Daastan [#MissionDesi]

Chapter 6

I pulled out the tiffin box out of my bag, looked under the box, into the bag but couldn't find it. I pulled out my wallet out of my back pocket, looked in it too. Nothing except for a couple of rupee notes, crisp and warm straight out of the ATM machine and her smiling photo. I wished she would stay smiling always. I shook my head. Last couple of days, I did that a lot.

Arvind, its been months I haven't met my parents. I want to go see them, she had said.

I told her I was working on cracking a deal with a Japanese company. It would mean more business for my company. After that, I would take her to visit her parents.

She would sulk, not talking to me and I would shook my head.

I snapped out of the past and quietly had my lunch forgetting about my search for the love notes she would stick under my tiffin box everyday. This time, I guessed she was really mad and I had scrapped away all her patience. One year into marriage and the days of our puppy love seemed to have dissipated by the demands of time and money.

I was thinking of getting her the gold necklace I had seen her fingers tracing the picture of once, in a Beautiful You Jeweller's catalogue. I smiled at the image playing in my mind of me latching on that necklace around her neck, kissing her pulse throbbing under my lips. Just then, the phone on my desk gave out a shrill call.

I heard my mother's voice croak, whispering my name as if she'd been crying for too long and then the line went silent. Suspense was such that a series of questions squeezed my heart which had started beating wildly, threatening to rip apart and escape my body.

The phone receiver switched hands and Vinayak's voice came on the line, "Arvind.." He hesitated.

"Yes that's my name!" I snapped. "Now would you tell me what's going on?"

A swish of air like inhaling came from the other side of the line as if Vinayak was drawing courage from the receiver for exhaling the words he was going to say next. "Mom came back from the market. She saw Sujatha lying unconscious on the kitchen floor. She tried calling you. We brought her to Fortis, the doctors have kept her under observation...Arvind? Arvind, are you there?"

I was already at the door, car keys in my shivering hands which had abandoned the phone receiver, leaving it hanging from its cradle.