An Unfinished Conversation...

Their eyes met across the busy café at the busy Bangalore airport and suddenly, the twenty five years of separation was reduced to a short physical distance that either of them could cross in less than a dozen strides. 

Anish raised his eyebrows and gave a tentative smile, Shruti took a moment longer than him but her smile, when it came, was more confident. A moment later, Anish stood up and walked to meet the one love of his life.

“Journeys end in lover’s meetings” Shruti remembered the line from Twelfth Night and realized she was blushing a little. ‘Forty eight and as stupid as ever’ she said to herself as she stood up to greet Anish who seemed in two minds whether to offer a hug or shake hands. She pulled him in for a quick hug and then held him at arm’s length to look at him.

“Oh my God, you look so different now, what’s with the beard?” she said laughing. He shook his head smiling and scratched his salt and pepper french-beard absent-mindedly.

“But you look about the same” he said and then cleared his throat to add, “you look beautiful.” 

Shruti found the colour rising in his sallow, dark cheeks super amusing. They sat down.“Fancy meeting you here” she said “how long has it been?”

“You know how long has it been” he said and in a moment all the laugh lines were erased from both their faces.

The last time they had seen each other was in their ex-company’s cafeteria. After about five months of stating ‘we are just good friends’ to their colleagues as well as themselves, they both had finally found the courage to have a real conversation about their lives. Shruti had been nearly giddy when she had realized this handsome photocopier salesman was about to propose to her. 'Propose' was a cute word that boys and girls of their time used to indicate a formalization of relationship. It was generally a cute time.

But then Shruti had received the phone call from her younger sister that had changed her life. Her father had suffered a paralysis and her mother was beside herself with the burden of managing him by herself and running their family shop. Shruti was stunned, how could life do this to her. She had to leave her cushy job and return to her hometown to handle all the things her father had been doing. 

The younger sister found herself a husband and moved out. Everyone praised the saintly daughter of the Raje family but Shruti, who remained a virgin, spent at least an hour every day gnashing teeth and wondering if she could last another day. Her father, angry, hurt and completely dependent on her, lasted in that condition twenty two years.

She had returned to Pune only once, to pack her belongings and resign from her job. She had looked for Anish but was told that he too had stopped coming to office soon after her leaving. She couldn’t reach him on his phone and left tons of messages but did not get any response. It was that day that she realized that the phone call had cost her an entire lifetime of happiness with the man who had been too shy to propose to her.

Her attention was brought back to the present by his next question. “Are you married?” he asked. Shruti showed him her bare ring finger and asked “What about you?”

 “No” he said and she was alarmed to see moisture in his eyes and she asked, “Anish, why did you leave in such a hurry?” 

Anish gave a mirthless laugh and said with tears in his eyes, “I hit someone with my bike and was caught and handed over to the police after a sound beating. It was night, I was drunk and didn’t see the old man. His family threatened me with dire consequences and I panicked and left the city the same night after slipping out of the station. I had to cut all my ties with Pune and had to destroy my phone in case they tried to trace me!"

 Then he took a deep breath and placed his hand on hers. “The day you got a call about your father I was two minutes away from asking the question, do you know that? All my friends knew I was crazy for you and all of them said you liked me too. I beat around the bush for three months before we started talking” he left the part about how that delay in initiating conversation haunted him unsaid. 

They dropped their food trays in the bins and walked together out of the café. The bright sign with gate numbers told them that Anish would turn left to catch his flight and she would go right. They stood for a minute, smiling and not talking.

“I have learnt my lesson Shruti so I am not going to waste time again. I didn’t marry because I never loved anyone and seeing you today made me realize how much I love you even today. You are unattached and so am I. Can we resume where we left this conversation twenty five years ago?”

She started to say something and right then, as if on cue, her phone rang. It was her doctor calling about the results of the tests she had done before coming to Bangalore. She had been diagnosed with a breast lump and the doctor had advised further tests to find out if it was cancerous but he was still not sure. He had to run some more tests before coming to a conclusion and asked her to return immediately. 

A hundred thoughts were swirling in Shruti's mind -‘Should she say yes to Anish only to inflict fresh misery upon him? Or remind him that both of them were nearly fifty and such fairy-tale romance only happened in movies? What if she said say no only to find that the lump was benign? She had spent twenty five years wondering how life would have been with him, could she then bear to spend another twenty five regretting saying no? 

Shruti took a deep breath and put her hand on his. It was time to give life a second chance... 

About the Author:

An investment advisor by profession, Mayur's novels 'The Dark Road' and 'Tears for Strangers' are avaialble as a digital imprint on the Juggernaut app. His first collection of eerie, supernatural short stories is due to be released in paperback later this month. He lives in Pune, India. 

Rediscover reading with  "Mayur Didolkar"  on the Juggernaut app - https://www.juggernaut.in/authors/b4bfeb4edfbf44fb935ab148ba30088e