Love Lasts Forever (7 page)

‘
But I love your sister, I really love her, and howsoever she pretends to hate me because of what I did to you, she knows deep down she loves me too. So please forget what happened in the past and let’s make a fresh beginning.’ I paused for a brief moment to let it all sink in. I looked at Aisha and then toward Priyank. I don’t know if that convinced him but at least it managed to assuage the intensity of his wails. ‘Okay brother, I’ll do anything you tell me to for repentance, just give me one chance.’

             
His head shot up the moment I said that, and he eyed me ominously. ‘Anything?’

             
‘Anything,’ I confirmed, pressing his hands.

Ten minutes later I was butt naked in his room on all fours as Priyank and Aisha squeezed their mint tooth paste inside me.

I mad
e another mental note to remove all other mental notes in my head, and
not to tell anything
of this evening to Joe Singh.

1
0. The marriage proposal

January
2011, Mumbai

Almost seven years in our relationship and I was still apprehensive of asking Aisha for marriage. I’d actually asked her innumerable times in so many years but it still made me sweat. I couldn’t wait to spend the rest of my life with her and have her kids.

But she’d
always told me she doesn’t want to get married, so soon, I mean. So after my first proposal in the first year of our relationship on that beautiful evening we spent on Marine Drive, I waited more than six years for her to grow older. And now, here we were, still confronting the same question.

Thankfully
, Priyank didn’t play a spoil sport and had been supportive of our relationship ever since I agreed to his whacky demand. He didn’t leave it there, though. After I was back in my clothes, groaning with pain, he told me if I ever trouble his sister like I’d troubled him, he’ll squeeze the toothpaste again.

             
It had been two more times since then.

             
Now, we were in Mumbai as my cousin sister was getting married. Since my family was here, it had to be the perfect time for the proposal. I’d thought of setting a meeting of my parents with Aisha’s after she agreed.

After strolling through the busy streets of Bandra (she had to do some shopping
, I was told), we chose a Chinese restaurant for lunch. As we entered, the scent of ginger and garlic was overpowering. It was dimly lit and hoops of yellow luminescence were cast by low-arched bulbs. The restaurant was moderately occupied, and we ran our eyes for a perfect place to sit. We chose the seats at the far end, and Aisha plunked down on the couch.

             
‘Eh, perfect,’ she muttered under her breath, looking around, surveying the restaurant.

             
‘It is,’ I agreed, settling on the chair across her. She would always choose the couch.

             
The waitress handed us the food and drinks menu and excused herself. I handed Aisha the food menu.

             
‘Thanks,’ she nodded, leafing through the menu, ‘for bringing me to such a nice restaurant, I mean,’ she said, darting her eyes all over the place.

             
‘Any time, sweetie,’ I winked at her.

             
‘Wait a minute…’ she said and placed the menu on the table and eyed me suspiciously. ‘Have you called me here to propose for marriage?’

             
I cringed. ‘Yes,’ I gulped the sparkling water.

             
‘Oh Ronit!’ she waved her hands dismissively and crashed back in her seat. ‘How many times have I told you I don’t want to get married so soon? I’m just twenty three,’ she protested. ‘And you are what…twenty four?’

             
‘Twenty five, actually,’ I corrected her.

             
‘See!’ she squinched up her nose. ‘We are still so young. There’ll be so many fights after our marriage.’

             
‘No baby,’ I said in a soft whisper, ‘it’s us you are talking about. We’ll
never
have a fight. I just can’t wait to get married to you.’

             
She didn’t look at me and neither did she respond.

             
‘Aisha, look,’ I said, feeling the blood rush to my cheeks. ‘I love you so much and can’t live without you. I don’t care if we are young; I just want to be around you all the time. I want to wake up next to you, have kids with you. I want you to be the first and last person I see every day. I want to hold you in my arms all day long and not wait for your parent’s permission so that you could meet me.’ I took a deep breath before resuming. ‘I can’t be taking flights to Mumbai every now and then just so I can see your lovely face. I miss you so much when I’m in Delhi. My life is perfect with you in it; you have brought out the best in me. Besides, it’s been seven years already, we don’t need any more time to be sure of each other.’

             
‘Aw,’ she said, ‘that was so sweet.’ She smiled, reached out for my hand, and squeezed it. ‘Alright then, Ronit, let’s do this.’  

             
‘Really?’

She nodded.
I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked my stars. Finally I would marry the love of my life.

Over food, we discus
sed about our parent’s meeting. Finally, I could see that elusive excitement over her face. Yes, we were getting married. Life couldn’t have been better. I decided to tell Joe Singh.

NO!
He always gave me the wrong advice.

I couldn’t believe it. Our parents refused.

No,
not for the marriage (thankfully), but not so soon! According to Aisha’s parents, Priyank should get married first because she, I mean he, is the elder one.

