Part-Time Devdaas... (20 page)

The reality of moving out of the Mom and Dad’s protective cocoon had begun to bite me. Life was no longer a cake walk. The comforts of the air-conditioned bedroom in my parents’ house was replaced by a hot room with a snoring roommate. Dinner was no longer ready on the platter, unless I cooked it. Traveling in the city meant running to catch a government attention deprived local trains and fighting to breath in its overcrowded compartments. In spite of living in the city for so many years, it suddenly had started feeling alien. I had a new house and new friends and I had chosen this independent life, but the only regret was the unaccounted emptiness that came along with it. I had spent all my life in a comfort zone of people who cared for me, people who knew me, so I was struggling to adapt myself. There was no one around me who I could emotionally attach myself to. The only person who came to my mind at that point was her, and the only place to find her number right then and there was on the board she held. I sprang out of the couch and fished for Kintu’s audition tape in the cupboard.

“Hi...” I typed hurriedly and not knowing what else to say, sent just that word. It was almost midnight, so waiting for her reply was stupidity. The sleep fairy’s magic potion had gotten me sleepy enough so I crashed on the couch and closed my eyes. I was half asleep when my phone tinged.

“Arjun?”
Her message read.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“I didn’t, I guessed it. I wanted it to be you.”

“It was nice to see you today.”

“I know.
h
owz you and your girlfriend, Hrida right?”

“We are not together anymore.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. Listen, do you wanna go out for a coffee some time?”

“Would love to.”

I replied with just a smiley.

In the following week, ‘the coffee sometime’ happened once every day after office. Kintu began spending time at my place, sometimes staying over. It felt like I was meeting an altogether different person. There was no trace of the snobbish Kintu I knew seven years back. Now she spoke of her career and independence and fortitude instead of expensive brands, cars or money. She had taken over the maternal and girlfriendial responsibilities towards me by force-feeding food, doing up my room, scolding me for not attending to my back pain, and turning Tam into her BFF. Even though the whole change was too sudden for me, I didn’t really mind because I was liking it. Meanwhile, since the day at the bar Ashwin hadn’t spoken a word to me. He had shot down all my attempts to make a conversation with him. He left for office without taking me with him, and that meant I had to travel by public transport to office. I concluded that my under-performance with the sex-working professional that night would have been the reason for his sulking housewifely behaviour. The ever-warring couple living in the next room too had called a truce, so the house for a change had been in total silence. But sharing the same room, same bed, even the same office desk and not speaking a word to each other made me feel weird. I had to do something before it got any weirder than it was. With his birthday just around the corner, I decided to throw him a sweet sixteen party on his thirty-third birthday.

Kintu and Tam helped me decorate the house with pink and red balloons and drapes. One of our costume designer friends designed a slutty purple frock and tiara for Ashwin. Humpy procured premium quality charas and Tam rolled the joints. Kintu locked the menu and I ordered it. Tam and her friends choreographed a medley of mujras for the birthday boy.

Everyone close to Ashwin was going to be there at the party but there was a high risk that birthday boy himself would go to celebrate the birthday with his friends at the dance bar so I entrusted the task of delivering him home on time to Agent Shilpi, who very efficiently played the part of a seducing colleague and brought him straight home from office. The poor guy got the shock of his life as the light went on just when he was about to make his move on her. There were screams wishing him. When everyone in the party hugged, kissed and wished him, I tried my luck. I held a joint for him to pull a drag. He hugged me and finally gave up his annoyance over me.

“Swift move with the starlet.” He whispered in my ear, “I’m proud of you.” I smiled and hugged him back.

