‘
Yeh lo, ladki vaalon ki taraf se
,’ Girish said offering me the box of pastries.
We were in a jolly mood and, adding to the delight, it started drizzling outside. Shouting, laughing, going crazy to those peppy numbers, we were having a gala time in the cab. On a few occasions, secretly, she pinched me from behind, and I just loved that.
For more than an hour and a half, we hunted for my hotel on the streets of Delhi. And, more than anybody (even me), Khushi was concerned about this. According to her, I was tired from my journey and needed some rest, but I wondered why I didn’t feel that way.
It was around 7.30 in the evening when we finally reached the Qutub Din hotel, in the vicinity of the Qutub Minar, thanks to the chaiwalas and paanwalas. We all entered the hotel and, at the reception, I checked out my booking.
‘Room no. 301. That way, sir. The boy will bring your luggage in,’ said a man with a huge moustache, at the reception counter.
‘All right,’ I said and we all headed towards 301, everyone following me.
Neeru and Girish were talking to each other in whispers when Khushi said something to me, very politely
‘Can you walk a little slower? You’ve left me behind.’
And I realized why people say that girls are far more mature than guys. I was a fool, earlier, leaving her on the backseat of the cab and taking the front one. And here, again, I was walking alone, leaving her behind. I started panicking, not knowing how to handle such situations. I was a boyfriend for the first time. A fresher in the school of romance.
‘God! Please help me,’ I muttered and decelerated.
She came closer to me and said, ‘Now you’re not alone. You have a girl in your life. So walk beside her.’
Behind us, Neeru and Girish smiled naughtily.
‘Won’t they leave us alone for a while?’ I thought. But how could they hear my thoughts? They kept following us.
We were at 301. I opened the door to my room and we all went in.
The room was well lit. A small table, with a telephone and a flower vase, separating the two beds. Nice bed-sheets. There was a telephone directory and a menu beside the TV set, across from the beds. A giant mirror on the wall in front of us which reflected the entire room, including those two beds and a cupboard near the entrance. Beside the mirror, there was a door to the washroom.
‘Hmm … This is good,’ I announced.
‘Yeah’, ‘Yup’, ‘Hmm …’ the people surrounding me murmured. Then, Girish started his survey of the room, analysing everything and telling me the good and the bad.
‘Thanks Girish,’ I said, when he had finished. ‘Anytime,’ he acknowledged.
After which I wanted to ask him just one more question—‘So when are you going to leave us alone, for heaven’s sake!?’ Instead, I just kept mum, hoping my eyes would do the talking. And Neeru finally understood that they should better leave us alone for a while. She whispered to Girish and I don’t know what was making the three of them look at each other and smile. I hoped they were not joking about me.
‘We are going to a nearby place to have something. If you guys want, we can get something for you,’ Girish said, moving towards the door with Neeru.
‘No. I’m stuffed,’ I said. ‘Wow! At last,’ I thought.
‘Girish, if we need something, I will call you up. And take care of Neeru. Don’t leave her alone, all right?’ Khushi said, opening the Bisleri bottle placed on the table.
‘Yes, I will. You don’t worry. By the way, it’s 8.30 now. We should leave Delhi by 9 so that we can reach Faridabad by about 10.15.
We’re already late, you know
na
?’
‘Yeah. But don’t worry, we will manage,’ said Khushi.
‘All right. See ya.’
And finally they left the room and I took a deep breath to relax.
I went and locked the door while Khushi took a last sip of water from the bottle. She noticed me doing that and smiled, then she kept the bottle on the table and my laptop bag on the chair. I stepped between the two beds and sat on the left one. She came
in and sat on the right one, just in front of me. We were together, just the two of us. Our smiles described our mood.
That moment seemed to be a beautiful dream. We wanted to feel and live that moment forever. The person with whom I was going to spend the rest of my life was right in front of me. I could look into her beautiful eyes, I could touch her, feel her. The delight of that moment had both of us spellbound. Words were unnecessary. I stared at her for a long time. And when she could not handle my gaze, she looked at the ground, her neck tilting down and strands of her beautiful hair falling in front of her shoulder, covering her right cheek and ear.
