Get One Bye Two Page 8

  “His parents are celebrating their silver anniversary in Spain, and Anadi has gone there to spend a few days with them. In fact, he just sent me a few photographs of his holiday last night. He always wanted to participate in the bull running festival at Pamplona. Many of the pictures he sent were taken during the festival.”

  “I am sure he did. I am sure he did,” Lina said, with an air of mysterious finality. She was feeling a bit uncomfortable and uneasy in the library. She walked out soon thereafter. Lina wanted to free her mind from all thoughts. Some of them were her own doing, while others she just could not understand.

  She chose to visit the symbol of freedom in Ahmedabad, the Sabarmati Ashram.

  Sabarmati Ashram was spread over a vast natural surrounding with low-tiled roof huts and several trees. It was a serene environment. The black statues of Mahatma Gandhi in a sitting position added to the tranquillity. Lina walked around the ashram and greeted everybody she met with folded hands. As she was turning around the corner of a hut, she nearly bumped into a woman coming from the opposite direction.

  “I am so sorry. Please excuse me,” Lina apologised with folded hands. The folded hands worked well in both greeting people as well as apologising to people, across most parts of India. The folded hands symbolised the meeting of individuals in the greeting gesture and also meant the closure of an issue after an undesirable incident. Lina probably meant both when she accidentally bumped into the woman.

  “I am not,” the other woman smiled and said.

  “Sorry?”

  “I meant, I am not sorry. Hi, I am Romi. Romi Gosain. I work as an administrative officer at the ashram.” Romi laughed and clasped Lina’s folded hands with both her hands.

  Lina felt a strange sensation throughout her body. The hair on her body stood, slowly and almost shyly. And her heart jumped wildly. It was the touch she had been waiting for. She was aroused and embarrassed at the same time. She avoided direct eye contact with Romi and tried to pull her hands away slowly, though she hoped Romi would not let go of them.

  “I am not going to let you go so easily. Come, please have a cup of coffee with me,” Romi insisted.

  Lina was not a coffee lover. She preferred green tea with honey and a slice of lemon in it.

  “I love coffee,” said Lina and looked up. She saw Romi’s face properly for the first time. She felt even more attracted to her now. Lina’s mind was a whirlpool of emotions and confusion. She had never been attracted to a woman before. And she had met quite a few attractive women, some very seductive too, both in India and abroad. She considered herself as straight as one could get.

  Romi was pleased that Lina had accepted her offer to have coffee with her. She gently patted Lina’s back, much to the amusement of Lina’s mind and the delight of her surging hormones.

  “I don’t think I told you my name. I am Lina. Lina Kapoor,” Lina said, taking the first sip of coffee at a nearby cafeteria.

  “Lina. Nice name. We both have four-lettered first names. Does that mean anything?”

  Lina’s mind was working naughtily. She felt it meant something. Something that good girls don’t speak about.

  “Yes, a coincidence?” Lina said. She thought it would be wiser to hide her actual feelings, thoughts and words.

  “True! Do you like the coffee? I love coffee, always loved it.”

  “Well, to tell you the truth, I am not much of a coffee person. But somehow today, I am really enjoying having coffee with you.” Lina was speaking the truth this time.

  “Well, to tell you the truth, I did dip my fingers in your coffee to enhance the taste. Do you want some more coffee?” Romi said, with a teasing smile, as her mind surged with many romantic memories of having coffee with Anil.

  Lina almost spilt the coffee in her mouth. But then Romi’s smile reassured her.

  “I would really like that,” Lina said, recovering her composure.

  “What? To dip my fingers in your coffee?” Romi was enjoying her playful flirting with Lina, something she too had never done before.

  “No! No!” Lina was getting a bit cautious now. She was looking for a relationship. But she was not prepared for this. Mentally or physically. She knew this was not an experience by design, it was by accident. And accidents were just accidents. Sometimes, they caused momentary joy and sometimes they caused long-lasting pain. But they were always an adrenaline rush. She was happy to experience the adrenaline rush. She liked the momentary joy. But she knew if she did not extricate herself immediately, she could be a victim of long-lasting pain from the accident.