Tam pulled him in the crowd and made him wear the frock and the tiara for the cake cutting. From the happy faces of people dancing, yelling, swaying to the music, I could tell the party was a hit. It reminded me of the party pimp I was once a friend of. Even though it had been close to a year since I had chosen to stay away from Raghu and Shashank, I hadn’t fully accepted the reality of them not being in my life anymore. I stood there in the corner and looked around if there was anyone who could be my new best friends. From Ashwin’s Delhi based cousin Raj who would pull everyone in the corner of the room and speak to them in hushed tone as if he was some kind of spy, to his sexed up best friend who took the first opportunity to jump on Tam’s
firang
friends; from a couple of struggling actor friends who after a few drinks spoke of heavy stuff like depth in the character and lack of substance in content of contemporary cinema, to a certain guitar strumming Pandey who entertained the girls surrounding him with his latest compositions; from a couple of lone drinking women who occupied the corner of the room and stared at the dancing crowd with straight face, to a bunch of guys that only drank and danced, and drank, and danced. Tam, Humpy, Shilpi. I tried pasting the faces of Raghu, Shashank, Devika over everyone in the party but my imaginary mask fit no one. There was no one out there who could replace the friends I had lost.

The alcohol and the black clay joints had done a good job on me, but the music and the drunken babble of the crowd was spoiling the fun, so I decided to take the party over to my bed. I chucked the remaining whiskey in my glass and dragged my feet to the bedroom. I banged the door open alarming a furiously snogging couple.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” I slurred and turned around. Nano-seconds later when my baked brain registered their faces a smile swept my face. Ashwin and Kintu. With no intention of embarrassing them, I left the room. Kintu followed me trying to zip herself up.

“Arjun, I’m sorry,” she said catching up with me in the lobby while I waited for the lift.

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not what it looks like.” Her genuine begging amused me. She was indeed a good actor, I thought to myself.

“I desperately needed the part, I was just making sure I get it.”

“Why are you explaining yourself?”

“Because I care for you. I really needed the part Arjun, please understand.”

“Kintu,” I said placing both my hand on her shoulders, “I understand, you are a climber and there is nothing wrong in it. You don’t need to apologise for that.”

“Baby, I’m sorry.”

“Hah! Just accept what you are, you’ll feel better,” I said and left.

What I saw in my bedroom honestly had no effect on me. Firstly because Kintu wasn’t my girlfriend, nor did I feel anything for her, and secondly, Kintu was always a reaper and Ashwin was being the hornithologist that he was.
w
hat happened was just bound to. I didn’t care about the hows and whys of the situation because the people involved weren’t that important to me. Contrarily, it magnified my inner want of running away from Mumbai. I was pure misfit for this city and the people in it. In past ten months, I had lost Raghu, Shashank, Devika, Mom and Dad to my fate. So before I found new people and lost them again, I admitted myself in a film school in Los Angeles.

“Hey Arjun, I’m sorry if I screwed anything for you.” Ashwin said as I pulled my bags out of his car at the airport. “I didn’t mean to spite you.”

“Don’t say sorry, there is nothing wrong you did,” I said and hugged him. “It’s all cool.”

“You take care, man. Wish you luck.” He hugged me again before leaving.

Teary eyed mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, wives waved to their loved ones standing outside the gate with a heavy heart. Even though there was no one standing to wave to me, I turned one last time to look at everything I was leaving behind in Mumbai. The moment I walked in through the departure gate, the fact that I was surely not going to see Hrida anymore sank in. Ever since the day she walked out of the cafe that night, I had hoped with all my heart that she would come back some day, and when she did, I would be there waiting for her. Now I had to curb all my futile hopes of patching up with her and literally move on. Throughout the formalities at the airport counters, memories of Hrida hounded me. So before my mind’s poise bolted on me and I made any attempts to escape out of the airport, I switched on the heavy metal music on my phone and rushed through the boarding gates, into the plane to my seat and buckled the seat belt tightly till the flight took off from my beloved city.

“B
e at James’... right now... I’m shitting my pants.”
A message from Raghu read.

“I’ll be there in 10.”
I replied.

Every suburb in Mumbai has a cycle coffeewala who provides amazing coffee, tea and almost all brands of cigarettes to the insomniacs all night long. James, our coffee guy, was a veteran out of rest of the city’s cycle boys. Even though he operated between midnight to six in the morning, the spot where he stood had somewhat became a landmark for the city people. Raghu had discovered it for us. Apart form late night yummy coffee and unlimited supply of cigarettes, unlike other cycle boys, James had ample of hot girls coming to him. Shashank had scored ‘the dangling Deepa’ there. Thanks to a year long drop, we had had a hundred percent attendance at James’. That night, out of the fright of the re-exams results, Raghu had summoned me to James’. To be honest, I too to fretted at nights, but a message or a call from Hrida would annihilate the fear. For some reason, she was so sure that I was going to make it big someday that she would literally fight me for my apprehensions.

