot of stainless steel vessels and shelves.

We all come back to the living room and end up occupying the same seats with the addition of Karthik’s mother next to his father.

‘Okay, so let’s get onto what we really came for?’, my dad prompts. Really? Already?

‘Yeah, so my son has told me that he is very serious about your daughter and that we cannot do anything to change his mind’, Karthik’s father pauses.

‘He is an only son, for us, his wishes are important and so is his happiness. We thought about it, the only problem we had was that you had stopped the engagement once.. anyways, he has asked us to leave those in the past, says he understands your daughter’s reasons. The last time we met, your daughter also asked us if Karthik would be with someone who would deliberately do things like stopping an engagement and all that. So maybe there is something there but we don’t understand. But as it stands…’, he pauses again and looks at his wife.

‘We met and liked your family, we want to try doing this again, that is why we invited all of you here’, she says. Okay. This seems to be going good. I look at Karthik and he looks surprised too, he looks at me and gives me a wink.

‘Yes of course. We have to leave what happened in the past. We have to look into the future, our daughter is the most important thing for us’, my father adds to the theme. What is happening here?

They speak along the same lines for a few more minutes and I begin to relax.

‘All things said, we have only one concern here.’, Karthik’s mom says.

I don’t think much of it. I find my mother reaching for my hand and patting it. Looks like her intuition isn’t giving her a good feeling.

‘Priya is involved in so many things. She works, she is running around with friends all the time and then she has this online group or something which she is doing, which is great’, she adds.

I look directly at her and she looks directly at me. ‘I am just wondering when she will have time to take care of a family you know. I am sure they won’t be living with us, we also want them to have whatever makes him happy.’, she pauses and starts  talking to me directly for the first time.

‘With all this, how are you planning to balance things? How will you take care of Karthik and if you have kids, how will you take care of them…’

‘Aunty I… This is important for me, I am not sure right now, but, I am sure I can manage..’

‘Our son works hard and he is very very good at it. He needs someone who can help him…’

‘Ma..’, Karthik begins.

‘No Karthik, you will feel alright now, few years down the line with both of you busy and running, it won’t be much of a family..’

She made that statement and all hell broke loose.

My parents leapt to my defense, Karthik’s parents defended him.

‘Mom, dad really, these are things that Priya and I need to discuss.. not…’

Karthik tries, ‘How many lives have you lived that you know how this is going to go? Or even seen?’, his father says. Wow. Okay.

‘But, this is something I am interested in.. I can work something out. It is not a very dire or serious situation…’, I try, and apparently, wrong choice of words.

‘Really? Now, you are almost five years younger than him, you would know because?’

Okay. I don’t know.

‘Really, I am sure we can talk and come to a conclusion’, my father tries peace again and this whole thing goes around in circles. I keep quiet. I don’t think this is for any of them to decide. Now, if Karthik had the same concern.. Well, then I should probably do something about it. I look at him and he seems to be having similar internal dialogs himself.

After my father repeatedly reminded everyone that we have to try and make this work Karthik’s parents and my mother kind of calm down, slowly.

‘We really want our son to be happy and have a peaceful life. He thinks she is the person for him, so be it, but she should be more family-oriented you know…’

‘We understand your concerns really’, my father says.

‘We will be leaving then, will call you’, my mother says.

‘Priya, think about it, you will really be thanking us later’, Karthik’s mother tells me.

My father insists on me going back with them, so I do. Karthik tells me he will come by in the evening.

‘I did not expect that at all’, I tell them when we were in our car.

‘Well, I expected something was going to happen… ‘, my mother says.

‘Priya, for what its worth, I think they might be right. You are too young to know this, but yes, you cannot do a lot of things and run a family…’

‘Dad, I am twenty five, I know I have to adjust and change things when it’s family and all, but I am not sure what they are asking is the right thing…’

‘Priya, come on, how long can you do all that stuff? Think about it will you?’, he says.

I look at my mother.

‘I know I asked you not to change. Pri ma, you have to choose now. There are lot of choices before you’, she says.

‘Think clearly, we cannot make this decision for you. Be very sure, you already had once chance, so think very carefully Priya’, my mother says.

Great.

Episode 36

‘We are meeting this weekend, there are four of us. You can join too you know. It will be fun.’, Bala says.

‘Wow, great. Let me see, I might join, I am not sure, but if I want to, I can join later right?’, I am keeping my calendar open.

‘Consider this an invitation open forever’, Bala says and smiles.

Karthik is at this moment, meeting with my father at my home, I mean, my parents’ place. I am at my place and have been freaking out with Anitha trying to divert me. Bala just stopped by to pick up a video recording of his performance as recorded by Anitha on her phone. He shares what a couple of his friends thought about the meet. They all had come with the impression that this would be a hanging out and getting together and another place to meet people kind of gig, especially girls. While all this was true, they also felt it was useful.

He had also met one violin player, two guitar players and one singer in the meet yesterday, who all wanted to meet up and play stuff and learn. He sounds very excited. Good for him.

‘Anitha, you can join too’, Bala extends the offer.

‘Naaa.. I am tone deaf’, she says, honest although disconnected.

‘One of my friends is very interested in you, he was pretty impressed. Any plans of dropping your boyfriend?’, he asks, a teasing note in his voice, probably trying to get her to connect.

I look at Anitha who smiles as expected, but not a very genuine smile, it is a forced one. Probably, he hit it a bit too close to truth.

‘You totally need an app or something. You should put this in some video hosting site and share it with people. It will be easy you know’, Bala says, moving on.

‘Yup, lot of people have suggested it. We will see after a couple more meets I guess’, I say.

‘You should probably put this in the group’s page and announce it, you know, invite people to come up with apps and choose one. You would not even have to do anything. There might be people who will be interested in just making an app that gets into the market and is in use.’, Bala goes on.

‘Oh wow. That isn’t a bad idea at all. WE will try this. Again, after a couple of meets.’, really a good idea, if we do get response.

‘Sure. You know what I like about this? Lot of ideas and people ready to implement those. This is so great!’

When put like that… I feel a little proud of this brain child of mine.

‘Okay, guys, see you soon then?’, Bala takes off, we don’t stop him. I have Karthik to obsess about, Anitha has her relationship to obsess about. We are much occupied.

‘Are you okay?’, I ask Anitha.

‘Nope. I am not. I met Jude today. He had come to see me.’

‘Jude?’, Anitha and I are roommates, but we aren’t share-all type. Okay, she isn’t the share-all type, I am an open book though.

Anitha stares into the space ahead for several seconds and I wonder if she even heard my question.

‘It’s a long story’, she says after I could complete one cycle of what-does-my-dad-want-with-Karthik in my head. So that is a long pause.

‘If you want to talk about it or him, you can. If you don’t want to, that is fine too’.

I am dead curious. I would probably sell a tiny bit of my soul to know her story. But, she doesn’t look like it is a fun trip down her memory lane.

She sighs. ‘It is not a happy story Pri. It is for later. Much later’, she says. Sad story. It involves a guy named Jude, who sounds like a complete hottie. Oh no. I can’t handle heartbreak right now.

‘Sure Anitha.’

‘I am going for a walk. I need to clear my head’, she says.

‘Okay. It isn’t entirely cool outside though’, I remind her. It is as humid as the insides of a boiling vat.

She just shrugs. Okay. It is not like I can’t keep myself occupied. We have already established I have obsessive tendencies when it comes to Karthik.

I have already left him messages reiterating how important it is that he starts the minute he gets out of my parents’ place and reaches here in the record time of twenty minutes.

I pick up a book to shut down my brain in the hopes of it working, again the book on “focus”. The book is full of bullshit really, I have attempted to focus on it, but not once have I been able to read past the Author’s note. Okay, one could argue that I haven’t even started the actual book so I couldn’t blame the book.

Yes, I hold such important internal dialogs. Life is a struggle, we all know it, this is just an empirical proof. Look at me, thinking empirical and all that.

Really though, what does my dad want with Karthik? What is he asking him? What are they talking about? How is it going? I chop an onion and a tomato thinking this. I make upma thinking this. I eat said not-so-bad upma thinking this. I take a bowl of curd and eat that too thinking this. I wash up vessels and clean up the kitchen thinking this. I take a mini-shower and change into cotton pajama shorts and tee thinking this.

