The sun was descending behind that tall minaret. Two beautiful eyes were settled on the faintly visible moon. Her kerchief was stained with mascara.
She wanted to buy something exquisite for the evening and drove all the way to banjara hills to buy this svelte black dress. She could feel a pair of glares staring at her from far. It was nothing new, but very familiar. She quickened her steps to avoid the scorching sun, but could not avoid the doom ahead.
A swift turn and lo!
Adnan !!!
No, it could not be. This could not be him.
After so many years, lost in her blissful life, she had almost forgotten him, except the face and the few lines from the poems he had dedicated her.
The situation would not have worsened if only she walked away, but like a ship in a whirlpool, she got entrapped in the vortex. They carried the brief meeting to an adjacent coffee shop. He still liked his coffee-black, and how come he started wearing blue. He never liked it.
She was impressed on hearing that he had secured a job with a leading financial consultancy. He was always good with economics in school, she remembered. She was sad to know about his father’s death.
Her eyes sauntered carelessly on his frame and stopped at his belly. A slight paunch!! His physique had changed as much as his psyche. From predictable to subtlety, from drab to finesse, from wearisome to witty, he had certainly transformed.
All the while, something was pounding within. Was it her conscience or just the throbbing heart? ..But why?
Just then she noticed, her right palm was masking those carefully clasped fingers. Did she deliberately try to conceal that ring?
An uneasy feeling gripped her. Were the old flames growing? Were passions being rekindled? She glanced at her watch and excused herself on pretense of office. God only knows where this conversation would have advanced to, if she had not stopped it. Why didn’t she tell him the real cause?
He focused his steely eyes on hers, as if asking the pertinent questions or was he trying to answer hers?
She wore her glares, but his eyes could still penetrate those dark glasses and he mustered enough courage to ask the question that jolted and shook her to the core
“Do you still love me?”
She wanted to look him in the eye and give the answer she had long rehearsed in her lonely nights. The nights she had incessantly wept and tried to retain him through copious messages and futile phone calls. A million apologies cannot bring her back those vital years. It cannot erase the embarrassment and pain it had caused, and here he was demanding an answer, unapologetic.
She paused for a moment. The words were reverberating in her mind, but something more powerful held her gaze and she left with a chapter unclosed. A faint smile crossed his face. Maybe he got his answer.
Emotions are stupid, unresponsive to logic.
Till yesterday, her life was such a bounty. A prosperous career, a caring college sweetheart, an elucidated mind and marriage on the cards, yet today on the anniversary of her engagement she had to face such an emotional turmoil. That one question had shattered her peace. She was sill trying to figure out an answer.
In a few hours, Akshat would come with a bunch of red roses apt for the occasion, but didn’t she tell him she liked daisies more. He would take her to dine in the 5-star lounge, he planned last week, but doesn’t he know she would have liked it as a surprise. He would praise her svelte dress, apt for the required dress-code but she hated wearing western outfits and at night he would love her passionately and kiss her a hundred times unaware of the turmoil she was going through.
She was chagrined momentarily. Why was she complaining today after six long years? She knew Akshat just wanted her to be happy. He would never want her to do anything she did not like, if only he knew.
She closed her eyes and a blob of salty water washed her mascara again and she wiped it with the kerchief. She tried to imagine Akshat in all those days he had loved and supported her. She had liked the way he had accepted her troubled past and comforted her in his arms. He had given her the security and affection that every girl desires. She pressed her eyes harder to find that charming face in the stark darkness, but all she could see were a pair of steely eyes demanding an answer.
Suddenly, a blaring honk brought her back to reality. She glanced at her watch. Impossible, how could it be 9 so soon? How long had she been thinking about him? She glinted at the dimly lit room. It was unprepared for the celebrations. Akshat would understand at first look that something was wrong, and then he would not stop until he comforted her. Wouldn’t he understand that tonight she wanted to be left alone? So what if it was their anniversary?
After three knocks, she opened the door. There he was in his best pin-striped suit, those bunches of unwanted flowers and that once attractive broad grin. He embraced her in his muscular arms and she responded to his pout, but the kiss was brief and her response was cold.
She looked at the face that she had admired for six long years, those lips that she had kissed all this while and those arms that held her in the most difficult times. She observed him closely. Those beautiful eyes fixated as if trying to find an answer to something. Was she comparing the two A’s of her life?
Emotions are seriously unresponsive to logic.
Akshat could not spot the dilemma on her face. He mistook it to be her inexplicable admiration for him. He was so elated. He flung the flowers on the table and bosomed her to his chest .With quivering lips he uttered the three words he had said exactly six years from today, the three words that bonded them for a lifetime, or so he thought.
She closed her eyes. Those steely, demanding eyes were still staring at her. She gazed deep into it. A sudden rush of emotions washed away all sense of guilt and the golden words sprung from her lips “I love you too “. A tiny glob of tear washed her mascara again.
