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It was Shovana’s eighteenth birthday and the house was teeming with people.Shovana’s mom was in the kitchen, debating with herself if she should call the caterers again. It was obvious that there were more and more people streaming in and those who had arrived earlier on showed little signs of leaving..The food and beverage had been estimated for 30 people but the party itself seemed to be a living thing . The numbers kept growing .Above the din of the crowd one could hear the generator hard at work..whirring away. Shovana’s mom with her slightly beaked nose,creating the most regal profile , was known to her friends fondly as Pattu . Pattu had been an Arts student when she had been swept off her feet by her husband. Only in her second year, when she had met him at the college fete, she had been very much impressed by him. Unlike the hormone –raging-in-their-systems half grown men, she had come upon him far away from the hustle and bustle; peeling a mandarin with utmost care.She had had enough of sitting in the winter sun ,laughing at the same old ribald jokes .
“ Would you like to sit down and share some of these mandarins?†he asked with the self assurance of man who knew he would not be refused. And while she was caught unawares,he threw one at her. She caught it just short of her face.
“ Thanks, I do think I ought to sit down. It has been a warm winter and I must say it was not very bright of me to wear this black cashmere set.I need to cool down fast!†she plopped down beside him unceremoniously.
And thus it had begun. A chance encounter too many before they started “dating†if that was what it must be termed too.They found out that they had moved in the same circle for sometime but had just not happened to meet up. The parents on both sides had sighed a big sigh of relief when they decided to tie the knot.On her side,the parents knew their daughter had never been academically inclined and as well far too stubborn to choose from the different pictures of boys and men they offered her each week. On his,he was far too “modern-thinking†as his uncles told him .He was back then a great catch. He had done his MBA in Bangalore and done it well too. With Honors! He had turned his mildly successful joint family business into an overnight sensation. This proved to be great source of attraction for parents with daughters of marriageable age. He ignored subtle hints and ducked the pushy ones .
And like many newly married couples,they could not have enough of each other. They marveled at each others’ differences and was awed by their similarities. They wanted children right away.A boy like him and a girl like her.
They were both surprised when Shovana was born.Nothing had prepared them for this screaming bundle of poop-pee-tears. Shovana had as an infant too been very alert.At 3 days old ,she was staring wonderously at the world about her.She never cried for milk.,she used her vocal chords to their very limits.It all made Pattu feel dreadfully inadequate and somehow ,gradually it seemed much easier to hand her baby over to the wet nurse. She could not nurse the baby anyway.Breastfeeding was surely no Sunday picnic.She went back to her paintings and pals. And just as she was getting used to Shovana ,along came Shreya.A totally different entity.Not a pip could be heard from her.Even Thuli who was only a young woman of 20 then, forgot from time to time to feed the new baby until she gave the tiniest of whimpers or stirred. Pattu ,aged 23 was a distracted mother of two girls. The irony of it al was that she was a conscientious social worker who gave much of her time to orphanages.
The siblings as they grew up, noticed her absences. And even as children,they knew they should be loved more,that they were worth dropping some errands and meetings and being thought of more.
Pattu pondered a while before she started dialing the number for the cataterers. As she talked on the phone she looked out of the window and noticed Shreya and Aashish. They were both in their fine clothes but had decided to battle it out with the mosquitoes instead of the party people. They looked so young and beautiful and happy that for a moment it just clutched at her heart. Where had all the years gone ? In the reflection of the glass window ,she saw her ageing face. Perhaps she should cut back on the drinking at the parties .Not the ciggies though ,she thought.
Outside,Aashish , was relating to Shreya what his friends at the hostel had been up to. Shreya loved how his face lit up when he was having fun. She stopped laughing though and turned somber.
“Aashish ,I wish I did not have to go with my Didi to England!†she rarely cried but now she wept openly. They were both leaving at the end of the month.right after Shovana’s birthday. She had recently started wearing make-up and now the mascara ran.