             
‘We also have an elder son,’ Aisha’s mother stroked her hand affectionately over Priyank’s hair, ‘and we want to get him married first before Aisha. I hope you understand Mrs. Kapoor,’ she said to my mother earlier this afternoon.

             
‘Of course,’ my mother had replied. ‘We ourselves are not keen of it so soon. Ronit is just twenty-four.’

             
‘Twenty-five!’ I’d said through clenched teeth.

The same evening I was pacing nervously in my room. I wasn’t going to give up so easily and decided to convince first my parents and then Aisha’s parents. I wanted to marry her as soon as possible. For a fleeting moment, her mother’s words played in my mind.
We also have an elder son and we want to get him married first before Aisha
. Seriously now I had to wait for
Priyank
to get married? Will that even happen in the first place? It would have been easier to look for a man to get married to him, I wanted to tell her.

             
Shunning the thoughts, I sauntered to my mother’s room pondering over the various options in my head to break the ice with her. My mother was the quintessential doting Indian mother whose life revolved around her children. It wouldn’t be too difficult to convince her.

             
‘Mom, I want to get married to Aisha at the earliest,’ I gurgled out, feeling queasy in my stomach.

             
She removed her glasses, set aside the magazine she was reading, and leaned forward. ‘What’s the hurry, Pinkoo?’

Outlandish yes, but
that was my pet name. So now you know why I hate the colour pink.

             
‘Because I have waited for her for seven years and because-’

             
She agreed. She had to; no mother could see tears in the eyes of her child, howsoever fake. But only one condition she had told me - our
kundlis
or whatever they are called should match.

             
They didn’t. Another bucket load of tears! She agreed. But one final condition – there should be an auspicious date.

             
There wasn’t. Not until the next six months, I mean, and I wasn’t going to wait for Aisha for that long. And yet again I cried. Seriously was I becoming Priyank now?

However this time my mother didn’t agree. She said it would be a bad omen without the
kundlis
and suitable date. I told her if not within the next month, I will
never
get married. Her heart melted and she agreed. So that was one target out of the way!

Next in line were
Aisha’s parents. Aisha had told me that her parents were very adamant about getting Priyank married first, they would never agree. So I asked Aisha to set a meeting with her, I mean him.

We sat in a café near their house, and ordered three cappuccinos. Priyank ordered a couple of cookies.

Slowly sipping my coffee,
I fidgeted in my seat, and looked coyly at Priyank wondering how to even start. Aisha had not told him about the objective of the meeting at my behest. She bit her lip nervously rolling her eyes.

             
‘So Priyank,’ I began casually, ‘when do you plan to tie the knot?’

             
He blushed. Seriously.

‘
I don’t know…’ he said and scratched his eyebrows awkwardly, ‘…may be when I find a nice and homely girl.’

             
Homely girl?
‘Okay, that’s nice to hear,’ I replied. ‘Priyank um…I was just wondering,’ I cleared my throat and Aisha looked elsewhere pretending not to be a part of the conversation, ‘if you could please tell your parents that you don’t want to get married for the next um…five years, may be till you become a Captain.’

             
Priyank eyed me skeptically. He gave me one of those hmm-I-know-what-you-are-thinking looks. ‘And why would I do that?’

             
‘Don’t you love your sister?’ I asked him dramatically. Aisha snooped in with an innocent look on her face. ‘She’s dying to get married soon but with you in the way…um…you know, she can’t,’ I ended.

             
Priyank looked at his sister in anger. ‘You want me to get married five years later?’ he asked with a look of disbelief.

             
‘Oh no, no brother, not at all…’ she said and held up her hands defensively, ‘you didn’t understand. What Ronit is trying to say is that you tell this to mother so that
we
can get married soon. You know she wouldn’t tell me to wait for five years then. And after our marriage you can do it whenever you want, no problem,’ she conceded, looking at me confused.

             
‘Oh my God! I’m the elder one and you want to get married
before
me.’

I r
emembered our institute days. Bugger
had
to come first at everything after all. We proffered him an understanding nod and waited for him to calm down.

‘
Please brother, for us, please,’ Aisha pleaded.

             
‘Please brother, please, please,’ I begged, folding my hands.

             
He gritted his teeth and violently shook his head. ‘Never!’

             
‘Please brother, please, I’ll do anything for you.’ I found myself saying that again and regretted it a moment later. Last time those words had proved to be quite expensive.

             
‘Anything?’ His eyes shot up and he asked me in that familiar ominous gaze.

             
I took a moment to answer. ‘Anything brother,’ I finally said.

             
A minute later I called up Joe Singh and requested him for something. After forty five minutes of requesting, pleading, begging, he finally agreed.

‘
Dude you owe me big time for this one,’ he yelled before snapping the phone.

The next day I took Priyank over to Joe Singh’s place when he was alone.

Priyank had mint tooth paste in his hands.

And
so I managed convincing everybody. Almost a month later on the 14
th
of February, 2011, we got married. I was the happiest man in the world.