Journeys : Episode 4

Tara

Finally we shift to normal conversations, of how hot the weather is and how the food that we ate just moments back totally sucked. We ask for the bill and we're distracted by a voice. "Hey KP, do you remember me?" Of course he wont, he has the worst memory of faces ever. "I'm sorry, you look familiar but I just cant place you right.. I'm sorry".. "No no! After all, we met only once, at Geetha's birthday. I used to work with her. I'm Pooja" I could see clearly that he had zero recollection of her, Hridhay and I just looked on. "...So when are you guys leaving?" The three of us looked puzzled at this statement and KP tried to suppress his emotions. "Erm, I'm sorry, what are you referring to?". Pooja's phone rang and she silenced it. "To Atlanta? Geetha is getting a transfer isnt she? Or are you guys going to stay long distance?" I could see KP's heart make patterns on his chest, his forehead drenched with perspiration. "We got divorced three months back." Was the only sentence he spoke before storming away out of the restaurant. Hridhay and I make some polite conversation with her and start walking out of the restaurant, KP no where in sight. Hridhay runs to the basement while I walk around looking into nearby shops looking for him.

Hridhay calls me in ten minutes "hey. Nowhere to be found. Cant spot his car either. Maybe he's gone home. Or a drive. Lets give him some time for himself. He'll find us." Yes thats true. He will indeed. "Hey Hridhay, shall we go for a walk around the park? The boys will take time anyway". "Okay.. im coming". As I wait for him, I try to trace back to one of the most memorable time we went for a walk together.

Fourteen years back

It was the night before our wedding. We didnt have a fancy destination wedding, our wedding was at a simple wedding hall located in a very narrow street. The street was filled with small plants and creepers all along the sides and it had just stopped raining. It was eleven in the night. I was struggling to remove all the make up from my face so someone could apply several more new layers the next day and my phone lit up. "Hey! Wanna go for a walk?" I begin palpitating at the sight of this text. Neither Hridhay or me are the romantic type nor are either of us the type to take a walk at midnight. But hey we're getting married tomorrow and it is indeed exciting to walk with your boyfriend at midnight! "Coming. Scared". I wait for a reply but it never comes. Maybe hes already there. "Dee" i call out to my little sister and she looks up. "Hridhay wants to talk to me, I need to go out for sometime". She goes out of our room, checks location of all our important aunts, comes back and gives me the go ahead. Yes thats Diya. She would do anything for me. And so would I. We slip out of the room, out of the hall and find Hridhay outside the back entrance. She deposits me to him, slaps herself hard on her forehead and walks back in. We start walking and the conversations begin to flow. Not about our life ahead, or the places we'll go, or how big our family will be but about today. About tonight and this instant. Of how beautiful the plants smell after the rain, of how the moonlight reflects on the puddles on the streets and our shadows make a silhouette against it, of how the wind hustles us forward hissing promises in our ears, hissing promises of tomorrows as perfect as today. The warmth of his hands on my palm completing me that instant, concealing the promise made by the winds.

"Tara can we walk now?" Shouts Hridhay in my ears. "Sorry sorry, lets go, I was thinking about the walk that we took the night before our wedding". "Hey Tara you know what? We need a break. We need to go somewhere just you and me". "What about Adi and Kathir?" "They can go to Dee". "Very very magnanimous Hridhay. She's going to be very appreciative" "I'm full of such ideas" and he waves his hands in air. "So where do you wanna go Tara?" He puts his hands inside his pocket to silence his phone. "Since you seem to have thought this through, I'm sure youve thought of where too?". He smiles at me, closing his eyes, "Srinagar". I close my mouth with my hands in surprise and shake my head. "Dream" was the only word I could manage. We walk back inside the mall to pick the boys up and as we are about to board the escalator we hear a loud thud. Someone had fallen over, all of us rush. I reach the spot and instant blindness takes over me, blood gushing out of Adi's nose and mouth the last frame my eyes catch.