Xossip Ultimate Story Contest 2014

[Expert]

Epilogue

hidden desire

The first rains had lashed the city a few hours ago. Another Monsoon was just about setting in. The gentle drizzle outside made the weather hopelessly romantic.
Triveni however lay on her sofa in a rather somber mood. Vishal and she had finally obtained divorce about a week back. This was after spending a good one year in their second spell, trying hard to make their marriage work. However within weeks of getting back together, they had begun to believe that their relationship was all but over. Temperament and personality clashes had led to a very disturbed scenario at home. Each looked like a complete stranger to the other. For the sake of their daughter, they clung on for a while till they got her admitted in a boarding college. Once that happened, the couple decided to part ways conclusively.

Today with the onset of another monsoon , a strange, long forgotten thought somehow lurked in Triveni’s mind. The thought was of a bygone Monsoon and of an interesting entity the rains had brought along. She was somehow reminded of Rajesh, whom she hadn’t spoken to in ages. Not after that animated midnight conversation on the phone. She was somehow just missing him, she didn’t know why. Not that she wanted to revive anything, but she just seemed inquisitive to know where and how Rajesh was. She felt unusually nostalgic, she didn’t know why.

Triveni called up Rajesh on his cell. The number did not exist. She got worried. She called up his office. The receptionist informed her that Rajesh had quit his job. The receptionist had no clue where he was currently working. Strangely enough Triveni felt scared; a strange fear loomed in her mind, a fear of something being seriously amiss. In her anxiety, she called up the office again and took Rajesh’s address, reasoning out that she was his cousin. It was only after she had completed the call she realized how childish she had been. Nonetheless, she did not mind. She still felt scared; something in her propelled her to just take the car keys- and head towards Rajesh’s address.

Triveni arrived outside Rajesh’s building and remembered it was the same building that Rajesh was supposed to buy a flat in long ago.
The flat was not the same , she had once rejected, when he’d brought her there for her opinion, when she’d be his ‘agony soother’.

She reached the ninth floor where his flat was and rang the bell. As she waited for the door to be opened, she felt very nervous. A male servant opened the door.

‘yes…’
‘uhhh….’
‘You’ve come to meet sahib?’
She simply nodded.

‘Come Saheb will be back any moment. He asked me to take care of his friends who come in his absence.’
She was surprised by the warmth shown by the servant to a stranger and walked in.

She sat for a while. The rains were now heavier. Perhaps they were setting the right feel for something so passionate, as this meeting between two unusual lovers. Or so she felt. Her heartbeat by now had increased considerably. She was shaky like a teenager who’d fallen in love for the first time. She realized the wait for seeing Rajesh was only making her anxiety grow. How would he look like? Would he have put on weight – a thing he dreaded. What will he do when he sees her first….. hug her, smile, embrace…? Oh, she just didn’t have any clue.

The feel of Rajesh putting his head on her lap in a rather ‘testing’ sort of way the last time she’d come into his flat., seemed so fresh in her mind. It was as if the incident had occurred just a while back. Would he choose to do it again today? Well, if he did, she knew she wouldn’t mind him ogling at her from that position today. Almost every minute Triveni looked at her watch, unable to decipher the cause for her madness.

And then the wait got over. Rajesh stood right infront of her eyes. No, he hadn’t put any weight. He looked younger and better than ever. In fact, he wore a formal suit- a marked improvement from the casual dressing he was accustomed to. No, he didn’t embrace her or hug her. He didn’t look particularly happy on seeing her either. He had rather faint, forced sort of smile on his face. He didn’t seem to be sure whether he ought to smile or not.

Triveni on the other hand was excited. It seemed as though Rajesh and she had swapped positions in these last two years.
‘Hey Rajesh, How are you?’ she beamed in joy and moved towards him, unmindful completely of her body language..
However, she had to stop herself midway. Another woman seemed to stake claim over Rajesh.
‘Oh Rajesh, …. What sort of stupid neighbours you have? She wasn’t letting me come.”