Finally, after I decide to exfoliate my face and put on some face pack that Anitha is always asking me to, just to occupy myself, I get a text from Karthik that he will be here in fifteen. Since that meant excessive thinking for fifteen minutes, I go silently lie down on the bed and wait. I can’t take it anymore. After I have imagined all possible scenarios in my head, my door bell rings. I rush to open the door.

Karthik stands there, his face blank.

‘Hi’, I say, sounding edgy.

‘Hey’, he says, a smile skimming the blank surface. He comes into my house and walks straight to the couch and flops into it. I follow him. He picks the bottle of water on the coffee table and drinks huge gulps of water almost emptying it.

‘Come here?’, he says, pointing the spot next to him. I walk to him and sit on the spot.

I look at him. I am pretty sure I needn’t form the words to ask him so I don’t.

‘Your father, well, I want to be like him with my children’, my eyes widen. Did he say children? As in plural? He picks up my hand and turns me to him.

‘You should know he will look out for you no matter what’

‘Ya, I know.’

‘Your mother.. She is formidable’

‘Ya, she is’

He plays with my fingers, his fingers twining, and untwining, drawing circles on my palm, on my hand and so on.

‘Karthik?’, I prompt.

‘They just wanted to know, if I really mean it when I say I am serious and that I love you.’

‘Ohhh’

‘They wanted to know if I will stand by you’

‘Of course you will. Why did they…’

‘They wanted to know if I will stand by you, even if it meant standing against my parents or putting up with lifelong animosity or at the best few years of struggle between you, them and my parents’.

‘But, why…’

‘Last time when they met, my father did not separate on friendly terms, rather, not even on humanly terms. My father has a very short temper, I can imagine to what extent he might have gone.’

‘Ohhh…’, shit, shit, shit.

‘Your father wants to know if he made the sacrifice of talking to someone because of and for his daughter to someone whom he swore he would never have any connections with, whether it would really be worth it.’

‘Of course it’s worth it.’

‘Pri.. You don’t understand’

‘Yeah?’

‘For your parents to approach mine or mine to approach yours, it is a huge sacrifice. Have you ever gotten into a situation were not only did someone blame you for something you didn’t do, but also not gives you a chance to explain and to top it off, they insult you and you decided never to have anything to do with that person ever again?’

Hmmm.

‘What really happened?’

‘Well, I was angry right? When after the engagement…. Anyways, I was partly angry because my father was literally boiling and my father was boiling because he, well, he thought you ….. you were not that great to reject this..’

No surprise there, I almost thought that and my parents definitely thought that, even though I don’t think that anymore.

‘My father thought that too, I mean, I get it.. ‘, I shrug.

‘Yes, but your father wouldn’t say that to anyone except you’

True and uh oh. I sigh.

‘Okay, so what did you say?’

‘I told them I kind of expected this and that they can trust me to do the right thing and that my parents aren’t really the grudge-holding type.’

‘They aren’t?’

‘I don’t know really, I think so though, not much has happened for me to know whether my parents hold grudge or not.’

‘Okay, so you told this to my parents and they agreed?’

‘I paraphrased for you Pri’, he says, a smile playing on his lips for the first time since he came.

‘Karthik, come on, I want to know word for word’

Karthik turns towards me fully. He looks deep into my eyes.

‘What I told was how I feel about you, I told how I have come to realize I cannot imagine the rest of my life without you in it and how I would do most anything for you…. They got convinced.’

I swallow. I mean the look in his eyes… Does he look at me like that? Always or occasionally? Crap, this isn’t good, I might do anything for him if he kept looking at me like that, not a great sign if you ask me, also, he would do most anything for me? I have palpitations.

‘Are you convinced?’, he asks me.

I nod, I don’t trust myself to make intelligent response.

‘Your father asked when we can get married….’

Married? Already? I have just wrapped my head around actually thinking about a real long relationship with Karthik, and they want to make it permanent? Already?

‘Ummm…’

Karthik shakes his head.

‘I am guessing you want to push it as later as possible, right?’

‘I mean.. not really.. okay, yeah’

He chuckles.

‘I know, so I told them, that first I need to work on getting my parents to agree and then they can meet up and talk and decide and all that. I am sure my parents will take some time to come around.’

‘Thank you’, I tell him. He really does understand me. Not bad, not bad at all.

‘Wow, an actual thanks.’, he says, leans forward and plants a kiss on my forehead.

I would have liked to have heard exactly what he told my parents, but I don’t think I would know from him. In time, my mother might tell me.

‘It’s a vicious cycle isn’t it? If your father wasn’t that angry and because of it if you weren’t angry, you would never have come looking for me again and all this wouldn’t have happened.’

‘If only you hadn’t stopped the engagement at all…’

‘Hey, I thought you were happy I did..’

‘We might have been married already.. so…’

‘Hey, who knows how we might have been? I might have been this boring girl who went to work to pass the time and cooked for you every now and then and eventually like you a little more because of the virtue of living together and never realizing so many things about you because we might not have had that kind of relationship, I might have continued existing, planning occasional vacations, doing nothing else and getting used to monotonous routine and not feeling accomplished or as an individual entity at all, I might have been not just lost, I might have been this shell who doesn’t even know what is going on and I wouldn’t have been happy and wouldn’t have made you happy either…’

‘Wow! Really? You thought life with me would be that bad?’

‘Yup, definitely, not because of you, because I had to know how to live as myself’

Karthik pulls me to him at this point, as has become usual these days, I sit so close to him that a little more and I would have to get into his skin.

‘So, you know now?’

‘I am figuring out… and…’, I pause. I figured out a lot of things. There is one important thing I figured out which he probably should know.

‘And?’, he prompts, his breath on my ear.

‘Well.. I figured out one thing. I kinda have more than a vague idea about me now, but what I am absolutely clear about is that, I don’t really need you, I am my own person, I am not needy, you know that, I am comfortable with you around, my life is much better with you around, you might not be the focal point for me, but you enrich the whole experience, I don’t need you yes, but I want you. I don’t even want to imagine a life where you aren’t there to frown and say no to things I want to do but then understand and support me all the same.’

‘Pri…’, Karthik’s voice has gone totally soft, a slight shiver in it.

‘Oh my god Priya, you say such things… I…. ‘, he shakes his head. I pick up his hand and kiss his knuckles as it is easily reachable and my body irrationally wanted to do some kind of gesture.

‘Priya, what am I going to do with you?’

‘Why should you have to do anything with me?’

‘Because, I don’t know if I am ready to sign my life over to you but that is what I feel like doing, I mean metaphorically, of course’, he adds. I realize in spite of his experience in the romance department, this is somehow different for him as well. Glad to know it.

‘Well, you don’t need to sign anything over to me. But if you are going to, don’t you worry, I will give it back to you with something of my own added there’.

As metaphors went, I am not entirely sure what I just said, but it felt right.

Karthik chuckles and shifts us once again until we are facing each other, he opts to show rather than respond to my statement. I don’t complain.

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‘When are you moving back in then?’, my father asks.

I was at their place, because I had to visit them after yesterday’s events. I had settled in, we had spoken and both my parents had declared their full support but wanted me to get married to Karthik as soon as possible. I refrained from making any statements in any direction regarding the last one. I had settled in with some snacks and was talking to them and out of nowhere my dad asks this.

My mom snorts. She obviously knows me better.

‘I am not moving back in dad’

‘But.. now everything is fine. You are going to marry Karthik, you just told me you are okay with work, you have that online group thing going on.. What more do you want?’

Well, for starters, I want more of these same things.

‘Let her be.. I don’t think she will move back in, anytime from now on.’, my mother says, sounding accepting but sad.

‘Umm.. I….’

‘I get it Pri ma. You are doing things you want to do. So when is the next meeting for your “BLANK” group?’, my mother asks, obviously diverting.

I look at my father. He looks slightly shocked.

‘Dad? What is it?’

‘I always thought you would come back in a few days. I never assumed this to be a permanent thing. Every time, more people get to know you moved out they always ask me what happened, as if something wrong must have happened. Many, who know only the partial truth assume it is because of the breaking of the engagement and that you are depressed. Your mother might be the modern thinker here and let you be, but I don’t like it that you don’t live here with us. I am not convinced you need to live away from home. I have been assuming that you will eventually realize that you cannot or need not and come back, a part of me even hoping that things would turn out not the way you want just so you would be back. I am not proud of it, but now I realize that it isn’t going to happen’.

I look to mom automatically, hoping she knows what to say.

She does.

