I don't Wear Sunscreen (6 page)

“
Yeah mom, same with me, I
was so
happy
to see you all after a long time, I miss being
here,” Laksha showed a tinge of emotion as well.

“
So, nice then, you take
care, we are always here to support you!”

“
I know
Mom,
and I will be
coming next month end as well, Pallavi wants me to since she is
busy with placement and stuff now. She will probably get a job at
an IT firm pretty soon, the
much awaited
day!” Laksha
said.

“
Good!
You take care of your health, keep us
informed, and be open minded. God bless you.”

I’m so
lucky that I have great parents and friends. It’s a special gift,
thank God. It would be really great to have a lovely partner now,
who syncs with these great people to fulfill my life. Though it's
not calculative, I would love to marry a person like Sai. Hmm!
Things are really positive, maybe mom and dad have evolved enough
to agree, and I hope his family will also be on the same
wavelength. Fingers crossed, let me see! “Saiiiiiiiiii will you be
mineeeee”,
Laksha sang
a line to her own tune with a smile in front of her old mirror, the
one attached to an Almira.

***

Laksha packed her things and
said goodbye to her parents, neighborhood kids, the vegetable
vendors who lay their mobile vegetable shops in their street. On
the train, she swiftly arranged her things and was excited about
returning to
Mumbai;
she also planned a surprise
visit to Sai’s place. The excitement turned into a pleasant dream
that let her sleep with a smile for hours in her seat.

Indian railways had planned
a better surprise for
her, however;
her train was delayed by
four hours, which pissed her off. She was drained by the time she
reached
home at
11 P. M. When she called Sai, he answered in an
irritated sleepy tone.

“
Who is this?” he
asked.

“
Saaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiii,”
Laksha dragged his name to get into his comfort zone.

“
Well, nice to know you
remember my name, I’mso glad dear interior designer, of the stupid
startup company VE,”

“
I know you are hurt, let me
explain nah..”

“
Thanks, I’mnot hurt at all,
you think you're so important to me?” he blurted out in
anger.

“
I actually started on time,
just to be with you on your birthday, but the train was
delayed,”

“
I am not asking for an
explanation Laksha, I just don’t care, I’mnot drinking and lying in
a corner, crying that you are not with me, you don’t mean that
much,”

“
You are killing me with
these words Sai, stop it please. I came back today for you, to
spend quality time with you and express my love to you,”

“
What?”

“
I mean, to make sure you
understand, how much you mean to me,”

“
Huh? Okay!
Beautiful
, thanks! Anything else to worsen my day further,Miss Interior
Designer?”

“
I want to meet you, I don’t
mind that it's late, can I come over?”

“
I’mnot in Mumbai, but 600
kilometres away from you Laksha,that doesn’t just mean the distance
between the red colours air balloon that
Google
map symbolises,
it means much, much more.I’mcelebrating my birthday with people who
value me,”

“
Bye Sai, I have nothing to
say!”

Laksha was hurt, but still,
she was scared about how easily she had blurted out her love
towards Sai. She thought it was casual and given that she managed
to escape, it was right from her heart. She wanted to meet him
and
talk;
she planned to catch him somewhere.

She had no one else to
contact except Saurav, so she decided to ask him
about
Sai’s vacation.

“
Saurav, I’m sorry for
disturbing you, I just wanted to know where Sai is, please reply
whenever you see this text,”

“
Reason?”
Saurav replied immediately.

“
I want to meet
him,
and I am planning to visit wherever he is,”
she replied.

“
Are you serious? Can we
meet before that?”

“
Yeah! But.. Why? It is just
enough if you tell me where he is celebrating his
birthday,”

“
He is in Goa with his
friends, but I want to meet you before you even think of meeting
him,”

“
Fine, sure, we will meet in
the morning.”
she replied.

Why does Saurav want to meet
me? Is Sai’s opinion of him real? What is this game, what should I
do
now?
Should I book the first bus in the morning to see
him or meet Saurav first? What does he have to say? Am I on the
right track? Whom should I talk to.. Mom? Pallavi? No – mom will
never allow me to go meet Sai for sure, and Pallavi will kick my
ass off. Whom shall I talk to about this???

How about talking to mom
that my friend needs this advice, let me try the same with Pallavi
also. But oh no, she is busy with her placement,
she thought.

“
Mom, a friend of
mine
wants to go to Goa to meet her boyfriend, but his cousin wants
to say something and stopped her from going, what do you say? Is it
okay for her to go? Or wait and meet the other guy?”
Laksha sent a text to her mom.

“
The best thing is to book
the Goa tickets later in the morning, meet the cousin and then
board the bus,”

“
Haaaa! This idea just
didn’t strike me, you’re brilliant mom, thank you! I will tell
her,”

“
Okay then, take
care.”

“
Thanks my darling, you’re a
warehouse of ideas and
sense.
”

“
Yes Laksha, sensible enough
to also figure out that it's you!”

“
Mom, what?”

“
Are you trying to pretend?
Please don’t do that,”

The phones were silent for a
minute.

“
I won't ask you not to go
to Goa or to call me after your conversation with his cousin, but,
come back to me when you really feel like you need me, take care!
And I really mean the last two words, TAKE
CARE!”
Laksha read the new text.

Her mood was
jostling,
and she started crying, but didn’t know why. She was in no
mood to book her Goa ticket as well. She waited to meet
Saurav,
and she had an intuition that he would give her a new
story.

