After All This Time (16 page)

‘We could stay in and watch something. Maybe take it easy for a day or two?’

‘If that’s what you want. How come you’ve become so dull lately? You sound like me nowadays. Always saying no to fun, exciting stuff and choosing to hang out and do boring shit.’

‘You are underestimating the power of doing lazy things. Have you seen
Troy
?’ Shourya asked.

‘You mean the city in New York? Haven’t been there.’

‘Lavanya Suryavanshi!’

‘What?’ she asked, looking at Shourya’s bewildered expression. ‘What is it? Why are you looking at me like that? What did I say?’

‘Are you telling me,’ Shourya said slowly, deliberately, ‘that you have not heard of
Troy
? The movie? One of the highest grossers at the box office? Brad Pitt as Achilles? Rings a bell?’

‘I think I must have heard of it somewhere around, but—’

‘You
think
you . . . No. No, absolutely not! Lavanya, this is unacceptable. You have to watch it. I cannot believe you have not seen it already. We’ll still be friends after this, but you need to rectify your mistake right now.’

‘God! What’s with all the drama!’ Lavanya got off the sofa and placed Toughy back on it. The puppy had dozed off, and Lavanya patted his neck once before walking to the TV and turning it on.

‘Dude! You’re taking this too lightly. It’s not like
Troy
is a masterpiece or anything, but it is for me. For most people actually, it is fairly average. But take my word for it, it is everything you look for in a movie. Everything you can ask for.’

‘Fine, let’s watch it. Do you know anywhere we can buy it online? Amazon?’

‘So much enthusiasm,’ Shourya said, but immediately started looking for the movie online. He knew she would understand once she watched it.

‘Don’t feel bad; it’s not this movie. It’s all of them. I don’t remember when the last time I saw a film was,’ Lavanya said. Then added, ‘Could have been here, with you.’

‘Seriously? You haven’t seen a single movie since school? Are you . . . never mind.’

‘Am I, what? Say it.’

‘Nothing. I was thinking you cannot be serious. But having got to know you again, I think you are capable of being that person,’ Shourya said. Back in school, they used to watch movies every weekend. When they did not have any pocket money left to go to cinema halls, they would wait for the movies to be leaked on illegal torrent sites and then download and watch them at home. Having movie marathons was their weekly ritual.

‘I have not changed that much. I just did not have time for all this.’ Lavanya was speaking mostly to herself.

‘Be that as it may. I’m putting
Troy
in your to-do list, and we’re going to tick it off right now.’

They bought
Troy
online and started watching it together. Mrs Suryavanshi came home after some time and was happy to provide them refreshments. Shourya watched Lavanya closely during the movie. As they entered the second hour, he noticed her become more and more involved in it. He thought the best way to start watching a movie was to begin with low expectations and then let it blow your mind. Although he had recommended it to her very highly, she had not seemed very impressed. In fact, Shourya had the feeling that she had agreed to watch it only because he asked her to, and she had nothing better planned. She had not seemed enthusiastic at all.

He had bought the extended version, and once they were halfway through it, she refused to pause it even to let him take a phone call. By the time they reached the legendary Hector versus Achilles duel scene, Lavanya was sitting up on the bed and her eyes were glued to the screen. She kept muttering
no, no, no
.

When they reached the part where Achilles and Briseis get intimate and Brad Pitt delivers full back nudity, Shourya was surprised that Lavanya did not show even the slightest discomfort watching it with him. In fact, she was so involved, he wasn’t sure she even realized that he was in the room with her.

When the movie ended and the slow music played as credits rolled, Lavanya slumped back on the bed and sighed.

‘So?’ Shourya asked, even though he did not really need to—his answer was all over her face. ‘What did you think?’

‘Whoa!’ she said, staring at the ceiling with wide eyes.

‘I know, right? It is so underrated. It’s like the most underrated action movie of all time. But there’s just something about it. It’s a package. The perfect amount of action, romance, mythology, drama, thriller—everything. And gore. I need my movies gory.’

‘
Troy
wasn’t a super hit?’

‘It was, I guess. But it didn’t receive a lot of critical appreciation. They thought it was too glamourized and superficial or something.’

‘That’s insane. There was depth. The whole Hector–Achilles chemistry, and Briseis . . . that was deep, for sure,’ Lavanya said.

Shourya could see her replaying it in her head. ‘Let me guess. Achilles was your favourite character, right?’

‘Nope. Hector’s my favourite.’

‘You’re just saying that because you don’t want to sound shallow by admitting that you fell for Brad Pitt’s good looks.’

