Part-Time Devdaas... (28 page)

“It’s fine kiddo, you be good,” he hugged me.

“Don’t go Poncho baby,” Radhika jutted her lower lip and the tears appeared. I hugged her.

“You should go Poncho, you are late already,” Viren said.

“Yep. Bye, Didi and see you soon,” I said.

“Speak to Hrida when you go back,” Radhika said as she let me go. I nodded.

“Hey man, have a safe flight,” Aneesh said.

“Sorry for all the hassle I caused you.”

“All good bro, you take care,” he said.

“Bye.” I smiled and wheeled the trolley.

“I still think I should postpone…” I said to Gayatri.

“Shut up and get lost. I’m done with you,” she said and kissed me in front of Aneesh, for a nice ten seconds. “Shit... I’m going to miss you so much.”

“Me too baby, but I’ll come back soon,” I said looking at her moist eyes.

“No, don’t.”

“Why?”

“Because, I still love you.”

R
aghu and I stared at his smiling face as he hurriedly walked out of the arrivals at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International
a
irport. Usually receiving someone at arrivals in Mumbai is a supreme pain in the ass, considering all the front rows of the eternally makeshift steel railings are occupied by placard holding, sleep-deprived oversmart pick-up drivers, making it impossible for your arriving passenger to spot you. That day, however, it was least of our concerns. Shashank had spotted us the moment he stepped out. What both of us were spooked about was the news we were about to give him, rather the news that Raghu was about to give him. I had made it clear to Raghu on my way to the airport that I wasn’t going to be the one to do it. I looked at his smiling face for the one last time as he walked to us in his casual grey T-shirt, black track pants, Superman flip-flops and a gym bag slinging from his shoulder.

“How have my bitches been?” he said and hugged us both.

“Missed you slutty,” I said as he released me from the hug.

“Me too.
w
assup Randy?” he said to Raghu, strangulating him between his biceps and forearms. “What’s wrong with him?” I shrugged with an awkward smile.

“He has that constipated ‘my-girlfriend-dumped-me’ look on his face.
s
omeone dumped you again Randy, haan?” He said kissing Raghu.

“No, Arrgghh... Leave me...” Raghu said trying to free himself from Shashank’s grip. “What fucking took you so long? And what happened to your luggage, did the airline rob you of it?”

“Ya something like it. Asses left it in Frankfurt,” Shashank giggled.

“What the fuck?” I said.

“It’ll be here day after tomorow.” He smacked his palm on his forehead, “I’m sorry I totally forgot...” He turned to a girl standing behind him,

“Guys, this is Natasha, and Natasha this is Raghu and that’s Poncho.”

“Hi, Arjun.” I said waving at her. I was so preoccupied with the noxiousness of the news that I didn’t notice the orange skinned Spanish hottie standing right next to Sachdev.

“RA-goo and R-jun… nice names,” she grinned.

“Guys, come let’s get her a cab,” Shashank said as he led her to the taxi stand. RA-goo and I followed them.

“How much should I pay him?” she asked Shashank

“Don’t worry, I’ll fix it for you,” he replied.

“You are such a sweetheart,” she said and stroked his cheek. Shashank grinned.

“I know that fucking grin, I bet he has a boner in those tracks right now,” Raghu said to me semi-irritated.

“I guess it’s fair, he is not gonna smile for a long time after you tell him,” I said.

“I know I have to tell him so don’t bug me,” Raghu snapped.

“Boss? JW?” Shashank asked the cab driver.”

“Yes,” he replied.

“How much?”

“By the meter,” the cabbie said.

“Okay,” he said and turned to Natasha, “It shouldn’t be more than three hundred rupees.”

“Thank you so much!” she said and hugged Shashank before sitting in the cab.

“I’ll see you day after,” he said and the cab zoomed off.

Raghu stared at him as we walked towards the parking.

“What? I was just trying to help,” Shashank said and grinned ear to ear.

“Who was she?” I asked.

“I met her in the flight and her baggage got misplaced like mine so...”

“So you just clung to her,” Raghu muttered.

“It’s the other way around actually.” Shashank winked.

“Lucky bastard.” Raghu said shaking his head in disbelief.

“Where to?” I asked starting the car.

“Pyaasa...” Came from Shashank

Throughout the drive from the airport to Pyaasa, Shashank blabbed about New York, his college, food, cars, girls, parties, systems in the US, leaving little room for Raghu to open his mouth. The only time he paused was to light a cigarette. The excitement with which he spoke of his time spent in New York was probably what demotivated Raghu to open his mouth. Finally, twenty kilometres, two hours, and seven large pegs of Jack Daniels later, Raghu managed to open his mouth.

“I, I, I have to tell you something...” Raghu said slurring heavily, “You are my brrrotherrr, Slutty,” he said and hugged Shashank stretching across the table, knocking his glass down. “I love you...”

“I love you too, Randy.” Shashank said taking a sip. “I wish you guys were there with me in NY... It was just...”

“I have to tell you somethinggggg...” Raghu broke down while he still hugged Shashank across the table.

“I have to tell you somethinggggg...” Raghu’s whining continued.

“What is it man, what’s wrong?” Shashank said ruffling Raghu’s hair. His expression changed realising something serious was up.

