He came to his senses slowly and let her go. By the time she could see him, the split second expression of realization and embarrassment on his face was wiped off. Tears had betrayed him and he tried to wipe them discreetly. But it wasn’t possible to hide them.

“I… I’m sorry. I got carried away. This was a first. She has never called me ‘Papa’. She has never uttered that word in her life,” he explained.

“Really?” That brought Rupali out of her reverie.

“Yes. I… I will never forget this day, Rupali. Thank you. For everything.”

Rupali didn’t know what to say.

“Mamma…. Mamma…” They couldn’t be sure what Meenal was thinking at that moment. But her coming to Rupali at that time with those words was both cute and awkward at the same time.

“Excuse me. I will be back in a minute,” his eyes were filled with tears again and he did not want to break down before them. Rupali understood that. The weather was good. She took Meenal with her and decided to take a walk. She walked by the utility area and something that had been bugging her at the back of her mind surfaced up. The washing machine installed there was new! She realized what had made her uncomfortable about the washing-machine at her home, apart from the unbelievable story. That machine had looked familiar. Why didn’t she realize this earlier? The machine had not come from some club. It had come from Dr. Khanna. What the hell? What was she supposed to do?

She decided to confront Soumitra first. That evening itself.

“You lied to me?” she was livid, “Why would you do something so stupid? Do you have any idea how much does a machine like this cost?”

“Listen to me, Didi. I didn’t tell you that Dr. Khanna was involved, because I thought you would not accept it then. But he did tell me that it was a part of the drive from his club and I did repair it.”

“What club? When does he ever go to a club, you fool? He goes to the college and comes back home as soon as he can. And this machine was at his home. I was a bigger fool to have not realized this. It is going back tomorrow. And don’t do such things in future.”

Soumitra didn’t remember ever having been scolded by his sister like that. He burst into tears. That made Rupali forget her fury for a while. “Look here. Now, don’t cry. I am sorry, I shouldn’t have scolded you like that…”

“I’m sorry. I… I knew that story can’t be true. But it was… You have to go for both your jobs on the weekends also. This is so helpful… I gave into the temptation.”

“I know. I know you did it for me. Unfortunately that doesn’t make it right. But there is nothing to worry about. Now that I am sure, I will talk to Dr. Khanna and return the machine.”

—

It wasn’t the first time Paritosh was thinking about her as he tossed and turned in the bed. She had been in his thoughts ever since Meenal had spotted her in the supermarket. He hadn’t expected that anything would come out of it. She was just a young girl they had run into by accident. Meenal had identified with her out of a sheer coincidence. She looked like that actress, the actress playing the mother to her favorite character. Despite that, he had thought about her. He didn’t have much hope even when Meher mentioned the possibility of her becoming Meenal’s caretaker. She needed a job, alright. But what were the chances that she would be patient enough to take care of an autistic child? Slim at best! But he had thought about her that night too; thinking of the conversation that was to happen the following day. In his thoughts it always resulted in her throwing up her hands and walking away. She couldn’t possibly do it.

But it hadn’t happened that way. He should have probed a bit more, but seeing Meenal call her “Mamma” again, he took a spontaneous decision. It couldn’t be particularly risky. Meher knew her pretty well. At the very least, no harm would come out of it. He would probably get a call within minutes of leaving Meenal with her and she would walk out.

But that hadn’t happened either. He had waited for her call on the first day. It hadn’t come. He had been frightened when he had come back, but that too had turned out to be a minor issue; one of the numerous that she had figured out since then.

What did happen was that she had been ahead of him in anticipating and fulfilling his daughter’s needs. She had started teaching her before he could zero in on a therapist or tutor. She had come up with the schooling plan. She was working harder than the therapist on Meenal. And she had taught her the word that he had lost all hopes of ever hearing from her. Papa! Tears still came to his eyes, when he recalled what he had heard that evening. “Meenu loves Papa.” He didn’t need to record that voice to remember it forever!

What she had done for his daughter evoked a lot of gratitude in him. But what had made him admire her thoroughly was what she was doing for her brothers. After coming back from her house on the fateful day of firing her, he had looked up the biodata she had given. If his calculations were correct, her parents had died when she was eighteen and that’s when she had dropped out of college after first year; to take care of her brothers and earn for them. It was no mean feat. Without even a college degree. She had taken up all sorts of jobs, as her biodata reflected. And still, she had done a fine job of raising her brothers. They seemed responsible, bright, young boys.

He couldn’t help compare her to Amrit. Two people couldn’t have been more different. Ruapli wasn’t a thing of beauty. Her complexion was on the darker side. The hard work and stress of all these years had worn down even her youthful appearance prematurely. She didn’t have education; or an elite upbringing. She counted her pennies. But at this stage of life Paritosh knew something about life that he hadn’t known when he had met Amrit. He knew that love and compatibility was not about whether they liked the same restaurants, same music and same holiday destinations. It wasn’t about looking good together. It was about sticking together, through thick and thin.

He wasn’t surprised that he had fallen for her. When he had hugged her that evening, it was because he had been overwhelmed. It was almost a substitute for the hug he couldn’t have given to his daughter. But he wasn’t surprised that it had turned into something else. She had probably felt it too, as her flushed face indicated.

It wasn’t the surprise that was keeping him awake. It was the thought of what to do about it? Or rather how to ensure that he never ended up expressing his feelings again?

—

To be continued