Love Lasts Forever (13 page)

‘I’m so
rry sir, so sorry.’ It was all I could say.

He shook his head.
‘I…I should have known the reason first.’ He grunted through his tears. ‘Instead my male ego took over and I threw the signed papers at her face and then slammed out of our house.’ His words came out in broken gasps, filled with sorrow, anger…
guilt.

I had nothing to offer other than a customary nod.
Silence fell between us for a while and I couldn’t believe the scene unfolding in front of my eyes. I came to his room for a single drink and had thought of leaving immediately after that. And here I was, patting his back, and was so drawn to his story that absolutely nothing else mattered. Surprisingly, I had even forgotten about my own story for a while.

He gathered himself together and h
is wails reduced to quiet whimpers. He wiped his tears and met my gaze.

‘Y
ou know we were together for only six months after our marriage before we split, and I never even saw her face after that.’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘Can you believe that? With so much love and affection, all it lasted was six months…only six bloody months?’

I nodded weakly, still struggling to come in terms with the reason.
Why? What happened?

‘
I still love her so much; much more than I had ever loved her. I didn’t marry again…actually, never even thought of it; her memories had always been enough for me. But all this wasn’t until I realized that-’

T
he phone in his cabin rang. He reached for it.

‘
Good afternoon, Captain speaking.’ He tried sounding normal. ‘…Okay…I see…how far…hmm…Okay, keep a watch on them. I’ll be up shortly.’

I faintly listened to
his conversation but my mind actually wandered. With the love they had for each other, their marriage could only last six months. No wonder Aisha and I couldn’t even last a few months. Getting married is the root cause of misery for all men, I decided.

‘
We have company here,’ he announced, breaking into my thoughts.

‘
I am sorry sir, what?’

‘
The second officer just called.’ He nodded toward the phone. ‘He’s getting satellite warnings about pirate attacks in the vicinity.’

‘
Oh that,’ I dismissed.

‘
I wouldn’t worry too much,’ he said airily. ‘I’ve been here too many times, never got caught.’

‘
Yeah, I’m sure we’ll be okay,’ I agreed.

‘
Okay,’ he said, getting back on his seat and wiping his moist eyes. ‘Let’s just forget my past and move on. What about your story, what brings you guys on the brink of a divorce so early in your marriage?’ A brief smile parted his lips.

It felt good to see him smiling after a long time.
‘Aw sir,’ I cried, ‘let it be, you don’t want to be hearing it.’

‘
No, I do,’ he pressed. ‘It sounds eerily similar to my story.’

I smiled.
‘But before I do that you have to tell me something, sir.’

He nodded.

‘Why do you still love her three decades after your divorce, and what had
happened
between you guys? You loved each other so much. And why do you feel so guilty about the whole thing? What did you do, sir?’ I found the questions rushing out of my mouth.

‘
Oh dear, you’ll know everything once I complete my story,’ he replied leaning back in his chair. After a thoughtful glance at me, he added, ‘you know when I look at you I think I see myself. I want to help you; I hope you are not making the same mistake as I did.’

What mistake?

I shook my head and forced a smile. ‘So then sir, go on and complete your story. We’ll know it then.’

             
‘I’ll do that,’ he said, ‘but first you must complete yours. My story might just end up inspiring you in the end, and well, who knows, you’ll fall back in love with your wife…all over again.’

‘Ha, ha, ha,’ I laughed. ‘Y
ou can be funny sir. That can never, ever happen.’

‘Why not
?’ he asked. ‘I could see you were madly in love with Aisha till then. I mean you yourself convinced everybody. Ha, ha, even your friend Joe for that matter. So what happened to all the love then?’

             
‘I don’t know sir about this love and all!’ I shrugged. ‘We were madly in love with each other for seven years before we got married and now…’ I cleared my throat ‘…now there’s everything, but love in our relationship. I think our marriage screwed it up. We shouldn’t have married at all. Ours was a classic example of “From Yippee! We’re getting married! to Why the hell did we get married? in seven flat days.”’

             
‘OK,’ he said throwing out his arm, ‘would you stop intriguing me and just tell me what happened? We don’t have much time here, have to go on the bridge and take care of those Somalian bastards too.’

             
‘Alright sir,’ I slumped backward. ‘This is a very tragic story, listen carefully.’

             
He threw a smile and waved at me to proceed.

19
.  Yippee! We are married!

DAY – 1
, February 2011, Delhi

I had never imagined life could be so wonderful. The warm sunshine percolating into our room, the trills of birdsongs, and a white smoke of mist outside made the morning ethereal. I had just woken up from one of my most satiating sleeps and rolled my eyes toward my wife. Aisha was still asleep beside me, her pretty face peeping out through the cozy blanket that wrapped her body.

             
We made love twice last night, then laughed and nattered through the entire night before falling asleep in each other’s arms. Though I had barely slept a few hours, I felt fresh. We had a long last night and we reached our home way past midnight after our marriage. By the time we made our way to our room away from the prying eyes of a horde of my relatives in the living room, it was already three. And then we were on top of each other.