“Fuck
Bhenchod
, this is not fair.” Raghu returned to his seat. “You are an unfair man. I hate you, you hear me, I hate you.” He said looking up at god. Then crying dramatically, he threw an ice cube at his imaginary god in the celing, the ice cube landed back on his head.

“Dude what the fuck is up?” Shashank asked me as Raghu rested his folded arms on the table and dunked his head in them. As always, the bad karma of breaking bad news to someone came to me.

“You remember Pandit?” I said trying to put it as lightly as I could.

“Who?”

“RD 350, chopper goggles, remember?”

“That racer Pundit?

“Yep, the guy you thunder bashed at Danny’s party,” I said.

“I’m going to kill that fucking bastard, I swear on you my brotherrrr,” Raghu sprung up and turned to leave.

“Shut up and sit down.” I said pinning him back on his seat.

“Okay, I’ll order a hit on him,” or something like that Raghu muttered and began to dial a number on his phone.

“What about him?” Shashank asked.

“He saw him with Neha at Red Oaks three days back,” I said pointing at Raghu with my nose.

“They were dancing thisssss closely.” Raghu brought his palms close to each other to show the proximity. “Bastard’s hands were all over her.” I saw Shashank’s face go pale.

Shit, I hated such situations.

“I’m sorry man Shashank, but we had to tell you,” I said.

“You just say the word and I’ll take care of him.” Raghu stood up oscillating side to side.

“Wow!” Shashank said and emptied his glass. “She moved on quite quickly.”

“Moved on? What do you mean?” I asked. Raghu paused swinging.

“Hello boss??” Raghu said knocking his knuckles on the table in front of Shashank.

“We are not together anymore.” Raghu and I stared at each other. “We broke up six months back.”

“Why?” I asked.

He shrugged coyly.

“Abey why? what happened?” Raghu asked impatiently.

“Look, I don’t want to explain the whole thing. We had issues and our wants couldn’t mutually coexist,” Shashank said.

The waiter returned with the second round of our drinks.

“Abey yaar slutty, not again!” Raghu whined.

“Yeah, I mean you guys were together for more than six years. I thought you loved her.”

“There is nothing such as love, Poncho. It’s about compatibility. As long as you get what you want, everything is rosy. Once your interests conflict, all of it disappears,” Shashank said.

“And it took you six years to realise that?” I slurred.

“Yes...” he said sipping his drink.

“I bet there is a third angle to this story,” Raghu said to me.

“I know you guys think I’m a slut, but no, I didn’t cheat on her.”

“But seriously man, didn’t you feel any guilt leaving someone so close? How can you be so unfazed?” I asked.

“I don’t understand why you guys are grilling me over this; it was her decision too.”

Finally Shashank slurred. “If she can move on so quickly and start seeing someone, why can’t I?”

“I’m telling you Poncho, this guy is the culprit,” Raghu said droopily. “I don’t trust him a grain bit.”

“Fuck you!” Shashank yelled at Raghu. He was already asleep.

I whistled to the waiter

“Repeat one large and get the bill,” I said.

“Make it two,” Shashank said. I looked at him.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

“Like what?” I asked.

“Like you are accusing me of all this.”

“Then convince me otherwise.”

“I don’t need to convince anyone. Whatever happens, I’m not going to publicly discuss my personal life. Go ask her if you want. She is free to yell about it from a mountain top. All I’ll say is that we had issues,” Shashank said and pounced on his drink as soon as the waiter brought our order.

“And issues can’t be solved? You were together for
six
years, Shashank?

“The amount of time spent together has nothing to do with this. You can never change the way a person thinks.
h
e is what he is.”

“I really thought you guys loved each other.”

“For the
n
th time Arjun,
there is nothing such as love!
” he yelled. “It is just an overrated concept blown out of proportion by romantic movies. It’s all about convenience. The moment problems creep in, everything changes.”

“Whatever! I hope you don’t regret it,” I said tilting sideways to remove my wallet to pay the the bill.

“I thought at least you’d understand me. Anyway, it’s over and I don’t wanna talk about it anymore.” He got up to lift Raghu. “I hope that you’ll respect it at least.”

I didn’t respond, but I never spoke of it again to him.

“Hi...” I said as Hrida entered the cafe.

“Hi...” she said pulling the chair, her tone bland.

“How was your day?”

“Good. How was your shoot?”

“Fun as usual,” I said.

“Okay,” she said and dived into the newspaper lying on the table.

Ever since my blunder on her birthday a year-and-a-half back, Hrida’s side of the conversations were smileless and limited to monosyllables and sentences framed with minimum words. Silence had become a substantial part of our relationship. If at all there was any talk, my day at work would mostly be the topic of the conversation. Hrida’s smile which was the highlight of my life, was replaced by an occasional awkward half-hearted smile. Holding hands and hugs, kisses had disappeared, giving way to distant behaviour. All my love yous were replied with thank yous. Frequent snapping at me for miniscule reasons and random fights were the new in-thing. Meetings were diminished to twice, max thrice a week. Make-out sessions, which happened only twice in that period, felt like I was kissing stiff responseless lips of a motionless corpse. In the initial days when Hrida began staying aloof from me, I thought things would return to normal once the phase passed. With each passing day however, things deteriorated to the core. Most of the girl population in my generation had no qualms about losing their virginity, but I found that one girl for whom it was important, and screwed things for her. I horribly wished I could do something to bring her smile back on her face.