  “I am sorry. I forgot. I have to rush for a meeting. Thank you very much for the coffee. And everything else…”

  Lina grabbed her purse from the table, stood up in a hurry and walked out of the cafeteria before Romi could react to her strange and abrupt behaviour.

  Romi asked for the bill from the waiter. She gave him a generous tip. The waiter, who knew her well, knew something was wrong.

  “What happened, Romi ma’am? You look a bit sad and lost.”

  “Do I? Well, I guess I am a bit lost because I don’t understand why I like strange people who I always tend to lose.”

  “Don’t worry, ma’am. You will never lose me.”

  “Good! I am glad you are no stranger.”

  19

  “Naam hai Ramaan, choona hai aasmaan! All aboard and set for take-off.” Umar was in a good mood today. He was looking forward to meeting Rajni. He had asked his administrative team to call up Rajni Cab Services and ensure that no one other than Rajni herself came to pick him at the airport. Umar could not get Rajni out of his head for the past two weeks.

  In Bangalore, Rajni was getting a head massage. She wanted her short hair to look shinier and more alluring. She had bought a new T-shirt for the day and a new pair of goggles too. She had not expected to hear again from Umar, but when she did, she hoped to get closer to him.

  Umar anticipated the loud shout again as he emerged from the airport. He was not looking for placards today. He was looking for a face. The face that had been in front of his eyes throughout the flight and in his dreams for the past two weeks. At the far corner of the waiting queue, he saw the face waiting for him. There was no visible excitement or energy. All the excitement and energy was bottled up inside her delightfully attractive body. Slowly, the energy bubbled through her eyes and smile, as she saw Umar. She waved to him. Umar thought she looked more enticing than the last time he saw her.

  Umar walked up to Rajni and hugged her openly. Rajni was not used to such a welcome from any of her passengers. The other passengers from the flight were also not used to such open display of affection in Bangalore. The air hostesses giggled with a tinge of envy as they saw their handsome pilot hugging Rajni.

  “May I?” Rajni offered to take Umar’s hand baggage, as they slowly walked towards the parking area.

  “You can, but only if I can hold your hands. That way I will ensure you don’t run away with my bag!”

  Rajni blushed and let Umar carry his bag himself.

  Umar sat on the front seat again like last time. He was happy to see Rajni take out her black goggles and put them on before driving. She looked more stylish. But he was unhappy that he would not be able to look directly in her eyes and talk to her eyes. Umar was not wearing his goggles that day. He wanted his eyes to speak too. Words could mislead, but eyes could not, he believed.

  “How have you been?” Umar started the conversation, as Rajni turned on the ignition.

  “Good. Busy, but good. What about you?” Rajni’s eyelids fluttered rapidly inside her goggles, admonishing her for lying. Rajni had not been good. She had been troubled, tormented, anxious and irritable. She had certainly not been a ‘good’ girl, as she had had wild dreams and fantasies of Umar the last couple of weeks.

  “Missed you.”

  Umar’s words and eyes spoke the same language.

  “Really? Why?” Rajni’s heart was beating faster than the cars passing her. She pr
essed the accelerator hard.

  “Do I need to tell you, Rajni?”

  Umar was disappointed that Rajni could not find the answer in his eyes.

  Rajni could sense the disappointment and looked at Umar. Straight into his eyes. She had her answer.

  “Eyes speak the truth. But speaking the truth in words speaks of your courage. Your courage to be serious about what you are saying. Do you want to tell me something?” Rajni prompted softly.

  “Yes. Yes. I love you, Rajni.”

  Rajni said nothing. She drove on for another minute in complete silence, much to the consternation of Umar. Then suddenly, she swerved to the left onto a narrow road, which ran through a deserted, forested area, before reaching the limestone quarry. No one used this road anymore, as the large trucks ferrying the limestone from the mines now used a wider road that ran parallel to the narrow road, on the other side of the forested area. Whenever Rajni went past the distant quarry, on her way to or from the airport, she would curse the greedy miners, who had no qualms digging the innards of Mother Earth to feed their own innards. Today, she had no problems with these scavengers. She was momentarily thankful to them for creating the wider road and leaving Umar and her alone on this narrow road.

