Sorting Out Sid (27 page)

Sid was out in the balcony having a smoke and staring thoughtfully into space when Aditi appeared next to him. He turned his head to acknowledge her. He hoped she wasn’t going to lecture him on the smoking again. ‘Smoking zone … I thought Krish was coming.’

‘I asked him to help Neha lay the table,’ said Aditi breezily. ‘Thought she might need help. You were so concerned about all the
help
she needs.’

‘Huh?’ said Sid blankly.

‘Never mind,’ said Aditi leaning against the railing. After a couple of seconds, she said in a deliberately casual manner, ‘So … what’s up with you?’

‘Nothing.’ Sid blew a few smoke rings. ‘The usual: busy at work; been meaning to call you but just didn’t get around to it. Things good with you, Adu?’

‘Yes, yes,’ she said impatiently. ‘I meant … what’s going on with you and Neha?’ She bit her lower lip
–
she hadn’t meant for it to sound so blunt.

Sid looked at her coolly and said, ‘What do you mean?’

‘You know what I mean,’ said Aditi sullenly. ‘I deserve to know.’

‘And why do you
deserve
to know?’

‘Because I was the one who was trying to … who introduced the two of you,’ said Aditi, the frustration clear in her voice. ‘And
you
were the one who said something like, “If someone more interesting comes along, you’d rather be with her.” We talked about this, Sid! If something is going on and you’re going to end up hurting Neha, it’s hardly fair and…’

Sid snapped, clearly irritated, ‘Adu, first of all, it’s none of your business. Second of all, I’m not going to hurt anyone. And third of all … it’s none of your business, in the first place.’

Aditi fell silent. After a few moments, she replied in a sullen voice, ‘You already said it’s none of my business. And, “third of all, in the first place” doesn’t even make any sense.’

‘Did I say that?’ Sid barked out a short laugh at himself and took a long drag to buy himself some time. He knew what she was thinking
–
she had always known the details of his life and his relationships better than anyone else. Even better than Mandira. So how come now, this was something he wasn’t willing to talk about? Sid didn’t fully understand this himself, but then, everything was different with Neha. He wanted to keep it between the two of them. Aditi would just have to accept the fact that this had nothing to do with her. But then he didn’t want to hurt her in any way, of course.

He put his arm around her stiff shoulders. ‘Look, I’m sorry, Adu, I didn’t mean to be snappy. I just think you need to give some space to other people. We’re adults, right? We can handle it. So, please, stop with the probing and let’s just have a good evening, okay?’

‘Okay,’ said Aditi softly, not looking at him.

Sid was trying to think of something to say to lighten the mood when Krish’s voice rang out from behind them.

‘Uh … Neha says dinner’s ready.’

Sid dropped his arm from Aditi’s shoulders, almost in a reflex, as Krish came through the balcony door. Aditi spun around to face her husband. ‘Krish, why don’t you keep Sid company till he finishes his cigarette? I’ll go in. You two are anyway not eating.’

Krish looked surprised
–
his balcony visits with Sid were usually not encouraged like this.

Aditi was gone in a flash.

Sid held out a cigarette, Krish shrugged and accepted, bending his head a little to let Sid light the cigarette for him.

After a few puffs in silence, Sid said, ‘So…’

‘So.’

They usually didn’t feel the need to converse when they smoked. But for once Sid felt like they should talk. He was suddenly aware of the fact that Krish was now the closest thing he had to a male friend. It would be good to have a sensible, man-to-man conversation … engage in some male bonding … except that he couldn’t really think of anything to say.

‘I think Aditi’s bugged with me.’ Now why did he have to say
that
? It’s just that the conversation had left him mildly disturbed; had he been too abrupt with her? Krish didn’t respond immediately. He took a drag and then said, exhaling, ‘Aditi can be a little … inquisitive.’

Krish clearly knew his wife better than anyone else.

Sid found himself getting defensive even though he knew he didn’t need to be. ‘Well, everyone doesn’t have to know everything all the time, right?’

‘Right,’ agreed Krish.

After another pause, Sid muttered, staring straight ahead into the night, ‘
She
was also like this.’

Krish didn’t say anything for a while, but when he spoke next, he looked directly at Sid. ‘So how are things … at home?’

Sid hesitated and then thought, what the heck. ‘Kind of crappy, but I think it will get better once she leaves.’ He thought this didn’t sound too good and so he added quickly, ‘It’s just that … it’s time we both moved on … you know?’

‘Sure, you should move on.’

Sid thought he heard implicit approval in Krish’s statement. Encouraged by it, he mumbled, ‘Not
all
women are difficult, you know.’

Krish considered this while taking another thoughtful puff. This time, he exhaled the smoke from his nose, a feat Sid always envied, as he said, ‘If you don’t find
yourself
difficult to live with, you’re unlikely to find anyone else difficult.’

Sid stared at him. ‘Are you getting philosophical on me, Krish?’

This earned him Krish’s trademark easy grin. ‘Not at all. Anyway.’ He tapped his cigarette against the rim of the cup that Sid was using as a makeshift ashtray. ‘Don’t worry about Aditi. She has to accept that she can’t always be in the centre of everything.’

Krish
did
understand, Sid realized. He looked at him with new respect and said, ‘Thanks, man.’