She just found the answer !
The icing on the cake was yet to be done. A bottle of jacob’s creek lay idle in the center table beside the unlit candles.
She wanted to buy something exquisite for the evening and drove all the way to banjara hills to buy this svelte black dress. She could feel a pair of glares staring at her from far. It was nothing new, but very familiar. She quickened her steps to avoid the scorching sun, but could not avoid the doom ahead.
A swift turn and lo!
Adnan !!!
No, it could not be. This could not be him.
After so many years, lost in her blissful life, she had almost forgotten him, except the face and the few lines from the poems he had dedicated her.
The situation would not have worsened if only she walked away, but like a ship in a whirlpool, she got entrapped in the vortex. They carried the brief meeting to an adjacent coffee shop. He still liked his coffee-black, and how come he started wearing blue. He never liked it.
She was impressed on hearing that he had secured a job with a leading financial consultancy. He was always good with economics in school, she remembered. She was sad to know about his father’s death.
Her eyes sauntered carelessly on his frame and stopped at his belly. A slight paunch!! His physique had changed as much as his psyche. From predictable to subtlety, from drab to finesse, from wearisome to witty, he had certainly transformed.
All the while, something was pounding within. Was it her conscience or just the throbbing heart? ..But why?
Just then she noticed, her right palm was masking those carefully clasped fingers. Did she deliberately try to conceal that ring?
An uneasy feeling gripped her. Were the old flames growing? Were passions being rekindled? She glanced at her watch and excused herself on pretense of office. God only knows where this conversation would have advanced to, if she had not stopped it. Why didn’t she tell him the real cause?
He focused his steely eyes on hers, as if asking the pertinent questions or was he trying to answer hers?
She wore her glares, but his eyes could still penetrate those dark glasses and he mustered enough courage to ask the question that jolted and shook her to the core
“Do you still love me?”
She wanted to look him in the eye and give the answer she had long rehearsed in her lonely nights. The nights she had incessantly wept and tried to retain him through copious messages and futile phone calls. A million apologies cannot bring her back those vital years. It cannot erase the embarrassment and pain it had caused, and here he was demanding an answer, unapologetic.
She paused for a moment. The words were reverberating in her mind, but something more powerful held her gaze and she left with a chapter unclosed. A faint smile crossed his face. Maybe he got his answer.
Emotions are stupid, unresponsive to logic.
Till yesterday, her life was such a bounty. A prosperous career, a caring college sweetheart, an elucidated mind and marriage on the cards, yet today on the anniversary of her engagement she had to face such an emotional turmoil. That one question had shattered her peace. She was sill trying to figure out an answer.
In a few hours, Akshat would come with a bunch of red roses apt for the occasion, but didn’t she tell him she liked daisies more. He would take her to dine in the 5-star lounge, he planned last week, but doesn’t he know she would have liked it as a surprise. He would praise her svelte dress, apt for the required dress-code but she hated wearing western outfits and at night he would love her passionately and kiss her a hundred times unaware of the turmoil she was going through.
She was chagrined momentarily. Why was she complaining today after six long years? She knew Akshat just wanted her to be happy. He would never want her to do anything she did not like, if only he knew.
She closed her eyes and a blob of salty water washed her mascara again and she wiped it with the kerchief. She tried to imagine Akshat in all those days he had loved and supported her. She had liked the way he had accepted her troubled past and comforted her in his arms. He had given her the security and affection that every girl desires. She pressed her eyes harder to find that charming face in the stark darkness, but all she could see were a pair of steely eyes demanding an answer.
Suddenly, a blaring honk brought her back to reality. She glanced at her watch. Impossible, how could it be 9 so soon? How long had she been thinking about him? She glinted at the dimly lit room. It was unprepared for the celebrations. Akshat would understand at first look that something was wrong, and then he would not stop until he comforted her. Wouldn’t he understand that tonight she wanted to be left alone? So what if it was their anniversary?
After three knocks, she opened the door. There he was in his best pin-striped suit, those bunches of unwanted flowers and that once attractive broad grin. He embraced her in his muscular arms and she responded to his pout, but the kiss was brief and her response was cold.
She looked at the face that she had admired for six long years, those lips that she had kissed all this while and those arms that held her in the most difficult times. She observed him closely. Those beautiful eyes fixated as if trying to find an answer to something. Was she comparing the two A’s of her life?
Emotions are seriously unresponsive to logic.
Akshat could not spot the dilemma on her face. He mistook it to be her inexplicable admiration for him. He was so elated. He flung the flowers on the table and bosomed her to his chest .With quivering lips he uttered the three words he had said exactly six years from today, the three words that bonded them for a lifetime, or so he thought.
She closed her eyes. Those steely, demanding eyes were still staring at her. She gazed deep into it. A sudden rush of emotions washed away all sense of guilt and the golden words sprung from her lips “I love you too “. A tiny glob of tear washed her mascara again.
She just found the answer !