‘Why do you think that? She is still our daughter. Even if she didn’t live by herself, if she was married she wouldn’t be here still. You should try to think from her perspective you know Ram? I know you are thinking things, but hasn’t Priya proved that she is capable of taking her own decisions and sticking to it?’

My dad listens quietly and nods, still unconvinced.

‘Dad…’, I begin to say something, but my mom puts a hand on my forearm stopping me.

For once I ignore her.

‘Dad, you always told me growing up that I could do anything I wanted to do. But you always used to subtly or not so subtly try to decide what I wanted to do.  I listened to you mostly, yes. You should stop doing that dad. You should want for me what I want or what makes me happy. I know you would argue back and say what makes you happy is me being here so I should move back in. You have seen life, I know you don’t want me out there because you are worried and if you could you would protect me from everything bad that could happen and you would have me not doing so many things on the side of caution. But, I want to do things my way now, I want to live things my way, I will of course come to you or mom for suggestions, advise and even encouragement. But, you have to know, I am doing this in the way I see is good for me. You with me dad?’, I say, all soft but confidently.

‘You are asking me to get out of your life, is that it?’

‘No, never that. You and mom have led me and closely watched me every step of the way, I have reached a place with you along the path but leading to a place where I need to go alone. It might be smooth, it might be great, it might be totally difficult, but that is my path. Do you get that?’

My father takes a deep breath as if to dissolve internal conflicts. I expected him to acknowledge my whole speech in some form. All he does is get up, look at us and say, ‘Okay, I need to water the plants’, and walks out.

Damn.

‘He will be fine. Don’t worry, we all have trouble letting go, sometimes we don’t but, manage not to act on it many a times.’, my mom says, her hand rubbing my back.

‘You too?’

‘Yes Pri. Of course. You are my only baby. I miss you every day. I know we talk over phone, you come by whenever you can, it isn’t the same. But I understand. I get what you feel. I won’t be the one standing in your way and I won’t be the one who will get my wish filled while you suffer through it. Remember this Priya, whatever may happen, be this way. Be who you are, do not give it away for anything or anyone.’

I hug my mother, ‘I miss you too mom and I miss dad a lot’.

‘Now, I have to say, Karthik is pretty impressive. No wonder you fell for him. I am glad he has mettle and a nice strong back bone. Those things are always good.’

‘Really? So what did he say to impress you so much?’, I ask.

‘Well, know that you are lucky to have found him. That boy would probably do anything for you. Such a fine man he is’.

‘What did he say mom?’, I try again.

She chuckles, but doesn’t say. Damn.

Episode 35

‘The samosas aren’t that bad. But the pani puris… The pani is too hot. Did she add the supermarket’s entire green chilli stock?’, asks Naren, gracing his presence for the BLANK group’s meet.

‘It’s okay I guess’, I champion Anitha who made the samosas and the pani puris but maybe with a bit too much zeal.

‘She says she diluted it as it was very hot. Can you imagine the first person who had it? Not going to have a good night’, he goes on.

‘Hey, this was her first time. If it is too much for you, don’t eat it’, yes, I am offended, on her behalf. I saw her slaving most of the day with these things.

‘I am the boyfriend. If I don’t….’, he hangs his head down dramatically with exaggerated shaking and a sigh deep enough to create vacuum around him. I laugh in spite of myself.

‘It’s bad isn’t it?’, Anitha asks, joining us under the tree Naren and I were standing.

‘It’s good Anitha. The pani puri, my god, I can feel the heat in all places, I have been wanting to have something this hot in forever. Brilliant’, Naren says, doing a one eighty and sounding sincere. I try very hard not to gape at him.

‘Thanks Naren.’, she smiles, sounding unconvinced.

‘Samosas are good. The pani is too hot. You can’t dilute it?’, I go for honesty.

She sighs. ‘It is diluted’.

Okay.

‘Karthik said he would get the readymade one, but I don’t think it will help. By the time he gets it and we make it, people might be gone.’

At the mention of his name I look for Karthik, my more-than-boyfriend, who is as usual having a conversation with Vivek and surprisingly Aravind.

The turnout was indeed good. We had a table with a three large plastic containers full of jewelry by Ishitha. One container had earrings, the other had bracelets and bangles, and the third one had assortment of many things like key chains, small containers, some decorative stuff, all small and very pretty. My colleagues had not only joined us, but brought their friends and other interested women who had gone  crazy at the earrings and bangles and helped a lot by buying a good number of them eventhough when one of them was trying on a earring, the dangler fell off and Ishitha  had a mini melt-down.

 Everyone had started arriving by five thirty in the evening. Once there was quite some crowd of around twenty people, I made a general announcement on what our group is and how anyone can give ideas and stuff. Fortunately, everyone listened.

We had then informed them of the stall.

I had also got the idea of getting people with similar interests to interact so I made an excel sheet(sigh) of all people who came in that day and their interests and tried introducing people with similar interests to each other. Aravind then went on recite a short story and a poem. The short story bounced off of me, but the poem did not entirely suck, it was a satirical take on young people’s obsession with belonging and was witty.

There were a group of book lovers who had started a discussion on some books and were wondering if they should read a new one before the next meet and discuss on that one too. I had introduced a girl probably just twenty or twenty one and who could sing and play guitar to Bala. There was another lady who had been an amateur model and trying to get work in television serials and I introduced her to Bala’s roommate. Wow, this could work, if people wanted it to.

One of the girls was interested in Ishitha’s jewelry-making and has been asking me if I can organize a class where she and a couple of her friends can learn few things. I made a note of such requests on another sheet on my excel as well. I had been pretty busy and seen with Vivek’s tab getting info and introducing people.

By the time we were ready for snacks, there were thirty eight people and I had an excel workbook with lot of sheets based on people’s interests. We were going to do some eating and then get ready to listen to Bala’s performance. Samosas were moving fast, the soft drinks were over, cake slices from Anitha’s chef friend were almost done, but the pani puris remained.

I look at Karthik now, wondering what he things of this. Karthik catches my eye after several seconds of me staring at him looking like a star-gazing idiot. Well what can I say, Karthik in a white Linen shirt and light blue jeans makes me want to use words like gorgeous and beautiful, in reference to a man, which I have used before but only in reference to Johnny Depp. Karthik isn’t Johnny Depp of course, he is his own brand of gorgeous and more so in my eyes and star-gaze I did.

‘Unexpected, but looks like there are a lot of people with a lot of free time in this area.’, I hear Aditya say behind me and I turn back to look at him.

‘He is just unwilling to credit you or Anitha with anything’, Ishwarya adds, standing next to him. Ishwarya as always, is very smartly dressed again, in a shirt and jeans, looking cool and smart. Aditya on the other hand was being lazy and was in shorts which we all frowned upon when he made his appearance.

‘Thanks Aditya, those were extremely encouraging words’, I add with a healthy dose of sarcasm.

‘You should go to a coffee shop or something next time, where there are more chairs and place to sit and if refreshments are needed people can order and pay for their own’, he suggests.

I look around. He is right. There were few spots for people to sit, along the cement fencing around the flower bed and garden, and some benches here and there. People were taking turns sitting. We had brought down very few chairs.

‘You are right. But food…’, I say looking at Anitha who is now talking to Karthik and Bala.

‘I will talk to her if you want’, Aditya offers. Cool.

‘Great’.

He squeezes my right shoulder in return. ‘So, Ishitha huh? She seems talented…’

‘Oh yeah, I don’t wear that kind of jewelry, but man, those key chains are pretty good. I bought a couple’, Ishwarya agrees.

‘Another slice of cake, Ishu?’, Aditya asks Ishwarya and she nods.

‘Congratulations are in order I guess’, Ishwarya tells me when he moves away.

‘Thanks’

‘You should come up with an app, it might make things easier..’, she says.

Not the first person to suggest. I am a developer and a couple of more guys as well, we could do it. But only second meet and an app? I nod thoughtfully.

‘I can help if you want. I mean, my brother can. He is anyways looking to present some project for his assignment in his class’.

‘Ohhh.. Really? Thanks Ishu, will let you know…’

Wow, more offers from people.

‘You are very busy’, Karthik comes to me at that time.

‘Yup’, I smile, while he moves closer and stands next to me.

Ishu smiles and excuses herself and moves away, probably looking for Aditya.

‘Thanks for helping with the list thing’, I tell him. He helped me by redirecting people to me so that I can collect their information for my excel sheet or noting down things on his phone so that I can add them to my list later.

