Venky wanted to be furious with Nitish as he leaned against the wall of the dressing room, trying to breathe through his tears that refused to stop.
He wanted to be furious with Nitish for tearing down the walls enclosing their bliss and dragging their worst fears into it. He wanted to hate Nitish for reducing them both to tears on the happiest day of their lives.
But he couldn't summon even a sliver of rage, because clearly, all Nitish had wanted was a patient ear to listen. He had given that millions of times to Venky. Venky had given that millions of times to Nitish, too. It wasn't a great big thing to ask for--for Venky to listen quietly without acting out.
But what was to say that if he'd acted out less, Nitish wouldn't have been even more convinced that their team didn't mean the world to Venky and that he could bear the thought of the auction any more than Nitish could?
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Venky watched the celebrations from inside the shadowy dressing room. He could not go and join in.
Even if he could make himself stop sobbing for ten seconds, all he could see was the ugly picture Nitish had painted. Their family broken and scattered among other teams.
Like Shubi was in GT.
Like Rahul was in SRH.
Like Kuldeep was in DC.
Like DK bhai was in RCB.
Like DK bhai had ended his career away from KKR.
Like Manish bhai had been kept away from KKR six years.
Like Shreyas had been taken away from DC--possibly forever.
So every time Venky did manage to stop crying, he started again.
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Nitish wasn't crying.
He was going about clicking pictures with everyone, the purple flag still draped around him, lifting Gauti bhai on his shoulders and doing brief interviews.
Venky watched.
Nitish could storm and rage and cry for ten minutes and be all right immediately afterwards. And it didn't seem that this victory--the concept of this victory that had narrowly eluded them three years back--had anything to do with Venky as far as Nitish was concerned.
Whenever Venky had dreamt about winning the IPL, Nitish had been right beside him. Deep inside, he did know that when Nitish had dreamt the same, Venky had been beside him, too.
But it was hard to believe in that presently.
Because Nitish was going about all the excitement of the victory, leaving Venky to worry himself sick about who would stay in purple and who would not, and how he was ever going to bear his family being torn apart--and Nitish had accused Venky of not being crippled by the thought.
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VC and Narine found Venky shortly before the Presentation ceremony.
"Where have you been?" demanded VC.
Venky stood up (at some point, he'd chosen to squat down, facing away from the celebrations), saying, "Just here."
"Well, checking this dark room didn't occur to anyone--if you won't answer calls, either--"
"I dunno where my phone is," said Venky with a start.
"What--happened?" asked VC, as Venky's tearstained face caught the light.
"Nothing," said Venky. "Just a little argument with Nitish."
He choked again.
VC looked at Narine, who offered Venky a bottle of suspiciously red liquid. When Venky hesitated, Narine said, "Cranberry juice."
The normalcy of that Narine-statement helped Venky regain his composure as he drank.
"How d'you get cranberry juice everywhre?" he asked.
"Gauti got me," said Narine with an uncannily big smile.
He and Gauti bhai had been smiling uncannily big the whole evening, especially around each other. To each of them, this victory was so much about the other.
And they respected that. Cherished that.
Unlike people about whom the trophy was to Venky.
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Nitish stowed away his phone in frustration as the Orange Cap was announced and Shreyas went to collect it on behalf of Virat.
Venky wouldn't answer his phone and no one knew where the hell he was. Nitish wished he wasn't aware every second that he didn't know where Venky was.
All these years, and Nitish had never learnt not to take people for granted. He took Rinku for granted to vent out his temper. He took Venky for granted as a listening ear, always, whenever he was upset and wanted to talk--whether Venky wanted to talk about it or not. Nitish had never waited to make sure, and today, even when Venky had been physically cringing away from Nitish's words, it never occurred to Nitish to put someone else above himself and stop.
The Purple Cap was announced, then the Emerging Player award. Amidst the venomless outrage in their team for Harshit not getting it ("He clearly deserved it for being one of the best bowlers in such a batting dominated tournament," hissed Raman, blowing a blushing Harshit a kiss), Nitish looked around in despair.
Did Venky intend to miss lifting the trophy altogether?
But by the time Narine was announced as Player of the Tournament ("No surprises! No surprises!" Rinku, Raman and Dre chanted, others joining in), VC had managed to find Venky. They were both standing at the edge of the crowd that was the KKR team an support stuff.
Venky didn't look around at Nitish a single time as Nitish kept glancing at him every half-minute.
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"Whatever it is that happened to you all of a sudden," Shreyas told Venky firmly, and very quickly, since the trophy collection was just around the corner, "stop brooding on it and stay in the moment."
Venky gave an ironic snort.
"He fought with Nitish," said VC.
"Seriously?" said Shreyas, disgusted. "You drive us all mad the whole season by blindly taking Nitish's side, and choose now to fight with him?"
Venky could not come up with a retort, because as Harsha Bhogle announced, "Shreyas Iyer and the Kolkata Knight Riders!" it was hitting him every millisecond that these kind of moments--waiting to run and lift a trophy--may well never come in his life again, and he did not have his favourite person beside him to whisper how impressive the purple smoke looked, how weirdly Shreyas walked on the podium and how scary Narine looked when he smiled.
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When the team did run onto the podium, where Shreyas awaited them with the trophy, though, the infectious joy got into Venky, staunched his flow of tears and got him back into the moment.
He always believed in living in the moment anyway.
Maybe under other circumstances, he would've been dragged to the centre by Nitish. But Venky didn't mind Dre and Narine on either side and VC behind him as Shreyas came up with the trophy, Messi-style, and they howled and danced as the sky burst into purple and gold.
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A/N: I'm rather proud of the caption.Well, I am super proud of it.
