While Mohima gave a confused acceptance, it was Aurobindo’s reaction that pleasantly surprised Mukundo.

“Excellent. Finally, you realized it!” he said.

“Baba?”

“Haven’t we been seeing it for years, Mukundo? There is nobody else you care as much for.”

Mohima looked as confused as Mukundo was. What had his father seen that he himself seemed unaware of until a few days ago?

“I have no clue what you are talking about, Baba. But are you happy with it?”

“Yes, my son. I am more than happy with it. I really like the girl and was hoping that she would come to our home one day.”

“I guess we should talk to Kaku then,” Mukundo said.

“Don’t worry about that. I will talk to Debendra.”

—

Mukundo sat sprawled on the ground against the tree-trunk. Piyali lay on the ground with her head in his lap as he ran his hands through her hair.

“Did Kaku and Kaki never pester you to get married all these years, Mukundo Babu?” she asked.

He chuckled, “You have no idea. Baba was mostly a silent spectator. But Ma!”

“How did you manage to avoid it then?”

“She couldn’t have pushed me into a wedding pandal, could she?”

Piyali smiled, contentedly.

“I will tell you something,” she said, “But promise me that you would not pester me about it afterwards.”

“If it’s not worth pestering about, I won’t. But don’t ask me for a blanket commitment.”

“It’s not worth pestering about.”

“Then I won’t.”

“I really don’t want to work in academia.”

“Why?”

“There is so much politics and backstabbing and everything else, but so little learning.”

“True. But the corporate world can be worse. I have tried it.”

“Exactly. I didn’t mean that I want to work in corporate. I actually don’t want to work anywhere.”

“Now you don’t have to, Piyali, you know that.”

“But?”

“But wouldn’t you feel wasted?”

“Exactly. So, I would work. But would you be terribly disappointed if I didn’t really progress much? Just held on to my research and whatever position came my way.”

“I am pretty sure that if you stuck to your research, you won’t be able to stop progress from coming your way, Piyali. Yours is the kind of talent that shines through all the politics and backbiting. Don’t worry.”

“If that didn’t happen.”

“I would still be proud of you.”

“Does it mean a lot to you? My achievements?”

“I have told you. I take a pride in them. Even if I have no reason to–”

“You have every reason to.”

“How so?” he chuckled.

“You think genius is rare. Perhaps. But I think what is even rarer is the ability to spot and deal with a genius. When nobody around them has that ability, the genius goes nowhere. I am a genius only because you spotted it, Mukundo Babu, and you dealt with it. Kaku dealt with a lot of it too. But you were my rock all through. With you I was a genius. Without you I would have been a freak. You have every right to take pride in my achievements if you care for it.”

Mukundo felt his eyes brimming over. He blinked the tears back with some effort, “You give me too much credit, Piyali.”

“No. I don’t. Hopefully someday I will be able to explain why I love you so much. And only because you care, I will also try not to waste my life and achieve something more. It might be worth it, if it makes you proud.”

“Come here,” he nudged her to sit up. She did. He kissed her. Not passionately like earlier. But gently, sensuously. Then he kissed her closed eyelids and then the rest of her face. As he came down to her neck, his hands slipped inside her top and she rubbed herself against it. “Mukundo Babu!” she hissed as he was about to rip the clothes off her body. “Not here,” she pleaded through ragged breath.

Mukundo came to his senses, “Right. Sorry!” He said and let her go. She arranged herself beside him. He put his arms around her and she rested her head on his shoulder.

“Have you always felt this way?” he asked picking up the conversation from where they had left.

“Yes. And when I needed help, I couldn’t think of anyone else to reach out to. But was also afraid if I was asking too much of you.”

“Never. You can never ask too much of me.”

An old memory hit him again and he grinned as he turned to look at her. “There is an old incident I wanted to ask you about. Not sure if you remember it.”

“What?”

“You must be about ten-years old or so at that time. Once you had come to me with Ma and Ma said you needed some help in your lessons. I had thought you were up to some mischief and you had run away. Did you really need help? Or were you playing a prank? Do you even remember?”

She grinned, “I remember very well.”

“That grin tells me you were up to some mischief.”

“I wasn’t. But it was good that you turned me away. It might have seemed that way to you.”

“What was it?”

“I can’t remember what theorem it was. But the way it was proved in the textbook didn’t make sense to me. It basically assumed certain property of numbers which, in a strict mathematical sense, wasn’t a given. I was quite baffled and was afraid that I would lose marks in exam if I didn’t understand and reproduce the proof given in the book.”

He maintained an impassive face, but she herself chuckled. “You can laugh, Mukundo Babu. I know now how that sounds.”

Mukundo obliged by laughing heartily, “Sounds like the first-world-problems equivalent for school children.” The syllabus was too lame for her!

“I didn’t clearly understand back then that those kinds of simplifications have to be done for early school-level Maths,” she offered an explanation.

“What did you do about that idiotic proof then?”

“I mugged it up and reproduced it in the examination.”

“Bravo! Just like a good Indian student should do.”

She chortled.

“And I presume you had to do that very often at school.”

She nodded.

“Well,” he smiled appreciatively, “Your survived!”

“I did! I survived till today. I couldn’t have imagined I would survive to be so happy one day.”

Mukundo kissed her forehead and she once again sat beside him, snug in his arms, resting her head on his shoulder.

—

To be continued