‘No problem. Anything for you Priya’, he says.

Way cooooool.

I say looking at him stupidly, ‘So, satisfied? You need to do more observing?’

He chuckles turning towards me.

‘I did observe a lot. You have developed a habit of tugging at your necklace often’, he says.

I am wearing the pearl and the ruby necklace even though it doesn’t match my green tee and blue and green cotton palazzo pants.

‘Well, it gives me moral support.’, I tell him.

‘So, what you are saying is, me and a whole bunch of your friends here doesn’t give you moral support?’

‘Not so constantly’

‘You know I would constantly support you right?’

‘I know no such thing.’, I tell him, because, let’s face it, he thought this was unsafe.

‘Priya… I know I can be an idiot at times, but I always get over it and once I do, I will support you’, he says, his tone as that of being reasonable. Really?

‘Well, let’s see if you keep up the track record’, I add jokingly, even though I meant every word.

You see those forwards and memes on the internet about being explicit and dealing head on with men? Total bullshit. Men need to be handled, at times, because they were like those cute puppies chasing their own tails for considerable lengths of time when the mood strikes them and not so cute either.

'Pri.. Really though. I am kinda impressed. This could be something.', he says.
Wow, a direct compliment. Okay, he hasn't especially been stingy with compliments. It's only the apologies that are his pet peeves.
'Thanks Karthik.', I couldn't keep surprise out of my voice.
Karthik gives me a knowing smile. Needless to say, I continue to star-gaze.

‘Let’s move on to some music now? Our very talented Bala will perform for you some immortal works of Ilayaraja. I have been to his rehearsals and this man is good’, we hear Aravind making the announcement.

I find Bala and after pointedly looking at him for a few seconds he turns to look at me and I show him a thumbs up and mouth ‘All the best’ and for some weird reason wink at him. He smiles back, his one-sided dimple showing.

‘You two are best buds now?’, I hear Karthik murmuring, his arm going around my shoulders.

‘Shhh… He is going to play now. He has a serious case of nerves and yep, he is a good friend now’, I say, sounding stern. Karthik chuckles and his arm pulls me closer. I try to wriggle out, but really, he is strong and also I didn’t exactly not like it.

Bala just straightaway begins a song on his keyboards, one of my all-time favorites Ilayaraja number ‘Ilamai enum’. I have heard him play this before and he was much much better. This was very average and I couldn’t enjoy it as he missed few notes, played few incorrect ones and in between actually paused for a second or so.

‘He is nervous isn’t he?’, Karthik asks me.

‘Yup. Let me go talk to him’, I say, trying to move his arm away and he moves.

‘Keep the crowd occupied’, I tell Aravind and I go to Bala.

‘Nerves?’, I ask.

He nods. He looks mortified.

‘It wasn’t bad, you know’

‘I stopped midway, I am sure you noticed’

‘Lot of them didn’t. Don’t worry, you are going to play more right?’

‘I don’t know…’

‘Come on… you have to. I attended too many of your practices and rehearsals for you to stop now’

‘Ugh’, is all he says.

‘Talk to them Bala’

‘They won’t be interested’

‘Try?’

‘I dunno…’

‘Okay, talk to me or Aravind or Anitha and play’

He looks undecided and uncomfortable for a long time. Finally he nods.

‘Cool’, I say pat his left shoulder like some coach and walk back. When I reach wherever I had been standing with Karthik, I mouth ‘talk to us’.

Bala moves to Aravind who seems to have recited another one of his poems and says something to him.

‘Okay, here we go, Bala to perform another one for us..’

Bala makes initial tunes of another Ilayaraja song, ‘En iniya’, and then pauses to talk.

‘This used to be my ex’s favorite song. In fact, I think she fell for me when she heard me playing this on one of our practice sessions for some college event. I got especially good at this one just to impress her…’, he says and a lot of woohoos and yeahs and I-get-yous from the people in the crowd.

Bala relaxes just a little bit and plays some more and explains about certain notes.

Slowly, his confidence increases and by the time half the song is done he gets really good at it. I wish he had the confidence to play this on a guitar. I still find myself humming along and find a few others doing it too.

Bala proceeds to add anecdotes and talks on his experiences and starts playing really well and I find myself humming all along.

‘You hum well’, I hear Karthik say during one of the pauses.

‘I can sing too you know, I did get trained’

‘Why don’t you perform then?’

‘Not that interested. I sing to myself these days.’

‘In the bathroom?’

‘In the bathroom, while getting ready, when doing anything that doesn’t require a lot of brain activity and so on’

‘You do hum well’, he reiterates.

I smile. ‘Yeah I probably do’

‘I like it’, he says.

I turn to look at him. Something tells me that he has been looking at me this whole time.

‘Okay’, I say, very profound and all that.

‘Priya’, I hear my name being mentioned and I realize that Bala is thanking me for all the help.

I smile very good-naturedly at him.

He then plays another song and we all applaud him.

People start dispersing, a few offering to help with the tables and in cleaning up and stuff. I feel a relief that this ordeal is done. The minute I feel the relief, another panic seizes me.

Shit. I race to find Karthik sampling the last of the cake talking to Anitha and Vivek.

‘Karthik’, I nearly scream.

‘hey, Pri… Is everything alright?’

‘No, it isn’t.. Come let’s go, I need to train you…’

‘Train me?’

‘About my father? For tomorrow?’

‘Shit’

Karthik seems to agree with my sentiments.

'Crap', he adds, yep, they are synonyms, I agree.

Episode 34

‘Shan feels you are not a workaholic anymore. Which probably isn’t true. You are a workaholic.’, I tell him, very calmly.

‘Sorry?’

‘Yep. Shan spoke to me today, your parents have been talking to him about me. He told me he supports me because you have changed after meeting me that you are not a workaholic these days.’

‘I was never a workaholic’

Yep. That is what a workaholic would say.

‘That is anyways beside the point. You also have no clue on prioritization.’

‘Sorry?’

‘We watched a movie, which I have seen at least ten times already. I was reciting the dialogs.’

‘Yeah.’, he says with a smile as to what he thought about that.

‘You couldn’t bring up this topic all that time?’

‘Sorry?’

Grrrrr. What the hell?

‘You are about to leave now right?’

‘Yeah?’

‘You tell me your parents want to meet mine now?’

‘Yeah, it was just FYI. I have no plans of letting them all meet until they are much more settled.’

‘Huh?’

‘You have to tell your dad and I am not sure how that is going to go, at least you have your mother’s support. But let’s say he doesn’t like the idea for whatever reason, then he needs convincing, besides, I am not sure if my parents want to meet yours to bungle this up or to get things going. So I am just telling you. I can stall, we have time.’

Ohhhhh. My mouth actually forms an ‘O’. I freaked for a minute there.

He He. Okay. I am calm now.

‘So you have to tell your dad.’

‘I… Well.. Okay’

Or I should stage a scenario where he finds it out himself and all I have to do is give an explanation. That seems easier.

‘I think your dad will be fine though. He liked me a lot.’, Karthik goes on.

‘You know that how?’

‘He told me so, several times.’

Does he sound smug?

‘Did your parents like me? I know they don’t like me now, but at that time?’

‘They were happy that I had agreed’

Okay. How warm and loving.

‘Priya?’

‘Yeah? Wait, I still don’t get why you agreed to marry me. I did not speak well with you, neither did you try. What were you thinking?’

‘I was under huge pressure from my parents. I couldn’t think of a reason to say no to you, so I thought, why not’.

I look up at him. It sounded like he wasn’t entirely telling me the truth. Well, truth could have been worse, so I can continue in this world without burdening myself with it.

‘Words every girl wants to hear’

Karthik chuckles.

‘I also want to hear about your group meet thing..’

‘Yeah, I think it is going to be good. More people. Friends and friends of friends and few strangers have all confirmed. I am kind of excited.’

‘Cool. I am going to be living at work for a couple more days… I will be there for the event though’

‘Okay, not workaholic!’

‘So, when will you talk to your dad?’, he says ignoring my jibe.

‘I will drop by tomorrow or day after. Maybe we should go hang out in front of his office building and hope he sees us and confronts us.’

Karthik laughs.

‘You are never going to grow up completely are you?’

‘What are you talking about?’, I ask, mock-ignorant.

He kisses the top of my head.

‘Bye Pri. Be careful Pri.’, he says when I squeeze his hand with my injured one and wince in the process.

I go to the bed room.

‘All good?’, Anitha asks.

