Sharing Life

23. La Vie En Rose

Priya arrived at the cafe but Sara did not notice as she was deeply engrossed in decorating the cafe. It was beautifully decorated with lights, balloons and ribbons and flowers. In the center of each table, there was a bunch of roses in different combinations of red, white and pink. There were tiny, golden fairy lights hanging on the walls. And most important thing, to set the vibe right, was the soft music playing on the music player in the background.

Without disturbing her, she headed to the counter. She dropped her bag on the lowest rack and grabbed a glass of water.

"When did you come?" She stepped down from the stool and walked towards her. "How was your day?"

"Gulaabi."

"Priya..." she chuckled and continued to wire lights on the other walls.

She sat and gazed the decorations. This day, the decorations, lights and flowers reminds her of a French expression she learned during second semester of her college.

La Vie En Rose.

The literal translation of the expression is 'life in pink'.

In broader sense it means seeing life through rose-colored glasses. Your perception of life is limited to its happy and beautiful aspects. Things around them appear to be delightful; they see life through a happy and optimistic lens. People usually feel like this when they are falling in love.

This was not the case with Priya. Even after studying the phrase in college and thereafter dating Neeraj for year, it never made any sense to her.

Circumstances never favored that she could know what life in pink feels like. In her life, there was nothing that could make her believe in good things, fairy tales, miracles, or even happily ever after. To her, all this was a dreamy, rosy notion that forces one away from reality.

Growing up with an abusive and irresponsible father, she had learned to stand against wrong and fight for herself. Living with Mahendra led her to develop a mindset to live her life without relying on anyone. She learned to take care of her people by herself. One of the reasons she felt strange when Ram tried to protect her in the rain with his coat as she gave up hope in goodness of others.

She never wished for some knight in shining armour who would come and sace her, or fight her battles. All she desired was someone to whom she would go back after fighting her battles; someone with whom she could share her life with.

And finally, when she worked up the courage, battling all her fears, to trust someone and let him in her life, he broke it. It broke her and she lost her faith in love too.

After all this, any chance at seeing the world optimistically was as good as zero.

"Done!" she exclaimed. "Priya go and get the muffins," she asked, breaking her trance.

"Hello," a boy greeted as he entered through the door, waving his left hand, smiling showing his teeth.

"Nikhil!" Sara exclaimed.

"All set?" he asked, taking a look at decorated cafe. "I hope everything works out well."

She gave him a reassuring smile.

He informed her that he is going to bring her, the girl he likes, here.

As he left, Sara crossed her fingers and mumbled, "I hope she says yes."

Nikhil was one of their regular customer. He'd come here with his girlfriend (now, ex-girlfriend). In fact, she introduced him to this cafe. They almost dated for three years. For some reasons, their parents disapproved of their relationship despite lot of convincing. Unwillingly, they had to break up. Past two years were terribly painful for him. Even though it was a mutual break, he found it difficult to move on until last year-when he met this girl at his office. Things changed and today he was planning to formally ask her out.