And the silence in the room persisted, and there we were, madly in love. Still not believing that, finally, we had seen each other. Still nervous, still wondering what to say.
Gathering her courage, she looked up, into my eyes (which were still focused on her) and moving her hair behind her ear again, she asked, ‘
Safar mein koi takleef to nahi hui
?’
Coming as it did, after more than five minutes of silence, that question sounded hilarious. It reminded us both of the old Bollywood movies in which the heroine would ask her beloved, ‘
Suniye ji, aapke safar mein
…’ and all that. Before she could see my reaction, she understood what a stupid and stereotypical question it was, and we looked at each other and laughed and laughed, falling upon our respective beds. But that question also became an ice breaker and we both relaxed.
‘Ha ha ha ha! Yeah, I mean,
nahi koi takleef nahi hui
,’ I said, getting up.
‘I am so stupid,’ she said, slapping her forehead.
‘Nah, you’re not. You are … beautiful,’ I said calmly, looking into her eyes.
And I don’t know what gave me the courage to raise my right hand towards her, to reach her face. My fingers first touched her cheek, the middle finger first, then the first finger and then all of
them, helping her hair behind her ear. That human touch was incredible. Feeling my fingers on her face, she closed her eyes and I felt her breathing heavily now. I watched her. Her good-looking face, the lines on her forehead, appearing and vanishing. Her curved eyelashes. Her cute nose. Her soft lips, which I very gently rubbed my thumb on, and she started shaking, her eyes still closed and her hands gripping the bed-sheet very tight. My eyes were the silent observers to this moment we both were in. My mind was hypnotized and fingers were still trying to understand the beautiful face before me. Occasionally, I felt her warm breath breaking on my cold fingers.
My consciousness asked me whether what was happening was real and then it answered itself—I was not dreaming. She was real. She was with me. Deep inside, I felt so satisfied, so blessed that the moment when my angel was in front of me had finally arrived.
We were lost. Lost in each other.
‘Shonimoni,’ I whispered in her ears, silently, getting close to her, very close. She was still breathing heavily and couldn’t say anything. ‘This is a wonderful moment. I can’t believe this. You are with me …’
I moved almost to her bed.
‘Shona!’ she said and grabbed my hand.
In a while, very slowly, she opened her eyes and looked at me and smiled. She was so happy, so delighted to have me so close to her. And she kept looking at me in that way, for some time.
Raising her eyebrows slightly and still smiling, she asked me, ‘Tell me, how you are feeling at this instant, with me?’
I put my arms around her and biting her ear, I said, ‘Don’t ask me. I won’t be able to describe it. I just want to say one thing …’ Then, I whispered in her ear, ‘I am madly in love with you.’ With that, I rested my chin on her shoulder.
‘I love you too,’ she said and moved her fingers all the way from my forearms, to the wrist, then the palm and finally into the spaces between my fingers. At that moment, I felt so complete. I realized how, just like me, she too wanted to live that moment as if it should never end.
I held her in my arms for some time. From the romantic movies I had seen till then, I knew that holding your beloved in your arms that way is such a different feeling. But that it would be so magical, I never knew. To understand and believe certain things, you have to experience them. And love is one such thing. Hmmm … Actually, it’s not a thing—it’s a lot more than that. We were speechless again, just feeling each other. But who needed to talk? Silence was talking at its best. But threatening the silence, another thought crept into my heart, all of a sudden … Should I kiss her? And, with that, the battle between my heart and mind started. Heart: Yes. Mind: No. Heart: Why not? This is such a perfect moment. I think I should. Mind: What if she doesn’t feel good about it? After all, this is just your first date. Heart: But will I get a moment like this again? Tomorrow, her entire family will be around us. No time, then. And the next day I have to take my flight. I should take a chance right now … Mind: Chance? First, look into the mirror and ask yourself if you can do this in the first day itself? Heart: Stop that nonsense. I am going ahead. Mind: Good luck. Heart: Thanks … Mind: Hey wait a sec. Heart: Now what?
Mind: Are you comfortable? May be you want to use the loo first … It helps, you know.
Heart: Shut up! Now, this happens to me most of the time. Sometimes, I think, I am not too strong, mentally. And that’s why my heart always wins. But, to be very honest, I just love that.