  Rajni drove her car up an uneven stretch of dirt into the forest. Inside the forest, she stopped the car and took out her goggles. Her skin was looking radiant and smooth. In an equally smooth movement, she bent down and pushed back Umar’s seat and reclined it to the maximum horizontal position. Rajni then swiftly jumped atop a bewildered Umar and pressed both his hands against the two sides of the seat. She then leaned forward and kissed him gently on the lips once.

  “I love you too, Umar.”

  “Rajni! You don’t know what you mean to me. I have been so lonely in my heart all these years, and you know…”

  “Shhh,” Rajni interrupted him by putting her long slender fingers on his lips.

  She unbuttoned his white shirt slowly with one hand, while pulling her T-shirt over her neck and head. Rajni had always been good at multitasking. At the same time, Rajni had also managed to roll down the windows on Umar’s side. She wanted to feel the fresh air of the forest as much as she wanted to feel the fresh smell and touch of Umar’s body. Rajni rolled her fingers over Umar’s scar on the face.

  “Your scar is soooo… sexy,” Rajni moaned in pleasure.

  Umar was breathing heavily. His breathing was accentuated by the pin drop silence of the forest. With both of them undressed, their synchronised breathing was the only symbol of any existence of life in the forest. As they made love to each other passionately with no protection, the young couple was unknowingly creating another life. At the end of their amorous and quiet lovemaking, both Umar and Rajni were sweating profusely, though cool breeze blew in the forest.

  “Was it good?” Rajni asked Umar as she put on her clothes.

  “Haha! It seems as though you are asking a passenger if the ride was good,” Umar replied laughing.

  “Shut up! I have never done this ever before!”

  “What? You did not look that inexperienced, Rajni.”

  “I meant in the car! And that’s not a nice thing to say Umar, especially now!”

  “I know, I know! That is so stupid of me to say. I am so sorry,” Umar relented, while slapping his head in regret.

  “Don’t worry! I am used to hearing much worse. Now, let’s get the car ready and cleaned.”

  20

  Umar was happy to get the car ready and cleaned. It was a much better task than getting one’s thoughts ready and mind cleaned to handle the awkward minutes of silence after lovemaking. Within minutes, Rajni was good to go, without her goggles this time. Her fantasies had turned into reality. But what next? Would the reality become a memory and a fantasy again? Or would it become a beautiful and long journey together in the future?

  “Rajni, I meant every word I said. I am in love with you. Our union now was also so perfect…”

  “Perfect? You call that perfect? Making love in a car in a forest?”

  “Making love to you in any place would be perfect. Even in my dreams.” Umar put his hand on Rajni’s thighs as he said this. Rajni shivered a bit and then laughed aloud.

  “What happened?” Umar asked incredulously.

  “Nothing! I just hope we both don’t keep making love to each other in our dreams alone in future.”

  Rajni placed her left hand on Umar’s hand.

  “Will you hold my hands like this forever, Rajni?”

  “Are you proposing to me? Like this? In a car?”

  “What’s wrong in that? I am proposing my love to you in the sacred place where we made love.”

  “Are you sure, Umar? I am a Hindu and you are a Muslim…”

  “So? Do you know our ancestors millions and millions of years ago were fishes, then chimpanzees and then humans before becoming Hindus and Muslims? We have to follow Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. And the fittest people to live on this earth are not Hindus or Muslims but just good humans. We should become humans again.”

  “Well said Umar! But we still have festivals, traditions, culture. And our gods.” Rajni was very serious this time.

