Love - The upper Meniscus

‘Tomorrow, 11 am. And I need the files done. I hope you get it Mr. Adit.’ exclaimed Rambo grumpily.

He was the divisional head, and had a head that functioned divisionally. His waist coat never reached out to his waists and the buttons tried their best to remain intertwined to the large loopholes across his chest. He always had a perfectly contrasting tie on, that seemed suffocated and peeped out seeking for help.

I turned and walked towards my cabin muttering out all possible suffixes that suited him. I guess, prefixes suited his name Ramesh Balakrishna Reddy alias Rambo more.

The clock showed 4.05 pm and I was at my desk. The cup of hot coffee trying to get cozy with the steamy pakodas was left unattended. They continued to stare sheepishly at each other and gave me nasty glances for treating them as unwelcomed guests.

The consignment meeting with Flamingo Exports was scheduled for the next week and I was already done with half of the file assignment. So I had shamelessly walked in to request for an early departure for a day from this not so friendly flite.

Today was the reunion day of the 2001-02 batch of Xavierites in Hotel Sapphire and Adit, the then star of St. Xavier’s, now overruled by Rambo, the comet, was denied an exit from his galaxy. This comet, unlike the real ones, didn’t grant a single wish, perhaps, he was envious of the fact that he can never, in his lifetime, attend a reunion party of his graduation school. Poor Rambo!

Grapevines say that he had failed to clear his 10+2 examination even in the third attempt and that the designation of a divisional head of Seagull Pvt. Ltd. was a part of the dowry he gained for accepting a widow as his wife. Well, none to blame, marrying a widow is much appreciable than clearing an exam in the fourth attempt!

‘Good Bye Mr. Adit. Take care to see that I don’t regret having suspended you for not completing the assignment within the stipulated time’ said Rambo and hurried himself an hour earlier than usual.

Well, it will be me who will regret for not getting suspended, you overweighed bull!!

The pre-monsoon showers lashed the city.

Rambo would never ever get drowned but float in case of a flood. I thought.

I walked out of the cabin to re-energize myself for the unnecessarily assigned load and to get rid of the nostalgia that had commenced its role in plying over my thoughts.

But nostalgia is a strong feeling and it gets hold of you with no intentions to leave.

The next cup of coffee looked at me and expressed a desire to be drunk. I set the files aside, took the cup of coffee and dragged myself lazily into the couch that lay adjacent to the French sliding. I took the first sip, mannerlessly, making some noise, as droplets drizzled over the sliding. I watched them move from top to bottom. Heat from the coffee tried to settle as fog on my glasses. It appeared and reappeared as I blew to take another sip.

What I couldn’t blow away was my college memories. They began flashing, one after the other, like a slideshow that had been set, my friends, some best, some good, some bad or worse, their sight quite appealing.

My love, Rhea, her curled up hair, her wide eyes and mascara applied eyelashes could do nothing but stare at me for we hadn’t caught each other’s glimpse or exchanged words for 6 long years. She bit her own lips as she smiled through, a sign of her blushing and her cheeks readily reddened all of a sudden that beautified her dusky complexion. I had almost got up and hugged her!

I was on the guitar, busy rehearsing for the annual day performance. She sat on the front row of the auditorium, tapping her toe to the music I played. By the time the annual festival ended, Rhea, labeled as the shy girl of the 2^nd year BCom class, had become the music of my life, the string on my guitar, that sounded the sweetest when struck.

She was the best friend that I could ever get. No proposals, no dates, but we both were sure that one of us would die in the other’s arm.

Bunking classes was an infrequent phenomenon for we had the best of teachers who instead of making us learn commerce saga by rote, developed an ability to think independently and procure the finest commercial outcomes.

The canteen, the freak-out zone, ever filled with hubbub of activities, provided food equivalent to the one from mom’s kitchen.

My mouth watered, on the thought of the paneer masala that Govind kaka used to serve to our group of notorious five, me, Rohan, Vishal, Neel and Sarthak. Rhea, too joined us occasionally. I and Rhea, enjoyed the fruit falooda together, in stealth and most of the times landed up sharing our romantic moments and more than half of the falooda with my food geek buddies.

