MALANG

5. Pending past

Day 1 (January 3),
Jaipur

"We have reached, Nitya. Wake up already."

I opened my eyes to a melodious voice and some blinding sun rays peeking in through the car's window. Bad combination, I noted mentally as I put my shades on and wiped a streak of drool accumulated at the left corner of my mouth.

Glancing at my wrist watch I muttered- "wow, that was pretty quick."

Kabir, who had been sitting beside me and sniggering at my not_so_cinderella like behaviour, replied in an amused tone- "Told you. Else if we had followed your idea and took the train then.."

I raised my eyes from the watch to the chocolate of his eyes. They looked deep, magnetic and fascinating. I admired them for a while. "The train journey would have been romantic, Kabir. You and me sitting on the opposite berths, face to face, green eyes to brown eyes, looking into depths, analysing life, spending time... have you ever thought about that?"

"Nitya..."

And he couldn't complete his sentence. I saw his words getting struck in his throat like a lump of sadness. It felt strange to visualize him like that.

Instantly I decided to change the atmosphere. I put up a smile on my lips and touched Kabir's shoulder playfully. "Relax. I was just kidding." I said to him and turned towards the cab driver. "Kitna hua, bhaiya?"

"Eight hundred, didi." He replied back.

I handed him the money and stepped down from the car followed by a very confused Kabir behind me. He took out our luggages from the dickey and insisted to carry them on his own. I just complied reluctantly and watched my steps towards the palatial hotel.

The journey from the main gate to the reception desk took some time. Kabir had been quiet all these while, watching the interiors of the hotel with awestuck eyes. But soon he muttered- "I have never been to Fairmount."

"Why would you? You were always from Jaipur right?" I rolled my eyes. He shot me a furious look.

"So you know this as well that I am from Jaipur?"

Err.. I gulped. Now what should I tell him?

"Umm.. yes?"

"Great." He ran his fingers through his silken manes anxiously. "And you won't tell me how?"

I shrugged briefly and after signing my name on the register, handed the pen to Kabir. He signed there as well and collected our ID proofs. I collected the keys to our rooms and strode towards the elevator.

Once inside, I held his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He looked at me taken aback. I blinked at him in return and wordlessly assured that he would get to know everything very soon. His tight expressions didn't change at that, but the tightening of his fist against mine revealed a different story altogether.

                               •

About forty minutes later, both Kabir and me had freshend up in our respective rooms and had came to the swimming pool side to attend the literature festival for which we were actually there in Jaipur.

"So you are a literature addict?" Kabir asked as we grabbed two chairs for ourselves. Fortunately there wasn't too much of a crowd yet and most of the seats were still empty.

"Not really. But I wanted to start a career in writing for some time now." I fished out my phone and took a quick picture of the decked up venue.

"Oh so you are planning to leave your job as an editor?"