‘Shut up!’ Lavanya sat up again. ‘I love Brad Pitt, of course—doesn’t everybody? And I loved Achilles because he reminded me of Salman Khan. But honestly, Hector was the only one in there with something in his head. He knew what was going to happen, right from the beginning, but no one listened to him. Not that loser Paris, or his own father, the king, whatever his name was. If they had just listened to what Hector was saying the entire time . . .’

Lavanya sat there, shaking her head, as if deep in thought. Shourya smiled at her enthusiasm. He had missed being with her, having her around all the time. Then, much like now, they would spend all day together and not tire of each other’s company, even if they did nothing exciting.

‘I have five more days before my flight back . . . We can take a trip somewhere if you want, as long as I do not have to drive in the heat.’

Lavanya’s spun around to face him. ‘Really? Like we can take a flight somewhere?’

‘I was thinking, more like go nearby with a tour company or something. Or drive down somewhere, but . . .’

‘Oh, Shourya, what happened to your sense of adventure?’ Lavanya stuck out her lower lip.

‘What is so adventurous about travelling in an airplane?’

‘It’s the destination that’s exciting. We can go to Goa! It’s the best time for it too. Spending New Year’s Eve there—it would be perfect. There are music festivals and so many beaches. It could be really fun.’

‘I’ve been to Goa before. There’s really not much to see a second time,’ Shourya said. Living in the Bay Area, he had developed a fascination for beaches, but from what he remembered of his trip to Goa with his family back when he was fourteen or fifteen, he had not had even the least bit of fun. His entire extended family was there, and they had spent most of their time arguing about what sites to visit and where to eat.

‘Fine. You stay here. I’m going to go alone,’ Lavanya said.

‘You’re not going alone!’

‘Why not?’

‘Because it’s not safe.’

Lavanya snorted. ‘Like anything is. I am not going there to be
safe
. I am going there to have fun. And if you won’t come with me, I’ll go by myself.’

‘Why is it always the extremes with you?’ Shourya asked in exasperation. ‘Fine, I’ll come with you.’

‘I
knew
it.’

‘Yeah, manipulation
is
becoming your strong suit.’ Shourya rolled his eyes. ‘It isn’t a good colour on you though, just so you know.’

‘You’re just easy to manipulate,’ Lavanya responded, winking at him. ‘And I want to make the most of your time here. Who knows when we will get such a chance again?’

When Shourya looked at her, he wanted to say something, to respond to her hypothetical question, but he didn’t know what to say. The way she talked about them having fewer opportunities to spend time with each other in the future made him wary. It felt like she was abandoning him again, and he was stuck there trying to say something, to explain to her . . . something that he himself did not understand.

Lavanya looked up at the apartment one more time. It was a colour that must have been white at one time, but had faded, become dirty and developed a mud-like quality to it. The balcony they were ogling was covered entirely with what looked like a thick brown canvas that hid everything from view. The word
Roxan
was painted in red, cursive letters underneath. She wondered what it meant. They had been there since morning, waiting for a glimpse.

When she had first told Shourya that she had booked a flight to Goa via Mumbai, she hadn’t told him that there was a twelve-hour halt in Mumbai. They took an early morning flight to Mumbai and it was only when they landed there that Lavanya told him the truth. It was only 8.30 a.m. and their flight to Goa was at 9.15 p.m. Shourya was not amused.

He asked her how she could not notice the difference in time between connecting flights before booking the tickets and she tried to fool him by saying she thought it said 9.15 a.m. He realized what it was really about when she suggested that since they were there and had a whole day, they should stake out Salman Khan’s apartment in Bandra.

It was not easy to convince him, but Lavanya played her I’ll-go-alone card one more time. Lavanya thought he caved in because he didn’t see what good hanging back at the airport or roaming around Mumbai alone would achieve anyway. His only condition was that they had to have vada-pav before they did anything else.

Lavanya’s stomach, which was always ready for food, did not seem to agree that morning. She could barely make it through one of them before her palms started sweating. She
knew
it was a symptom of her disease, but tried to suppress the thought. She had the rest of her life to worry about dying, but only five more days with Shourya. She could agonize about AIDS when they got back home.

‘Listen, Lavanya, I don’t know what kind of kick you’re getting out of this, but it’s hot out here. We have been roasting for the last six hours. Don’t you think we should just check out the beach, or Marine Drive or something and go back to the airport?’ Shourya asked. He was looking at her with pleading eyes. She could see the skin on his cheeks had turned red. They had discarded their sweaters and jackets as soon as they got out of the airport. The city of Mumbai was unfamiliar with the concept of winter.