A day after the final year examinations, I vividly remember, it was a Tuesday on the 7^th of April, 2002. I had never gifted Rhea anything more than a greeting card, but this time I had bought a ring with diamonds studded over to form a heart shape, for her birthday.

She didn’t turn up that day. My calls went unanswered. I couldn’t dare go to her home and check out the matter for she had a dad who was more of a businessman, than a father, who may win ‘The Grumpy’ title with Rambo as the competitor.

She didn’t turn up the day after, nor on the days that came and went. Its then I came to know that her father, under the pretext of admitting her for pursuing higher studies, had sent her to Delhi, may be the knowledge of our relationship had been the trigger, where he had found another businessman as a groom for his daughter.

Vishal was a native of Delhi and could easily locate Rhea. I couldn’t believe my senses when I heard that she was under kind of house arrest until her wedding took place.

Has business taken over his common sense? Did business mean everything to him?

I wish I had born in a family of businessmen. My mom, a school teacher and dad, a singer and composer couldn’t have produced a son who would do well-off in businesses. I was a loser even in love business!!

The passage of time played its role as a healer of all wounds. I had switched jobs thrice before settling in with Seagull Pvt. Ltd. as the assistant accountant since the past 2 years. There was hardly any Xavierite who was not on my contact list, and Rhea, though not contacted, ever remained concatenated to my soul that had left my status single till date.

A streak of lightning flashed and the clock showed half past 6. The next thing I did was took out a plain white paper and sat down to write a letter, the resignation letter. I sensed myself as a winner as I imagined Rambo reading it the next morning. I knew nothing but that I will be attending the reunion party even if Rambo comes with a gun, riding on a horse.

I will tickle the horse and the horse, in turn, would smash Rambo on the ground, the impact causing Rambo to fire at himself. No court would ever punish me for tickling a horse!!

The excitement of meeting everyone was getting over me. I wore a black suit with a turquoise tie on, that was Rhea’s favourite colour, though I had the strongest belief that she won’t turn up this time either, and I won’t be able to say how much I loved her. Even if she ended up landing, she would have her husband as an escort, and two kids, may be more, and would be devoid of all the attention I’ll be paying to her.

As I entered the dimly lit hall, I found faces that were quite familiar yet difficult to identify, if it had not been for this reunion party. Some were chief accountants in leading MNCs, some others had got into family businesses, and so on. Enmities apart, well now, we couldn’t even figure out the reason for which we had fought during college days, we were under one roof, free to resuscitate the teenage days out.

The magnificent chandelier that hung from the ceiling made patterns over a face, making it difficult for me to identify her. My heart skipped a few beats when she came nearer.

Aah… Rhea…. Is that you….??

Yes, you stupid coward… its me.

She hadn’t looked beautiful anytime before. I looked around for the presence of any escort but found none. She was all alone.

‘For whom are you looking around when I’m standing right in front of you?’

I cleared my voice and said ‘ No, no one Rhea. I ain’ t dreaming, right?’

‘No, not all Adi.’ she said, adjusting my tie.

She sobbed over my shoulders. She spoke about things that no girl could have managed to suffer. And my bonus lay in there, she wasn’t married!! Her marriage was broken off with an ease of a business deal as her dad was unable to gift his son-in- law a 10 lac bond that he demanded on the eve of ceremony. Having had a marriage broken, girls were considered to be having evil powers in them and no guy would dare marry such a girl in their village. Her dad would never accept a man of his daughter’s choice but would happily see her remain unmarried all her life.

She had got the invitation letter for the reunion and after much hue and cry, was sent out on bail from house arrest, with the condition that she would never return back.

I took her hands. ‘You’ll be keeping your word. You won’t return back. You’re all mine now.’

And we danced to the music that played until we sensed all eyes fixed upon us.

We stopped and everyone applauded. She blushed and even I did blush, having found my lost love.

…………Rhea had come with all the good fortune. Rambo was the chief guest of our wedding ceremony. He had called me up and had asked to withdraw my resignation.

He couldn’t have done with the assignment himself. You should have done it long before, you stupid, coward!

But the coward had attempted a dare and got the best reward…. His love!!