‘Yup’, I smile.

‘You guys are the least likely couple I have ever known.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You are quirky, but very likeable, he is refined and I don’t know intense and scary at times. You don’t know most of the time what you are doing, he knows and plans and is very thoughtful. You are so trusting, open and generous, he is reserved when it comes to anything a little more than acquaintance, picky and choosy. I have no idea how you two get along. But you are actually together and it seems to work’

‘Really? You think so?’

She just nods.

‘Well, I can’t speak for him, but I am completely myself with him. I have come to learn that at the end of the day, he will be there for me. I would do almost anything for him. He also seems to understand without effort’

‘Oh my god, so gushyyy’, she jokes.

‘You make fun of me, let’s see about you and Naren’, I say.

Anitha’s face loses the smile she was wearing. Trouble?

‘Anitha?’

‘I don’t think we are working out.’

Oh no.

‘You want to talk about it?’

She shakes her head.

‘Few months back, if I had known you and if this had happened, I would have advised you that all is well, that, you should try. But now, after knowing what it is and what it feels like, I am going to tell you that you are the best person to judge whether it works or not, because you are the one involved. I.. I know I am Naren’s friend. But I am also yours. So, if you tell me it isn’t working, for whatever reason, I will support you. I will also be there for Naren if and when he needs me. But before you do anything, just be sure… okay?’

She nods.

‘So you decided the menu for the meet?’

‘Yup. I have my friend’s friend helping me. I am going to make samosas and try making pani puri, he is going to make some cake-type thing and we are going to buy soft drinks and stuff.’

‘He?’

‘Yup. He is a chef. From next time, we need to collect some entry fee, do you have any idea how much all this cost?’

‘We will split it with whoever is willing. We’l see about the next time? Or you can sell the refreshments, instead of just serving it up, kind of like Ishitha’s stall’.

Anitha talks about other arrangements for the meet. We watch some funny videos on YouTube and then sleep.

************************************************************************************

‘Priya, do you want more pakodas?’, my dad asks. I was in the training, which got over earlier, so I decided to come meet my parents and if the timing is right, tell my father about Karthik.

My mother had made pakodas which she makes from left-over rice and it is always yummy and I always ate a lot more than I should.

 ‘Definitlely’, he dumps those he had in his plate to mine to go get more for himself. My mom is making them fresh, so she is still frying away.

‘So, the first meet is tomorrow?’, my mom comes into the living room with a huge plate of pakodas. How much left-over rice was there?

‘Nooo, it’s the second!’

‘Really? I don’t think I heard about the first one.’, my dad tries to remember.

‘Ummm.. Well.. I didn’t tell you about the first one really.’

‘Why? Why didn’t you?’, my mom asks.

‘I don’t know, just wanted to see how it works out first I guess. Not that it has like launched and taken off, but you know….’

‘Be careful anyways, I don’t think I am comfortable with you doing all this. Who knows what kind of people turn out for these things.’, my dad goes on.

‘It’s fine dad’

‘Is Naren and all involved in this too?’, my dad knew Naren from college days. He was an overprotective parent and made it a point to know every person I knew and had all their phone numbers with him too.

‘Yes, of course’, I tell a white lie.

‘Be careful though. Be sensible.’, he advises.

Right. ‘Yeah sure dad. I will be’. I will try for sure.

‘These days, all this online stuff.. People probably don’t know it can be misused’.

Nope. WE all know how it can be misused.

I just smile at him reassuringly.

‘It’s fine, let her do something. She is doing it in her apartment complex’s place. It will be safe’, my mother says.

‘Yup. It is very safe.  There is security and everything.’, one guy, but still, it could calm my dad.

‘Well, maybe we will drop by sometime and see for ourselves?’, he goes on.

I knew this was coming.

‘Yup, sure dad’

This time my mother goes into the kitchen, I follow her.

‘What is it?’, she asks me.

‘I want to tell dad’

‘Tell him? Tell him what?’

‘You know, about Karthik, unless you have already told him?’, I panic. I have known my mother not to be a great secret-keeper, she told everything to my dad.

‘No, I haven’t told him, I have to explain how I came to know and that would have been a disaster.’

Yup, definitely.

‘Please tell him. Everytime you say you are busy, he keeps asking me why you are so busy.’

Ugh. I can’t use that excuse anymore, can I?

‘But, I don’t know, he has just accepted that you are really living away from home.’

‘Mom, should I tell him or not?’

‘You have to at some point, so if you want to tell him now, you should. But, why do you want to tell him now?’

I sigh. ‘A very long story’.

My mother shakes her head. ‘Doesn’t sound like a good story’

I shake my head now. Sometimes I feel I have my mom’s body language. That isn’t a good epiphany.

My mother points at two cups of coffee she has been making and I pick them up and head to the living room.

I hand one cup to my dad.

‘You should stay for dinner, call your friends too’, growing up my dad was always finding ways to meet my friends and when he did, it would be an interrogation.

‘They will be busy dad’, I tell him.

‘How do you know? You didn’t even ask..’

‘Okay, I have something to tell you’

‘Yeah? What is it Priya ma?’, he asks, very sweetly. Shit. I feel my palms and other cutaneous areas sweat.

‘Ummm.. Well… I…’

I look at mom. She has her face blank.

‘I.. Okay… This is..’

‘What is it Priya? Last time you were trying to tell me something and was unable to, you were asking me to come to meet your school principal because you refused to take a Physics test as you didn’t like some chapter?’.

Shit.

‘Dad… I…’

My dad begins to say something but my mom interrupts.

‘Let her say it’

I take a deep breath.

‘You know Karthik right?’

Of course he knows Karthik.

‘Why? Has he been bothering you?’

‘Ummm. No.. We kind of accidentally met a few months back and.. well… we are… okay. We have decided that we want to get married now.’

There. I said it. Shit. But I said, we decided we want to get married. What if my dad wanted us to get married as soon as possible.

‘What?’

‘Ya.. I mean..’

‘I thought you didn’t want to marry him. You stopped the engagement. He is such a good boy, but you stopped the engagement.’

‘Umm… I…..’

‘I don’t understand’, he says and looks at my mom. I look at my mom because I don’t know how to make him understand.

‘Well, they met later accidentally, like she said, and I think they fell in love. She is telling you that she not just likes the guy we chose for her, but she actually loves him’

Wow. My mother always knows what to say and how to say it.

My dad visibly looks like he is trying to process this.

‘Priya, I liked Karthik a lot. He was a sure-footed guy’, okay, couldn’t agree more and he still is.

‘But, we were the ones to stop the wedding, I don’t think it will go well if we approach them again. They might not like you or us anymore.’

Ohhhh. I didn’t think that my father would think in that angle. I look at my mother and it looks like she might have been worrying about it too.

‘Karthik has told about us to his parents too. I don’t think it will be a problem’, I tell him.

‘Priya, I think sometimes your hasty decisions bite you back always. This is one of those times. I don’t think this is going to go well. Karthik, well, Karthik I can see is good. But I am worried the kind of life you would have with his family… He is an only son. I don’t want you to start your life with all that negativity.’

What does one say to that?

‘No dad. It will be fine. I assure you, Karthik will take care of it.’

My dad though looks at my mom.

‘You knew?’

My mom nods.

‘And?’

‘They like each other. I saw them. I don’t know what the future holds, but I know we cannot say no.’

I didn’t know that is how she felt. That she cannot say no. Okay, technically, their saying no wouldn’t matter, I would end up convincing them. But still.

I observe while my mom and dad look at each other. I wasn’t expecting drama because quite obviously my parents like Karthik a little too much and seems to have no issues with this.

‘I need to meet with Karthik.’

‘Sure dad. After the meet, the day after tomorrow, I will bring him…’

‘No Priya. I want to meet him alone.’

What? No way. That cannot be good for Karthik and I would go crazy playing the innumerable possible scenarios in my head.

‘Dad, no, I mean, Mom, this cannot…’

‘Priya, you told us what you want. Now we have to do what we have to do.’, my mother uses her this-is-final-you-can-scream-till-you-rupture-your-larynx voice.

Crap. Who would have predicted this outcome?

‘Now, you will stay, have dinner with us’, my dad goes on.

‘Ummmm… I….’

‘Priya, we selected Karthik for you as much as you did. I am glad that you like him, I just wish it was five months ago and not now’.

‘I….’

