Vishal Sharma
Riya was lugging a big, heavy briefcase behind her. She would pull it with her left hand, one moment, and with the right, the next. She was five seven and a full figured woman. Despite this she was huffing and puffing and finding it difficult to hump it. A hand bag slung across her shoulder; its weight further complicated the matters for her. After wrestling with her briefcase for a while, she paused and scanned the distance ahead her.
It was then she saw a small boy running in her direction. Approaching him, she implored,” Will you lend me a hand?”
The boy obligingly caught hold of one end of the brief case and Riya the other, and both of them started the trudge towards the Neha’s place. The house had been tastefully decorated with flowers and fairy lights. A small canopy was strung over the garden fronting the house. At the entrance, she glimpsed through the ajar door, her friend, Neha crossing the lobby. She called to Neha.
” Riya, is that you? ”
Neha left the stuff she was holding on the table and rushed to hug her. When they quit embracing, they looked at each other smilingly; looking at the lines and creases, time had added to their faces which even their lightly made up faces couldn’t hide.
Neha then took Riya into a suite which she had specially readied for hosting her friends. The suite had four beds lined up in four corners paired with the side tables. In the centre was a walnut table circled by low lying cushioned teak chairs.
***
Amit, Neha’s husband, stood leaning forward with his elbows on the sill looking out of the window. It had rained the whole night. There were puddles on the driveway and on the edges where the concrete of the driveway met the grassy patch. Water droplets dripped to the ground from the leaves of couple of medium sized trees that stood flanking the house. Water droplets collected on the leaves glistened in the sunlight that had just burst through the cloud cover. A rain soaked squirrel sprinted across the grassy carpet and disappeared among the ferns. A crow came and landed on a thin branch of an ornamental tree that swerved violently under its weight forcing it to take flight. A large number of earthworms crawled on the ground; making it difficult to pick the way through them. In the distance, a storm drain gurgled over the solid refuse that clogged its path. Patches of clouds could still be seen high up in the sky. Overnight rains had cleared the dust and eased the visibility as far as one could see. Everything looked well washed and spotlessly clean.
Amit was lost in the nature’s wonderland when his servant, Nandu’s voice broke his reverie.
” Uncleji, there’s a woman asking for auntie ji.” At the entrance stood Kamini in churidar with a shade parked on her head and a small briefcase in her hand.
Amit commanded Nandu to carry Kamini’s personal effects into the room. In the drawing room, they were joined by Neha at which point Amit left them.
” Bebo, you look every bit as stylo as you did in college days.”
” And you have become the typical North Indian auntie. I guess men in your part of the world admire rubenesque ladies.”
Neha then took her to the suite where Riya was resting on a chaise longue.
” Back with my best friends like the clock never moved.”
” I will now leave you to catch up on old times? I won’t be gone for long.” Neha then left them and closed the door behind her.
*****
A mutt sighted a woman at the entrance to the house and ran fiercely towards her and grabbed her plazo. The woman let go of her luggage and tried to push it away. The mutt barked and then started menacingly lunging at her waist. The woman tried to make a hasty retreat from the entrance to the house in order to extricate herself from the mutt. Nandu, who was passing by, ran to pull the dog away.
” Hope it has not hurt you, mam.”
” Hurt me?. Are you out of your mind? The wretched thing scared the hell out of me.”
The kerfuffle brought Neha at the door. Seeing Kamya a little disoriented, and her luggage lying upside down, she quickly understood that Kamya had run into the mutt.
” I am so sorry, Kamya. I don’t know why Ceaser was not kept leashed.”
****
Neha sat on the bed folding the bridal coutre in neat piles and putting them back in the plastic bags. It was then her daughter walked into the room. Red lipped and pink cheeked with a long thick braid swinging behind her softy- Anushree resembled an idol hewn out by the Gods themselves.
” See, what a magnificent dress! It’s all hand embroidered.” She then held the edges of the dress apart and placed it on Anushree’s head, framing her face.
” What’s the matter, dear?”
” Nothing. It’s just that I can’t bear separation from you.” Neha patted her back and placed her chin on her head.
” You are not going anywhere, bebo. You will always be in our hearts.”
*****
Diya was the last of Neha’s friends to arrive with a suitcase and pomeranian in her lap. She sported short, bobbed hair and wore glasses, which kept sliding down the bridge of her nose. Every time they slid, she pushed them with her index finger back up the bridge. She ran into Nandu at the entrance. Nandu saw that she kept pulling her shirttail down when apparently there was no reason for that as it hung straight and nice without any puckers in it.
