Daastan [#MissionDesi]

Chapter 29

I was packing my bags when I got a call from Sujatha's Muthassi. Sujatha had been hospitalised. I grabbed Vinayak's car keys and rushed to the hospital. Anil was pacing the floor, Dipti sat holding Muthassi, trying to calm her down.

Sujatha had a seizure minutes after I left. She was kept in a general ward but was allowed no visitors keeping in mind the history of her condition. My mind was empty but my heart was full of overburdened questions. Did I lose her again? Will she remember?

Just when we got to the surface, the waves had pulled us back in, enveloping us in an unfathomable depth. After all that we'd been through, we resembled ruins,the echos of the past still haunting our lives.

We sat in silence, none uttering a word. A bald bird landed on the window sill,next to which I was seated. It chirped trying to get my attention, turned its neck, one beady eye looking at me. I remembered a similar one at the coffee house, the day I had gone to meet her. It chirped again, hopping just as it did that day. Was it trying to talk to me? Clearly I was losing my mind so I shooed it away.

Eight hours had dragged by, still no news. I prayed to god, desperate for her to get well. God has his own ways of testing and renewing your faith in him.

I went alone for a walk to take my time off all the thoughts lying tangled up in my mind. They could wait. People started jogging, running to places with roofs, trying to stay dry from the rain falling down. Roofs of tea stalls, blue covers with strings attached to them were tied to the bamboo poles, keeping them from flying in the wind.

Far away in the distance, echos of the birds chirping, water gurgling in the gutters, filling them to the brim, lightning and thunder, a lone bird fluttering its wings, trying to get somewhere, filled up my mind. I was standing under the roof of one such tea stall, the plop plop of water dripping off the roof, falling down in the bucket below. I remembered the day I first saw her and tears plopped down into my tea.

I went back and saw everyone by Sujatha's bed, Anil and dipti keeping it light. Sujatha turned her neck, her eyes following my movements as I went by her side, the rest of them moving to give way.

"We'll be outside. You kids behave yourself," Anil chuckled and left the room followed by Dipti and Muthassi.

She reminded me of the bird, her eyes stuck on mine, trying to do what? Communicate? I sat on the chair beside her bed, took a long breath.

Her eyes landed on my interwined fingers, thumbs circling and chasing each other.

I kept at it for quite a while before she spoke, "Will they ever meet?"

I looked at her questioningly.

"When will it stop chasing the other one?"she asked.

"Well it depends on the other one, doesn't it?" I replied, a question to her question.

She looked away, her eyes blinking rapidly as if trying to hold back tears.

"Sujatha..."

She looked down at the Nicholas Sparks novel in my palms. She took it from me and her fingers parted the wet pages of the book to where my white handkerchief lay, neatly ironed in a square. She guffawed, "Did you even open the book?"

"Yes I did but kept the handkerchief. Thought you might need it," I said.

She smiled ruefully, her fingers tracing our initials embroidered on the handkerchief.

"These seem to have been made by inexperienced hands," she pointed out the uneven dark blue alphabets zooming in against the white background.

Not getting any answer from me, she looked at me and said, "Was it me who made it for you?"

I nodded, fixing my gaze with hers.

"Well I've learned embroidering at Daffodils. I guess I can fix this," she said. "There's nothing that can't be fixed, right?" Her eyes wavered as she said it.

"Right," I said.