YOURS TRULY

Part 26

"Heard you are joining politics!" Sitting down on a couch in the living room after dinner Tulika asked Arun.

"Who told you?" With a smug smile, Arun replied sipping on a glass of whisky. The grave disapproving scowl on the faces of his best friend and his own son left unnoticed from his gaze.

"That too for the opposition party." Rubel chimed in with a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. "Thought you were an ardent supporter of our chief minister Arun uncle. I remember you walking in rallies in support of the cm and giving speech against the opposition." He added still having the teasing 'knowing it all smile' on his face, the smile that wiped away the smug one from Arun's face. He hated this quality of both the father and the son. Through generations, these two males were behaving as if they knew everything so well and looking down upon him. He was one of the biggest names in the Kolkata High Court area, he had his own law firm, in a few days his own son would join him, he had money, power, everything. Yet these two father and son would not leave one opportunity to poke fun at him. And his son, Amit was just so blind when it came to Rubel, it boiled his blood sometimes.

Clearing his voice Arun said, "Well, now as the circumstances have became different. Everything is going downhill in this state now isn't it, one must put an end to it-"

"And this opposition will bring the change?" Saying Suvo rolled his eyes, ridiculed by the memorised speech of Arun, as it seemed like one.

"Of course!"

"Have you not seen the situation of the rest of the states this party is in the power of?" Tuli argued.

With that seeing the discussion taking a turn of something Amit didn't want to be a part of, he got up and walked up to Ipshita who was cleaning up the mess on the dining table and kitchen taking away the work from Renuka and Rubel. Arun picked up the bowl of the mutton to take it to the refrigerator.

"There's no place in it, keep it in the kitchen with some ice in a plate underneath." Ipshita suggested quickly putting the pieces of cakes on plates after wiping the table.

..

"Some loves are so 'mind- dumbingly' special aren't they?"

"'Mind-dumbingly'? Is that a word? Are you trying to say "mind-blowing'?" Ipshita raised her eyebrows at Amit who sitting beside her had just uttered the word.

"It's when some situation of someone or in this case the relationship between two people makes you dumb." Amit shook his head, "and just makes you want to want a love like this." He explained looking in front  Renuka putting down a plate with a piece of chocolate cookies cake and a glass of wine in front of Ratul's photo that was sitting for the day on a single couch. Amit heaved a sigh looking at the smile on the woman of almost sixty placing her fingers on her lips before brushing them on the picture while mumbling a 'love you' unphased by the argument of surroundings.

The scene formed a knot inside both of the spectators' abdomens. One of them knew that he had that, but the cost of keeping it was making him so afraid. And the other, felt the knot pulling everything inside her and realizing the void of it.

"I miss him so badly Ipshita, every moment, so badly to a point that I feel like he is just here with me. Beside me, with my every step, every decision, everything." Ipshita remembered Renuka's words this morning as she was putting Ratul's picture on his favourite couch. Could one even feel that? Companionship, like this, in which one's physical presence wasn't even necessary, she wanted one so badly that it seemed unrealistic to her. Ipshita heaved a sigh.

"Maybe it's more of the person we fall for than the love." Ipshita smiled looking at Ratul's smiling face in the photo. "It's the legacy that one leaves behind or how one treats people that makes the love. Not just a dumb notion of holding on to the idea of love. Ratul uncle was just that type of a person." She shrugged putting her hands around Amit's shoulder.