Awww
😆 Oh yeah.. 😆 Maybe my mind was at 2 places 😆Originally posted by: Elizabeth Darcy
Thanks Simran, Pinky, Nahi and Ash...Pinky, you're right about everything except for one little thing: only Orindam's going to Manhattan, not the rest of the bachcha party, so they're having a sleepover at Nupur's house!
LOL yeah I know Ash, by the time you start read one NYC OS there are five already updated lol.P.S. I might be irregular with my next few updates, as I'm travelling AND finishing off my thesis!
A Time for Peace...
Onu and Nupur agreed that there was one advantage to having Orindam Basu as the head of the household: he was as clueless about what the kids did behind his back as he was aware of the minute day-to-day activities in his business empire. By the time he had left for Manhattan, the two of them had arranged for snacks, drinks and even a pint of vodka (for Benoy in case Veena brought him along), and had made sure the sound system was working enough to have music play all through the night if they felt up to it.
Unfortunately for Nupur, Veena begged off coming for reasons she refused to explain (though they were all certain it had a lot to do with Veena's new boyfriend Javier) and sent Benoy instead by way of apology. Onu was grateful for this because Veena was nasty enough these days; unbeknownst to Nupur, just about everyone was starting to hate her post-Javier...as if having a Spanish boyfriend made you too cool to be around everyone else.
If Nupur ever felt the pinch of Veena's condescension she never complained ' that's how devoted to Veena she was ' and it was left to Onu and Mrinal and Benoy to curse Javier to the high heavens for encouraging Veena to be more of a hag than she'd ever been and hurting poor Nupur in the process.
With friends like these, Noorie, he'd wanted to say, who needs enemies?
Over the din of the TV and the mixer in their kitchen he could hear Benoy and Jeremy laughing over a shared joke, and couldn't help grinning. All those worries about Jeremy getting absolutely intimidated by a personality as strong as Benoy turned out to be a moot point, after all. They'd hit it off the minute they met ' or maybe it was just the minute Jerry handed over a bag of tomatoes and celery sticks he'd brought along when Onu told him they'd gotten enough vodka to last the night.
It took no more than a matter of minutes for them to push Onu away from the kitchen, arguing that it was his slumber party and his day to relax, and besides not a single soul in the room could prepare a Bloody Mary better than the two of them could.
"Great! I'm guessing part of your repertoire for making this your best cocktail is by making sure none of us know how to make it ourselves!"
They'd relented finally, asking him to come an hour later to help them with a nacho recipe Benoy had tried out three weeks ago. Of course, they'd been too immersed in preparing for dinner that they'd forgotten, but in the happy, hope-filled haze of his first drink Onu has allowed himself no more than a dreamy little smile and a grudging admission that Benoy and Jeremy had a lot more in common than cooking skills. If only for poor Jerry's sake, it made him feel a little happier.
How much had changed for the both of them this year. Jeremy was still a puddle of nerves around Mrinal, and even now when the two of them were busy talking to Benoy and Nupur...it was hard not to notice the way they gazed longingly at one another when either of them wasn't looking. But in the past few weeks somehow Jeremy had become too much a part of the group for them to ever envision not having him around...
The drink was warm and it gushed through his bloodstream like a raging river, and the room seemed to be sometimes dim and sometimes glow...there were lights floating above his head that could have either been fireflies or his own befuddled imagination...right now he didn't know and didn't care...
Mishti, it'll be a year tomorrow since I came here...he wanted to write, but in his drunken state he didn't trust his hands to produce anything except a few illegible squiggles. A year, and so much has changed...I have changed, but don't worry, I'm trying desperately to hold on to the Motu you loved so much...No matter what I swear he will never go no matter whatever else does...I love this place and I love my friends, they love each other and they really, really honest to God love me...you would have loved it here...
Suddenly his cheeks were wet, and he brushed his fingers against them. I can't be crying...what would I be crying for?
The pale shadow that walked towards him now was swaying a little, just like he would have if he'd had the strength to stand up.
