Inquest (Completed)

Reconsider

The persistent feeling that he was unaware of anything about Krupa, after the talk he had had with Jyotika, crept in his mind again. Dhruv wondered what might have sparked this kind of curiosity. He had never noticed how close the two stations were. He usually went to stand at the doors of the train, when they reached Ghatkopar. So he used to get impatient about how long it took to reach Vidyavihar from there. He asked her when she had noticed it. She said she had always wondered so, ever since she could remember. Dhruv tried to come up with an explanation  to justify the existence of Vidyavihar station. He told her about its history: It had been constructed especially for making travelling more convenient for Somaiya students. Hence it was named after their institution- 'Somaiya Vidyavihar'.

This came as a surprise to Krupa. But she liked the sound of it. She replied she had no clue what 'Matunga' station was named after. The only word that seemed to sound similar was 'Tonga', which meant Horse-cart. 'Maybe the station had the highest population of horse-carts in the past,' she said. Dhruv didn't know what to reply. 'Is Krupa complaining? Or is she actually complimenting me for knowing that about Vidyavihar?' his train of thought was steaming ahead.

They talked about their first day of college [which was two days ago for Krupa]. Dhruv wanted to know whether she was single. 'How do you ask that?' He wanted to ask her whether she is in a relationship. But it was highly unlikely.

Dhruv was in his room, reclining on the bed, listening to Taylor Swift's 1989 album, holding the phone in his hand. Krupa asked him whether he had any schoolmates in college. He found the coincidence that Jyotika had also asked the same question somewhat odd, but obviously the next question wouldn't be about his relationship-status. He was just thinking thus when he heard a shriek from the living-room.

Now Dhruv's sister studied in a college in Pune, and her vacations had come to an end two weeks prior to Dhruv's, so she had left for Pune. His father wasn't home just then, so that left him, his mum and a goldfish pet [which actually 'belonged' to his sister, but she wasn't allowed to take it to her hostel] at home. The front-door was open for some time, and his mum had gone to the kitchen to switch off the stove. During this event, a visitor had entered their house: an adult-sized lizard. And his mum wasn't particularly fond of having such visitors, hence the shriek.

Dhruv had no choice but to text Krupa later on [he had been busy wondering whether she would ask every question that Jyotika had asked and hence he didn't reply]. He dropped the phone and approached the source of the sound. It so happened that Dhruv had inherited the fear of lizards from his mum. And the goldfish was not an expert in driving away a lizard. So it led to some kind of riot. The eldest contender wasn't equipped with any weapon [she didn't want to harm the poor thing], and the younger contender decided to simply drive it away using a bamboo-stick. The lizard was on the wall opposite the front door, near the window. So Dhruv gently opened the window-mesh-door, to give it space to exit. He was very careful not to make any sudden moves which might incite the lizard to move.

Dhruv tapped the bamboo-stick at the window, where he wanted the lizard to go.

"Don't tap where you want it to go, tap where you don't want it to go," Mum spoke rapidly.

Dhruv nodded and did the same. The lizard seemed too overwhelmed by the new environment it had entered and the hostile hosts it had met. It stuck to the wall, near the lamp, occasionally jutting out its snake-like-tongue [which sent shivers down the spines of the two witnessing humans, and probably the fish too, if it has a spine].

Dhruv imagined what it would be like if Krupa saw him struggling to shoo a tiny reptile. He felt motivated. 'No, I will be braver,' he decided. But just then, he got distracted, and accidentally banged the stick on the lizard which lost its grip on the wall and fell on the sofa with a feeble thud, causing two distinct high-pitched shrieks. It scurried and ran towards Dhruv's room [as if it knew exactly where it was going]. Dhruv couldn't react so spontaneously. Any courage that might have been kindled because of Krupa vanished when he saw the thing enter his room.