‘If you want me to understand and support you, you will do it by being here and helping us understand’

‘Okay’

So rest of the time I stayed there I tried to act as if nothing significant took place today here. My father asked me very off-handedly and not trying not to sound intrusive about Karthik. I try to sound like we had a very platonic friendship kind of relationship. I mean in my mind that is the best way to play things.

We sit down for dinner and this is how it goes.

‘Priya, can you pass the chutney?’

‘Okay’

‘So how did you accidentally meet again?’

I try not to spew the water I have been drinking.

‘Well, I was giving a treat to Anitha, Naren, Vivek and Aditya. I saw him at the restaurant we went to.’

‘Isn’t that the time your cousin said he saw you?’, my mother asks. She always had a sharp memory.

I nod. Of course we met at a “restaurant”.

Then we eat silently for some time. I try to divert them.

‘So, then how is he? What is he upto these days?’

‘Yes, he is fine. He is busy with work, you know what, he got this award at work…’

‘Oh really?’

‘Yep, It was this huge thing, in a five star hotel and great food…’, and then I stop myself, what am I doing? Why am I volunteering all this information?

‘Oh, so you went for that?’ , my father asks this to me but looks at my mother and there is some heavy communicating going on there.

‘Ummm.. yeah, I mean, he asked me to. I was there like for just some half hour…’

I am a frog. I will die by wagging my chin.

‘Is that your whatsapp profile picture? In that saree? You said it was your work party.’

Shit.

‘No no, that was from my work party’

Both my parents are very unconvinced.

‘So, what is this? Movie kind love? You would die for each other type?’, my father asks.

‘Ummm.. No.. I wouldn’t die for him..’, I mean, I wouldn’t. That is just stupid.

‘Okay, so what is it that made you change your mind?’, my mother asks.

How do I get myself into these situations? Just how?

Are parents supposed to ask all this? Does this happen to everyone?

‘Ummm… I don’t know.. We just kind of… clicked?’

‘Really? Why didn’t that happen before?’, my father sticking to his theme of why oh why couldn’t I have decided this before.

‘It just didn’t happen before….’, lame, but true.

I keep silent and try not to provoke or indulge them. But the rest of the dinner goes on in similar fashion.

I go to kitchen to help my mother and also bracing myself for what she is going to say.

‘It’s okay Priya. Your father is just shocked.’, she tells me in the same tone that she said to put those dishes into the sink.

‘He wans to meet Karthik alone. Why do you think?’

‘I think he is worried about Karthik’s parents. His father and mother are very straight-forward people who were very affected when the engagement was broken. He probably wants to assess if Karthik can convince them or do the right thing if he cannot.’

Ohhh. Really?

‘Right thing?’

‘Support you and not ask you to put up with things because you are in a way the source of the problem?’

‘Umm… ya, of course he will, he doesn’t think I am the source of the problem…’

‘Priya, he is an only son. He is everything for his parents, just like you are for us.’

I can only get the general idea of what that statement could mean.

We leave the kitchen, I say bye.

‘Day after tomorrow. Ask Karthik to be here okay?’, my dad reminds me.

‘Okay’

‘Okay, day after I am meeting your father. What time should I pick you up?’, Karthik asks me, over phone. He is at work. I am heading home with a box of food for Anitha (although four people can have a hearty dinner from the box) after convincing my father that he needn’t drop me home.

‘No. You are meeting my father. I am going to be here silently getting a stroke because of excessive nervous activity.’

Karthik remains silent for the longest time.

‘Shit’, is what I hear muttered on the other side, followed by an even lower ‘Fuck’. Okay, he needs another minute.

‘Okay. I will meet him then.’

‘Yeah okay.’

I hear another muttered ‘Shit’.

I had to laugh.

‘Yup, this is funny for you’

‘No, it isn’t. Just your reaction.’

‘I am coming over tonight’, he says. Yayy.

‘It is night’

‘I mean, later tonight’

‘Okay. You want dinner?’

‘You cooked or cooking?’

‘Mom sent a box’

‘Yeah, okay.’

Mean!

'See ya then'.

Episode 33

‘So, aren’t you going back?’, I ask him.

‘You want me to leave?’, he asks.

‘Umm.. you told your parents you would be back.’

‘Pri.. Don’t worry..’

‘They will know you are here and would probably guess…’, I say, bite my tongue, bury my face into his chest because really, they would guess and assume a lot. We were both lying on my bed, I was in my night shirt and Karthik was shirtless. There wasn’t much space so we had to make do and it was perfect.

I hear Karthik chuckling through his chest’s rumble. It then changes to a laugh.

‘I am being serious’, I raise my head to look at him.

He does some complicated raising and bending move and plants his lips on the middle of my head, kissing my hair.

‘I know. And you are right, I have to leave. I just don’t want to.’

Well, it is close to midnight. If whatever happened today didn’t cause a scandal, if he didn’t leave now, I would never be able to face his parents. They declared I am uncultured already.

I get up and move away, swiftly walking out of the room. Karthik follows me out of the bed but while I continue on to the living room, he remains. When he enters the living room while I rummage through the fridge, he is dressed, but his slick hair is all messed up. What can I say, I like this look as well.

‘Milk?’, I ask him, the only thing in the fridge to fill my stomach.

He shakes his head. I head to the kitchen to warm the milk up. Karthik follows me there.

‘Priya, it will be fine.’

I look up at him, he indeed looks fine and calm and at peace. I on the other hand am running the risk of being branded a slut, by his parents.

‘You don’t get it’, I state the truth.

The milk having warmed to a comfortable temperature I transfer it to a mug and add a spoon of honey. I start sipping it.

‘I promise, it will be fine’, he assures me. His arms around me while I continue to religiously sip more of the milk.

Well, it is spoilt milk, nothing to be done. Okay, not spoilt milk, I don’t want to call this spoilt. Spilled milk then. What’s with all the milk analogies?

I shrug.

‘I really have to go though’, he says unnecessarily, don’t I know that?

I nod. I take a sip again while I hear him chuckle, yet again. Exactly what is funny now?

‘Pri come on. This is like…’, he says sounding all upbeat.

‘Like?’

‘Nothing, forget it’, he says, but he smiles.

I smile. I mean, I smile brilliantly. He is totally right.

Karthik looks at my smile and his eyes turn intense-gleamy-possessive-sexy and a million other things. He drops his head, pulls my life giving cup of milk out of my hand, places it god-knows-where and kisses me in a way which could be called meditation.

‘I have to leave’, he says looking down at me.

I nod. He sighs.

‘This is going to get difficult.’, he says and moves away. I move back to lean against the counter as I am not entirely sure my legs can support me.

‘Lock the door Pri’, he informs. I follow him, lock the door behind him, fetch my cup of milk and go to my room.

I fold the saree to put it away and go to sleep.

******************************************************************************* 

‘Hi Priya’, I hear Shan’s voice and I look up from my laptop to find Shan’s face smirking down at me.

‘Hello Shan’

‘Got five minutes?’, he asks and points to a meeting room about ten feet away from my cubicle.

I quickly save the files I have been working on and get up and follow him. What now?

‘Yes Shan’, I say, once we go into a room.

‘Okay, so we are going to work on another business proposal, we need you on the team, Sukanya is putting together the same team again’

That’s yayyyy. Work might just get interesting after a long time.

‘That’s nice. I would like that.’

‘Also, we have identified you for a training, if you are interested there is one slot in the next week, the next one would be in the next quarter. I know it is a bit late notice, if you are interested though, you can attend the training.’

‘What is it about?’

‘Sukanya recommended it for you. I will send you all the details.’

‘Sure’

‘It is an expensive training and there is an assignment at the end which you have to complete…’

Assignment? Really? I haven’t really heard that word since college. I try to control my impulse to hang my head. I just nod.

‘Okay, Priya. That was it.’

Really? He asked me into a meeting room for this?

The question must have shown on my face. Shan’s smirk transforms and a smirk-smile takes its place. Let me tell you, the transformation is only a slight improvement.

‘Priya, if you don’t mind, can I ask you something?’

‘Ummm..’, I hesitate. Tread carefully Pri. ‘Ya, okay’.

For a brief fraction of a second, the smile component in his smirk-smile beats the smirk component.

‘I just want to ask if you are alright?’

‘Sure, I am alright!’, huh?

