Falling in love forever

Chapter 6

Isai's POV

After reaching office, I booked flight tickets for Mumbai. I am always hit by surprises at unsuspecting times. The deadline for designing the reception of an IT company is just three days away. Thaamarai (Meaning: Lotus in Tamil) who had been heading that project had called in sick saying she is suffering from Jaundice. She was looking pale and tired for the past two days, I was the one who suggested her to visit a Doctor instead of taking over the counter medicines. Now I have to head that project. Urghhhh.... Still, I didn't want to miss today's lunch date with my friends.

As soon as I entered Hotel Saravana Bhavan, nostalgia hit me. This is one of our favorite hangout places. Over the years the prices have increased a lot, but the quality keeps making you come back to Saravana Bhavan. What once started as a humble Hotel now has branches all over Tamil Nadu and franchisees abroad. It can be easily called as the pride of our state. Very soon I spotted the trio. They couldn't be missed. I joined them with a hug for Razia and Megha. For Chandana, I gave her a handshake. She gave me a surprised look and said, "Aren't you CK's girlfriend?"

Girlfriend????? We have an aversion for the term 'Girlfriend'. I think it's because of our movies, for ages our love interest was called as 'Lover' only. Why call a woman a girl? And why the heck a woman whom you love should be called as a friend? 'Lover' is direct, hits you right in the heart. It's only teenagers these days who have accommodated 'Girlfriend/Boyfriend' in their vocabulary. But I couldn't say these things to her. So I simply nodded my head, "Yeah, I am Isai."

"You are so beautiful."

"Thank you."

Both Razia and Megha understood how awkward I felt. So Megha gave me the Menu card to order something. As soon as I ordered the regular Saravana Bhavan meals, Chandana started speaking. "How do you know CK? Is he your cousin or something?"

I smiled and said, "No, we are not cousins. I fell in love with him while travelling from New York to Mumbai. Those fourteen hours changed my life."

She nodded her head gleefully, "Wow you are blushing."

I don't think I blushed, still I wanted to change the topic. "How is your work here?"

"Oh, it's great."

She then continued speaking about her projects here for few minutes. While eating I observed that Razia was very tired and she had dark circles under her eyes. "What happened Razia? You look too tired. Is your law practice draining you too much?"
"Yeah sometimes it is damn frustrating. Whenever I talk about Uniform Civil Code, people fight with me saying that I am ignorant about Sharia Laws (Muslim Personal Laws). They tell me that Muslim women have property rights, law to divorce etc. But nobody thinks that how difficult it is for a woman to get Khula (A divorce initiated by women). In addition to that the mahr which they get is supposed to be returned. Some men demand to keep the dowry and give a no share of the assets purchased after marriage and no maintenance money as well."

I said, "More than the Uniform Civil Code, the problem is with the party which is proposing it. This same party was a witness to Gujarat riots, now in Kashmir there are still hundreds of Muslim women who have no clue about their sons and husbands who were once abducted by military. Young Muslim men are killed in the name of encounter. Since this is their tenure we have to be doubly sure of what exactly they propose to implement. Congress is also like a typical opposition party, opposing every single thing done by the ruling party. So you never know whether they have genuine issues with the UCC or their issue is with the party. As a matter of fact, UCC was advocated by Nehru ji (First Prime Minister of India. He was from Congress Party). Similarly, the New Education Policy is also really good except for the places where they insist on Sanskrit and Yoga in schools. These sort of clauses make us doubt their overall intentions. It sounds threatening to the rights of minority institutions. There should be a much larger debate on these topics."