A woman entered from behind Rajesh, oblivious to the presence of Triveni. The woman clad in a maroon saree, was a lot younger and as pretty if not prettier than Triveni. An awkward silence descended upon the room, till Rajesh broke it.
“Seema, this is Triveni. And Triveni this is my wife. We just got married in the court today.”

Triveni was zapped. She had an inkling that something was ‘seriously amiss’. Or perhaps it was bad timing. Oh, so this is what it was. She found it hard to exude her natural smile. She again didn’t exactly know why. After all, she always wished and wanted Rajesh get married, Perhaps in this long hiatus, certain dominant feelings had subconsciously ignited. She didn’t know why and when it happened. And what wrong timing it was.

Seema looked damn gorgeous. She seemed intelligent too and of course was many years younger. Rajesh had always been on the lookout for that elusive combination of ‘intellect with beauty’ and here he seemed to have finally got it. Was this by any means causing Triveni envy? She did not know.

‘Congratulations to both of you,’ uttered Triveni shakily, seeming only a shadow of her graceful self.
‘Thanks’
‘I think I’ve come at a wrong time. I’ll catch up later.’
‘Don’t be so formal, Ma’am. At least have some sweets before you go,’ Seema insisted.

It was apparent from the way Seema spoke that she’d been told about Triveni.
‘No,no, I’ll see you again’
Come on ma’am just be seated. Why don’t you and Rajesh talk? I’ll get something for you.’ Seema went leaving Rajesh and Triveni alone.
Rajesh was unusually silent. Perhaps the hurt still remained.

‘Rajesh, I’m very happy for you. But somehow I’m feeling very awkward at this point. ListenI’ll leave before Seema comes. Just tell her I was not feeling well, okay,’ Triveni tried taking him into confidence like she’d do in past.

Rajesh did not say anything; he just looked on.
‘Bye’ Triveni left.
When Seema came with sweets, she wasn’t so much surprised by Tiveni leaving as she was by her arriving there in the first place.
‘Why did she come here?’ she asked Rajesh. Rajesh was trying to find answer himself.

When Tiveni reached her car, she realized that in haste she’d left her cell phone behind. She didn’t have an option but to go back and collect it though she would have loved to avoid going back.
She went up to Rajesh’s flat. The door wasn’t completely closed. She was just about to ring the bell when she over heard Rajesh and Seema talk.
‘I have no idea why Triveni came here. That’s a puzzle for me as it is for you. Honestly I’d never hoped to see her again.’

‘It’s OK dear, I hope it hasn’t upset you much.’
Rajesh took a long pause before he went on.
‘You know Seema, certain relationships are doomed. They are meant to give you agony and pain, nothing else. Usually these relationships can’t be defined; hence they don’t have a name. They’re just destined. I mean that’s how accidents happen and you meet wrong people,right?’

Seema just tapped his shoulder, sensing her husband’s anguish.
The words seemed to have deafened Triveni, with their ugly impact.
‘Seema, today I want to erase that chapter from my life forever. Yes, I wish I had never mer Triveni.’
Triveni could not take it any more. She just walked off, the words resonating violently in her ears.

‘Tumhen bhi yaad nahi aur main bhi bhul gaya,
Who lamha kitna hassen tha, magar fuzool gaya’
Javed Akhtar ne kahin ye kaha tha.

Three hours had gone by. Even as it drizzled continuously, Triveni was lost in a peculiar activity. She’d been driving her car relentlessly, up and down the Highway., ever since she came out of Rajesh’s building. She’d completed four rounds and seemed to have the energy for more. Perhaps she had nothing better to do. She didn’t want to return to the forlorn confines of her home- not so early.

The words of Rajesh seemed like the unkindest cut of all. But Triveni was still happy. She felt reassured. The confused kid she’d met in these rains, exactly three monsoons ago had finally grown into a mature adult. So what if the transformation had made him wish ‘that he’d never met Triveni.’

That night, even as it kept raining, Rajesh stood on his terrace. Seema was asleep. Rajesh felt strange. The images of a shaken and nervous Triveni just wouldn’t leave him. He was apparently fulfilled ,yet empty. Tears rolled down his face and converged into rain drops. He cried. Only he knew that contrary to what he made everybody believe, he would never grow out of Triveni.