‘Priya… I heard about what happened in Ri.. Karthik’s award dinner…’

Ohhhh… That was two days ago and I have been having nightmares about it. To top that, Karthik has been really busy and I have only been speaking to him over phone and I have to tell you, although I know he is very busy and all that, I still feel a slight panic like I am vulnerable for whatever idiotic reason. Man, no wonder people made a big deal about losing one’s virginity. I needed some form of reassurance from Karthik for whatever unknown reason that had its roots in anthropology. And, to top all that, I have been talking to my mother for not more than two minutes everytime she calls and I have successfully avoided talking to my dad at all. Seriously, the conditioning these people have subjected me to, Tamil culture and all that.

‘Priya?’, Shan breaks through my not-so-great thoughts.

I take a deep breath to calm myself.

‘Yeah, I am alright. Did Karthik tell you?’

Shan chuckles. I see it real-live, so I have to believe he can chuckle.

‘As if, Karthik is someone who is very very adept in keeping every part of his life completely separate. He doesn’t mix up home, relationships, work, friends, parents etc, he keeps everything separate’

Hmmm. I did not know this about him. But I… Damn, I have to get rid of this feeling of something missing and wrong I have been feeling since the day I woke up after the award show and haven’t been able to meet Karthik in two days since.

‘Then?’

‘His parents told me. Rather, they wanted to ask me how I could let this happen and also not so subtly asked me about you. They seem to be thinking you have some ulterior motive’

I sigh.

‘Don’t worry, I put in a good word for you. Also Karthik hasn’t been home much, he is busy with work, but his parents think he is wantedly avoiding them so wanted me to talk to him’

I ponder on sharing my real thoughts on this, something along the lines of not caring what his parents thought or did. I know though that I am just feeling it now because the other day still stings.

So I keep quiet.

‘That bad huh?’, Shan asks.

‘Not really’,  I say.

‘I know uncle and aunty. Both are very straight forward’.

That is one way to put it.

‘Yep. They are’

‘Priya, I want you to know, I support you. They asked me and I told them I support you’

Wow. Where did this come from? Wait, it is good he supports me. But really, why does it matter? Or should I take it as a good sign that Karthik’s parents reached out to Shan? Ugh. Everything is complicated. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G.

Shan smiles for the first time ever at me.

‘We have all been observing Karthik, he had become a workaholic. We would have to do a lot of finagling to get him to meet us. That is changing. I used to wish it were because of someone else, but it is you. He isn’t obsessed like the last time.. This is good for him.’

I heard only one sentence from that mini-speech. Karthik was obsessed the last time? As in Deepika last time? I probably shouldn’t care but where is said obsession now? There were definitely some good points about me there. Who cares? He was obsessed?

‘Ohhhh’, I say lamely.

‘Anyways, I will send you details on the training and the new project as well. Okay?’

‘Yup, sure.’

I have been stuck with an issue for a day now and all the googling in the world hasn’t helped. I spoke to people and they don’t have a clue too. I even resorted to raising a bug against the software we are using in the hopes they would give a way how to do it to not fix the bug and to hasten the process I posted in their public forum. That hasn’t helped, yet. So I am looking forward to anything at all, work wise or any-wise.

So, I do the most sensible thing and begin obsessing about Karthik. I call him, he doesn’t answer. I text him, no response.  

I look at the new project, it is some company trying to sell ebooks and audio books. Really? This late in the game? Just because I helped with the library product, did they think I became a book expert of any sort? The last book I read was in my teens and it was the Chicken soup for teenage soul.

Now I go back to checking the issue, but the only issue is I cannot concentrate. After several minutes of pretending to try to concentrate, I give up. Fuck it. I am done for the day. It is not like I am going to get any award in this year. Karthik is the award-winning type. Shit.

I just leave and as an afterthought, drop a mail to Shan saying I am not feeling well and leaving for the day, which he would definitely know is a lie and probably would end up reconsidering his not-important-support. Life is a vicious circle, believe you me.

I reach home and call Anitha. She says she will try to come home early. I switch off my phone and decide to sleep. So that is what I do.

When I wake up it is because the air conditioner in my room has long gone off, as evidenced by the not so light perspiration I am covered in and I realize there has been a power cut. The bower back up should have kicked in, but the air conditioner probably wouldn’t be linked to that source. So I get up and switch on the fan and open some windows. I test the water in the bathroom pipe, it is scorching hot. Okay, no point showering now. I go in search of something cool to drink and luckily find some smoothie type of thing in a jug. Lucky because I invited Anitha to be my roommate, Anitha being the type of girl who made juices and smoothies and lived by some code of standards she set for herself. She is almost obsessive about these things, wait, she is obsessive about everything.

After I finish with half a jug of the smoothie which had banana in it so really couldn’t taste anything else, I go into the kitchen and find the tender coconut we had gotten the day before. It is the fresh one sliced off at the top and with a bit more slicing and picking at it, I should be able to get to the coconut water. Unfortunately we do not have any sharp and big knifes or the small sickle type things that the tender coconut vendor people use. I take my not so sharp but sturdy kitchen knife and hack at the top.

After spilling a little bit of blood and screaming bloody murder during the process, I succeed in extracting the cool water from the tender coconut. I prioritize, drink it while washing off the blood on my left index finger under the hot water from the sink. We do not have a central water heating boiler or heater. It is just the result of midday sun’s happy activity. I find some band-aid to cover the cut, but realize that the cut is bigger for one band-aid and from the looks of it, I need at least three of them. I douse a lot of anti-septic liquid on it while crying at the sting and wrap a white bandage around it after placing a cotton swab. The bleeding hasn’t entirely stopped but looks like I am good at this bandage wrapping thing. Good to know. Also, there went half our supply of first-aid (which my mother bought and forcibly packed and ensured I kept it in an easily reachable spot). I need to top up on that now.

I know I should have eaten lunch but I wasn’t hungry and besides, in this heat, lunch is overrated, I mean, digestion process generated more heat in the body, who would want that when the temperature is nearing a forty degrees?

The wi-fi isn’t connected to the back-up power source and the cable was situated in a corner where there can never be air of any sort at any time. So I go browse Anitha’s book collection. I expected her to have romances and suspenses.

What I found were lot of self-help books, books on focusing the mind, on healthy mind, meditation and stuff, self-control, there were some philosophical books etc. There should be some story there, if she read all these books all the time and they were not those books advising on how to be successful. I would like to know but I am not the type that pries until really needed. I pick a book on focus, I mean, really I needed to do that.

I read about the author, the brief introduction in the back, the author’s note, some reviews on the book and the author and the list of famous people who have found the book to be useful. I read the acknowledgements. I mean, books? Not my type. Self-help books? I mentally scoff at myself for attempting. So that is how Anitha finds me, dozing on the couch, my tank top ridden up to expose my not-so-flat tummy, the book on my chest open and face-down, my wounded arm carefully lifted up and away resting above my head on the armrest and god knows where my other arm is.

‘Oh my god. Are you alright? That is a huge bandage.’, is her first reaction when I open one eye and try to focus it on her.

Ohh.. Is it? Maybe I overdid it? I bring my hand to inspect and it looked proportional to the size of the cut and there was now dried blood on it. Okay, looks like it wasn’t really a minor cut. On hindsight, the knife wasn’t very sharp, so for my finger to bleed so much it must have been a deep cut and I must have put a lot of force into the whole cutting process, that does not result in small cuts. Great looking bandage though, with the dried blood and all that. I can milk this.

‘Well, I was trying to cut open the tender coconut.’

‘You used the knife?’

‘Yes.’

‘I was going to borrow the sickle from our neighbour’

‘You know to use it?’

‘I was going to ask Naren or someone else to do it.’

Ohh. Well. I shrug.

‘Are you alright?’

‘I think so’

Anitha shakes her head.

‘You really need someone to take care of you, don’t you?’

Huh? Not really. I just glare at her. Okay, so I cut myself, I took care of it. I didn’t bleed all over the place and call her for help or an ambulance. I didn’t need someone to take care of me.

‘Did it help?’, she asks next pointing at the book.

‘I read that lot of famous people found it useful.’

Anitha smiles and sits down on the chair next to the couch. I get up and adjust my attire.

I pick up the bottle of water wedged between me and the couch and hand it to her.

‘Are you alright?’, she asks me.

‘Yup. Just no mood to work’

She looks at me for a beat and nods.

‘You want to go to Ishitha’s place?’

‘I was thinking of checking up on Bala’

‘We could do both. It is not even five’

So I shower, get ready, put on an oversized tee shirt belted around waist and a pair of palazzos that went together only if you really wanted them to. I put on Ishitha’s bracelet. I leave my phone behind, after switching it on and finding no messages or calls. I needed a break from it.