  “Traditions get made by our ancestors. So it all depends on which ancestral tradition you want to follow – the tradition of millions of years of just living together happily or the tradition of the past thousand years living as Hindus and Muslims? And culture! What culture are we talking about? The culture of fighting with each other? I would any day break away from such a culture and grow my family in a new culture. Not a culture of Hindu or Muslim. But the culture of being good intelligent beings.”

  “Wow! I never knew a pilot could wax such eloquence.”

  “Just like I never knew a woman could drive so fast. Slow down.”

  Umar was much more comfortable in the pilot’s seat.

  “Okay, okay. Sorry. Coming back to what we were discussing, what about the festivals and gods?”

  “Who celebrates the festivals? We do. We can celebrate any festival. In early days, people did not have parties, so they had festivals. In our parties, do you call only the Hindus or the Muslims alone? No! You call all family and friends and have a good time. So we will just have a good time in our festivals. We will celebrate the festive parties!”

  “Yes, I can call all my cab drivers and you can call all your air hostesses. And they will surely have a ball together.”

  “The sky is the sky and the street is the street. And never shall they both meet!” Umar said in a poetic style, with his right hand raised slightly and his fingers curving in towards his palm.

  “So are you saying we shall never meet?” Rajni queried, half in jest.

  “The rule only applies from now on. We have already met, my dear.” Umar thought on his feet and escaped effortlessly from his goof-up.

  “Okay, I accept that. But you still have not answered how we will solve the problem of our gods.” Rajni insisted as she waited at the traffic signal on the busy MG Road.

  “Who are we to solve the problems of our gods?! The gods are there to solve our problems. And I can hear them speak into my ears right now. Hold on. Hold on…” Umar pretended as though he was getting a divine message in his ears. Rajni could barely conceal her laughter.

  “Yes Ms Rajni. The gods have spoken to me. They have given us permission to pray to any god that we want to. They have, in fact, just signed a treaty between themselves that we can pray to either of the gods and still not be struck down by their wrath. They have been having many problems between themselves ever since my friends and I were saved in the plane crash. They have been fighting for credit as to who saved us. My Allah or my friends’ Hindu gods?”

  “Haha! Are you always this funny, Umar?”

  “No, I am not. But I can be anything to convince my love that if there is love, there is a will, and if there is a will….”

  “Yes yes, I know! There is a way. And you have figured it all out. But we a
re on the way to your hotel now. We are almost there by the way.”

  “It’s not my hotel for this weekend. It’s our hotel! Please come and spend a couple of days with me?” Umar requested, hoping for a better response this time. They were under the same arch in front of the hotel lobby, just like last time. But Umar did not want to see her drive away this time.

  “And what about my work? My clients and my assignments? My other cab drivers are also very busy over the weekend.”

  “I will have the hotel transport people sort that out for you. Don’t worry. I will send a champagne bottle and box of chocolates to your weekend clients.”

  “Will you also give me chocolates? The Snickers bar in your pockets?”

  “You can have all of my trousers and everything inside it when you reach the room,” Umar said, with a naughty twinkle in his eyes. But he was a bit flummoxed about the Snickers knowledge, just like last time.

  21

  For the next couple of days, Umar and Rajni hardly got out of their room. They talked a lot, ate a lot and made love a lot. They were in love with each other’s body and mind. The weekend gave them an opportunity to explore both to the fullest.

  At the end of their hotel stay, they both knew that they had made the right choice and vowed to live, die, drive and fly together. They were a match made in swarg and jannat (heaven). The gods had schemed to bring them together for a cause. A noble cause, Umar and Rajni thought.

  “I love you and I will see you shortly,” Umar said, kissing Rajni on her forehead. Rajni hugged him for a while, before getting into her car and driving away for work. They had decided to wait for a couple of months before talking to their parents. They had also decided to talk to each other every night.

  Umar flew back to Delhi later that day and went straight to his company’s head office. He insisted on flying every possible flight to Bangalore. The manager in the head office teased Umar light-heartedly. “Have you found someone there, Umar? You will be scarring so many hearts.”

  “Allah scarred me in exchange for my life. If others get scarred in exchange for my love, I think it’s fair!”