2 Sides

Bye Mumbai

Next evening, Kunal was driving Kabir to the airport. They reached a little late as it was a Sunday evening.
When they reached and Kabir had unloaded his bags, he said, "Kunal, I really don't know how to thank you for saving my ass."
They both ended up laughing and Kunal said, "Bro you don't have to thank me. I'll always be there for your ass."
They both laughed. Kabir came closer to give him a hug. He said in a serious tone, "Thank you for being there. Really, I'm not joking."
Kunal patted his back and said, "You can count on me."
Kabir moved away and he said, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you. I won't visit Mumbai as frequently as I used to. But I'll keep you posted."
"Sure bro. Come often. We'll do something together."
They said goodbye to each other and Kabir went inside the airport.

***

Palomi was in a bar. She knew it was a bad idea because the next day she had to go for work. But she went there to distract herself from cleaning, self - pitying and her mobile. She knew that if she didn't do anything, she would end up calling Kabir. But this time, her ego had stopped her from doing anthing like that. She was slightly drunk. So she decided to act a little more beautiful and be more sexy.
After a few moments, a man came up to her and he sat next to her.
Surprisingly, Palomi started the conversation, "Hi."
The man was happy and he said, "Hey. You're looking gorgeous."
Palomi knew that he didn't mean it. Even though she was a little drunk, her senses were alive. She also found that statement a little cheesy but she had decided to forget everything and to go with the flow.
She thanked him and they got into talking.

***

After the 2 hour flight, Kabir wasn't really exhausted because he was used to the jet lag. When he reached the doorstep to his house, he rang the bell.
The door was opened by Kabir's flatmate, Daniel. He looked a little sympathetic and said in a low voice, "Hey, come inside."
Kabir entered the house and Daniel helped him in getting the bags inside.
After closing the door Daniel hugged Kabir and said, "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."
Kabir hugged him back and whispered, "It's fine. I'll get over it."
Daniel knew it was a lie so he stopped hugging him and he looked at Kabir. Kabir couldn't meet his gaze. Then slowly Daniel came closer and kissed Kabir on his lips. Kabir kissed him back. He felt lighter and safe.
Kabir didn't want to stop but Daniel withdrew from him and said, "You must be tired. Go take a shower. I've made something special for dinner."
Kabir smiled and he went to the bathroom. Inside, he looked at himself in the mirror with anger, guilt and hatred. He washed his face to forget thinking about his negative thoughts.

***

Palomi and Sushant, the man from the bar, were talking about everything including love, work, life, friendship, childhood and a lot more topics.
Palomi was feeling happy and relieved that she was enjoying herself rather than sitting at home and crying.
Sushant asked Palomi, "So, are you seeing someone?"
Palomi thought for a while and said, "I'm single."
Sushant could read the sorrow written on Palomi's face. He went a little closer and asked, "Are you okay?"
Palomi looked at him and said, "Let's not talk about it. I came here to run away from everything."
Sushant said, "You know, I'll tell you something interesting. Escaping from your problems will never help you to forget about your problems. People think that not thinking about something works but actually it doesn't. Now for example, if I tell you to stop thinking about say... Frogs, just for a minute, that whole minute you'll be thinking about nothing but frogs. Did you understand?"
Palomi nodded her head and she found that sensible. She said, "That makes sense."
Sushant continued, "If you really want to move on, you might want to think about it rationally and maybe try to distract yourself by doing something productive."
Palomi looked at him with a grin on her face.
He asked, "What?"
"Its funny that even when I didn't tell you about my problems, you gave me a perfect solution."
Sushant smiled and said, "I assumed you broke up with someone and I gave a solution accordingly. So my assumptions were right."
Palomi nodded her head and said, "Kabir and I were friends since school. We know each other so well. Maybe he knows me better. But we started dating during college. Apart from him, I've never dated anyone. He's the only person I've ever been with. But 'I being myself', ruined everything and we broke up."
"What do you mean by 'I being myself'? "
"Its like you know, I being, uh... Crazy or stupid."
"So what?"
"I'm like the craziest person in the whole planet."
"So, is it bad to be crazy?"
Palomi wanted to say something but she tried to understand what Sushant said. Looking at her, he smiled and said, "We all are imperfect Palomi. You need to understand that it's okay if you are crazy or stupid or whatever. Embrace your negatives. Its okay to be crazy and admit it rather than not admitting it, right?"
Palomi nodded her head. She found herself listening to Sushant to whatever he said. It made sense to her. She joked, "Enough of philosophy for one day."
They both laughed.

***

After a silent dinner, Daniel and Kabir were sitting idle on the couch.
Daniel broke the silence by saying, "Say something Kabir. You look disturbed."
Kabir looked at him and said, "Of course I'm disturbed. I cheated on Palomi. I feel so bad about it."
"Look I know you're not feeling good about yourself but this was your decision."
Kabir raised his voice, "But you knew about Palomi, yet you wanted to be in a relationship with me. Don't turn the table towards my direction!"
Daniel was calm. He said, "Okay we'll take some rest and talk about it later."
"Why Dan? Why later? Why not right now?"
"Because tomorrow you have to go to work and I don't want to be the reason to spoil your mood."
Kabir smiled. He felt nice that someone was there to think about him. He came closer to Daniel, who asked, "What?"
"Dan, do you love me?"
Dan clicked his tongue and said, "Its very late. I think we must go to bed."
Kabir was a little offended. For a second he thought Daniel didn't love him. But then Daniel replied, "Of course, silly. It kills me when you talk about Palomi but I know you love her and hence I want you to be happy with her as well. I love you so much. You don't know how much I love you."
Kabir blushed and came forward to kiss Daniel. He kissed him back too. Being with Daniel made Kabir feel safe and happy. He continued kissing him because he felt better about himself. Being with Daniel caused him to forget about everything he was tensed about in his life.