‘We have to stay. He’s in there, I know it. You know my gut is never wrong,’ she said.

‘What about the time you thought India was going to win the cricket World Cup in 2003? We lost
so
badly. So badly, it’s not even funny.’

‘We made it into the finals and we were going to win, it was written in the stars. It’s just that none of the players performed. None. Not one. How did they expect to win without playing?’

‘That’s not the point. The point is—your gut isn’t as trustworthy as you think it is. And I don’t want to waste another four hours outside this sad little apartment waiting to see an actor I don’t even like,’ Shourya declared.

‘Okay, wait.’ Lavanya had to take a minute to collect her thoughts before speaking. ‘So many things wrong with what you said. First, my gut is almost always right. Second, we are not wasting time, we are bonding—this is precious time that will not come back. Third, this apartment is not sad; it must cost crores and crores of rupees. Fourth, it is hardly little. Fifth, you can’t
not
like Salman. You don’t get the liberty to decide that.’

Shourya glared at her. ‘Don’t care. I’m leaving. You can come if you want, otherwise I’ll see you at the airport, or in the airplane, depending on the amount of time you choose to waste in this wretched place.’

‘Again with the hating! You could have just said this place. Why call it bad names?’ When she received more glares in response, she switched tracks. ‘You’re not actually going to leave me here alone, are you?’

‘If you make me, yes.’

‘You won’t.’

‘Are you coming or not?’ Lavanya gauged Shourya’s expression. He looked pretty darn serious. Maybe she had pushed him too far this time. She weighed her options. She wanted to see Salman Khan desperately, but staying there did not guarantee that. And even if he was inside, which her instinct told her he was, there was no certainty that he was coming out any time soon.

On the other hand, if Shourya went away, she would be left alone with her thoughts, which, frankly, had been nothing but depressing recently. Also, despite his mood, which had been irritable since arriving in Mumbai, she had been enjoying spending time with him and did not want him to go. She bit her lower lip. She was going to have to yield.

‘Fine,’ she muttered. ‘If you are going to be a bully, there is nothing much I can do about it. Have it your way.’

‘My way?’ Shourya looked at her incredulously. ‘Trust me, of all the ways in the world, camping out in front of some brash celebrity’s apartment building is the last thing I would have done had I actually got to do things my way. This is my attempt to salvage whatever’s left of the day.’

‘You are being so impossibly rude right now, I don’t even want to look at you. I mean, seriously, it was just a few hours out . . . in the . . . What is happening?’ Lavanya got distracted by the sudden rush of fans towards the building.

The crowd gathered outside Salman’s apartment building had been growing larger all day. Some of them had started running towards the gate and the others looked confused about what was happening, just like Lavanya. It was a little after five in the evening and the sun was riding low. Lavanya looked at the balcony they had been observing all day and found the canvas enclosure still shut.

Shourya held her hand and crossed the road. They could tell by the excited exclamations around that someone was coming out. Lavanya’s heart raced as she held Shourya’s hand and stood on tiptoes to get a look.

There was a white Range Rover coming out of the building’s parking lot. She had memorized the registration number of Salman’s car and . . .
This was it!
More and more people were joining them and she was getting squished, but she did not care. She had dreamt of this moment all her life. She was going to see the one man in the world who could make her want to fall in love.

The first time she had seen
Maine Pyar Kiya
was the first time she had thought about love. She was a teenager, and the movie was relatively old—released two years before she was born—29 December 1989. She could not believe she was there twenty-five years later, on the anniversary of
Maine Pyar Kiya
’s release, seeing Salman Khan in front of her!

All she saw was his back. He was wearing a black short-sleeved T-shirt with a pair of blue jeans and black high-top sneakers. She could see the veins of his arms bulging, and his T-shirt was stretched over the muscles on his back. Lavanya felt faint. She only saw him for about three seconds before he disappeared into the car. But that was enough.

In a few seconds, the car disappeared out of sight completely. The crowd collected there began to scatter and some policemen tried to restore balance to the havoc they had caused on traffic.

Lavanya fell back. Shourya pulled her away from there. Out of everything she had done to tick off points in her list, this one had proven to be the most fulfilling. It was her childhood dream come true!

Shourya chose not to say it. It was tough, but Lavanya looked so ecstatic to have seen her only hero in person, that he did not want to ruin if for her. He wasn’t sure about it anyway, so there was no reason to put doubt in her head.