Aashish tried to put on a brave front.Smiling he took her hand and said,†Chyaa, you will be back before you know it !! You will not miss Kathmandu . And you will be surrounded with too many boys to even think of me. And I promise to send you a card every week.From Archie’s .â€
Aashish’s mom had opened up an Archie’s store along Durbar Marg . It had been an instant hit with the public. Aashish and Shreya usually met up at school and helped out at the store. It was a sore point with her though that Aashish seemed to receive as many cards from the girls as he sold. The girls from St. Mary’s were a brazen lot and teased him,even the older girls. He was always very pleasant though and managed to avert the attentions of the more obnoxious ones. When Shreya thought Aashish was absorbed with his job as a shop assistant though,she would watch him.She loved being with him from the first time they had met.
“ Make sure they are the funny ones .I hate the flowery ones,’she sniffled.
And then before too soon,the day came for the two girls to leave. They would be staying at their Kaka’s place in Birmingham.Shovana was as excited as Shreya was not. And to top it all off,Aashish and his mom had left two days earlier for Chitwan to settle some disputes on their land-ownership . It had been most unfoprtunate and Aashish too had sobbed when they parted at his gate.
10 years later.
Shreya fiddled with her ring. Aashish had proposed to her at the airport. She smiled as she thought of him.She knew him to be her soulmate. Shovana had flew back home 2 days earlier .Their Dad had died on the operating table .Their family doctor had advised him against the heart surgery but the advice had gone unheeded.
She leant back on her seat,finally able to rest easy as the baby who had been terrorizing the whole air-craft seemed to have either calmed down or fallen asleep. She tried to remember her parents with kindness .Of them being loving and or just being with them. She could not conjure up such moments. As she contemplated on her childhood ,she thought of the Aashish of long ago.The one who had always been her best friend and her secret love .There had been a flurry of letters and cards . It had slowly dwindled down as both coped with college life and practicing being an adult.
She remembered again how she had sought out the other Aashish in her school. How she had been taken aback that other Aashish was an Indian. He had seen though that she needed a friend and and had been just that for the past nine years. As she started dozing away, the two faces began to merge. Sinking slowly into sleep,she panicked. She could not tell who was who.she fidgeted in her sleep.and then she heard a voice saying†Shreya,no promises needed. I have loved you for the longest time. You will call the shots as to when and where,how we marry.As long as the bride is you and the bridegroom is me. And be the mother of my 5 kids..no more,no less.â€
As the plane touched down,she awoke with a start.And even as the last remnants of her dream crept away from her,she remembered Aashish proposing to her.There was no one at the airport to receive her as all were at the days long funeral.
“Maharajgunj please.†She touched up on her make-up. She would be meeting up with family and friends whom she had not met for a decade. Shovana had come back a couple of times. Shreya had come up with excuses each time.
As they passed Rani Pokharai though, Shreya on a spur of the moment told the taxi-driver ,†I would like to make a stop at Durbar Marg first la?â€
“ Sure,Maiya.†He smiled a toothless smile at her ands she wished he hadn’t.
For some reason she had thought she had long ago let go of,her heart lurched as it stopped infront of Archie’s. She peered through the window. And there he was .She gasped! He was exactly as the day they had parted. He was smiling politely at a customer , He had not changed a bit. Still the adolescent boy she had left behind. Like he had been with Petey Pan of Neverland . It all seemed so surreal . Her dad dying .Aashish proposing and then seeing this other Aashish. She broke down. She heard the tinkle of the door opening.
“ Excuse me,miss? Do you need assistance?†He had seen a woman peering thru the window and suddenly crumpling as if she had been struck. He hoped she was okay.It was probably a feminine problem judging by how she held her stomach and making gut-wrenching sobs.
For a while Shreya said nothing. She wept for her father and mother who were more like smiling affable strangers. For Aashish who did not know her anymore and for herself. She looked up. The last time they had parted,she had red,streaky eyes too.
“ Aashish,it’s me Shreya. I knew I would find you here. I have so much to tell you. Look!†, And she held up her ring with a gleeful smile on her face, knowing she could tell him a all and nothing could change their history.
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