I don't Wear Sunscreen (7 page)

“
Dad, there’s some touring
here in the office, I need some money, can you send some?” Laksha
asked over the phone.

“
How much? 1000 bucks will
do?” he asked.

“
Daaaddddddd,”

“
Hahahaa.. Okay! I will put
10k by evening, alright?”

“
Thanks dad, love you!”
Laksha was excited about her sudden visit to Pallavi’s
place.

***

Dec 2013

As she started packing her bags, she
had many thoughts about Sai running in her mind. She tried to
ignore them, but she understood that it was just not possible. She
finally managed to say “it’s ok, it’s ok,” to herself to get out of
the distraction.

Three and a half hours of journey
drained her, but the moment she saw Pallavi at the airport, she
jumped out of joy.

“
Huff.. 3.5 hours, huh?
Damn! I prefer long hours of journey via train, it would be more
interesting nah!” Pallavi said.

“
Make it four, my damn
baggage came last,”

“
Ha-ha, see, this is the
reason you should never make it on time to the airport, they will
take your bag last, go late and get fast, FIFO,” said
Pallavi.

“
What the hell is
that?”

“
First In First Out – I
studied it in data structures,”

“
Oh hahaha, call a taxi you
idiot,” said Laksha in a teasing tone.

“
Oops, yeah, come on give
the bags to me,” Pallavi offered and then, they made it to the room
where Pallavi stayed, in her cousin’s house.

“
Nice, Cbe is so cool,
though it looks a bit outdated,” Laksha said.

“
Ha! Mumbai ladki, talking
about outdated and stuff? How mean!I should have got you into some
normal college over here, you would have worn pinned dupatta in V
shape over your salwar and roamed around with oily braided hair,”
Pallavi and Laksha laughed in unison at the image.

***

They went to various places in
Coimbatore, exploring temples and sights, but Laksha was constantly
wondering how to begin the conversation about Sai. They went to an
isolated temple in the morning, and started off on their childhood
and then wandered, right from movies, politics, fun, boys, sex,
friendship and everything else under the sun. Laksha was hesitating
still, when Pallavi again started to talk about her interview
experience.

“
I cleared the first round
Laksha, and then they asked us to come for a personal round, where
we were five in number for this panel. We all were seated on a
couch in the reception of the company, it was so cold in there,
they are lavish I guess. You know, the girls and guys working in
the company, all were so posh, they just walked out with classy
Tupperware boxes for lunch and swiped their ID card to open the
door. The girls were all pretty and stylish, loose hair, chic
clothing, just wow! I just started to dream about wearing that ID
card and swiping too, wearing nice clothes! It just ended for me,
just like that dream, you know,” she said while tears rolled down
her cheeks.

Laksha was amazed; all she
could do was to pat her back with an ‘
it’s
ok’
look.

“
They didn’t even reject me
right away, you know? After some 30 minutes, that HR person walked
out and asked the other four to leave. She turned to me and told me
to have lunch in their cafeteria, so I thought I got selected. I
went and had a nice lunch, I spent my pocket money. I felt that
this office was my future and I was going to be here, befriending
people. When I went down, the security person informed me that,
even I was rejected and should leave. By the time I left, the other
four who got rejected had spread the word that I got selected, so
my phone was flooded with “congrats”,”treat?”,”You made it,” and
what not. I was totally embarrassed when I had to inform them that,
I am not selected either,” Pallavi sounded pained, she knew that
Laksha couldn’t talk more, but she was just happy with the fact
that she was there for her.

“
See, this is not the only
company, there are many others around, let’s wait, you know, there
might be a better one waiting for you,” said Laksha.

“
Don’t try to console me, I
don’t really need it, I am fine. I hope I get a job, but the fact
that my expectations and the gossip that I got a job really pissed
me off,”

“
Hmm, I think it's time we
leave, this Coimbatore turns dark at 7 itself,” said
Laksha.

“
Yeah, it does. Chal, let’s
take an auto, otherwise my uncle will start calling me,”

“
Hold my things, I want to
go to the loo, you check if any auto passes by and stop
one,”

Pallavi bargained and stopped by an
auto by which time it was quite dark. So they asked the auto driver
to drop them quickly as her uncle called, inquiring where she was
and how long it would take.

“
10 minutes, uncle, heavy
traffic,” Pallavi lied.

“
Yeah, I am here in
Coimbatore for decades, I know how crowded it is after 7, come
home, let me screw your ears,” he said and cut the call.

“
Eerrr… he found out!”
Pallavi winked at her;they finally reached home in 30
minutes.

“
Here comes the 10 minute
beauties,” her aunt said and stepped out of the kitchen with a
spatula in hand.

“
This Laksha went to the loo
and took 20 minutes aunty, I was waiting for her in the auto stand
for a long time,”

“
Hello! 20 minutes huh, just
10 maybe, it was dark and crowded. I had to take every step
carefully,”

“
Enough, Enough! Come have
your dinner, “ her aunt laughed.

“
So, you’re leaving
tomorrow?” Pallavi asked.

“
Hmm! I had a nice time
here, it is good that we spent this time after a year or so,”
Laksha told.

“
Hey! You wanted to say
something, right? I totally forgot, what’s that?” Pallavi
asked.

“
Yeah! But let me tell you
later? Okay?” Laksha hesitated.

“
No, no, no, I want to know
right away, tell me, else my head would blast off
imagining,”

“
Okay, let’s go somewhere
quiet, I don’t want others to hear. So tomorrow early morning we
will go somewhere, fine? After that, we will get back and pick my
bags. I will take the train, then,”

“
Done, but still, one whole
night? I can't handle the suspense, give me a hint,”

“
Nothing doing..” by the
time she could finish the sentence, Pallavi received a
call.

