The phone buzzed. Another message! Siddhartha sighed. He settled his mother back in her bed. They had just come back from another one of her chemotherapy sessions. After making sure that she had everything she would need, he came back to his room and took out his phone.

“I need your help. Please!” the message read. She had been sending messages since morning at exact intervals of two hours. This was the fifth one.

“I am sorry. I really am.”

“Talk to me, please.”

“I made a bigger fool of myself yesterday than I had done before. Will you never forgive?”

“There was no withdrawal from my account today. Isn’t a chemo session scheduled?”

Those were the first four messages.

She must have known what will finally get to him when she wrote the fifth one. He called back and sprang out of his bed on hearing her voice.

“What the hell happened to you?” he asked.

“Nothing. Caught cold, I think.”

“You have been crying.”

Silence.

“Karishma, I…”

“Please meet me.”

“Yes. Yes, I will. But Ma has just come back from chemo. I can’t leave her right now.”

“Can I come there?”

“Are you sure you want to?”

“Yes,” her voice was barely a whisper.

“I will text you the address. And call me from the cab if there is a problem in locating.”

—

“Nobody called,” Karishma told him when he asked if anyone from her husband’s family had asked after her. He had called Mr. Jain and informed him about Karishma’s decision to go to a hotel. But he had expected that someone would call Karishma and perhaps ask her to go back home.

“And your Uncle?”

“You have not been going there recently?”

“With Ma’s health I really don’t have time or inclination to teach school kids anymore. They understand, of course. But shouldn’t you have informed them?”

“May be I will. After I have made my arrangements.”

“And what are your plans?”

“I have to find some place to live. Then I will look for a job.”

He nodded.

“Why didn’t you withdraw money today? I have enough to last me a year. You don’t have to worry about it.”

“I didn’t need it, Karishma. The doctor says that this will be the last chemo for a while. He thinks cancer will be in remission for now. We, of course, have to keep checking.”

“You aren’t lying to me, are you? I am not running out of money.”

He buried his head in his hands, “No. I’m not trying to… I don’t try to manipulate you as if you were a child. I don’t think you would make stupid plans to make your marriage fail and I take what you say seriously. I don’t know what have you convinced yourself of and why.”

She looked down and mumbled another apology.

“You should let your uncle’s family know, at least.”

“I had told Mamiji. She knew exactly what the problem was. And she knew that I was being unnecessarily humiliated and shuttled between all kinds of doctors – homeopathy, ayurvedic, yunani, and what not. Even pundits and ojhas and all sorts of charlatans. But she never spoke a word for me. I don’t think I owe them anything.”

“Fine,” he said, though he made a mental note that he had to inform them, “What do you need help with?”

She looked away, embarrassed, then spoke in a low voice, “I have never lived on my own. I need to find a house, a job and everything else, I don’t know what all. And divorce.”

“You are sure you don’t want to go back to your uncle’s family? Even if they ask you to?”

“They won’t ask. They were done with me after getting me married.”

“They will, most likely. Whether they care for you or not, it will be an embarrassment to the family.”

“Even if they ask, I don’t want to go.”

“Both your families are business partners now. And you are the connecting link…”

“Why should I care?”

“I’m not saying that you can’t or shouldn’t do it. But staying on your own is a big decision, Karishma–”

“This is what my father would have wanted. He wasn’t bringing me up to be a show piece in a rich family. He wanted me to stand on my own two feet. He just didn’t survive to see it happening.”

“Fair enough. Let’s get started from tomorrow. House-hunting first.”

—

“Sid?”

“Kanishk? What a surprise? Come in,” Siddhartha got up to welcome his friend, “How are things?”

“You have become conspicuous by your absence, Professor, so I thought I would drop by.”

“Good you came. I am sorry. I am unable to visit your house these days. Ma’s cancer is in remission, but she is too weak and needs constant help with even regular activities.”

“And then there is Karishma, right?”

“What about Karishma?” Siddhartha laughed nervously, “She is not a child in my care. She is doing fine by herself.”

“That’s that, then,” Kanishk smiled.

“How are the two families getting along?”

“Women are not talking to each other. Men are trying to look graceful. Vikram refuses to talk and the gossips are about that he is gay.”

“You always think these things happen to other people…” Siddhartha murmured.

Kanishk understood that he wasn’t talking only about Karishma’s doomed marriage, but also about his mother’s illness.

“Listen Sid. Papa is worried about Karishma and she refuses to return home.”

“Let her be. She is doing fine.”

Karishma had found a small, but comfortable one-bedroom house for living and had also taken up a job as a teacher in a nearby school.