As she began to follow him into the house, she glimpsed Neha down a passageway on her right and called to her.
Hugging her, Diya whispered into her ears.
” I am on the rag, Neha”
” What? You are well past your menopause.” Diya’s words shocked her, throwing creases on her face into sharp relief.
” Oh dear! I will show you to the washroom and also get you pads from Anushree.”
*********
Neha gave the jewellery a quick onceover before putting it into the locker. After digitally locking it, she turned around to find Amit standing right behind her. ” Oh God! You almost scared me.” Amit laughed and hugged her. Neha then told her why her four friends had arrived so early to attend the marriage. It was about a promise, she told him, that she had made to them when they were in college. And the promise was that on her daughter’s marriage she would throw a cocktail party for them.
” I hope you would not mind.”
” Not at all. In fact, you guys should celebrate with the best spirits I have in my bar: Woodford Reserve Double Oaked whiskey and Ardberg Ten scotch.”
*********
Neha joined her friends at 8 pm for the party with two bottles each of Woodford Reserve Double Oaked and Ardberg Ten. Nandu then followed with a big tray containing a big bowl of ice cubes and a tong and four glasses. He later made another round to the room carrying an assortment of veg and non veg snacks. Kamini and Ria opted for scotch while Neha, Diya and Kamya decided to have the whiskey. Neha poured the spirit into four glasses and then they all raised a toast to Anushree. ” To Anushree,” chorused all. While they still held glasses in air, Kamya said, “Bottoms up.” And in one go, they all emptied the contents of their glasses into their waiting bellies. The first round was quickly followed by another and then another. After three drinks, they all started feeling a little buzzed. It was then Kamya looked at Kamini and addressed her. ” You almost got knocked up by that rake. What was his name, I forgot? Oh, yes ! Arnav. What was it about him that got you randy around him?”
” I guess it was a teenage crush. What about your fling with that lounge lizard, Vineet?
” It did not last. He believed in moving on from one girl to another. A rolling stone.”
Neha got up and filled their glasses and urged them to get on with it. Riya caught Neha’s gaze. ” What about you, Neha? I remember you also fell in love with Dinesh.”
” Six months is all it went on for. I thought it would last enough for us to marry. But in the end it turned out to be nothing more than an infatuation.”
“There were lots of rumours that you guys once made out in a hotel.”
” We never really hooked up. Amit knows all about it. And you, Riya, what happened to Maya, who you wanted to settle with?”
” Maya went abroad for higher studies and never returned. I haven’t had a chance to get into another sapphic relationship ever since.” Couple of more rounds of drinks followed and they all got smashed. Diya, who had been sitting quiet all this while, bristled at having been left out of conversation.
” No one has asked me what I have gone through all these years with a broken marriage.”
Neha comforted her in a voice that now trembled; her slurred speech a clear indication of intoxication. “Worry not, Diya. Of course, we would like to hear why your marriage did not work ?”
“Because I could not bear him a baby. He called me a childless cat lady.”
” I am so sad for you. But you had periods today, Diya. Who knows God may have planned something for you. Don’t lose hope.” Neha then dragged herself closer to Diya, and took her head in her lap and began stroking it. In between drinks, Neha and her friends also relished the veg and non veg snacks with gusto. The drinking binge continued and then suddenly Neha got to her feet, held her glass up in the air and tapped it with a little spoon in order to draw their attention.
” What about the dinner?” All in one voice said no to dinner.
Neha sat down and then addressed both Kamini and Kamya. ” You both have had colourful lives. Do you ever carry pangs of guilt for not coming clean about your past with your husbands? ”
Kamya ventured first with her response. ” I could never bring myself to reveal everything about my past life to my husband. A fear always lurked in my mind that he might not ever truly reconcile with my past.” Kamini also became emotional and said that she too had not been truthful like Kamya with her husband.
The atmosphere suddenly became sombre, as drinks helped them feel lighter and their conscience less guilt ridden. It was then Neha intervened. “None of us have to carry the burden of the past for past is long gone. Our present and future can’t now be hostage to our doings in the past. Let us raise a toast to our friendship; to who we are now; and to who we will be in future.”
All held their drinks in the air and chorused at the top of their voices: “To us, to our present and to our future”
And then they all did a down in one !
Follow our WhatsApp channel
