Once home, she collapsed into the sofa and ordred dinner from a chinese take away. With dinner ordered, she decided to watch news for a while. Life has become an Urban mess & a tiresome routine. Drive to work, get through a day of monotony and get back feeling half- dead. She had no energy left to anything else. She remembered the good old college days when she played soccer every other evening or hit the gym. While Prateek fetched her choco -mint ice cream , when they walked with a beer on the beach, when they had a 'home'. she couldn't fanthom how this could be possible now. She mulled over the idea of getting a 'bai' to help her out. She grew leaner by the day, all her shirts lost it's fit. .
She saw the backlit display flashing on her phone. It was Prateek , the freak .
" hey, how did u remember me at this hour? Isn't it time for 'we the people' on NDTV?" She sounded expressionless.
' I need to speak to you about something' He said in a pensive tone.He was the closest spouse she ever had, or still did have?
"tell me, Is it raining in Banglore as well? It's puring cats and dogs out here." She said , sounding subtle.She randomly switched through channels who had all about the'K' serials or Stars making no reason news . Utter rubbish, is this supposed to be in news? she thought.
" i guess it was...in the afternoon. But Purvi we need to talk about this "
' Yes . I'm listening'
"No, you're not, you're watching TV and commenting on each random channel you come across. Switch it off for a minute. "
' Okay done. now what?' She stared the blank screen and sat up , this seemed pretty serious. They almost never ad serious conversations.She wondered if he had gotten Fired from work or did he forget to post the books she asked for. But he sounded pretty normal , she thought.
" I'm getting married to Neha Khanna, Aman Khanna's sister. We spent some time together last Sunday. She works at Oracle. The wedding is next month and , You are coming' He almost hung up, after blurting out what he had to say .
" oh! I mean ' what?' you are getting married? Oh , it's good news but I'm not coming. I'm sorry...I'll be flying to Amsterdam for a work related issues so" She sounded mellowed down.
" But you promised ...you've to come over Purbi!"
'it's purvi not Purbi and ...Look , I ca.. can't . Bye.' she slammed the phone down and felt even more tired . Too tired to sleep and too enegetic to think about it.
She called up Prateek the following morning .
" hey, it's me ! Purvi. Sorry about yesterday , it was too much infomation, suddenly. Congratulations by the way. " she said nervously.
' slow down lady, you know it's 4 am i the morning? and you are apologizing for what? I mean, you were to react that way. I knew it . " he sounded calm as always
" No it's just, I've never been this rude. Are you happy ?" she asked plainly
' my parents are, i'm moving on . That's about it'
There was disarmed silence. The obliteration of emotion, the white cast of insanity upon her eyes , suddenly shined.Her howls dissolved in self substance. She sighed.
" Ugh, I think we should go back to sleep . " she hung up with the same feeling as yesterday.
She walked otowards the window, the floor froze her feet, and sat to watch the rain wash away the street outside her building.There was lesser traffic outside, the morning was still unawakened. It was calm . She remembered how they met the first time.
In Mumbai
3 Years ago ...
At a house party .
he walked towards her with a glass of whit wine in the lawn,she sat alone staring at the people dancing . His brow filled with sweat, and he didn't how to react to such a attractive woman who kohled her eyes like an arabic woman apart from the fact that she wore a baby pink dress and an arab woman wore 'burkha' .
" hi, why are you here all alone? dance ?" he asked decently handing over the wine glass
' Not really intrested, I'm not a party person. Thanks for the wine by the way. ' she spoke well and sophisticated yet a little stern than other females. Maybe she wasn't the 'random' type.
"Prateek Malhotra, ISB Seminar . remember?"
' Oh yeah! you got me lemon tea right? Purvi Mathur, Same ISB Seminar ' she smiled and they shook hands like 2 pretty professionals.
"It's a boring party , isn't it ? should we go for a walk or ?" he asked sounding decent enough to hide his intentions.
' Actually yeah, let's go for a walk by the beach . Grab 2 bottles of beer' She said casuallyas if she could read his mind.
Such meetings now happened more often . The liking grew . There were morre dinners, coffee meetings, lunch on sundays, more house parties attended, more outing in short, till they moved in the same apartment , lived as if they were the most in-love couple. the spark couldn't grow more , it had blown out of proportion.
So what went wrong after 2 long years of love, passion, bonding?!
Sunday morning
Juhu Mumbai
'Prateek? where have u been ? I called up so many times , I was so scared . what happened last night ?' she spoke in fear and tears. She hugged him tight
He smelt of Tommy Hilfiger's colonge , some female-ish scent and whiskey . He was drunk and back home 2 days after .
She walked to get him orange juice and put him to sleep . While he was asleep, she typed away her assignment till it was 9pm .
Prateek walked out slugishly, and hugged her.
" I need to talk Purvi, I've been doing things and I need to make some things clear. Please dont break down, I beg of you." he said .