I oxygenated my lungs with a deep breath and turned her almost 180 degrees. We now were facing each other. My arms
were still around her, her hands were on my shoulders. I looked into her eyes.
I grabbed her
Looked straight into her eyes
I told her, I do things
And I do them in my own way.
I was prepared to feel something for the very first time in my life and—I won’t lie—my heartbeats, at that moment, were faster than Schumacher in his Ferrari. I looked into her eyes and drew close.
I grabbed her
Looked straight into her eyes
With a wink, I drew her close
My lips moved, but this time not to say
I told her, I do things
And I do them in my own way.
Yes, it was going to be my first ever kiss …
But!
But … How I hate to the word B-U-T.
But fate had to intervene and Girish, playing devil, called her up on her cell. The ringtone shattered my utopia and, before I could reach her lips, she wanted to answer the call. And before she could answer the call, she looked at the clock. ‘Oh my God! It’s 9! N-I-N-E!’ she said, (no, she screamed) and stretched to reach her cellphone.
‘It’s Girish,’ she said, pressing the answer button.
While she was talking to Girish, I collapsed on the bed in total dismay, wondering at Girish’s sense of timing. How could he be so perfect? I was fuming inside.
All the while, she continued with that call:
‘
Haan bolo
.’
‘Yeah, I know we have to leave.’ She turned her back to me and walked towards the door which was locked from inside.
‘No, we don’t want anything to eat.’ She looked back at me and gestured with her other hand to ask me if I was hungry.
‘Yes Girish, just five more minutes
yaar
.’ She clenched and unclenched her fist.
‘
Arey
, I know
baba
. I said
na
, we will manage,’ and she looked at herself in the mirror.
‘Now will you please hang up? Pleaseeeee?’ She turned her back towards the mirror.
‘Yeah, we will be there in five minutes. All right? Bye now.’ And she came to me, disconnecting the call. She was panicking, all of a sudden.
‘Shona! I have to leave. I am getting late. Mom must be about to call.’
‘Hmm … All right. Don’t worry, you’ll be on time. Where are Neeru and Girish?’ I tried to comfort her and, more importantly, to extinguish the fire that had just now been burning in me.
‘At the reception,’ she answered.
‘Ok. And I guess you guys will be going by the same cab,’ I asked, getting up from the bed and taking a sip of water from the half-filled bottle.
‘Yes, the same cab,’ she said, getting up and moving towards the mirror again.
Then her cellphone rang again and, again, it was Girish. I picked up the call this time.
‘Hey, I guess you should hurry up. It has started raining again,’ he said.
Though I hated him at that moment, I still said, ‘Yes, just a second. We are coming down. See you there.’
We were about to leave that room, when she screamed one
more time. ‘Shit! I forgot this,’ she said, looking at the big plastic bags which Neeru had left at the entrance to the room.
She quickly picked them up and said, ‘Shona, this is for you.’
‘What is this?’
‘Open it.’
I did what she asked. A blue-striped shirt with a Park Avenue tag and two ties: one, black with white stripes in the middle; the other, steel-coloured. I was so pleased. A girl bought something for me … My Khushi bought something for me. And I suddenly recalled a couple of managers from my office whom I used to see, at times, in shops along with their wives, who were selecting shirts for them. I felt good, realizing all those things were happening to me now. New things, different things, beautiful things.
‘For me?’ I asked her. ‘No. For that fat cab driver,’ she tried to tease me. ‘Really? You had an affair with him too?’ I teased her back. ‘Shut up,’ she responded with a smile but her eyes wanted me to fear her. Then she reminded me, ‘I have to rush now. It has started raining.’
‘Oh yes. Let’s go,’ I said, dropping the box on the bed behind me and stepping out of the room. This time I made sure to walk beside her, and she acknowledged that with her mischievous smile.
We were about to reach the reception when I couldn’t control myself any more and asked her, ‘Why are you leaving Khushi? Don’t go … Please.’ And my speech paused there, along with my feet.
She stopped there as well and held my hand in hers and said, ‘Just a couple of months and I won’t have to leave you this way. I will be all yours.’ There was so much love in those words as if, from now on, she was going to take care of me forever.