Showing posts with label Pagdandi Pen Writers' Club. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pagdandi Pen Writers' Club. Show all posts

Sunday, May 19, 2019

Sun, moon and the twinkling stars

Aadya met him just a few days back. She wasn’t in love, she told herself. After all it was just a few meetings. And they can’t be called ‘dates’, right?Arranged marriage is not about love’ her friend Riya would often tell her. ‘You have to be practical, find a guy that you can settle down with’. But Aadya could feel a heartbeat inside her that she never had before. She had earlier met 9 guys, but with Aakash, it was different. She wanted to meet him again and again. She enjoyed hearing his infectious voice, seeing his smile that would take her breath away, and most of all his eyes that wouldn’t stop gazing at hers. She was clearly attracted to him.

Riya had got married a year back, and was already expecting a baby. They had a house in the most posh locality of Pune. Her husband was the CEO of the most well-known start-up in Pune… a 40-under-40 sort of guy. She had no mother-in-law. There were 3 maids, 2 nannies and 2 drivers. Everything was taken care of. What more could she have asked for, Riya would often say during the once-in-a-week phone calls she had with Aadya.

Aadya had a gift. She could hear a voice and grasp the joy, pain and every emotion in it. She could look into an eye and notice the smallest tear hidden somewhere deep inside, and find the infectious trace of a little smile within. And even though Riya tried hard, she couldn’t hide what her voice gave away. Yet, Aadya never commented on it. But last week when they met, Aadya let her eyes talk to Riya’s and within moments, Riya was in tears. If there is beauty in pain, Riya personified it. Her lips had the dryness of a desert, her gray hair looked burnt – dead yet burnt many times over. Her eyes were screaming for help, yet the emptiness within was scary – as if it had accepted defeat, lost all hope of a better life. Her skin, which once was like a feather of the most precious and rare bird that existed only in heavens, was empty, dull and lifeless.

Aadya was sad to see her friend so much in pain. She was also scared of her own future. Was she making the right choice? She wasn’t marrying for love either, she thought. Then, what was she marrying him for? It was a question that was bothering her a lot, literally giving her sleepless nights. She was constantly in debate with herself – ‘Could it possibly be love? Or attraction? What is love, anyway? How does he feel about me? What if it is temporary – whatever it is?’ She knew he was genuine, his smile was genuine and his eyes didn’t lie. She admired his hesitant touch when he shook her hand. She admired the nervous twinkle in his eyes when he tried to figure out whether she liked the dish he ordered. Most of all, she loved how he sought to find out how she felt about every plan he made, whenever he made one. And that he was willing to make amends when she didn’t like something. She felt guilty that she wasn’t equally collaborative when she took the lead. ‘Am I as right for him as he is for me?’ ‘Would he eventually understand me?’ – well, she knew that understanding a person is a pursuit which can take a lifetime. Even she was a puzzle to herself at times. And what if she couldn’t connect with his mind in the true sense, what if her instincts fooled her? ‘Marriage needs work, I am willing to do it’ – she told herself. ‘But, is he?’

But most of all, there were the what ifs that scared her to the core. ‘What if some day I see in his eyes what I see in Riya’s? What if I hear in myself the pain which says I no more believe in life, its joys and its possibilities? What if my skin pales with each cell screaming that it can’t hide the sorrow within any more?’

Riya controlled herself, and in a minute her tears went away. A few more moments later, she smiled at Aadya, followed by the same familiar, naughty giggle that they continuously shared at the back bench in college a few years ago, over little things that nobody else understood besides them. Aadya smiled back. Riya turned her eyes towards a handsome young man on another table, probably on a date with a pretty girl laughing in a flirtatious way. Riya gently whispered – ‘Bitch!’. And they both laughed louder than they ever did before. Aadya was so overwhelmed that moment that tears of joy trickled down her cheeks. And suddenly she noticed that Riya, at that very moment, looked totally transformed – as if they went back to the old days when life was care free and fun. Her eyes were glowing with pure happiness and her skin had the moist luster of a baby. And Aadya realized yet another truth about life – it always has its ways to offer happiness and hope.

And she decided to jump right in!

Originally written by me at Pagdandi during the Pune Writers’ Group meetup on 19th May 2019. It’s a short story based on one of the themes given on the spot – “Every emotion a human feels becomes written on their body. One day a woman is found with empty skin”.

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