“I am going to propose to him, Rupali,” Sunidhi informed her on phone.

“What? You can’t wait for him to do it?” Rupali was amused.

“Why? Why should women always have to wait? Is there something wrong if we express our wishes?”

“No Ma’am. Not at all,” she recalled that in a weird way she too had expressed herself first, “And if someone can carry it off, it is you.”

“Thank you. For telling me that I am a weird outlier,” Rupali could imagine Sunidhi pouting at the other end of the phone.

“No. You aren’t. You have company. He splits your restaurant bills, doesn’t he?”

“Rupali! I need some cheering up.”

“All the best, Sunidhi. I am so looking forward to seeing you together; officially!”

—

“Mom. Look who is here,” Rupali and Paritosh entered Mouli’s room. Paritosh hadn’t visited Mouli for last few days because he had been busy at work.

Mouli was awake. She smiled, “Paritosh. Good you came back. Did Purushottam call you? He wanted to meet you.”

Paritosh looked at Rupali questioningly.

“She has been hallucinating about Dad recently,” she whispered and then turned to Mouli, “Mom. How are you feeling?”

“I need to interpret for Purushottam. He won’t be able to talk to Paritosh,” she tried getting up.

“Mom. Please lie down. Dad is not here,” Rupali, herself, got agitated.

“Let me,” Paritosh said and sat beside Mouli. He held her hand spoke very softly, “Ma. He is not here. Don’t you remember? He has passed away long back.”

“He was here. He called you.”

“Listen to me. He did not call me. You love him so much, you are imagining him. Don’t stress yourself. Take rest. Okay?”

“But…”

“Hush. Not another word. Here, take the medicine that the nurse has for you. And sleep.”

Soon Mouli had fallen asleep as the weakness and the medicines overpowered her.

—

“You really know how to manage her in sickness,” Rupali said somberly when they came to her room.

“Have done it earlier too,” he smiled sadly. He was referring to the time when he had to care for Amrit. Rupali understood and pressed his hands expressing her support. “The divorce has come through,” he spoke after a pause, “And there was something I wanted to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“Amrit doesn’t need my monetary support, Rupali. The dowry she had brought is invested for her. But I’d like to continue visiting her. Only if you don’t mind.”

He was surprised to see her eyes moistening as she replied, “I will never stop you from doing that Dr. Khanna. If I did that I’d be destroying what makes you so uniquely you.”

“Rupali! Why these tears?”

“Nothing to worry about. I have never been able to express myself about this. But let me try. I know I had behaved childishly when I had first come to know about her. But that was only because of the way it was revealed to me. But ever since I have known the complete story, what has been most important to me is knowing that you never abandoned her. You could have. Nobody would have blamed you. But you didn’t. Do you have any idea how reassuring it is? How safe and protected I feel with you.  I will never stop you from visiting her.”

“Rupali!” Paritosh himself became overwhelmed. He took her hands and kissed them feeling grateful.

“I wanted to ask something too.” Rupali said.

“What is it?”

“Can I meet her sometime? Your wife?”

“Ex-wife,” he corrected her, though with a smile, “You can visit her, Rupali. I don’t know about meeting. She doesn’t recognize even me these days.”

“Coming Sunday?”

“Sure.”

—

“Tell me more about yourself,” Rupali said suddenly. They were in her room later in the day.

“You have read the case-study of my life,” Paritosh laughed, “What more can I tell you?”

“That’s just one part of your life.”

“That was all there was to my life. Until you came back. Rest of it has been rather boring.”

“Tell me about other women in your life.”

“Women in my life? I am not Khushwant Singh, Rupali,” his laughter grew louder.

“Why are you being so pricey? Someone must have come in your life in last eight years.”

“No, Rupali.”

“Nobody?”

“Is it so hard to believe? I come across as a Casanova or what?”

“And no one before your marriage either.”

“No.”

“Oh!”

“You look disappointed,” Paritosh said playfully.

“No. No, of course not,” Rupali cried and then blushed realizing the awkwardness of the situation.  She tried to change the topic, “Let’s go and meet Mom.”

“She would still be asleep. And will sleep for at least another hour,” Paritosh said pointing at the clock.

“Yeah, right,” Rupali said looking confused about what to do.

Suddenly Paritosh came close to her startling her. He made her stand up and cupped her face gently. “Bear with me. I have been out of practice,” he smiled and closed in for a kiss.

But she stopped him by stepping back. It was awkward, “I… I am sorry. I was being presumptuous. Didn’t mean to impose on you…” he apologized.

“Please don’t apologize. And please don’t be mad. Let me explain,” Rupali was feeling guilty for doing that to him.

“I am not mad,” Paritosh hastened to clarify, “What is it? Something is bothering you?”

Rupali gulped, “I… I don’t know how to… You never asked me… about my past.”

“Yeah…” Paritosh looked confused, “It just never came up. But… why do you… I mean what’s the problem?”

“Don’t know if you ever realized… I… I haven’t been married of course. But I… I have had relationships…”

“I know that.”

“Yeah. And also that they weren’t just… I am… I am not a virgin”

Paritosh frowned for a moment and then broke into an amused smile, “You are anxious about that? Really? Am I a ghost from the 19^th century?”

“I know… I didn’t mean to… I mean on realizing that you have probably never… Outside your marriage…” Rupali stopped talking and looked confused and embarrassed.

Paritosh smiled and held her hands, “Look Rupali. There is no denying that our lives have been different. I never thought about dating, relationships. Not even when I was in the US for my Ph. D. I was just not raised that way. That culture was alien to me and it remained so. In last eight years, again, I didn’t even think about relationships because I just wasn’t up for that lifestyle. I didn’t know the dating tricks and I wasn’t sure I would have been comfortable trying to learn. And our environment here doesn’t exactly encourage that. You are different, Rupali, and I love you for what you are. You don’t have to feel bad because of that,” Paritosh paused, then thought of something and added, “Of course, it works only if you are fine with those differences too. You might have expectations that I won’t understand. Not unless you voice them. If the differences make you uncomfortable–”

“I love them and I think we’d do well to adopt a little of each other’s lifestyles,” Rupali said making him smile. But he resisted the temptation of pulling her in his arms right then. It was better to take things slow.

—

To be continued