Hrida! I thought of her and tiny pink heart shaped balloons appeared in the background while her smiling face blew kisses at me. I parked my bike and walked towards Shashank.

“James ek coffee,” I said snatching Shashank’s cigarette.

“Who is he talking to at 3.00 a.m.?” I asked him looking at Raghu who in course of the phone call had walked quite far away from James.”

“Kanya, but obviously.”

“Oh God!” I said and whistled out to call him.

Kanya was Raghu’s latest muse, but unlike every time, he declared that he had fallen madly in love with her. “You guys were right. Being in a relationship is so different from dating,” he said to me earnestly on one of our late night calls. At first I ignored his mush thinking it was all a hoax and she would disappear once the fizz flatted, but when he crossed his standard two month break up mark with her, I sat up to take notice. He even started bringing her for group outings. We were happy that Raghu had finally found someone who interested him beyond physical intimacy. However, the girl was a boyfriendaholic. She would cling to Raghu all day long and make him cling to the phone after she went home. It had been around four months that Raghu was with her and not once in all that time had I seen him without her around him or his phone to his ear.

“What do you talk about for so many hours?” I said as he hugged me. “Weren’t you with her like two hours back?”

“Shhhh...” he said pointing his phone.

“Hang up, Hang up!” I slapped his hand.

“Honey bun, I’ll call you back in two minutes,” Raghu said before hanging up.

“Call you in two minutes? You guys still have things to talk about?” I asked.

“She is worried man. She thinks her younger sister is having an affair.”

“So what’s your play in all that?” Shashank asked.

“Nothing, she is worried and I am just being there for her.”

“And what about your results?” I asked.

“Ah that, shit I forgot. I am so scared yaar Poncho.” He lit a cigarette. “But I have you guys.”

“Ya right, we are there for you, while you are on a call a mile away from us.” As soon as Shashank snapped, Raghu’s phone rang.

“I’m sorry guys, I’ll be back in a minute,” he said and disappeared.

Raghu’s minute equalled an hour-and-a-half. So while he walked back and forth on the footpath talking to her, Shashank and I smoked and drank coffee in unlimited quantities and eyeballed the girls that came to James’.

“You sure you are done?” I asked Raghu when he came back.

“What’s gotten into you man?” Shashank said “You’ve turned into a complete pansy.”

“Sachdev, out of all the people at least you should understand. I love her man.”

“Love shove is fine, just don’t choke each other to death with your joined at the hips behaviour.”

“Come on now, don’t bug me, I’ve already had too much of brain drilling all day,” Raghu whined.

“Life is gotten so slow man. All I do in the day is eat and sleep. I feel like a retired man already,” I said.

“I badly need a change.” Raghu said pulling his hair.

“Let’s go camping. Just us boys,” Shashank said.

“Ya.” I agreed.

Raghu’s face flushed knowing Kanya would never let him go alone.

“Or may be we can ask the girls to come,” Shashank said.

“Yippie!” Raghu jumped. The smile on his face disappeared as his phone rang again. Shashank and I started our bikes and left.

The thought of spending the whole night with Hrida made my heart jump.

“Camping?”
and three smiling smileys I messaged her as I lazed on my bed that night.

Nilshi campsite was a major part of my growing up years. I had spent most of my summer vacations there swimming, trekking, rock climbing, kayaking, fishing, acting in plays. Brigadier Shrikant Pandit had started this place after he retired from the army. The man was a widower and lived alone at the campsite with his Rottweiler Rosco. He would spend hours with us kids teaching us simple self defence techniques, telling us stories of his guerrilla combat days when as a major he led a small unit against the reds in north eastern part of the country. During the treasure hunts at night, he helped us track the clues and taught us how to identify poisonous snakes and insects. I used to be so awe-struck by him that months after my return from summer camps, I would want to join the army. There were so many childhood memories about the campsite that a smile propped my face as we entered its gates.