“
Oops, it is from the
placement ambassador, you sleep, I will come back soon,” Pallavi
said and went to the balcony.

“
Palllllaaaaaaaaviiiiiiiii….
Get up right away, it’s time, am going to leave now, the train
won’t wait,” shouted Laksha and Pallavi woke, with a half eye
open.

“
What happened?” she
asked.

“
Nice question, it’s been
really a tiring job, waking you up, it’s time for my train and am
leaving now, I tried for the last time to wake you up, just to wave
a bye,” Laksha explained.

“
Oh god, I’m so sorry, I
guess it's because of the long walk we had last evening, I was
totally tired, am so sorry again,”

“
Madam, even I walked with
you, I woke up! Okay, see, I don’t have time, you wake up and call
me later, am leaving, bye,” Laksha kissed Pallavi’s forehead and
left.

It was nice to just fly down
in 4 hours, now it is a stretch of a day and more, Gosh! Money
plays a vital role,
she thought.
I did not work properly, took leave and thank God,
Saurav is really sweet. What happened to this stupid Sai, he didn’t
even call me, oh, I told him not to call is it?
Laksha kept animating her face with expressions without
spelling a word, which annoyed the person sitting opposite to her.
When she realized it, she raised her brows and adjusted to sit
comfortably, sat in Padmasana and took her Femina book and covered
her face.

31
^st
December 2013

“
Tonight at 2 I will reach
Mumbai, come to the station, stupid,”
she
sent a text message to Sai.

“
Done, can we talk? Shall I
call you now?”
he replied.

“
Boarded the train, yeah,
call me,”
she texted.

He then called her and they
spoke for an hour, he asked her to eat some food and be careful
throughout the journey. All she did was say
yes
and nod her head with a cute
smile.

She kept thinking about the
conversation they had and throughout the day, messages were
exchanged; in between she spoke to Pallavi, her aunt and uncle, her
parents as well. Time can run swiftly and she fell asleep for a few
hours. She woke up when she felt hungry and munched the little
hearts biscuits with some mixed fruit juice that Pallavi’s uncle
had given her before boarding the train.

***

When the train reached Mumbai. Sai was
eagerly waiting to pick her up, but even after 15 minutes, he could
not trace Laksha. Even when he tried calling her, her number was
not reachable. He figured that she must be sleeping on the couch
and scrolled down the text to check the couch number. S2-47, it
said, so he swiftly ran ahead and entered the coach. To his
surprise, he found her bag there. He took it and walked to and fro,
thinking that she must be in the loo. Even after 20 minutes,
though, she didn’t turn up, so he got down and scratched his
head.

He was clueless and didn’t know what to
do, he kept checking his phone and thoroughly checked her bag, he
could not understand what happened. He tried to reach out and check
with the TTR about the passengers who travelled with her, but all
in vain.

Even if she had missed the
train, she would have called me by then
, he
thought.

Chapter Six

1
^st
Jan 2014

“
The subscriber you're
trying to reach is currently unavailable,
”
Sai heard the voice of the stern lady every time he tried calling
Laksha. Panic bubbled in him; gradually, the news was given to her
family and other relatives and friends. A massive search, beginning
at hospitals and reports of accidents was conducted. The television
at their house was tuned into some news channel or another to check
if any major incidents had been reported, with fervent prayers
going on at the other end and a hope that they did not hear
anything awful.

As time passed, the panic increased
manifold, and the painful task to approach the police was the next
step made by the distraught family. The extended family from all
over India was alerted. Pallavi, who felt that this had happened
because of her invitation to Laksha, was completely shaken.
Laksha’s mom was strong enough to talk to all the relatives and
friends who tried to help in the search for the lost girl, but her
father, the man of few words, sat in a corner looking like a
crumpled sheet of paper.

At every ring of the phone the whole
family pricked their ears. They were filled with fear, and the
emotion in every prayer, shook some relative each time. “Aunty, can
I have a picture of Laksha?” asked one of the cousins. “Why? You
are going to lodge a complaint, is it?” her mom questioned. “I
understand the risk, but we can still request the police not to
reveal it, they will understand that it’s a girl’s life. Also, my
friend’s uncle knows an official high up in the department, I’m
moving through him,” he answered.

“
My daughter calls me sharp
at 9 P.M every day, shall we wait till then?” her mom’s voice broke
and she was on the verge of tears, but she managed not to cry in
front her husband, knowing it would weaken him further. “Aunty,
it’s been more than a day, please understand, there is no news from
any of the hospitals. I checked with a high-end official in this
regard, there have not been too many accidents in the last 24
hours,” he whispered in a convincing yet sensitive tone.

Just then, Laksha’s father’s mobile
rang, an old song playing as his ringtone. while her mom went
searching for her recent picture in the Almira, with thoughts about
Laksha. Her mom came rushing back to the room. “It must be Laksha,
It must be Laksha!” “Some old guy,” her husband said and proceeded
to talk to the person at the other end. “Yeah, Laksha, my daughter
only, she is with you–” before he could complete the sentence, her
mom grabbed the phone.

“
Give the phone to Laksha,
if she is in a state to talk,” her mom said to the man, who handed
over the phone without a word.

“
Hi Mom, I’m fine, I will
reach tomorrow morning with this uncle,” Laksha said in a feeble
voice.

“
Laksha! Are you ok? Can you
manage? Shall I come over?”

“
I can manage
Amma,”

“
Take care, see you
soon!”

“
What happened?” “Why did
you cut the call?”“Why didn’t you ask her where she is?”“Call that
number again!” shouted different voices across the hall.