Daastan [#MissionDesi]

Chapter 30

Three months later:

I looked at Sujatha through my blurred vision, sniffed twice and she wiped my tears with the white handkerchief, perfect baby pink initials embroidered on it. The colour was a joke meant for people's entertainment.

The chopping board shifted a little as I put strain on the onion with my fingers, struggling to keep it from flying from under the knife. Sujatha tried to stiffle her giggles by covering her mouth with her hands.

Her seizures had been tamed to the point where they were almost on the verge of extinction. She no more needed therapy or any other help. We had renewed our vows one month after she was hospitalised, just our close relatives in attendance.

We were now seated in the veranda, me slicing onions and her supervising me. We were in Kerala at my muthassi's house. She had made amends with her parents. Mumbai or Bangalore, it was a question still looming in our faces. That would have to wait till Anil and Dipti's wedding.

My mother was being careful, taking her own sweet time to come to terms with my decision of marrying Sujatha. I decided time would heal the wounds and get her closer to Sujatha, if not, then atleast enough to stay in the same room as Sujatha without tutting at every word she spoke.

I tried not to take even a single moment for granted. Ofcourse I let myself loose at times else life would get too boring without any adventures. We would fight at silly things, make up and then fight again.

"So, what do we have for lunch today?" Dipti bellowed, standing at the door.

Anil cupped his hands over his mouth and yelled over her shoulder, "Onions pickled in salty tears."

The veranda was filled with streams of laughter flooding in from all sides. Muthassi had joined in too.

They sat next to us and Anil continued, "Served on a plate of white handkerchief."

Another round of laughter went up, rising and filling the air, carried by the wind to the ears of the gossip mongers.

Anil and Dipti were to get married and so they had dragged us here to help them with the invitations, purchasing jewellery, clothes and to cook their meals ofcourse.

"Hey does anyone remembers Anil's car? Whatever happened to the black beauty," I said and looked around chuckling. No one seemed to be getting my joke or I was, I realised, acting like a jerk.

As soon as I stopped laughing and went back to chopping, they started laughing, holding their stomachs.

"Oh leave my husband alone," Sujatha mockingly reprimanded them.

We had a hearty lunch made by Muthassi after she intervened and took over from me else we would had to starve. We went to see Kerala once again, I took Sujatha's hand, leading her to the waterfall she had taken me when I had first met her.

A flock of birds had gathered nearby, taking turns riding on the backs of the buffaloes. She looked to her left and right."Relax," I chuckled, "I'm not going to drown you in....."

I knew what her next words would be even before she said it.

"Well, that's a relief you see," she said. The birds flew away all of a sudden as if someone had pelted them with stones.

I felt a deja vu in that moment and I stood looking at her, words struggling to come out of my mouth, tumbling on top of each other, begging to be let out. I gulped them down.

"You okay? You seem as if you've seen a ghost," she said, her face a mask of worry.

Gathering my thoughts, I told her I was fine. We sat on a huge rock, facing the descending sun. Its rays were weakening, a pinkish orange ball of fire not in the least looked threatening. It hung low in the sky and as we watched, it went down over the horizon and at last just a little bit of its colour could be seen peeping like a child watching over the window sill into the house.

"Haven't we seen many sunsets like this one before?" she mused.

I took her hand and said, "Yes and we've survived and came out stronger than before."

She lay her head on my shoulder, our fingers entwined, our wedding bands clinking together. We were back to where we had started from. This was a new sunrise after the sunset we had witnessed in our life.

The end.

And a new beginning.....