Subrato twisted and turned in his bed that night. This hadn’t been unusual since the fateful day Stacey had walked out on him and he had flushed the ring down the toilet. But lately that pain had started fading away. Today it was something else that was keeping him awake. The tear-stained face of Paridhi. He could not stop comparing the happy-go-lucky girl he had met on the train to Lucknow just a few months back to this dejected, sad girl he knew now. It wasn’t fair. She was intelligent. She was caring… Despite her mother’s unfair, almost cruel attitude, she cared about her. She deserved better in return. But what could be done? He felt quite helpless. If she wanted to rebel, there were ways to help her. But what she wanted… To keep everyone happy… It was impossible to do anything about it… And who the hell was this guy, supposedly her fiance, who had no interest in talking to her. Subrato had seen his fair share of arranged marriages amongst his family and friends. Nobody got married like this in 21st century.

He fell asleep only in the wee hours of morning and was annoyed when a furious knock on the door woke him up.

“Paridhi? What are you doing here?” he was barely able to keep his eyes open.

“Did you fall sick? You had pani-puri last night? You shouldn’t have had it… Why did you have to compete with me…” her verbal diarrhea was back full on.

“Stop. Calm down. I am just sleepy because I slept late. Who told you I was sick?”

“You didn’t come to your class,” she mumbled realizing that she might have panicked unnecessarily.

“What class… What time is it… Oh God! Didn’t my alarm go off?”

“You didn’t answer your cell phone either. Many people called.”

“But this is Macroeconomics. First year class. How did you know?”

“Their entire section was celebrating not having an 8 ‘o class… But I… unnecessarily disturbed your sleep… I will leave…”

“Wait. Come in. Give me a minute.”

He went back inside his room and came out after washing his face and brushing his teeth. The look of embarrassment was clear on Paridhi’s face as she sat on the edge of a chair in his hall.

“Now, don’t look so disconcerted,” he grinned at her.

“I got worried,” she mumbled.

“I am not surprised. You care. A bit too much.”

“Is that a bad thing?” her question sounded earnest.

“No. That’s the sweetest thing in the world. Given how uncaring and insensitive most people are… it is the rarest and the sweetest quality. But yes – you do run the risk of people taking advantage of you.”

“But you won’t do that, would you?” she grew emotional.

He looked at her for a moment before answering, “No. I won’t.”

They sat in silence for a minute. He was looking at her, while her eyes were downcast. Finally, she looked up and said, “I should leave now.”

“No. Wait. You have come here for the first time. Let me at least get you some tea.”

“You make it yourself?”

“I don’t have an army of servants.”

“Let me do it.”

“You don’t trust me to make tea? I cook for myself too,” he said light-heartedly.

“It’s not that.”

“Sit down Paridhi. You are a guest today. I won’t be a minute.”

“Let me at least come to the kitchen with you.”

“All right. And there was something I have been thinking about and wanted to tell you.”

“Yeah?”

“Have you considered going into research. A Ph. D?”

“Umm… No. Why do you ask?”

“I think you have an aptitude for research. And you would do really well there.”

“Why are we discussing my career here?”

“Because,” he put the water to boil on the stove and turned to face her, “You can apply to the universities in US. You still have time for this year’s application deadlines at most places. If you get a scholarship for Ph. D. you can go there on student VISA and after that there shouldn’t be any problem in your career there.”

“Hmm,” she appeared thoughtful as she tried to digest this information, “Is that really feasible?”

“Definitely feasible. We, of course, have to pray that you get the scholarship or at least acceptance from one of the good universities. But I think you stand a good chance.”

“In which field?”

“I would recommend Economics. Although, if you don’t like that we can consider other options too.”

“No. No. Economics is fine,” her eyes shone, “This isn’t a dream, is it?”

“Wait until your dreams come true,” he smiled fondly.

“Thank you! Thank you so much.”

“Don’t get over-excited right away. Let the plan succeed.”

“If I fail, I fail. Nothing can be done about it. But for now, I at least there is something to try. How do I apply?”

“You don’t have any classes to attend?”

“The trimester is about to end. I have 85% attendance in all of them. And you have already missed the only class you had to take today.”

“You know my schedule. Great. Let me also toast some bread then. We will discuss over breakfast.”

—

“This Statement of Purpose reads like poetry!” Paridhi remarked unsurely. She was in Subrato’s office and they were working on the last-minute improvements in her application package before submitting it to various universities.

“It reads just fine. Here… I corrected some proofreading mistakes. I think we are ready to submit. Payment can be done online.”

“But I don’t have a credit card.”

“I am using mine.”

“Okay. How much is it?”

“Varies from university to university…”

“How much for this university,” she peered at his laptop as he prepared to submit the first application, “Oh my God! 400 dollars. Is that the average?”

“I think so.”

“No wait. That’s like… You had shortlisted 12 universities for me. 4800 dollars… 25 thousand? 30 thousand? I can’t do it. I don’t have so much saving and Mummy will never agree to…”

“Relax. I am paying.”

“No. No,” she panicked and grabbed his hand to stop him from submitting the application. She lost balance in his reflex attempt to free himself and he had to hold her to stop her from hitting the table. They suddenly found themselves in uncomfortable physical proximity. Paridhi gulped in embarrassment as she regained her balance with his help. Subrato withdrew his hand as soon as she was stable. He also looked embarrassed, but he recovered faster than her.

“It’s not a big deal, Paridhi. Let me pay.”

“It’s way too much money.”

“Make sure you don’t leave behind any of the gold jewelry your mother-in-law is so keenly planning to getting from your family. They will be rightfully yours. And once you have them you will have more than enough money to repay me.”

“I am supposed to do things believing that my dowry will come to me. You have no idea how absurd and impractical that thought is. Let’s drop this idea. Or at least cut down on the number of universities…”

“Paridhi. Do me a favour. Let me pay. Please. Our lives, hopefully, are not ending tomorrow. Once you get the admission and scholarship, you can slowly pay me back from that. Trust me.”

“But…”

“Please…”

She was disarmed. She looked on emotionally, as he submitted applications and made payments repeatedly.

“The last date for submission of recommendations is around 15th January at most places. One will be mine, of course. Make sure you remind the PGP chairman to write his before the deadline. Recommendations play a very important role.”

She nodded wordlessly.

“Cool then. This is done. Now concentrate on your exams and report submissions for all projects. You must not lose your grades, if you have go into research”

She nodded again.

“And don’t forget to submit the report of independent study before deadline. I didn’t give grade-drop to anyone in Econometrics because of you. But I won’t be so lenient this time,” he mock-threatened her to lighten the mood.

She looked at him in surprise. He did it for her! Why?

“You have taken the vow of not talking or what?” he joked and got up from his chair to stretch a bit.

An overwhelmed Paridhi could not stop herself. She went forward and hugged him tight. He was surprised, almost shocked. He patted her head, but did not hug her back. He looked confused. And almost scared of touching her.

She looked embarrassed after breaking the hug. “I’m sorry,” she mumbled.

“Don’t worry. Our emotions do get too much for us to handle at times,” he feared that his own voice will tremble, but he managed to maintain an outward calm, “Are you all right?”

“Yes. Irrespective of what comes out of it all, I will forever be indebted to you… For caring…” she said. Subrato could not reply to that; just looked at her with a mixture of curiosity, fondness and…

“I should leave now,” she spoke again, “Too may deadlines approaching for the trimester. I will send you the report by mail.”

“Sure.”

She took one final look at him and then left.

—

To be continued