“She’d still be lonely.”

“He is thinking of getting her married again?”

Kanishk nodded.

Siddhartha shook his head. “I don’t approve of such plans right now and I am definitely not meddling. Once was bad enough.”

“Don’t meddle. Be a part of it.”

He flushed as if he had been caught thieving. “Whatever can you mean?” he growled to hide his embarrassment.

“Oh, come off it, Sid. I have always known how much you care for her. Everyone has, and only because everyone trusted you to behave correctly did they not bother to keep you apart or anything. And you didn’t break anyone’s trust. But are you going to act like you don’t love her? Why has she turned to you for advice and help while she is avoiding her own family? Isn’t it right that you should get married? And what I have come here to tell you is that you can stop behaving correctly for the sake of other people. Papa will be happy if you two got married. You will have his blessings.”

Siddhartha spoke after a long pause, “It isn’t just about me, Kanishk. It is about her too. More about her than me. She is the victim of the chaos.”

“She adores you. Don’t tell me you don’t know. She has been infatuated with you for a long time now.”

“She was!” he sighed, “She was infatuated with me. Now she is afraid that I will propose out of pity and she will have to accept out of gratitude.”

“You are making it more complicated than it is.”

“Life is complicated, isn’t it?”

—

“Bhaiya? How are you?” Karishma smiled as she slipped into her seat in the coffee shop, “Why didn’t you come home? It’s small, but not bad.”

Kanishsk smiled back, “I wasn’t avoiding your home, sis. It was just more convenient to meet you near your school. How are you?”

“I’m fine. How is everyone at home?”

“You can visit any time and find out for yourself.”

She averted her eyes.

“Karishma!” he reached out and pressed her hand gently, “I am not claiming that you haven’t suffered because of our decisions. But surely you don’t think Sid had anything to do with it.”

She was startled, “What has Siddhartha… Prof. Sen got to do with it?”

“He thinks you don’t like him anymore.”

She shook her head and looked down. She spoke after a while, “What are you trying to say?”

“It is good that you have taken charge of your life and living it your way. Now also take charge of your love life. Talk to Sid. He is utterly confused about you and feels guilty for what happened.”

“Guilty?”

“Why am I going in circles? Here is the thing. He loves you. And you love him. Both of you might think that nobody knew, but that’s not the case. Everybody trusted him and you. Both of you have been the very model of exemplary behavior. But now too much water has passed under the bridge. What happened to you was wrong, but Papa does want you to be happy, Karishma. If you and Sid married, you will have his blessings. The rest is up to you.”

—

Siddhartha was aware of the tension in the small hall, cozily furnished with mattresses, bolsters and cushions. She had decided against spending money on a sofa. “I don’t have to entertain guests here,” she had said.

“Thank you,” he said as she handed him a cup of tea. Then she too sat down on the mattress and absentmindedly cradled her cup in her hands, not drinking from it.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

She shook her head and flashed a nervous smile at him.

He cleared his throat and said, “You know, Karishma. Life doesn’t end with one bad experience. I know you are enjoying your independence. But having a life partner doesn’t necessarily mean losing it.”

“You think I should marry again?” she said staring down into her cup.

“It doesn’t have to be now. You are young and have all the time in the world. But you should keep yourself open to the idea. You are beautiful and intelligent. You will find a good and suitable boy.”

She looked up, and met his eyes, “Why did you never marry?”

He seemed to have thought of the answer in advance. He replied unhesitatingly, “Because I wasn’t suitable for the woman I loved.”

“Shouldn’t she have decided that? What you should really decide is whether she was suitable for you?”

“How else could I have fallen in love with her? A forbidden kind of love at that?”

“Then you should tell her.”

“She can do much better. I am still unsuitable for her.”

“Trust her to take the right decision for herself. She might not have been given that chance ever.”

Without breaking his eye-contact with her, Siddhartha set his cup aside and crept closer to her on the mattress. He took away her untouched teacup and set that aside too.

“You had asked me once if I would have married you. If I ever thought of you. The answer, which I had evaded back then, is yes. Yes, I have thought of you. Thought of you a lot since the first time I met you, but even more after you started talking to me. And since then, trying to love any other woman has been a futile exercise. So I ask you to take the right decision. I don’t ask you to accept me. I ask you to accept or reject me whichever is right for you.”

She leaned forward a planted a quick peck on his lips. “Yes,” she said, “You are the most suitable boy for me. The man for me. The life-long friend and partner I want and need.”

This time he leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. His kiss was more demanding than hers had been.

– The End –