MARCH 2010
Rohit had just moved out of my Nani's house. His parents had bought him an apartment in Nagpur. He now lived there with one of his cousins and his younger sister, Pihu. Rohit was offering Piyush a space in his new home at a much lower price than he was paying Nani----this news travelled from Rohit to Zarah and finally me.
'What did Piyush say?' Is he moving out?' I asked to Zarah desperately.
'What is it to you? It is not as if he stays here, you are going to ask him out, is it?' she did not miss any opportunity to rub salt in my open wounds. After the disaster on Piyush's birthday, I had decided to move on with things at a pace I was comfortable with. And I knew that I was not comfortable talking to him, let alone asking him out.
' Rohit asked Piyush to only pay his share of the household expenses and live with him, but Piyush declined his offer as he was not comfortable with, sharing a house with a girl, even if it is his best friend's sister,' Zarah told me after a few minutes of silence.
I was happy to hear that because it meant Piyush was not moving out, but I did not show it in front of Zarah. I pretended to remain grumpy until she said sorry for her harsh words earlier, although I knew she was not.
We walked idly in front of Nani's house, eating corn and chatting. I hoped to get a glimpse of Piyush. I had not seen him for two weeks. He had gone to Delhi to visit his family for a week, and the day he came back, my parents decided it was time to go on a long--awaited
trip to Nepal. There we went to a famous temple, I prayed to the goddess to give me courage and enough glow to woo the man of my dreams, half hoping that such requests were also considered matters of urgency and the wish would be granted to me swiftly.
That evening did not turn out to be fruitful as Piyush locked himself in his room. Nani's maid knocked on Piyush door, asking him to come out for lunch as well as dinner, but he asked her to bring some warm water and tea instead. I saw the maid walk out of Piyush's room and head towards the kitchen to prepare tea for him. That was when I began my interrogation.
'What happened to Piyush?' I asked Nani's maid, trying to sound as causal as possible.
'I do not know. He looks unwell---a cold maybe,' she informed me casually, and continued cooking in the kitchen.
It was 9 p.m. I dashed to the nearby medical store and came back with a fever ,cold & flu tablets and cough drops.
Very gently, I knocked on the door of Piyush's room. Nani did not like me going anywhere near her PG's apartment, and I was playing with fire. Getting caught would mean being reported to my mother, which was also dangerous. But I had to check on him and give him those medicines.
After a few knocks, he answered and told me that the door was open. I lightly pushed the door with my hands. The lights in the room had been dimmed, and I could barely see him. 'Who is it?' he asked. His nose seemed stuffed, and his voice sounded like an old man. I lifted my left foot to walk in and then placed it back on the ground; I did not want a scandal ----neither for him nor for myself.
'I have got some medicines for your cold, and there is one if you also have some fever,' I said, standing at the door.
'Oh, thanks. Zarah, is it?' he asked me. I am sure he was not able to recognize me or my voice in the dark. And I did not bother to clarify; it did not matter who he thought I was. All that mattered was that he got the medicines as he was not well.
'Nani doesn't like us in her PG's room, so I am handing over the medicines to the maid. She will bring them to you with some ginger tea,' I told him, and turned around.
'Thanks!' I heard his murmur in a sleepy voice as I headed down the stairs.
The next day, I went in the morning to check how he was feeling and wheather he took the medicines I had bought for him the previous night. To my surprise, dressed in a white shirt and black lower, he stood outside sipping tea with Zarah. He looked a little paler than usual, but his voice sounded much better than the night before. They were both chatting with ease.
'Hello, Piyush, how are you today?' I mustered enough courage and blurted out the line I had practised the entire night.
'I am good now, thanks!' he answered me with a smile.
'Okay, I will see you girls later,' he said to Zarah in particular and waved at me.
'So, what was that all about?' I asked the stupidly grinning sheep who happened to be my friend.
'He was telling me how he loves the rains and monsoon winds, and that he was out in the rain with his college friends which is the reason why he caught a cold,' she said looking slyly at me.
' --- And he was thanking me,' she added.
'Why was he thanking you?'
'For the medicines,' she replied shamelessly.
'What! You bitch! I was the one who got the medicines for him!'
'I know, but he thinks it was me.'
Why didn't you tell him that it wasn't?' I inquired irritably.
'To teach you a lesson that you need to tell him things yourself,' she said, and ran as fast as she could. I ran in the same direction to beat the shit out of her.
She was the least fit person I knew, and as expected, she was panting like a dog by the time she reached the end of the lane. I caught hold of her by her clothes.
'Achoooooo!' she sneezed loudly. It looked like Piyush's flu had passed on to her.
'God has his ways, my friend. Enjoy the flu,' I told her, and walked back home. She deserved the cold she had caught -----a little punishment for hiding the truth. Since that day, I believe in Karma.