“Did you see that?” Hrida squeaked with joy as a kingfisher whooshed past us.

“It’s just a bird. What’s the big deal about it?” Kanya said grouchily as she got off the bike.

The two-and-a-half hour dusty bike ride form Mumbai had superlatively cranked Kanya up. She at first had completely dismissed the idea of going camping, but after Raghu’s determined begging her to come or at least let him go, she agreed to come. But the Barbie had no idea it was a no-frills trip. She huffed away to her tent the moment she got off the bike and Raghu ran behind her with her bags. Hrida on the other hand was merrily jumping around. I mean come on, what’s not to like about a place surrounded by mountains on three sides, chirping birds, the gushing sound of waterfalls, cool breeze from the dense forest on the mountains, the smell of burning firewood and meticulously planned colourful tents in the valley around a huge dark water lake. Only an idiot would hate it. So as long as there was smile on Hrida’s face, I didn’t care about the frown on the boyfriendaholic’s face.

It was just past four in the afternoon and the sun had begun its descent, so the valley had started to become dark. If we were fast enough to reach the top of the hill, we could just be in time for the sunset. My love for sunsets also was a result of my stay in Nilshi. I took Hrida’s hand and rushed her uphill. The temperature dipped a degree as we crossed Brigadier’s vegetable and fruit plantations into the dense forest. The chirping birds fluttered away as the dried leaves lazying below our feet made a crackling sound. The lush green pathways of the hills began to turn dark as the sun made its rapid travel behind the Sahyadri range. I heard Hrida’s giggling voice behind me when my walking transcended to running.

“Run run run, I don’t want you to miss it,” I said turning back.

The uphill road began to get steeper as we neared the top. I smiled seeing the orange light dispersed in the misty atmosphere. Nothing about the place had changed in all these years. The same old black rock plateau which wore thorny dried weeds with pride, the same old dry warm-cold breeze that brought the wild floral smell from the forest along with it, the sound of waterfall in the valley below, and at last, Mr Sun, the sole administrator of the incredible lighting and the warmth of the place. The only colours visible were shades of orange, black and gray. Darker shades of orange near the horizon, the black hues of the silhouetted mountain range and the bluish gray sky. Hrida slid her fingers between mine as I wrapped my hand around her. The feeling of the cool breeze on my sweaty-partly-exhausted body was blissful.

For a moment we sat there in silence looking at the sunset.

“I love you...” I said looking into her eyes, and leaned forward to kiss her, but before I could, she burst out laughing.

“What?” I asked irritated.

“Couldn’t you find any better cliche than this?” She now rolled on the rock holding her stomach. “Kissing your girlfriend while watching a sunset. Real original, bro!”

“Yuck!” I muttered under my breath, as the silhouetted banal visuals of a couple kissing while the sun sets in the background grossed me out.

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to kiss me,” she said mischievously stiffing her lips to control her smile. Hrida had a peculiar sense of humor which irked me more than amused me. Now here I was in a situation where I was hankering majorly to make out with my girlfriend, and she filled me with visuals of cheesy lovelorn couples who I loathed all my life. When she is successful at draining the lust out of me, she naughtily invites me. I smiled slowly. I couldn’t deny the fact that I was in love with this girl beyond tolerable limits. I slowly descended towards her face. I ran my thumb across her moist lower lip. It had been two years with Hrida, yet every time I got close to her, my heart raced crazily. She clasped her hand around my neck as I pecked a kiss on her lips. Then a few seconds into the kiss, my luck decided to strike. I heard Rosco’s whoofing sound at a distance. The Brigadier must be on his evening walk. Shit!

“What timing, Brig!” I muttered. Hrida grinned and pecked me back before pushing me away. Rosco came close to us and straight away jumped on my girlfriend. The avid dog lover that Hrida was, she instantly became friends with the dog. I never thought my luck would outrun me so much that even a dog could cock block me. Since there was no way to save the situation, I went back to my sunset and listenting to Rosco huffing and puffing with my girlfriend in the background.