The Last Goodbye

Chapter 44

September began with excitement and celebration. Divya had a lot of birthdays and celebrations to plan. Her mama and Mami had got promoted, her Mama had turned 51 years old and her cousin had his 13th birthday. Their family had decided to gather at her Mama's place for the celebrations. For about 15 days Divya had been there in Andheri and was returning back to her home along with her cousins who thought it would be great to have a slight change with a small sleep over at her place. They were still in the car stuck in traffic due to the barricades of the construction work of Metro, when she received a call from Madhav.

"Hello, Divya. Where are you?" He asked the moment the call had gotten connected.

"I am out, what is it?"

"Haaw, do you know what my dad would have said to this?"

"Just a second Madhav, I can't hear you." Divya then shifted a bit in her seat, adjusted her cousin on her lap such that he could sleep peacefully, and then went back to the call.

"Sorry, I am in the car and you know the kind of traffic Mumbai has. So tell me what would have your dad said if he would have come to hear this."

"He would have said, 'Ache gharo ki choriyo ko der raat tak ghar se bahar rehna shobha na deve hai."

"well than uncle seems like aapki beti bhi ache ghar ko belong nahi karti, humne toh use der raat tak parayi choriyon ke sath muh kala karte hue dekha hai."

"Kon chori?"

"You, now I cant tell him that you as well stay out till late at night, and to add on to it, I stay out with my fam, unlike you... by the way do they know about the ringworm?" Divya giggled as she heard an annoyed 'very funny' from the other end.

"Anyways, I called you to tell you that I am coming to Bombay, so tell me when you want to meet." For a few seconds Divya couldn't reply, however she took a deep breath and said, "See 17,18,19,20 I am busy, I have things going on, I am coming to Bombay on 21st so if you are there till then, we can meet.

"Why not 19?"

"Dude, 19 I have shradh ceremony for my maternal grandmother I can't say that I need to go, it doesn't look good."

"Right, no problem let's see how can we work it out."

That night the call got disconnected. However, Divya didn't get a chance to meet Madhav then. His father had called him back home as there were some issues. Madhav told her that he would explain later on what it was, but they never got connected again.

It was on the 19th of September while Divya was going back home and was seated at Railways station she had received a call from Madhav. He was waiting for his flight at the airport. Divya picked up the call as the two talked about a few things, with Madhav asking once again for his birthday gift and asking if she would be able to come to visit him in Jaipur. Divya wished she could, but there were a lot of things that were there. Jaipur though was in India, it was far away, it wasn't someplace where she could take her 9:21 am local and reach within 3 hours.

"We'll see, so you won't be coming here again?"

"I don't know, mostly not, I don't have any valid reason for my parents to let me go there."

"I really don't like this, we are grown up, on the verge of earning on our own, yet all our decisions are based on my parents wont allow, we don't have a reason."

"well that's what being desi is like, anyways, if you go to Nandini's place I have kept Jalebis and Kaju katlis for you there, do have them. I got to go now, will call you soon."

The two bid byes as Divya's train came. Divya felt quite weird to catch that train at that time. It was as if something new was about to happen. Madhav was gone from this city for good. He won't be coming back again, surely it seemed surreal, but she thought how weird life was. The day when he had come here he was all alone with his family, and today when he went home, he had so many people to bid him bye. Though she was glad he called her, she felt really bad that she couldn't meet him.