7:00 am: She put it down with a clatter. She looked at the dented utensil that now sat like a squashed potato in front of her and sniggered,"You so look like my life...". She looked out through the rusted bars of her kitchen window at the dead morning roads,pock marked here and there with some early morning vegetable and newspaper vendors.A screech from her neighbours house bought her back to the 8*8 kitchen,"Anshul beta! Jaldi khao.Bus aa jayega! Hai Ram! Tie kidhar hai tera?".
Kids,I tell you.
A glance at the clock told her it was 7:30 am and Ravin would wake up anytime now and ask for his usual doze of caffeine.She sets about her work like a scheduled robot.Chop-mix-stir-repeat.
She takes out the Bhendi out of the pack of fresh vegetables bought from the not-so-fresh vendor down the street."Ravin loves Bhendi",she thinks as she begins the momentous ritual of rejoicing the family heirloom of their love for Bhendi.She takes out a pan and fills it with calories and fries the stuffed vegetable. "Kavithaaaaaaaa!!",she's interrupted from her task of sniffing in the aroma wafted out by her cooking skills."Coming,coming.". Kavitha walks grudgingly out of the kitchen holding the coffee mug which she had bought for him during their second year of college.He takes it from her hand without even a slight nod of gratitude.Well,okay.She is used to it.He walks out holding the love of his life in his hands and they sit arm in arm sipping coffee and mind you,it is not Kavitha we're speaking about here but the glorious record of our national crimes, THE HINDUSTHAN TIMES.
8:30 am : It's time Ravin set out for office dressed in his usual formal demeanour.Kavitha hands him his packed lunch of Bhendi fry which he takes with a grunt.He turns to leave and suddenly stops.Kavitha looks up at him longingly but he ends up saying the same words she's been hearing for about 2 years now,"Do not wait for me.I'll be late". He leaves before Kavitha has had a chance to speak.She follows him till the stairs; the very stairs she had walked hand in hand with him dressed in her red wedding saree decked in gold as the princess he made her feel.She breathes in the threatening tears as she thinks,'Time has passed and war has overpowered the prince.'
12:45 pm (At Ravins Office): Ravin opens his packed lunch and looks at the cooked Bhendi.
There's a knock on the door of his chamber.It's the office peon almost hidden behind the files he was carrying.He closes his lunch.Work was his escape from reality.He could think about nothing other than work.Not even the damsel he had brought home 7 years ago.
1:30 pm : Kavitha is sitting in the balcony with her writing pad and a pen.The paper was blank and so was her mind.She could think of nothing.Even the pensive Mumbai traffic couldn't disturb the silence in her mind.Images began to form in her mind of yesterdays argument.It was nothing different than the ones she and Ravin have been having since the past 2 years. What cracked their relationship? She didn't have an answer.
2:30 pm: Kavitha is still in the balcony.The sun is shining with all its vigour on her face highlighting her chiseled features but she is lost in the boundaries of her house.She is back in 2009.The atmosphere is scented with the fragrance of Jasmine flowers and is spiced with the gossip of the women gang that has been formed at almost every corner of her house.The men of the family are busy yelling at the workmen to get the decorations ready.The grooms party would be here anytime now.Kavitha is in her room blushing at the words of her friends.She was getting married.To the man she is in love with.Ravin.
3:00 pm: Kavitha's mind reels behind to the times in college.She remembers the very first time she met Ravin.It was at the MMCC canteen. It had been a strange one.She had toppled an entire tumbler of sambar over him.The hot sambar had made him scream attracting attention from the entire canteen.He had looked at her with a piece of tomato hanging over his left eyebrow.
She laughs at this snippet of memory and feels a stubborn tear tracing its path on her cheek.
It was all gone.The magic they shared and reveled in.All gone.
4:00 pm: The writing pad she held is still empty. She has not moved from her seat in the balcony.
She feels dead from all the thoughts and she just wants to end it.It's beyond her to take it anymore.
She picks up her phone and stares at Ravins number for a moment. "Do I do it or do I not?"
She wonders about her loneliness yet again and decides it better to live in abandoned yonder than a caged castle.Kavitha waits for the call to be answered with bated breath just as she did nine years ago.She looked for love then and she looked for love now.
"Hello?"
"Kavitha! How many times have I told you not to call me when I am in office? Don't you get it? Damn. I'm tired of this."
"Ravin..."
"What is it? Can we get this over with fast?"
"Goodbye,Ravin"
"What? You called me to say bye? Are you Insane? Anyways I have an meeting now.Bye."
5:30 pm: Office is done and with all the meetings behind him,Ravin heaves a sigh of relief.
A vegetable cart passes by him and that's when he remembers about the lunch Kavitha had given him that morning.He finds a stray dog lingering about and empties the box in front of it.
It's 5:42 now and just the time to catch the metro.
6:15 pm: "Kavithaaa!"
Hearing no response,he tugs his bag in himself.The house seemed unusually calm."Kavitha?", he calls out once again.He looks for her in the balcony,kitchen and bedroom but she was not to be found anywhere.He sees a sheet of paper fluttering underneath the paperweight.He picks it up and there it is written in Kavithas' beautiful handwriting,
"It's been long but it's not always a forever,right? Bye,Ravin."
He walked into the kitchen with heavy steps and picked up the apron put across the chair.It smelled of the very Bhendi fry he had fed the dog an hour ago.
