Yunhi Pehloo Mein Baithe Raho
If I lay here
If I just lay here
would you lie with me and just forget the world?
'Chasing Cars' by Snow Patrol
He holds her hand to stop her as she is about to get up.
It is hard to imagine sometimes they are here, such a long way from the time they first met, not a few months back - married and happily at that.
They are in Dharamshala, a couple of hours drive away from Delhi at his farmhouse sitting on a picnic mat lazily lounging in the backyard that provides an excellent view of the valley.
"Stay."
It takes one word from her husband for her to cease her movements and sit back.
"This is a really beautiful place." She finally speaks up after a while.
"Hmm it is."
They have driven here for the weekend, setting off early in the morning and arriving by late afternoon. Unlike last time, she knew better than to ask their family to accompany them when her husband suddenly declared on Thursday night, she pack for the weekend as he informed her about this trip.
"When did you buy this place?"
He smiles a little before replying her,
"Some two months before our marriage, Mihir found this place as I wanted to make an investment in Ruhi' name."
She smiles as she learns the reply as she goes on,
"So you bought this to gift it to her in the future on her marriage or something?"
He looks amused and frankly astonished on hearing the woman,
"Good lord no, don't you think you are getting way ahead thinking about what to gift Ruhi on her marriage we still have at least another fifteen or so years before that. Like I said I just wanted to make some sound investment in her name and wanted to do it in property so asked Mihir to get in touch with our broker who found this place."
"I was just asking, besides it's never too early to think about daughter' or their futures be it their education or marriage."
He shakes his head in a reply as he looks upon the horizon, the clouds kissing the mountains, the sky painted in hues of reds and yellows, the sun about to set for the day.
"I know that, but I wasn't thinking of this as a gift in the long term only some investment in her name when I bought it. When Ruhi was born, I did not make much at that time or you could say, whatever I made would disappear in payments, bills, and everyday things. I was not where I am today but slowly things changed. With that change came in fame, success and money, more money than I possibly ever made in my life before, so much I didn't understand for a while what to do with it to tell you the truth and so I started investing here and there - in Adi & Ruhi' name , even Simi, Rinki, Mihir and Romi. Maa is into jewelry mostly so now she has some lockers full of them besides the ones she has at home. Papa ... he was not even talking to me for year's altogether and since it was impossible to make any investment in his name without his signatures, I couldn't do anything for him."
He has never done this before; spoke to her about the years of his life post Ruhi' birth.
She cannot even fathom how life must have been for him, cheated upon, betrayed after two kids - one of them newly born at that. In the initial days of their getting to know each other, she had perceived this man to be a robot - sans any emotions, always lost in his phone calls or checking some mails on his Iphone. Now that she knows him better, understands him a little - she sees what it was - that phase of his life.
Ironically, she finds they were not any different back then - both had immersed themselves in their work to escape the chaos of their life, to find refuge in something that would allow them to retain onto the last shreds of their sanity when nothing else made sense to them.
She recalls how she had coped in much the same way post her break-up. She focused on her practice, pursued a degree to specialize in pediatric dentistry from Pacific University in Udaipur, Rajasthan for two years, and completed the last leg of it by settling for a year in New York and completing her course at Lutheran Medical Center under an exchange program.
She had wanted to escape from Delhi and any place where people who knew her back then too, she wanted to be on her own for a while and her family had reluctantly agreed to that. It had been most difficult to convince Amma to allow her to go but Vandu Akka and Bala Jiju had convinced her in the end.
Once Amma saw how the two years in Rajasthan had helped her, she had not protested to allow her to leave for the US for a year. The exposure to a different culture, a new lifestyle in its own way had further allowed her to get over the residual pain of her heartbreak. She had made friends there, found a new way of life and came back once the year was up as someone close to her former self.
It had not been a lie that day when she opened up to Raman her family helped her through the worst phase of her life, where she had been at her lowest. Without their support, it would not have been possible for her to move on.
It surprises her now, with each day that she spends with this man - how very different he is from what she had assumed him to be, how very alike they are in some aspects even when they differ on so many others. Their attitudes, their temperaments are polar opposites but how well they complement each other.
She has paved way for some stability; some calm in his life while he assures that there is never a dull day she has with his wit and sarcasm. If the credit for her sunny days goes to her daughter, he keeps the clouds away.
"Mihir has a good eye then for these things; I really love how he has found what seems like a paradise in the middle of nowhere almost. This is really one of the quietest places I have ever been to and I love it."
"That he does, in fact he is the one who came down here to have a look at the place in person before we sealed the deal, I was too busy with Tandon' project at the time to come down personally and check the place for myself. It's good to know you liked it though."
"What made you decide we come here today though? I mean... it was all so sudden I never got a chance to ask you before we came here."
He lies back on the mat beside her before he replies to her with a smirk on his face and a twinkle in his eyes,
"I wanted a do over."
"A do over...?"
"For our ruined picnic, we never got a chance to relax, first we got lost, then landed at the most magnificent hotel I ever had the pleasure to visit in all my life and later we got busy with sorting the men vs. women war."
Her eyes widen when he begins and her heart starts galloping at a frantic pace as he continues, suddenly she is nervous what this weekend could entail for them. She is still mulling things over in her mind when he places a hand on her shoulder and speaks up,
"Lie down, you must be tired too, give your back some rest."
In the quiet of this place with no other sound and them being far away from civilization, his words echo in her mind as she does as asked by him.
Lying beside him in this twilight hour as she sees the sky darkening, her pulse races and she is way too nervous to turn around her head to look at her husband.
True they share the same room, have been doing so every night now since they married; but this moment, it feels different; intimate in a way they have never been before.
