Posted 7:41 AM by The Consultant
Love

The ambulance whizzed past the building. He kept staring at it for some time. The siren died away as it rocketed its way to Pune. The Mumbai-Pune Expressway was silent again. It was one of those quiet afternoons in December. There was little or no traffic on the expressway. It was a bit cold, despite the best efforts of a lazy sun winding its way to the horizon.

It was a relatively new building atop a small hillock overlooking the stretch of Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Though the construction was complete, nobody had bought any of the flats yet. The terrace still sported a few cement bags, some tools and gravel. No railing had been constructed for the terrace. He was sitting on the edge with his feet dangling in air. With one hand, he held one of the rods protruding from the construction. He kept staring at the ambulance as it sped towards the bustling roads of Pune. He turned away and stared at the Balewadi stadium. He sat there relishing the silence and gazing at the stadium. Occasionally a car would zip past the building creating ripples in the quite scene.

He was thinking about his fiancé. He recalled days when he debated whether to commit or not. Today, he was happy that he had made the right choice. He had seen so many movies. He had seen many relationships go sour. He had become a cynic. He had stopped believing that true love could exist. And today, as he savored the silence, he missed her. Every conscious moment that he spent without her seemed like a torture. He was so happy that he sometimes failed to believe that a person could be so happy.

He thought about their last meeting.

They had argued for quite a while…

“No, Priya, you are not coming there now!”

“Sanjeev, please listen to me. It is not that important a matter. It is not necessary that I do it. Nobody has specifically asked me to do it. And more importantly, I don’t want to do it.”

“Well, then I am asking you to do it. Just finish what are you doing there and then you can always come. There is always the next day, darling.”

“If we keep postponing our pleasures all the time, when do we really enjoy ourselves? Just remember what happened in Diwali. All I wanted to do was to go shopping with you. But you had some really important project.”

“Don’t digress now. What we are discussing is far more important than that. How can you just leave what you are doing for my sake? Do you really think that you wanted me to come shopping that day? Whose idea was it to buy the clothes in Mumbai instead? Wouldn’t you ask me to do the same thing that I am asking you to do now?”

And she had agreed. She looked very unhappy.
He had laughed.

“What is it, Priya? Do you think I will not wait for you?”

“Don’t say things like that. You never know what’s in store for you tomorrow.”

Then she had given him the most beautiful smile he had ever seen.

“Don’t worry dear. I will come later.”

…. He sat there staring at the setting sun. He thought about the countless evenings that they had sat huddled together watching the same sun go beyond horizon. He recalled the days when he found himself writing poetry, the days when he would wait for her at Vaishali Restaurant….

“You are always late! Do you know boring it is?”

“Oh, I am sooo sorry, Sanjeev. I will make it up for you. Do you want to eat ice-cream?”

“Oh great! Now my time is worth an ice-cream cone. Do you know how much the company pays me per hour? 400/- Rs. Per hour! “

“That’s because you are here in India and they don’t want to pay salaries to American workers. Convert it to dollars and you are making just 10$ per hour. That is just about the minimum hourly wage rate in San Francisco.”

“Oh, why did I choose an educated girl? You know how much dowry I command in the market right now?”

“Then why don’t you go ahead and take that dowry? You can buy lot more ice-cream cones.”

“But then who will marry the educated girl? Who will take her to Sinhagad Fort on a rainy day?”

“Wow! Lets start right now or it will rain!”

“I do hope that it will rain.”

…And then both of them were sitting under a tree that offered them no protection from the incessant rains or the fierce wind. No words were necessary. All they could hear was their hearts beating together.

…He suddenly felt very lonely without Priya. It always happened to him. Whenever she was not with him, he felt this insane desire to drop everything he was doing and rush to meet her. Today, he wanted to do the same thing. It had been very difficult for him to say those words to her.

“Hello, darling! How many times have I told you not to sit like that? You had promised me that you wont sit like this ever again.”

He got up quickly and within moments, she was in his arms.

Stars twinkled in a cloudless sky. Now that the last rays of Sun had disappeared behind the hills, the moon was able to make its presence felt. The highway was still quiet.

“Sanjeev, we are meeting after exactly 8 hours. Someone might think that we are meeting after years of separation.”

He did not say anything. He just stood there, holding her close to his heart. When he spoke, his voice was heavy.

“Why did you come? I had told you not to come like this.”

“Sanjeev, I have kept my word. Now, Let’s forget all that.”

He tightened his embrace. She smiled and comforted him…

…Both were now sitting on the edge. They were not holding onto any rods. They were just holding each other.

“It will be a wonderful, wonderful day when we get married. Finally, it will be just me and you.”

“Yes, Priya. I am waiting for that day when our life together will begin.”

“Aren’t we together right now?”

“But there are things that I cannot do now. Once we get married, I can do those things.”

“Ohhhh, what do you have in your nasty mind Sanjeev?”

“Okay, but don’t laugh. I want to come home early from work some day and make your favourite pohe so that I can see the look on your face when you come home to find me waiting for you with a steaming cup of coffee and plate of pohe. I want to keep watching you when you fall asleep in front of the television. I want to see that harassed look on your face when you are scurrying around in the kitchen on a Monday morning. I want to stay late at the office without calling you so that I can listen to your angry words that cannot hide the worry in your heart. I want to wake you up by squirting cold water on your face on a Sunday morning. I want to see you play with our first child while being completely oblivious to the fact that I exist. I want to see the proud look on your face when our children do well at school. I want to comfort you when our last child leaves our home. I want to see the look of concern on your face when I am hospitalized for some minor surgery. I want to suffer with you, dance with you and live with you all my life. I want to feel sad one day that I can live this life just once.”

“…….”

The moon shone in a cloudless sky. The world slept as these two dreamt their lives together for eternity.

……………………………………………………………


A news item in Pune Times on the next morning….

Pune Couple Killed in Tragic Accident on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

A Pune couple putting the final touches on their January wedding died tragically yesterday afternoon when a truck slammed into their Santro on Pune Mumbai Expressway.

23-year-old Priya Gadgil and 25-year-old Sanjeev Vaidya were travelling to Mumbai to do some shopping for their upcoming wedding. Both sustained serious injuries in the accident. Sanjeev died in the ambulance while Priya succumbed to her injuries in the hospital…