Crossing the Mirage - Passing Through Youth

Chapter 13 - Oasis of Bliss

While Yadagiri envisaged honeymoon for the just married in Ooty, Chandra was averse to it. Instead he wanted to stay put at home.

"Why, what's the idea?" Nithya asked Chandra when he made his intent clear.

"Don't I know you need time for that?"

"I like your sensitivity," she said thoughtfully. "But I feel we should give our honeymoon a fair chance."

"You're more than fair," said Chandra in admiration

Since Yadagiri had made all arrangements beforehand, they were on course of their 'fair chance'. As they poured out their hearts and bared their souls in the privacy of the first class railway coupe, their peculiar acquaintance acquired the form of a unique friendship. Gratified by their emotional closeness, they vowed to be open to each other forever.

When they reached their destination, they checked into an old-world motel. After breakfast, they went out to explore Ooty's scenic beauty in the midst of that spring. The ambience of the hill-resort and the climate of the season came to enthrall their hearts to enthuse their minds. And that enabled them to shed the overburden of their inhibited relationship.

"Weren't you expecting Rashid to turn up at our wedding?" she asked him, recalling how overjoyed she had been at the presence of her friends' battalion.

"I thought he would," he said, a little disappointed. "Maybe, it's a short notice for him. Or he should've been preoccupied."

"If you're partners still," she said, "wouldn't he have come?"

"Probably he would've," he tried to rationalize life, "but then, as life is circumstantial in its spread, relationships are situational in their scope. So we should learn to enjoy the fortunes of life and cherish the value of relationships in the context of their times. After all, Rashid made a vital difference to my psyche and that won't change, whatever be the change in the relationship. And that's what matters to my life, and that's what stands."

"What about your contribution to his life?" she asked. "Didn't that make all the difference to him? If I'm not cynical, I wonder whether he wanted to let sleeping dogs lie. Why, he might have felt that in case he showed up, you might as well develop second thoughts about your share in the growing business. But all said and done, had he come, it would've made a great difference to your memory. Wouldn't it have?"

"Maybe," he said, "but in the end, it's one's attitude that really matters to one's life."

"How come you have acquired such depth?"

"Well, the sense of rejection too has its own silver lining," he said thoughtfully. "When one gets rejected, either he gets defeatist or becomes enlightened."

"And so does dejection," she said nostalgically, "as happened in my case."

"Glad you didn't let yourself get bogged down," he said endearingly. "Otherwise, to my misfortune you would've ended up being a misogamist."

"Maybe true," she said winking at him. "What about the dame who gave such a fillip to your psyche?"

"You mean that Kamathipura girl?"

"Yes."

"If not for her," he said reminiscently, "I wouldn't have developed the confidence to propose to you. I shall cherish her forever."

"What's her name?"

"I didn't enquire."

"Why so?"

"Rashid told me all of them go by pseudonyms," he said, "and I didn't want to hear a lie from her."