"Zhaaags," the drink had slurred Jeremy's meticulously pronounced 'r's, but surprisingly not his sense of direction, "don't cry, please don't." He looked sad, like Gigi did whenever she felt something was not right with anyone, like the children they all had been once.
"I'm not," he said, clumsily putting his arm around Jerry, "Just thinking about old times, that's all. What're you so sad about?"
Jerry flicked away a fleck of imaginary dust off Onu's shirt.
"Mom doesn't know I'm here."
"And that's a problem?"
"She doesn't like Indians very much..."
"...and Pakistanis, and the Chinese, and the Arabs, and the Irish to boot?"
"Nope. Just Indians. Some guy from Mangalore dumped her before she married Dad and she's made sure nobody in the neighbourhood has ever forgotten it since."
Onu grunted. "Just one was enough to tar the brush on the rest of us?"
"It doesn't help that Dad is a big enough bigot himself. Like my Aunt keeps saying, that fella would've been a jerk no matter where he came from."
Onu smiled. "Well, your aunt's your aunt. She can't think for you, can she? I want to know what you think of us..."
Jeremy looked lost...and lonely...as if he'd searched and searched and still hadn't found an answer.
"Why does my being friends with you have to be about where I'm from and where you're from? I haven't been anywhere but New Jersey all my life and I know that whatever I know about India will be nothing but a drop in the ocean...but I can still try, can't I?"
Later, much later, Onu would marvel over the conviction with which Jeremy had said those words. Had he known what would happen the very next day, would his answer have been different? Even as he brought his arm around Onu and drunkedly declared that he loved them all, someone out there was planning to shake the foundation of the American Melting Pot completely, its contents tipping over and spilling to the floor.
"Furrgt it," Onu slurred over his words again, "You're with us and we matter to you. That's all we need to know."
"I've never had friends as close as you lot, you know," Jeremy poured more of the drink into both their glasses, "Nobody's really bothered, not even me...and to lose you guys would be like losing my fingers and toes."
Nupur and Mrinal were watching Cartoon Network on the TV (at their age! Benoy had said). Mrinal was laughing in a way that reminded him strongly of Gigi, except that she was half-drunk and oblivious - at least for this one blessed second - to the boy across the room.
And losing Mrinal would be like stopping yourself from breathing...
"I would never...ever...hold my friends' birthplaces against them, no matter where in the world they are."
"Jerry," he yelled, "one more drink!"
"No way," poor Jerry, even in his inebriated state he wound up thinking about the person next to him, "you've had enough to last you till tomorrow night, bro."
"That's about as possible..." Onu racked his brains for something crazy. Something impossible. "...as possible as the Twin Towers picking up its skirts and running away!"
Onu and Jerry fell into each others' arms, laughing all the way to Onu's bedroom. The one even Nupur would refuse to call 'my favourite guest room' anymore: even she had begun to see it as exclusively his.
Their smiles were still pasted on their faces as they drifted to sleep.
Mishti, he wanted to say, somehow I've started remembering the way we first met Mrinal and Gigi. In a ferry, gazing at the Statue of Liberty and the Twin Towers and wondering who made stuff like this!...for some reason today I can't help remembering how they'd told me they felt safe here, how this was home...how this was the land of the free. I know I won't ever get to feel that way here - I'd arrived too late - but one day I hope I feel at least a little pinch of it here one day. Motu.
Their smiles wasn't to last very long.
Onu would soon learn that the world could be filled with worse things than darkness.
P.S. Remember this date? Sept 11, 2000. This was the day and date I'd vowed never to forget, neber to leave behind...it's Sept 10th today, and I've kept my promise...
P. P. S. I won't forget this day or tomorrow, I swear I won't. This day last year we'd looked at each other from our houses for the last time...you from the gates and me from my balcony...right then I wished I had wings to reach you. And then Ananya Di dragged me back to my room to pack...
I'm happy here. I swear I am.
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