aurore - an unusual love story √

part two

Jai stared at the narrow drain that ran along the insides of the clumsy room, while Sonara washed some leafy vegetables and drained the water.

He felt like puking.

His phone had decided to breathe its last at so auspicious a moment, that he couldn't thank his stars more.

" Err... Do you use a cellphone? My battery just died. Actually, my mom's got hypertension, and if she discovers I didn't reach in the night, she'll faint... " , Jai knew he was asking in vain.

Sonara walked upto and opened the almirah to bring out a ragged purse. A tiny Nokia emerged from within the zip.

" No balance. " , she uttered indifferently.

Jai nodded, quite hopeless.

" Neither will its charger work on mine. Let it be. "

Sonara put back the purse and settled before the stove once again, boiling the vegetables.

" I really thought Nokia has been abolished from the market. ", Jai murmured, not managing to get how to stay here till the sun emerged. Specially with such an apathetic host.

Sonara said nothing. The cooking corner soon got clouded with smoke. Jai began coughing like hell. Sonara immediately got up and tried opening the only window.

" Hey, leave. Your baby will catch cold. " , Jai controlled the bout of cough and managed to say.

Sonara kept the window half open, and it showed the calamity outside with no sign of subsidence.

She wasn't really that apathetic then, Jai reflected.

" Why are you standing? " , Sonara asked noticing suddenly. Then as if realising, added,
" Oh, you can't get to sit on a Muslim's bed I guess. But the floor you're standing on is a Muslim's as well, sir. "

Still coughing a bit, Jai went and sat on the bed,
" Nothing of such sorts... " , he began examining the century-old torn bedsheet spread on the bed.

The room had a single bulb that glowed with pale yellow light.

" Where's your husband? " , Jai asked.

Sonara kept stirring the vegetables.

" Out of town? " , somehow Jai was getting impatient over the topic that was being ignored.

" Out of my life at least. I heard, out of the world as well. "

The sounds of frying vegetables, the screeching table fan and the rains were the only ones at the moment. And the moment was quite long.

" I am sorry. " , Jai uttered after sometime. And somehow felt extremely uncomfortable once again.

" Why are you sorry? " , Sonara put a lid on the utensil and stood up wiping the sweat off her face. The room had a fan above that was hardly moving.

" My husband never meant anything to me, losing whom would be a sad affair. "

Sonara slowly sat on the other corner of the bed.

" The night is surely devastating. " ,she changed the topic looking outside through the half open window.

Jai Prakash Raichand was taught few things in life by dad. And currently running through the second decade, he had found them useful and true as well. First, money talked. And it was never rude if money made a man's identity. There were people on earth who lacked money, and it was never their luck. It was the lack of hard work that created their fate. Second, Hindus, Sikhs and Crishtians made humans, aristocrats, literates. Muslims wanted devastations, created terrorists, and remained backward.