Daastan [#MissionDesi]

Chapter 15

Vinayak had got transferred to Bangalore two years back followed with Rama and Hiya's tearful departure from Amma, me and Mumbai. He had been promoted as the Deputy General Manager of his bank, hence at such a short notice, the sudden wrapping up of their lives in Mumbai and shifting their base to Bangalore.

After Hiya having almost chewed off my ears with her stories of her new friends, new school, everything new in her life, she went off to her Bharatnatyam class. I finally got to put my feet up and take it all in. Rama had aesthetic tastes in life. It was evident from the art paintings hanging over the soothing pastel coloured walls. Vinayak and Rama were poles apart, had it been for Vinayak, he would have painted them in vibrant colours suiting his flamboyant tastes. A dark green sofa set contrasted with Rama's tastes and I could imagine Vinayak suggesting with a bright colour scheme and Rama rolling her eyes and Vinayak having had enough, puts his foot down since its his house too.

I sighed. Amma had got a call from Rama asking her to visit her in Bangalore since she'd never been there. But because of her knee pain, Amma wasn't able to make it. So she sent me instead. I wasn't too keen on coming to Bangalore since my business hardly left any time for me to venture out of areas which covered Amma, lunch meet, different countries for conferences.

Vinayak came back with two glasses in his hand, one with my Roohafza and the other one a dark liquid for himself.

"Old monk," he said, winked and sat sipping it with a straw.

I rolled my eyes and took a sip of my drink. Ofcourse it was Vinayak, he could do weird things any time of the day!

"Your place is good," I said.

"Thanks." He nodded and looked around as if viewing it through my eyes.

Rama had been cooking in the kitchen. She came into the living room, took one look at Vinayak and rolled her eyes.

'Brother and Sister. Strange similarities!' Vinayak muttered to himself.

Rama ignored his comment and turned to me, "I've cooked your favourite Puttu. I tried making it like mom. Hope you like it!"

'Yeah at your own risk' Vinayak said and leaning over his glass continued sipping not looking up, knowing well Rama must be looking daggers at him.

She pushed his head further over the glass and said, "I wish you drown into that glass."

She smugly carried on into the kitchen while Vinayak tried stifling his giggles threatening to erupt, spilling out like a volcano.

He took a deep breath and shifted towards me. I knew that look and so I tried dodging the question before it made its pitiful appearance.

"So how's work?" I said enthusiastically.

"Boring as usual," Vinayak shrugged, sucking air through the empty glass, making gurgling noises. "What about you?"

"Good. Work is good," I said, diving into the details of stuff with consisted of labour laws, factory, company, clients from all over the countries, keeping him entertained about the things I discovered in the places that I'd been to, with him throwing off frequent unplanned yawns at me.

Lunch was good. Rama had served it on a green leaf, carefully thought out so that I would go home and tell Amma what an amazing cook she was. I guess every daughter needed that kind of approval from their mother.

After lunch, Rama and I sat talking about Amma. My head jerked a few times nodding off, so she asked me to rest by Vinayak's side while she went to pick up Hiya.

I went and slept on the far side of the bed with Vinayak snoring beside me like the gorilla in King Kong. Immediately I passed out, floating in space between reality and dream.