We reach Ishitha’s place. We tell her we intend to visit Bala. She seems to have been working on something for her advertising agency and was stuck and wanted to get away. She worked from home most of the days and went into the office only for meetings or if she isn’t able to do things from home or if she was bored and needed a change of scene.

Since Ishitha needed a break from her place, we all head to Bala’s place.

Bala isn’t doing any rehearsing of any sort, even though I was supposed to see him rehearse, he had been to a party the previous day and had gotten piss-drunk and had been nursing a hangover the whole day and wanted to get some air.

So we decided to go to the beach even though the beach was quite far from Bala’s place. Anitha gets a call and we hear her inviting someone over to join the beach. I look at her in question.

‘It is Ishwarya, from the New Year’s party? She wanted to hang out.’

‘Oh cool.’

Around that time Bala gets a call and he invites someone over too.

‘That was?’, Anitha asks.

‘Aravind. He wanted to hang out.’

‘Okay cool’.

Ishitha looks at us with a question.

‘The writer guy’, I explain.

‘Ahhh, the show-off’

Yup.

Everyone nods agreeably.

We reach the beach and Ishwarya is already there. Bala buys and eats everything that is there on the beach while we look at him questioning our decision to bring him along.

Anitha and I introduce Ishitha and Ishwarya and just point Bala out to her. WE decided to wait for him to get over his eating disorder probably caused by the excessive alcohol from the previous day.

Aravind arrives in some time and introduces himself to everyone and seems to look very impressed with Ishwarya. He already offered to buy her some ice-cream.

Once Bala is back, we all head to the actual shore line and stand in knee deep water and effectively get wet much higher with the waves. Come on, you don’t swim in Chennai’s public beaches. Besides, I don’t know swimming.

The evening feels cool probably because we are at the shore but also there is a breeze which has begun to get cooler. I forget about everything and just enjoy chasing the waves. The breeze kind of gains strength and the winds pick up.

I look at my now wet bandage and realize the fresh sting is from all the salt water and the sand. Shit. That is stupid.

‘I think I need to wash this.’, I tell Anitha. She looks at my bandage and freaks out.

‘Priyaaaa. I forgot too. I am so sorry, you need to wash it immediately. Let me come with you’

‘That’s okay. I will just get a bottle of mineral water and do it.’

She nods. I start walking away.

After few steps I hear someone calling out my name. I turn back to see Bala following me.

He jogs the last few feet when I stop and joins me.

‘Phew. Are you alright?’

I show him my hand.

He chuckles. ‘You are a bit of an idiot’, he gives his opinion unasked.

Since I don’t have a comeback, I smile.

‘Are you alright?’

‘Yeah, why do you ask?’

‘You have been very silent’

‘Have I? Really?’

‘Yep’, he smiles. Belatedly, I realize he has a dimple on his left cheek alone.

‘I never noticed that one sided dimple before’

‘Really? It has been there forever. Part of my charm.’

I laugh. ‘What charm? The charm of you eating three plates of bhajjis?’

‘Okay, we won’t talk about charm today.’

We walk in silence.

We soon see a shop which had mineral water. I ask for a bottle and Bala insists on buying. I don’t get it. I couldn’t win the argument so I let him buy.

I open the bandage and find some sand inside it.

‘Wow. How did you get that?’

‘Self-inflicted’, I say and his eyes widen.

‘Here, let me pour the water, you clean it. Also, you need another bandage and you need to leave.’

‘Yup.’

With his help, I get the wound cleaned. I borrow his phone to call Anitha. I ask her to remain and inform her that I will go back home. Even though I ask Bala to get back to the group he doesn’t. He insists on accompanying me back home.

I feel slightly awkward at his announcement. He calls for a cab and we leave.

After debating internally on how to tell him am not available, given the fact that diplomacy is not my strong suite. I go at it directly.

‘So Bala, do you have a girlfriend?’

Bala looks mildly shocked and I realize how I must have sounded.

‘Nope. I don’t’, he says.

‘Ohhh… You know I have a boyfriend right?’, yup, I am very adept at these things.

Bala looks mildly shocked again, but doesn’t say anything.

‘Ummm…. I…’, how do I explain further?

‘You think I am trying something here?’, he asks, amused.

I nod. He chuckles self-consciously.

‘I know you have a boyfriend, I saw him. I just… Well, I..’, he pauses. ‘I just think you are great and I like hanging out with you and I find you very easy to be with. I am sure everyone feels it.’

Huh? I don’t think so. I had very few friends growing up. After my friend Swathi moved from India, I didn’t even attempt to mingle with others, I didn’t believe I could make good friends, until I moved out of my parents’ place.

‘Forget I said anything.. Just I…’

‘I get it. You must be used to guys hitting on you all the time’

I laugh.

‘Guys don’t hit on me. At all.’

‘Probably because they get confused’

‘Confused?’

‘Yeah, you are very unreadable. I mean, you are open and all that, but it is extremely unclear whether you are interested or not.’

Huh? Wasn’t Karthik telling me all the time that he can see most of what I am thinking?

‘I am sure Karthik would disagree’

‘Yep, that is why he is your boyfriend’, Bala says, giving me free relationship insight.

I smile.

We reach my place. He leaves because let’s face it, we were dragging beach sand everywhere and I wanted to get rid of my clothes, soak in clean water and change, he must be feeling it too.

I go up to my apartment. I shower for the third time and use my first aid kit for the second time. I change into a comfortable white tank top and uber-big and comfortable yellow pyjama bottoms. Anitha had promised to get me dinner so all I need is to relax.

I feel something is off and realize my phone is still off and I don’t have it in my hand. No sooner I switch it on I get texts on all the calls I missed and an actual text message from Karthik that he will be in ten minutes which was sent about ten minutes ago, so he should be here anytime. I see my mom has called and so has Karthik, several times. I hear my doorbell in few minutes.

I go to open it and Karthik enters, wearing a white tee shirt and dark blue jeans. He looks tired.

‘Hi’, I smile at him.

‘I am sorry’, he says entering.

‘For?’

‘I was so damn busy, there was an issue we didn’t know how to fix’

‘Tell me about it’, I didn’t know how to fix the issue at my work too. Although I am sure mine wasn’t a pressing issue.

‘Fix it?’

‘Nope. But found a solution’

‘Cool’

‘You okay? Anitha told me you took the day off’

‘Nope. I didn’t. I just took the second half off’

Karthik chuckles.

‘I don’t think I am a fan of you and Anitha being such good friends that you call her and all that’

‘I wouldn’t have to call her if your phone was on’

‘Well.. Yeah, some problem with the battery’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah.. of course’

Karthik and I had settled on the couch. He pulls me towards him.

‘Anitha spoke a lot. She had a few things to say to me.’

‘Ohhh’

He picks up my wounded hand. ‘You should be careful’, he says softly pressing around the bandage.

I nod. He picks up my hand and kisses it.

‘I am sorry, it wasn’t intentional, and I really got busy’

‘It’s okay.’

‘Apparently, it wasn’t okay’

I sigh.

‘It is okay now’, Bala set me right.

‘You don’t want to talk about it?’

‘Nope.’

‘Okay. I don’t know what to do with you then’

I raise my eyebrows at him. ‘I came prepared to beg, mope and cry for forgiveness’.

‘Why?’

‘I know how your brain works’, he doesn’t, I hope not. ‘Okay, I don’t, but I have experience in dealing with women, and given the fact that you were calling me and I wasn’t really talking well and with Anitha filling in the gaps…..’

Ugh. Not a good thing to bring that up though.

Karthik chuckles. He of course knew I am feeling a tiny bit jealous.

‘So Anitha is bringing dinner?’, he asks.

‘Yeah. We should tell her to get some for you as well.’

‘Texting…’, he says and texts her.

‘What do you want to do now?’

‘You want to watch some movie?’, I ask him.

‘Sure, why not?’, he says, combing through my wet hair with his fingers.

So we do just that and this is an entirely new experience because I never sat that close to anyone and he didn’t seem to mind that a little more and I would be on him, not next to him.

Later, much later, after Anitha has come in with burgers for us and after she showers and joins us and we all eat together and Anitha goes into the room with a book in hand, Karthik hugs me, kisses me and as is his habit, drops a bomb at the most unsuspecting of moments.

‘My parents want to meet yours.’