All you need is Love

“ shaadikarnahai?”

His voice was thick with passion. He held her close. Her head rested on the crook of his arm. Her eyes were closed. Her thick black hair formed a dark curtain behind her.

“hmmmm?” she said. And snuggled up closer to him.

“ would you want to marry me?”

She opened her eyes. She looked into his beautiful green eyes. She looked deep into them. Those eyes had made her go completely weak in the knees when she first saw him. She still remembered the day he first walked into college.

She was the kind of girl who everyone knew. She was always ready with a smile and a hello to everyone she met.  She was like a feather in the wind. To those who didn’t know her, she seemed directionless, but in the shaft of her being, she knew what she wanted out of life. She just didn’t like to talk about it. She was an intelligent girl. Unconventionally beautiful also maybe. She was the apple of her parents eyes. So when she left home for college, her mother shed a few tears. But they were tears of pride. Their oldest little girl was finally growing up.

She wasn’t a naïve girl. She knew she had a way around men quite early in her life. She couldn’t exactly place what it was. She knew she wasn’t breathtakingly beautiful like her sisters. But she knew that if she really tried, men weren’t that much of a challenge.

But life was not exactly fair to her either. Life doesn’t serve everything on a platter to you. She did meet quite a few men who broke her heart in a pitiable manner. But then again, she was a smart girl. She knew how to pick herself up.

In her first year of college she met quite a few men who broke her heart. But by then, she knew to expect little from men and more from herself.

She always knew that she wanted to sing. When she sang, her voice was enchanting. She was like an angel. She was so headstrong about singing that she knew that she wanted to sing only for the movies. She loved the movies. She had seen them all. She dreamt of being Audrey Hepburn singing moon river. But she didn’t sing for anyone. You had to be special.

So, the next summer, when she came back to college as a senior and saw him walk into her campus as her junior, she couldn’t explain the music in her heart.

It confused her, complicated things and she found herself spending all the time she’d spend singing on the terrace of her apartment, with him.

He was an unusual boy. He was so quiet it was unsettling. He would just watch her for hours. And they would spend hours by the river just watching it flow. Not a word would be spoken. And yet, they’d feel like they were a part of a larger conversation. Otherwise, they’d talk for hours from night till sunrise and feel so complete just with each other.

Their first kiss was so perfect that it was what romance novels and films are all about. She could feel the raindrops falling on her skin as he kissed her lips. He held her close. Despite the cold, in his warm embrace, she felt that he would never leave her.

What would the world think? Their affair was a scandal of their time. She walked into crowds with eyes on her. But he held her hand. When her friends stopped talking to her, she cried bitterly to him. He wiped her tears and brought her strawberry ice cream. Her favourite.

“ so.. bolona..I want to marry you, baby…”

They had been together for a year now. She was going to leave the city in a month. He still had a year left. It was their last month of togetherness before their careers and life took them their separate ways.

“ there’s nothing I’d rather do…”

She looked deap into his eyes. He held her tight and kissed her.

It was raining when they decided to get married. They both hated flamboyant ceremonies. So, it was just them and an idol of lord shiva where he applied red sindoor. They spent out the rest of the six months on love, cigarettes, films, chicken and lots of sex.

She had tears in her eyes. She couldn’t stop crying.

“ I’m going to miss you. Finish soon. Graduate and come be with me”

The distant sound of the train hooting forced him to draw himself away from her.

The train journey to Mumbai made her feel so alone. Although she was chasing her dreams she wished he was with her. Beside her. But she knew she fell in love with a talented human being and not a puppy dog that would just follow her around. And she was fully aware of that. That’s why she loved him.

Settling down in a new city was not easy. It was terrible. Once again she felt alone. But she had work to do. Bills to pay. She was finally alone. She was doing what she loved.

The first film she was asked to sing for was a full blown Bollywood film. It starred a leading actor and a popular heroine. She was so happy she wanted him to be there too.  She wanted him to attend the premiere with her. He couldn’t. he had his finals that he couldn’t miss. She understood.

After college he got a job in delhi. Which was 1407 km away from her. But it was a promising job. So she was happy for him.

But as they were on their own, the phone calls started getting fewer and fewer. Cellular networks weren’t exactly running on charity.  And they did have bills to pay.

In three years, she had seen him only twice.  The first year he had taken the train to meet her almost every two months. But slowly, as life happened, the visits started getting fewer and fewer.

She did notice the shift. She missed him terribly. She wished he’d make more of an effort. And he wished that she’d have some patience. The few phone calls that they had ended in arguments.

Gradually even the phone calls stopped. From talking every day a week, it stretched to two weeks and then three.

Meanwhile she became a sought after singer. She had bought herself a house in Mumbai. And he had become a reputed photographer.

It was ironic that when a well placed telephone company decided to sign her on as their brand ambassador and the perks included all her telephone bills being taken care of, it was at this moment that she realized that apart from her parents, she had nobody to call.

They had driven each other crazy by now.  When he told her never to call him, she cried bitterly and deleted all traces of his memories. Her self respect did not allow her to beg for him. Neither did his.

But when she saw him on television with all those beautiful actresses, she felt her heart crash into a million pieces.

He had become a famous director. He had bought many houses, cars and material things that this world is filled with. But it had been five years since had spoken to her. In five years, she had cried, been angry, and been at her job like it meant her life. She had created a niche for herself. But she was tired now. She longed home. And an arm to embrace her. When she was truly alone and missed him, she thought of her darling parents and the unconditional love they had always given her.

She had had enough. She wanted to go home.

It was a bright Sunday morning. She left with bare minimum bags. She didn’t even care anymore. She would even say okay to the marriage that her parents were arranging. Nothing mattered much. The groom was in America. It would be a good change for her she thought.

“ your flight has been delayed madam. By three hours. Due to rain. I’m sorry”

She couldn’t believe it. Frustrated seeped through her.

She sat on the metal chair in the lounge sipping her coffee.

“pataanahin. My flight has been delayed”.

She heard the voice for the first time behind her. She recognized it instantaneously. It was him. In five years the voice had grown gruff. With all the cigarette smoking she guessed. It was him. She dared not to look at him. She froze. She could feel him move towards her. She turned her back towards him.

“ I don’t care what it takes. I’m going to bring my wife back home.”

The voice drifted away to a vacant seat ahead of her.

She looked out of the window. The rain poured hard. She suddenly felt all the weight washing off her.

She smiled. It was going to be an interesting journey, she thought.