Saurav called her in the morning and
asked her to meet him on Marine Drive.

“
Hi Laksha, glad to meet you
after the vacation, how you are doing?” he asked her.

“
Good Sir,
thanks!”

“
Call me Saurav, this is a
personal meeting, isn’t it?” he smiled.

“
Hmmm,” she nodded her head
with puzzled thoughts running in her mind.

“
I love Marine Drive, the
complete stretch amuses me, I just want to see my company
flourishing and then move to one of those offices at the other
end,” he said, pointing to the huge,
impressive
buildings.

She just smiled, nodded her head and
wondered how to start the conversation.

“
So,
what’s up
with you
and
Sai
?” he asked.

“
We’re just friends, but he
is angry that I didn't meet him on his birthday, so I thought I
should meet
him,
I
thought he must be somewhere around and
asked you,”

“
Hmm.. Hmm..”

“
I didn’t know he was in
Goa, so yeah, I dropped the plan of going to meet him,” she
said.

“
Ha, okay, nice then, so
what has Sai said about me?”

“
Sai? No,
nothing,”

“
Okay, let’s get to the
point. I know Sai really well from our childhood, he is
a normal
guy
, but still, there are few qualities
that do irritate people. He told me that you felt that
I’m
trying to impress you by dropping you to the station. He
also
said
that you are not my type and I should stay
away,”

“
WHAT? Seriously?” she
asked.

“
Now don’t be surprised, I’m
pretty sure you have heard the opposite version,”

“
Nothing like that Saurav,
I’m not feeling well, please let me go, I need to get to my
hostel,”

“
Sure, and I’m not going to
offer you a car drop this time,” Saurav smiled.

Laksha took more than a day
to
recover
while she thought a lot more than necessary. She
wanted to relax and visited a few temples, including Sairam’s
temple where she met Saifor the first time.
What the hell are you doing to me?
She
had a small fight with her favorite God. She managed to smile at
the cute debut of Sai in her life.
I don’t
really know if he is an idiot, but I just pray that he is not being
one,
she pleaded laying her forehead on
Sairam’s feet
.

Let him come, let me ask him
why he’s trying to play a game with Saurav and me. What does this
mean? Should I cut his
friendship? Then
I should quit my job
too. It's all because of him and I just can’t continue working
there, it would count as being selfish right? Let me postpone these
stupid thoughts until he comes back from his trip,
she thought.

Life presents twists and
turns, and there comes a point where you have no clue if you should
turn left or right. It is pure luck or fate, and of course, let’s
not forget the only one who takes the blame, God!
God wants this to happen, it’s all God’s plan to
direct you to something better.
This
thought kept Laksha, she didn’t know what to do and planned to stop
at the edge of the fork road.

Chapter Five

Laksha was upset and could not
concentrate on work that day. She was worried about the drama, the
fact that her mom had understood the hints, Saurav and his part of
the story. She called in sick, was and kept thinking about the
incidents over and over. Though it goes in vain, after all, that’s
what a girl’s mind usually does. To her surprise, her mom didn’t
ask her anything about it on their call; even when Laksha
volunteered to talk, she ignored it and changed the
topic.

She thought it was time to talk to
Pallavi as well, and after a lot of thought, dialed her
number.

“
Pallavi, I want to tell you
something important,”

“
Me too!”

“
Ha.. Okay! So
this..,”

“
Can I go first?” Pallavi
interrupted.

“
Oh sure! What’s the
news?”

“
You know what? I
interviewed with four companies in this campus drive, I didn’t get
through any and I’mstill jobless, but the others are all placed,”
Pallavi started to cry.

“
Oh My God.. Pallavi, Wait.
Don’t cry.. You will get a job soon,” Lakshasaid.

“
No Laksha, I am.. Sure, I
will get some other job, but you know, there were stupid
incidents,” she started to explain.

“
That’s good, don’t lose
hope! Cheer up, okay? Shall we meet? Even I want to talk to you,”
Laksha told.

“
I’m not planning to go to
Chennai without a nice job offer,”

“
Pallavi..”

“
Don’t force me, I am
already upset because of these people Laksha, you know when the top
ten were selected for training to do well in the placement, the
whole class pointed at me, stating I would bag the first
offer.”

“
Hmm.. Hmm..”

“
I tried really hard, I was
all prepared with everything, right from current affairs to all the
aptitude problems in R. S. Agarwal book, Shakuntala Devi book,
solving Sudoku, what not,”

“
I understand Pallavi, hard
work never fails, you will get an awesome job for sure honey,”
Laksha tried to calm her down, but failed.

“
See Laksh, I am the only
one without a job in the whole lot, nobody talks to me now, they
kept saying that I would definitely make it, and it did build my
confidence, but I have never dreamt of getting back to college
empty handed.”

“
I know how it feels; I also
understand that you need me right away. I have taken leave for a
few days, can I just come over to CBE? What do you
think?”

“
Will you?” Pallavi
asked.

“
I’m booking my tickets
right away! See you soon!” Laksha explained.

“
Hi Saurav, I have an
emergency, am leaving for my hometown tomorrow. I would like to
extend my leave for the next two weeks, as am not well, my parents
want me to get back, I will complete my medicals and get back
asap
.” Laksha sent a small text for which
she received a “
take
care
” in return.