Her husband is lying less than two feet away from her and she feels her hands going cold as she gulps down, taking pity on her plight her husband finally gains her attention by placing his hand on hers.
"Actually I got a call from the care-taker of this place, he said I should come down here, the place needs some repairs. Mihir had seen the scenic view but idiot missed some issues with the place. So I thought since I am free this weekend we can come down here- it would be a good way to unwind and also women are more in touch with these things than us men anyways. You can go over the place and see what needs fixing as per you and let me know, also if you think we should renovate we can do that as well. Better we talk things over between us first before hiring any contractors."
She visibly relaxes on hearing the explanation and finally looks at her husband, with a smile on her face
"Okay, but its way too dark now and there is even no electricity."
"The care-taker said they are having some load-shedding problem these days, don't worry the back-up generator must be getting here and we are leaving tomorrow after lunch Ishita, so you have till then to check on things, what's the hurry then?"
"I didn't mean it like that, I mean there is no hurry just that we need to have dinner too and it's getting dark. I just thought this, Raman so long as we are gonna get some work done in this place why not install a swing set and see-saw in the backyard for Ruhi and Shravu... they would love it. Ananya is also growing up and with Akka' second baby on the way it would always be useful."
"Why stop at them why are you forgetting Mihir and Mihika, Romi, Rinki - their kids who are yet to be born too...and in Romi and Rinki' case we also need to find the mother and the father too. You know what let's not forget Pathak and Trisha."
He rolls his eyes and she laughs at his comment,
"You were the one who asked me for inputs Raman."
"Yeah, sorry I made a mistake, jeez woman don't you ever take it easy. We can talk all about this tomorrow right now I am way too tired to think of anything."
With the last word her husband closes his eyes and lets out a huge sigh, she looks at him with a fond smile on her face for a while before she realizes it has gone dark around them entirely and looks up at the sky,
"Wow..." Her breathless exclamation gets his attention as he notices his wife is gazing the sky with a look of wonder and peace all over her face.
"What?" He asks her wondering what got to her.
She turns her head to look at him as she replies,
"It's been so long since I slept under the stars literally, I mean in Delhi we hardly get any time to go stargazing with our busy lives."
"Even if we wanted to, the pollution wouldn't allow us to gaze at the stars."
She shakes her head at the comment of her way too practical husband and continues to look at the stars when she feels his gaze on her which makes her blush for some reason.
"What?" she asks him hesitantly.
"You stayed quiet for five whole minutes at a stretch, it was amazing!" He says with a smirk.
Making a face she replies clearly annoyed with his remarks,
"If you have so many problems with my talking why bring me here? You could have asked mummyji, Simi, or anyone else to come along with you."
"What can I say? I am a masochist."
Narrowing her eyes at him, she replies in a peeved tone,
"If that's the case, I am going inside, as you may be a masochist but I certainly am not a sadist."
She is about to get up when he holds her hand and pulls her back, the movement causes her to land on his chest, their faces inches apart.
"You have a problem you know." He whispers to her, still holding onto her hand as he looks in her eyes.
"What?"
"You take things way too seriously sometimes. Lighten up Ishita."
"How can I not take things seriously? I can't seem to figure out when you are kidding and when you are being serious after all."
"It's a good thing then we have our whole lives ahead of us for you to figure me out."
"So here as well, I have to do all the work?"
"Who said that? Figuring you out isn't exactly a piece of cake too."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"That you are a riddle unto yourself; I am putting in the work too here, like I did recently."
"What work?"
"For starters, I am now mentally prepared for any future scenarios where you could be under the influence of anesthesia, at that time, I would make sure our family, especially Ruhi stays away from you... after all poor thing shouldn't be exposed to the bouts of her mother' insanity, she has suffered as it is at such a young age."
"Ha ha, very funny... I do not do those things on purpose... I just..."
"You just behave as if you are on a high, I swear I have never seem even the worst drunks behave the way you do under the influence."
"This coming from the man who can drink a whole gallon himself, wow."
"Hey we all can't be entertaining drunkards."
"I am not a drunkard!"
"No... you just behave like the most entertaining one."
"It's your fault I had to undergo a surgery this time; you had to pull my hand that hard."
"I was only trying to lessen your pain Ishita."
Suddenly with the remembrance of the moment, when he had confessed his love to her once again and taken back those very words the next instant as well as getting conscious of their state she draws back as he lets go off her hand at the same time too.
"I'll..."
"It's dark inside don't move Ishita, let the back-up generator come, also you may slip in the backyard. So just stay here until they come, at least you won't be bothered by feeling hot inside. The breeze is good here."
"How long will the generator take?"
"It should be here anytime now. The caretaker called me up to inform me of the same."
"This guy is doing a pretty sloppy job if he couldn't arrange things beforehand if he knew we were coming."
"No he is good, only I informed him late last night and within minutes of my call he learned his daughter went into labor, so he rushed there to be with her. He was stuck in the hospital till late in the afternoon, I got a call from him when we had stopped for lunch on our way."
"Oh. I hope his daughter and the baby are fine then."
"Yes, she delivered a healthy baby girl."
"That's good to know." She says with a smile.
With no relevant issue to discuss, they lie on their backs gazing at the stars until their eyes began drooping as exhaustion of the long drive overtakes them and they doze off for a while.
About a quarter of an hour later, they are awoken by the loud ringing of Raman' Iphone.
In their sleep, they had drifted towards one another as upon awakening they find themselves cocooned together, as he spoons her from behind, while she held his hand thrown across her waist.
Awkwardly they untangle, as Raman talks to the son of the care-taker who finally arranged the generator and head back towards the farmhouse.
Edited by EkPaheli - 11 years ago
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