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”.
