Chapter 10

twerping

@twerping

It was a simple task to get Ishita Iyer to agree to spend some time voluntarily with him. However, Raman was soon to find out that such an invite was easier accepted than actualised. He had overlooked the way life worked in the Mayur Vihar society complex.

Buoyed by her "yes", he had a fruitful day at work and returned home full of ideas on how to get Ishita to go out with him that very evening. But, as expected, fate in the form of Mrs. Bhalla, had quite a very different notion of the way his evening was to be spent.

"Arrey puttar!" she greeted him in the evening even before he had taken off his shoes and had only barely made it past the entrance to their apartment.

Raman smiled at her as he shucked off his coat and plopped down on the sofa. He was too engrossed in his phone to realise that his mother had dressed up for some occasion.

"Tu nahi jayega kya, Raman?" Toshiji demanded, never one to skirt around matters pressing to her.

"Kahan Maa?"he asked, voice showing his irritation. "Mujhey kaam hai!"There was still one more day till Lohri. His mind was full of Ishita and he didn't want to waste another evening at some neighbour's apartment surrounded by people he had no interest in.

"Haan! Bas kaam hi kar! Tujhey toh humare friends mein koi interest hi nahi hai na?!"Toshiji muttered to herself. Even as Raman tried to drown her out and focus instead on the emails that awaited his attention, he didn't fail to hear the mention of the Iyers. From that it didn't take him long to realise that his mother had dressed up to visit the Iyers!

Toshiji watched in satisfaction as her eldest son driven by her complaints, headed towards his room with his usual brusque manner. Even if Happy tried to act all grown up and serious these days, she knew underneath it all, he was just her same little boy and couldn't really ever ignore anything that his mother asked of him.

Raman quickly stepped into the shower. Even if he couldn't have her to himself, at least, by visiting her, he would get to spend some time with Ishita. The coffee date will have to wait for now.

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It looked like the whole of Mayur Vihar had stepped into the home of the Iyers. Raman didn't know half the people milling around, crowding the rooms and hallways. Ruhi had raced away to find her Ishita aunty a while back. Mr. Iyer had welcomed the Bhallas and gestured them to sit on the chairs placed around the spacious drawing room for the multitude of guests. Mr. Bhalla and Toshiji soon got chatting with their friends. Romi and Rinki joined a group of youngsters in the balcony. Raman was left to his devices. He edged through the crowd, hoping to catch sight of Ishita. Ruhi ran out of a room, screaming. Her hair was flying in the wind. She ran into Raman and he caught the girl.

"Dekh ke, Ruhi!"

"Papa! I need to get that Parmeet! He tagged me!"

She ran away, disappearing back into the crowd. He found an empty spot against the wall and stood there, hoping to catch sight of the woman. His neighbours, never happy to let him be, periodically approached him with a mind on social niceties. While polite, Raman's short replies saw to it that they never stayed for long. A bowl of payasam was thrust into his hand and soon Ishita's husband came over to play host.

A spark of irritation coursed through Raman as Subramaniam stood before him. The memory of this man speaking into Ishita's ears, making her blush, flashed across his mind. At first, Raman was so engrossed in disliking the man before him that he barely paid attention to what the youngest of the Iyer sons was saying. However, the mention of Batra made him cast aside his dark thoughts.

"I read that your company has recently entered into some business venture with the Batras. How sound are they in terms of the financial..."

Raman didn't let the man finish his question. "We don't do business with companies which do not have sound financial--"

Subbu hastened to quieten Raman's angry response. From the tone of the reply, Subramaniam Iyer realised he had offended the business tycoon.

"I didn't mean to say--I was just wondering since there was some talk of the company hitting troubled waters a few years back," he said, in an apologetic tone.

Raman realised he might have over-reacted a bit. The fellow's question hadn't warranted such an angry response from him. He simply had taken out his dislike for the chap. He tried to smile and for a while the two stood together discussing the stock market, politics and cricket.

***********

Ishita found Ruhi tucking into a bowl of payasam. As she smiled, Ruhi looked at her through droopy eyes. She had got some of it on her chin. Ishita wiped it off. The girl was sleepy. She looked around to see if Mrs. Bhalla was anywhere nearby.

"Ruhi, shall we go find Daadi?" she asked gently. The child needed to get to bed.

As she walked through the crowd with Ruhi holding onto her hand tightly, Ishita leaned against the wall, straining to look above the heads of the people. And it was then that the words reached her ears.

"Shameless! That's what I'd say!"

"Doesn't have a child of her own and trying to snatch away other people's kids."

"Santoshi is too dumb to notice but that girl has already got her claws into that child."

Ishita stood dumbstruck as the group of elderly ladies dissected the what, the how and the why of her attitude towards Ruhi. She looked down at the girl, letting her hand go as if the touch had suddenly burnt her. The child was leaning against the wall, oblivious to the poisonous words.

Feeling Ishita let her hand go, Ruhi's only response was to stretch her hand forward and grasp onto her once again. Trying to stifle her tears, Ishita looked up and received the shock of her life. Raman Kumar Bhalla was standing before her. He had probably been standing there for a while. In the crowd she had failed to see him. And he had probably heard every single word of the conversation that had reached Ishita's ears.

Raman had indeed heard what the ladies were saying about Ishita. He had seen Ishita finally and had moved towards her. And so had caught the tail-end of the surmises about how Ishita was clawing her way into Ruhi's heart and mind. He had watched Ishita jerk to a halt as the cruel words reached her, face flushed and eyes suddenly looking downwards. Before he could try and say something to put her at ease, Ishita smiled at him. Did her eyes look just a little too bright?

"Mr. Bhalla! I was just trying to find Toshiji! Ruhi's really sleepy here and you should probably take her home now." Her face betrayed nothing. Her smile was wide. Her face was flushed but if he didn't know better, he would have put that down to the running about that the women of the household generally have to do during any such functions.

Ruhi, sleepy and distraught, protested loudly and vehemently, cutting through Raman's thoughts.

"I won't go home! I want to sleep with Ishita aunty here!" Ruhi's lips were trembling and she looked like she would burst into tears any minute now. Only last night, Ishita had talked to the girl when she was sleepy and had convinced her to go home and sleep. But tonight she couldn't. The words of the women had disturbed her and she tried to hold herself back.

"Ruhi, you know you have to go home, right?" she said.

"But I want to be with you!" Ruhi still hadn't cried but Raman realised that if not handled carefully, Ruhi might just launch into a tantrum. Trying to salvage the situation, he turned to Ishita.

"Mrs. Iyer, could you show me the way out? The crowd makes it difficult."

With a quick nod, she led the way and they threaded through the crowd.

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