‘No problem. She’ll be fine, it’ll be good for her to learn to let things go.’

‘So, what’s going on with you and Sid?’

‘Hmmm?’ said Neha, sighing as she poked with her fork the remnants of food on her plate. ‘That was good chicken, no?’

‘Yeah, it was great,’ said Aditi, looking around. Krish and Sid were still out in the balcony. Neha and she had eaten dinner together mostly in silence but Aditi couldn’t resist any more. ‘So … Sid and you seem to be … getting along.’

Neha laughed. ‘We do. He’s funny.’

‘Okay, so what is it then? Are you seeing each other?’

‘Aditi…’ Neha cast a glance at the balcony. ‘I really don’t know if we should be discussing this.’

‘You guys are supposed be my best friends,’ Aditi burst out, fuming. ‘And now neither of you is even talking to me about this.’

‘Calm down,’ responded Neha. ‘It’s just that Sid specifically said he doesn’t want this talked about and I have to respect that, okay? Besides…’ Her tone changed, becoming louder and higher pitched as Sid and Krish let themselves in from the balcony. ‘You guys done with stinking up my balcony? How about having some dinner now? Sid? Changed your mind yet?’

Sid shook his head lazily. Aditi seemed to be making an effort to act normal although her laugh came out sharper than usual. ‘I told you. I’ve known him for twenty years and have never been able to get him to have dinner when he’s drinking.’

Neha looked at Sid and said, ‘But you helped me make this. Don’t you want to try it?’

‘Don’t waste your time,’ Aditi said. ‘He’s not going to budge.’

Sid didn’t seem to hear her though. He was staring at Neha as if considering what she had said. Then he smiled. ‘You’re right. I suppose I could try a little bit. What the hell! There’s a first time for everything! Right, Adu? ’ He gave Aditi an affectionate punch on the shoulder but she just sat stiffly on her chair and didn’t react. Sid wasn’t waiting for her reaction anyway
–
he was already trotting towards the kitchen. ‘I’ll serve myself. That chicken does smell good,’ he called over his shoulder ‘There’s plenty of rice, right?’

‘Plenty,’ Neha sang out. ‘Red casserole on the counter … Help yourself.’ She grinned at Aditi, head tilted to the side, ‘Guess my cooking is irresistible, huh?’

Aditi only managed her most strained smile of the evening as she agreed, ‘I guess it is.’

2

Seventh Heaven

S
id was in an inordinately good mood as he got into his car.

He had risen early, well before Mandira and that mini-banshee, Rukmini. He had shaved, bathed and fixed himself a healthy breakfast of cornflakes and milk and had managed to get out of the house by 8. Mandira hadn’t emerged from her room by the time he left. So he hadn’t had to make any contact with his soon-to-be ex-wife.

Now, if that wasn’t a successful start to the day, what was?

Sid revved up the engine and took off as fast as he dared. Just another few weeks of this … After the papers were signed, she would finally leave. Sid knew Mandira had already identified a new apartment although his enquiries about it had almost got his head bitten off. Over the last month his desire to have his home to himself had intensified manifold
–
was it guilt about still living with his ex-wife now that he was with Neha? Whatever! He didn’t want to think too much about Mandira. It was so much nicer to think about Neha.

Neha.

Sid had slept well last night although he had dreamt a lot about Neha. He felt fresh and energetic, almost euphoric. This was what love did to you. True louuve … but wait a minute, was all of this a little premature? Was he going overboard? He wouldn’t want to scare her off. After all, he had to remind himself, they had both been through failed marriages and it only made good sense to proceed with caution
–
one step at a time.

Where would they live? His place or hers? Sid shook his head and grinned. It wouldn’t do to behave like this.

He turned up the radio. Aha! ‘
Eye of the tiger
’. He had loved those
Rocky
movies as a kid. Sid had always dreamt of training to be a champion boxer, especially during the early days when he was always getting beaten up in school for having made one wisecrack too many. He had been much skinnier than the bullies but, luckily, he had been fast. Sid had been running away for as long as he could remember
–
survival of the fastest.

Morons, he thought, his mood taking a nosedive as he recalled having been cornered once and belted by five of the bigger kids. ‘Where are you all now? Driving trucks, I suppose!’ jeered Sid. He looked up to see a huge truck pull up on the right, looming over his WagonR. Sid peered through his window trying to see the driver’s face but couldn’t. The guy in the passenger seat saw him staring and nonchalantly spat a large gob of paan on the road, right next to his door. Sid cringed. Brutes! No matter. Nothing was going to bring him down today. Besides, he too was a manly man now. His French beard was coming along just dandy. He started to sing along to the chorus with all the energy he could muster.

‘
Eye of the tiiiger
…’ he sang out as loud as he could, swinging his head from side to side, ending up facing the truck. Sid’s eyes were closed as he sang so he didn’t notice that the paan-spitting man had apparently mistaken his singing for abusive yelling, and was now making an obscene gesture at him.

When Sid opened his eyes, he saw the red light had turned green and took off, faster than usual, daring to hit sixty on a road now filling up with traffic. The truck was slow to start off and so Sid didn’t see the belligerent man hollering after him. ‘Saaley! Gadhey! Ch***iye! Waapas aake phirse bol!’