Ten years had passed since he had finished college. Zain was now a successful manager at an MNC. He stayed at Hyderabad now with his family. A decade seemed to have taken its toll on him very scarcely. He looked almost the same he was like in college, same side flick of his hair, the same beard and the same sense of attire. His sister had been married for some time now, and his mother wished that he got married too. He just couldn’t.
Ten years saw him making new friends, while losing contact with many older ones. A couple of them still stuck around for him, though. Snehasish was one of them. Senior by three years, he graduated from college when Zain became a sophomore. A year of friendship was something they managed to hold onto for years now. Snehasish was like a brother to Zain, with whom he shared almost everything.
Sara was a new friend of his after college. Zain and Sara became real close real quick. They had been friends for almost 2 years now, and they got along really well. She knew a lot about Zain, but he never spoke anything about college to her. Neither to Snehasis.
“Let the past stay in the past” was what seemed logical to him. Why squander old memories when it’ll have no effect on his future?
Zain and Sara hanged out a lot. They worked in adjacent buildings and had lunch together quite a few times. In Sara, Zain found a friend with whom he could’ve shared anything. At least he felt like that. But past experience always knocked sense in his mind.
Everyone is the same. Everyone changes. Change is the only constant. The irony of it.
One day after work, Zain and his family were having dinner. His sister was also there, and she planned to stay the night. The dinner had exotic dishes today. Biryani, korma with naan, and then a sweet made of apricots topped over a brick of vanilla ice-cream.
“Is there any occasion today mom?” Zain asked.
“No. Your sis is here na, that’s why I cooked this up” his mother said.
“Okay.”
“So, when do you plan to get married, Zain?” she asked.
“Find me someone compatible enough, and I will”
“Do you have someone in mind? You know you can tell me.”
“No one mom. I am enjoying this bachelorhood. No hassle in life and I have all the time for myself.”
“You can’t stay a bachelor forever Zain. Find a nice Muslim girl. I have a couple of pictures. You’ve got many proposals, idiot”
“Let’s see. I’ll find a nice girl someday mom….”
“A nice Muslim girl!” she cut him short.
He stared at her in disgust, which quickly changed to a muted sigh. He preferred concentrating on his meal rather than arguing with his mother.
A couple minutes of silence passed by.
Zain’s dad spoke up.
“Son, you aren’t thinking anything about some Hindu girl na?”
“No dad, obviously not. I am not thinking about anyone.”
“Good. You know son, how this society is. All this love and stuff is balderdash. This doesn’t work. Never think any of these blasphemous things for a Hindu girl. Find yourself a decent Muslim girl, someone who knows how to take care of a family.”
“Yeah.”
“What about that friend of yours?”
“Who? Sara?”
“Yes. She seems like a nice person. What do you think about her?”
“She is a good friend, dad. Let’s keep it that way. Such things shouldn’t be done quickly, I guess. One wrong move and I destroy my friendship.”
“Whatever you wish son. I just want you to stay happy.”
Happy. Heh. His heart was broken twice. For years, he had hoped to work out things with a girl he loved. Alas, he never got the chance. He was never going to believe in love again.
“Never will love” he had resolved.
That was long ago.
10:45 p.m. that night…..
He stood alone on the terrace, reminiscing over the conversation he had had with his parents that night. He needed to talk to someone about it. He called up Snehasis. The phone kept on ringing. The idiot must’ve slept off already, he thought and gave a wry smile to himself. He called up Sara.
“Hey, you free?” Zain asked.
“Yeah. What’s up?”
“I just wanted to talk about something.”
“Okay.. anything serious going on kya?”
“I don’t know.”
“You know, I haven’t had an ice-cream in a while now” she tried to sound as innocent as possible.
“Heh. No wonder. Come on out, let’s have an ice-cream.”
“You’re paying, though.”
“Ya ya you miser. Come on out. Let’s meet up at the spot in 10 minutes” and he disconnected the call.
The spot was an Ice- cream van near the Hussain Sagar Lake. It wasn’t very far from either of their houses’. They ordered their favorite scoops and sat at a bench nearby, facing the beautiful lake and the lights of the innumerable buildings and moving vehicles on the other end of it.
“Talk” she said.
“My parents again brought up the marriage thing at dinner today.”
“Is it supposed to be a bad thing? They want you to be happy.”
“I don’t like restrictions. They restrict me to some nice Muslim girl, someone they’ll like.”
“Is your problem with the Muslim part or the liking?”
“I have absolutely no problem with the Muslim part. Nor with them liking the girl too. What I have a problem is why the specifics? I mean, you are going to spend your entire life with another person, and you’re asking about specifics like they are some new smartphones in town. Why can’t it be so simple that I like someone and that’s the end of it? What’s so wrong with simple?”
“This society we live in, is a parasite. It pulls you down always. This is a social wheel we keep rotating. We try to stop, we’ll get trampled by it. Anyways, you uh… “
“What?”
“You love someone, don’t you?”
He sighed. “Long story.”
“Okay.”
Silence. The breeze caressed their cheeks and gave invisible strokes to their hair. The currents in the lake made soft, peaceful sounds.
“You know, I have to tell you something, Zain.”
“Yeah. Talk.”
“Even my parents are looking into my marriage. They get a lot of proposals for me.”
“Okay. I assume a ‘but’ is in order now.”
She laughed. “Yeah. But they do not interest me.”
“Then?”
“The thing is, I think I like someone. It has been a while now, this feeling.”
“Woah. That’s effing insane. Why did you never tell me? You idiot. Who’s the lucky guy?”
“He doesn’t know.”
“Okay. Who’s the guy?”
“Uh, well, he is……..” Suddenly Zain’s phone rang.
“So sorry. Hold on a minute.”
He glanced at the screen. All of a sudden the smile he had vanished into oblivion. His eyes opened up wide.
Tannu calling, the screen screamed at him.
It had been a decade since he had spoken to her. Little beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.
Tannu had called him up.
To be continued.....................
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