When ‘Salman’ had stepped out of the Range Rover for a few seconds to wave at the crowd, he had his back to where they had been standing, and they could not see his face. Shourya had strong suspicions that the man could have been either of Salman’s brothers—Arbaaz or Sohail. They did look wider than he would expect Salman to be, but celebrities always tend to look different on screen than in real lives. There was confusion in the crowd too, but give Indians any celebrity, no matter how big or small, they go crazy. He hailed a taxi to take them to Juhu beach, which was relatively close to the airport.

‘I told you he was in there! My gut is always right. You should always trust me,’ Lavanya said, her first words since they left the area in front of Salman Khan’s apartment half an hour ago.

Shourya looked at her in the darkness of the cab. She was literally glowing, her cheeks were flushed and her ears red. ‘Lesson learned,’ he said.

They spent the rest of their journey to the beach in silence. Once there, she took her shoes off and they decided to walk along the sea. It turned out that walking barefoot on the beach was a big mistake; tar balls from ships and the waste tourists created was scattered across the portion of the beach they were strolling on. But Lavanya refused to put them back on. She said that having wet sand beneath her feet and leaving footprint trails was one of her favourite things in the world.

They watched the sun set and then took a cab back to the airport. Although they weren’t saying much, Shourya was really enjoying her silent company. He could feel the air change between them. It wasn’t how it used to be when they were in school, or how it had been when they met again three weeks ago. It was something he had not experienced before. It confused him, in an exciting kind of way.

When she rested her head against his shoulder as they waited for their flight at the gate, and then again on the plane, it felt like the most natural thing in the world for her to do. Together they sat, Shourya in the middle seat and she at the window, her head resting on his shoulder, and they observed the dark clouds outside, which seemed to be running away from them.

‘What are you going to do?’ she whispered, her eyes closed.

‘About what?’ he asked.

‘Deepti and Avik.’

Ever since Shreela’s wedding, when they had their huge fight, he hadn’t brought up Deepti with Lavanya or called her. In fact, for the first time in months, he hadn’t thought of her at all, not even in passing. He remembered how, no matter where he was and what he was doing, he used to think of her all the freaking time—that wasn’t happening to him any more.

‘Do you know what I think?’ Lavanya murmured.

Shourya looked down at her. The highlights in her hair appeared a dull red under the dimmed lights, looking almost black. Her eyes were still closed and her lips moved softly as she spoke. Her bare face, stripped of make-up, looked as innocent and vulnerable as a child’s. She looked like the seventeen-year-old girl he had fallen in love with all those years ago—the thought came to his mind unbidden.

‘Not really,’ he said.

‘I think you still live with them because you cannot deal with her not being in your life any more. You need her to be a part of your life, in any way possible, so you live with them in the same apartment, even though it means dealing with their bullshit regularly.’

She continued, ‘And also because you want them to remember you. No . . . you want
her
to remember you. You want to keep being a part of her life, and occupy her mind. You want her to feel pain because she made you feel pain. You think the guilt of what she did to you will bring her back to you one day.’

Shourya had no words. He had never thought of such an explanation to his behaviour. He did not think that she was right about everything, but he could not entirely dismiss what she was saying either. There was truth there. He just didn’t know how much.

Maybe prompted by his silence, Lavanya removed her head from his shoulder and studied his face. She reached for his hands and held both of them with one of hers. She sighed before saying, ‘You’re going back to her, aren’t you? If you haven’t already.’

‘Nothing of that sort. In fact, I haven’t decided what I’m going to do about her. I’ve not been thinking too much—’

‘Look, it’s okay. I get it. I don’t know anything about her, nothing more than what you’ve told me, anyway. But from what I know, you are very much in love with her. She’s your one true love . . . meant for each other and all that. I just want you to be careful. I want you to be happy, and if being with her makes you happy, that is what you should do. I can tell by the way you still defend her, after everything, that you will never stop caring for her, so why fight it?’

It hurt Shourya. It physically hurt him, the way she said it so casually. Lavanya had no idea how he felt about her, and here she was . . . telling him to go back to Deepti, who felt like a distant memory now. He could not believe how messed up he had been because of her just a month ago, and how hollow he had felt. But that void was no longer there. He had found the one he truly wanted, had always wanted, the one that got away . . . He’d got a second chance—

‘Go back to her. Don’t waste time, you’ve already lost so much of it because of all the drama with Avik and all that. Put an end to it.’

‘I fired you, remember? You no longer get to make my decisions for me.’

She did not say anything else for the rest of the flight. They landed after some time and as soon as they reached their hotel, they said goodnight in the living area of their suite and went to their separate rooms. Shourya was grateful for the heat he had roasted himself in the whole day and the resulting exhaustion—it made him fall asleep as soon as he got into bed.