' Okay, what is it?' she asked firmly
" I want you to leave this apartment, settle in and look for another guy. i'm a waste of time now. I'm moving to Shanghai with my brother -in-law . I'm leaving you, I'm sick of so much love . That's it ." he said it all without a single expression on his face
she sat in disrupted silence. Shocked. Then gathered herself to speak up .
' If this makes u happy &content, then go ahead and do it Prateek. I want what makes you happy, that's all I want.; she said sweetly while crying at the same time.
No sooner, Prateek left. A chapter closed abruptly. There was void.
Some Months later...
in the same apartment
On another Sunday morning , with a mug of steaming black coffee.
She thought,
It takes time, though, for his face to appear. And as the years
have passed, the time has grown longer. The sad truth is that what I
could recall in 5 seconds all too soon needed 10, then 30, then a full
minute - like shadows lengthening at dusk. Someday, I suppose, the
shadows will be swallowed up in darkness. There is no way around it:
my memory is growing ever more distant from the spot where he
used to stand - where my old self used to stand.
Present Day ...At the Airport (Banglore)
Prateek turned to his mobilbe phone, as the aircraft taxied on the tarmac. Welcome to Mumbai, the temperature is a pleasent 25 degrees, the flight captain said on the radio.
He ringed Purve, the first thing after the landing . It was a random call .
" Hey , what plans tonight ? Im in mumbai . Shall we hang out ? " He said in an excited mood.
' Hi, that's great . I mean that ur in town. Let's meet up at Barista for coffee? or house for chinese dinner?' she sounded still as calm like the last time he heard her .
"Cool, I'll drop my bags , get changed and meet u at Barista by 6:30 pm ? "
' Sounds good enough' sounding like sugar .
3 hours later ...
He walks to her table and taps her shoulder.
" Hey Purvi, how have u been ?" giving her a slugish hug.
' Hi, I've been just the usual me. How about u ? ' She said meakly
She had grown ever more leaner and weak than before. Earlier she was a plum and short with straight long hair . Her hair. the only thing that remained 'actual' of her.
After 2 cups of coffe and an apple pie . They moved back to their respective homes.
As soon as Purvi returned, She locked herself in a room and turned of the lights. She didn't want a memory to flash back anymore. it had been to difficult to get rid of them and shut them. A minute later Sushma, the neighbour and old friend called. She curtly told her that it was too little late to talk, and hund up after some polite banter.
It's all too much, it's not such a big deal, she realised. And Prateek is acting daft . who does he think he is ?he seemed like he didn't care, beyond his ' i'm sorry' and 'are u happy?' statements.
She lay in bed, feeling terrible abot her day, and the overwhelming excitementof it all. Most of all, she felt alone. Everyone else around her was over the moon, except her.
She got out of covers and opened up her wodrobe taking out a cardboard box. iIt was filled with memorries, pictures, cards and a grey and pink hand knitted oversized sweater. One that prateek and she wore for many of their pictures, winter chilled nights and while special sleep when they snuggled in. She held it close to her chest and started to cry.
Last year...
At Shanghai airport ...
'Hey , I can't believe ur here just to wish me.' Purvi chirped.
"how couldn't I, ur in Shanghai and it's ur birthday" said Prateek
He handed her a paper bag and she left in a hurry to board the plane.She unwrapped her gift and smiled faintly and typed a text to Prateek
" Thanks a ton for this, it's really sweet of you to return me a giant of our memory. Love Purvi ...X"
Present day ...
She got up to try the sweater, it was way too big. There was a person missing in it. Her phone started to vibrate. It was 4 am, she had been up pretty much all night.
' it's 4 am and he wants to say sorry now, let it ring !' she thought
she recieved a message saying ' Pick up ' and realised things were diffrent now. What was she thinking.
The phone started to vibrate again. She picked up .
' What do u want?' she asked, sounding upset.
" are u mad at me?"
' get to the point' she wiped her tears with the sleeves of her sweater.
' come downstairs now.'
" what? stop kidding me." she stood up , and brushed her locks behind her ears .
' come to the window, u'll see a black Aveo. I went to the airport, got on a low cost airline, flew all the way here and drove from the airport ...Now come down.'
" okay dont' get cranky , I'm coming"
She was sitting next to him in the car witin a few minutes.
' I brought you something. They've opened outside the airport .' He handed her a little box.
" Apple Pie! wow, thanks. i'll have it for breakfast.You didn't have to fly all the way..'
"Wait, let me talk"
'No, let me say this.
Will U marry me ?" She looked at him with intensity in her eyes.
"what? that was my question."
' I meant to ask u on ur birthday. I brought a ring back then. I felt, forget it! He's too good for me . That you'll always be but I dont want to lose you Prateek, I love you.'
" yes , yes I will." He hugged her tightly and kissed her forehead and then lips.
She stared at the ring , and put it around his finger.
'what took u so long, u big clown?' He asked
' U intimidate me, I get scared.'
' I know' he smiled and pulled her cheek
It was the same grey and pink hand knitted oversized sweater she wore and now there was nobody missing in it.
It was back to where the knitted shadows left , it was back to 'Perfect'.
Gundeep Arora(Sonia Singh)
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