             
I moved closer to her and observed her closely. She appeared in complete harmony, still like a statue, save the occasional quiver of her eye lashes. A lock of hair sat on her cheeks, obscuring it, and I tucked it behind her ear. I resisted the urge of kissing her but found myself a minute later reaching for her, kissing her softly on her nose.

             
‘Um…’ she moaned. She parted her eyes with great difficulty surveying the surroundings and then shut them back again.

             
‘Good morning, sweetie,’ I said, stroking her hair gently. Even in the morning without washing her face she managed looking sensual.

             
‘What time is it?’ she croaked, scrunching up her nose.

             
‘It’s ten,’ I replied. ‘Mom has already called us twice, now get up, my relatives are waiting to bless the newlyweds.’

             
‘Haven’t they blessed us already in the night?’ she asked peevishly. ‘How much more do they want to bless?’

             
She covered her face with the blanket and turned over to the other side.

             
‘Yeah, well, that’s how they are, you know…’ I craned my neck toward her to check if she was even listening, ‘…my relatives, they can never bless you enough.’

             
I waited for her to respond but could only hear her muffled snores from under the blanket a minute later.

             
‘Oh, no, no…sweetie…you can’t be sleeping now, they are waiting.’ I shook her easily.

             
Silence.

             
‘Hello…sweetie…get up baby…we have to get ready now.’

             
Silence.

             
‘Aisha…baby…love you, please get up now.’

             
‘ALRIGHT!’ She threw the blanket in a fit of rage, rose, and steadied herself on the floor with her eyes shut. ‘First you don’t let me sleep in the night and then your damn relatives in the morning!’ she said before marching toward the washroom.

             
God, she’s so cute!

An hour later we made our way to the living room and all heads turned toward us.

I’ve always been very fond of my family and loved each one of them. My father has nine siblings – three brothers and six sisters – and together they share twenty three children amongst them. Over the years we have celebrated festivals, special occasions, and cricket matches together. We all have gone on quite a few family vacations during our summer holidays in school. With over forty people, our group had always been the largest and noisiest in trains, hotels or elsewhere. With close to two dozen cousins, I seldom felt the need of any friends, with the exception of Joe Singh, of course, who continues to be my best friend.

             
‘Hey, there you are guys, the gorgeous couple,’ shrieked Dimple aunty, my father’s eldest sister. ‘We have been waiting for ages for both of you.’

             
I reached out for her hands as we approached her. She hugged Aisha and whispered in my ear, ‘had a great time last night?’

             
‘Oh, come on,
bhua
,’ I snorted. ‘Don’t embarrass me.’

             
‘Ah,’ she exclaimed, poking me in my chest, ‘you little thug.’

             
‘Aw, you got such a beautiful bride,’ cried Sonam aunty from behind us, the youngest of all the siblings. She kissed Aisha on her cheeks. ‘Great choice Ronit,’ she said and thumped me lightly in my ribs.

             
‘Thanks,’ I said.

             
Over the next hour my mother introduced her to everyone in the family. My sister Priya stood alongside her. She was seven years elder to me and had a six-year old son, Rohan, who had to be the most notorious kid alive. Unfortunately, my sister’s marriage was in shambles as often she had fights with her in-laws. As per her, her husband wasn’t supportive either. For this reason she didn’t spend much of a time with them and was mostly at our place. Good for Aisha, I thought, she’ll have good company.

As she met my relatives
I could see that wide smile all over Aisha’s face as she brought her hands together to greet them. For the older ones she’d bend down religiously touching their feet. My family would be so proud – a beautiful bride with all her traditional values intact.
Perfect!

             
I could already see Aisha gelling along well with my family with long animated conversations interspersed with guffaws of laughter. Momentarily she’d glance over her shoulder toward me as if to thank me for the wonderful family I’d gifted her. I’d wink back at her,
you deserve the best baby!

She
loved each one of them, youngsters and the elders alike, I could sense by her demeanour. My family, after all, deserved to be loved. They were jovial, thoughtful, considerate, and more importantly loved having fun. Aisha would fit perfectly in this family, I could already see that.

When
Aisha was done with my mother, I introduced her to my favourite cousins. She shook hands with them, tousled the hair of the kids, and shared jokes with them. Some of them asked about our love story, how we met and how it all began, and she rapturously narrated all of it. My cousins listened in rasp attention and I prided myself to be the hero of her story. Again I could see the love and adulation on her face for my cousins.

Apart from being a gorgeous looking woman,
I decided, she had her heart in the right place. I mean not many women in this world would enjoy the company of her husband’s family right from day one, but not Aisha. She was this gregarious woman, who despite negligible sleep, laughed and schmoozed with everyone and felt so confident and comfortable at the same time. I sat back in my chair and observed her revel in the long conversations.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity, she joined me on the adjacent chair.
I wanted to hug her and thank her for being so warm and sociable with my family. I was sure she would want to do the same when she leaned toward me and whispered something in my ear. At first her words didn’t register but when I rolled my eyes toward her, I was sure I heard them right. With a sudden livid look and bloodshot eyes, she asked:

‘
WHEN THE HELL ARE ALL THESE CLOWNS LEAVING?’