Serendipity

44

One month later

"Anupama?"

Sitting in the staff room, correcting papers while snacking on some biscuits, Alka nudged her.

Anupama focused on the journal she was holding, chewing the back of her pen, her expression revealing her puzzlement.

"Alka, you teach X C as well right?"

When Alka nodded, Anupama chewed some more. "Can you show me the journal of Kinjal Dave?"

"Kinjal Dave?"

"Hmm," said Anupama and flipped back through the journal she was holding to make sure she wasn't making a mistake.

Unable to understand the reason behind Anupama's request, Alka nevertheless reached out inside her cubby to retrieve the journal.

As Anupama flipped through the pages of the journal Alka had handed her, she noticed a similar pattern to the journal she was correcting. The student was brilliant, receiving A's on all her assignments until August. Then suddenly her grades had begun to drop. Lots of red marks, silly mistakes, lack of attention to detail.

She'd also of late started missing practice. A lot. Anupama had been seriously considering making adjustments to the choreography as she could no longer depend on Kinjal being there.

At first, Anupama was a bit miffed with Kinjal's behaviour. She had literally blackmailed the Principal to let him have her way with Kinjal and Sushmita and now Kinjal was proving her faith and decision wrong. 

Then, when she thought back about all the times the girl had eagerly contributed, stayed late to practice, and had even volunteered to work with some of the less talented dancers so the performance was spectacular, she calmed. Kinjal wasn't an irresponsible child.

Something was wrong.

"Alka, I need your help. I want to talk to this child."

Biting into another biscuit, Alka nodded. She didn't know what had bothered Anupama about this child, but if Anupama wanted her help, she would.

*****

Kavya sat on the dining table sipping a cup of cold coffee, while Leela continued to lament loudly, fully aware that Kavya was within listening distance, as to how her son was the unluckiest person when it came to marriage.

"I'd thought that an educated daughter-in-law would help ease some of my son's financial burdens. After all, he has two sons to educate and a daughter to marry off; but this one, she's worse than the first one. She does things impulsively. Look where it landed us. 

"She was fired from the AK Group on account of theft. With no recommendation letter, which company in Ahmedabad will give her a job? If she was smart she would have continued working with Vanraj. But when has my son found anyone as smart as him?"

Hasmukh, as usual, maintained a stoic silence. He had nothing to add to this drama. He'd been seeing versions of this for the last 48 years - first with himself, then Dolly, then Anupama, and now Kavya. Nothing had changed - neither the circumstances nor Leela's attitude. If anything, it had only gotten worse with time.

Kavya had been fired from the AK Group. Anuj's security team had discovered it was she who'd taken the keys. The contractor who'd worked on the elevators had finally reported the missing keys and indicated that he last left them on Anuj's secretary's desk before going to answer nature's call. It was missing when he came back. A fingerprint scan of the desk had revealed some unknown ones that had eventually matched Kavyas.

As Kavya got up to make her way to her bedroom and escape Leela's taunts, her footing slipped and she faltered.

"My Vanraj is now married to a blind girl, who can't even see where she's going," Leela lamented some more. "At least Anupama was able to stand on her two feet."

The following day Kavya had waited for Anupama at the coffee shop for two hours. And she hadn't come. When Kavya had tried calling her, Anupama had disconnected her call. When she'd texted, she received a reply - please don't call or text me again, ever. And then Anupama had blocked her.

If only Anupama had come to chat with her, she wouldn't have been in this soup. Irrationally angry with Anupama, Kavya decided to double her efforts to snatch Anuj away from her. She would pay for her actions, dearly. Kavya was confident she would win. Hadn't she managed to snag Vanraj away from Anupama? Vanraj was way more traditional than Anuj. If she could sway Vanraj, Anuj was.... Men only wanted one thing and Kavya was confident she knew that art to perfection.

*****

"Anupama, why don't you try this?" GK was emptying Gayatri's closet and slowly handing over all the good saris to Anupama. When she'd refused to accept, he'd pouted and complained about how these beautiful and expensive saris would get destroyed because they were in storage and the world would never get a chance to truly admire their beauty.

Anupama had smiled. GK would've been an extremely stubborn child. It was a miracle he hadn't guessed the change in dynamics between herself and Anuj.

She still remembered the day when Anuj had come back looking tired and stressed. She'd made him her signature Masala Chai and had patiently waited for him to speak. And Anuj had told her everything - about how he wasn't aware that Kavya now worked for the AK Group, about how the security had discovered that she'd breached security and stolen the elevator key and how she'd been fired. 

That day, Anupama fell a little more in love with him. He needn't have told her and she would never have found out. But his trust in her healed her a little more. And she'd smiled. 

Anupama had then told him about Kavya's phone calls and text messages and how she'd ignored them and blocked her. 

Anuj had then warned Anupama to be wary of Kavya. "Something is puzzling. The pieces aren't adding up. Promise me that you will be careful when it comes to Kavya. I simply don't trust her."

Dating Anuj in secrecy had its own charm. He'd secretly slip small notes under her door. They'd sneak out for long drives after the household was asleep at night. She often visited the AK Group under the pretext of working late.

To Anupama who'd been a parched traveller in the desert, Anuj was an oasis. He brought her small gifts, gave her compliments, looked at her with love and affection in her eyes, patiently answered her questions without belittling her, and made her feel like she was his entire world.

How had she gotten so lucky? She sometimes feared her own luck. And every time doubt crept in her heart, she prayed for Anuj, for his good health, for his safety. She'd found happiness after a very very long time. And she wasn't willing to lose it so soon.