A Tale of Contradictions

The girl’s name was Dhara. A girl trapped in a women’s body. After all, she was only twenty-five years old. Her parents got her married at twenty. Her husband, six years elder to her was rarely at home.  She had her son to take care of. She did not have time. She had a family but she was alone. She hated her life. She had a job.

The boy’s name was Akash. He had become a man before he became a teenager. At twenty-six, he was wiser beyond his years. No one wanted to get him married. He had all the time in the world. He was alone but had a family of friends. He hated his mother. The only similarity – He also had a job.

It was in Dhara’s nature to panic. Akash was cool as a cucumber. She took this bus countless times in her life to get to work. For Akash, it was the first. This was his first day at the new job. Dhara was walking fast. Akash walked at a leisurely pace. He still managed to keep pace with her.

Dhara could feel him chasing her. With his earphone and music on, he was in a different planet. Unknowingly, he was chasing her. And unnecessarily, she was getting scared.

Dhara felt happy when she reached the bus stop. She was however, sad to see Akash just behind her. He was oblivious to her agony. They got into the bus and Akash sat beside her. And then, he saw her for the first time. She was beautiful. Her face, her smile, her hair – his mind dug deep into his incredible vocabulary but could pull out only one word – perfect.

Akash was an ordinary looking man with extra-ordinary intelligence. He seemed to have the knack of finding solutions to almost any problem. He was thus, the wise counsel his friends sought when trouble accompanied them. He could sense an emotion, scope a situation and address an issue with ease. He could use the gift of gab effectively to emerge triumphant in his battle with problems – which were never his. And one person who had plenty of problems was Dhara.

Akash sensed her discomfort and wanted to do something about it. He began to chat with her. He was fluent and flawless. Dhara never realised when she became so comfortable. She had opened up to a complete stranger in less than half an hour.

Something clicked. It was a two-hour journey to the office, thanks to the traffic. Every day, Dhara would pray for the ordeal to get over. Today, it seemed like a joyride.

Akash’s new job was adjacent to Dhara’s office. And after nine long hours at work, they took the same bus back.

On the way back, they were together again. By the end of the day – Akash knew most things about her and vice-versa.

Day 2:

They both woke up at almost the same time. The beds and bedrooms were different though. In about 2 hours from then, they were again on adjacent seats of the same bus.

“You have a beautiful family, a lovely kid, and so much to look forward to when you go home. Why do you hate your life?” asked Akash.

Dhara said she would answer this sometime later. Instead, she asked, “I don’t know of anyone who would hate his mother. Why do you?” It was Akash’s turn to postpone the reply to a later date.

The topic of discussion veered towards the modern Indian women and her constant dissonance with the many unnecessary restrictions that come in neatly packed boxes called “tradition”, “culture”, et, al. Dhara told him how she loved to dance to tunes of the latest Bollywood entertainers but couldn’t because she was expected to be prim and proper all the time.

This was Akash’s home turf. He relished the idea of helping people find a solution to their dilemma. He suggested her to call home late evening on the coming Friday and tell that she would be late due to project deadlines and then let her hair down in some happening place. She conveyed that this would amount to lying and that would hurt her conscience. She also told that there is always the risk of being seen by her relatives or acquaintances.

Akash was not someone who would give up. He asked her to show the playlist on her mobile. She did. He asked her if it was updated with her favourite songs. She answered in the affirmative. He asked her if she had a bedroom to herself. She again answered in the affirmative while giving Akash a quizzical look for asking such a stupid question.

“Great, so tonight is going to be your night”, said Akash. “But how”, asked Dhara. “You can convert your room into a dance floor”, he said. “Are you mad, the loud music will wake people, not only in my house but also in the neighbourhood?”

“Aren’t you listening to music in the bus, aren’t there people around, are they getting disturbed”, Akash was now behaving like a mentor, trying to get a solution by inspiring his mentee to think.

As he did not get a response, he decided to answer this himself. He told her that he would give her a rubber floor-mat which she could place on the floor, play the music in her mobile and dance to her heart’s content. He even volunteered to give her the floor-mat while walking back home in the evening. He explained to her that the bartenders in pubs play a lot of juggling tricks with bottles and even if the bottles slip out of his hand, they fall on this mat and hence doesn’t break. More importantly, it cuts out the noise.

To Dhara, this seemed like madness but she did collect the floor-mat from Akash on the way back home. She reached home, had her dinner and put her baby to sleep. She then, tried to replay the entire conversation in her head. It started to make sense. Almost everyone at home had slept and she put on her dancing shoes. She danced from 11 p.m to 1 a.m to her heart’s content. No one woke up. She was very happy. She took a shower and slept next to her baby. For the first time since he was born, the baby and mother both slept peacefully.

Dhara couldn’t contain the excitement the next morning. Akash and she discussed her dance adventure on their journey to office. Two hours were not enough to discuss the topic. It wasn’t as much about dance as it was about creating your happiness. It was about finding a solution rather that crying about a problem. The episode had unknowingly revolutionized Dhara.

The next morning, Akash did not see Dhara at the bus stop. He did not have her phone number. She also did not have his. He wondered what was wrong but there was no way he could find out. Suddenly, two hours to the office felt like twenty. He felt as if he saw every tree on the road, every vehicle that passed by. He had never experienced this feeling. He was wondering why he was so depressed, which was highly uncharacteristic of him.

He longed for the day to get over. At home that evening, he felt alone for the first time. He longed for the night to get over as well. He couldn’t sleep peacefully. And he did not know why.

The next day, he saw her at the bus stop. He felt relieved. She told her that her son was unwell and hence, she had taken the day-off.

And again, their conversation continued.

The next six weeks

This became a routine. Every morning, they spent two hours on the same two seats of the same bus. And this repeated most evenings as well.

Akash’s mannerisms and thoughts changed her outlook to life. She changed the way he dressed, in a positive sense. For the first time in all these years, since his grandmother passed away, Akash felt that someone cared for his appearance.

They became each other’s favourite people within six weeks of the first rendezvous. What Dhara said on the first day of the sixth week was an absolute dampener. She announced that this was her last week at the job and she was moving into another city with her husband and child. He had been transferred and hence she had to leave.

That day, they did not speak much. Akash was wondering what made him so unhappy.

From Tuesday, onwards, they made the most of the two hours in the morning and two in the evening. They chatted more than all the other people in the bus put together.

The unanswered questions

Akash wanted to know why she felt her life was not happening. Dhara decided to answer but not before having him promise her that he would give her a good reason for the hatred he nurtured towards his mother.

After having Akash accept her demand, she said that her life was lonely. Her husband rarely talked to her. Her in-laws demanded too much from her and so did her work. She needed a sounding board which wasn’t there. She appreciated his presence and said that he was the greatest sounding board she had and it is destiny that made her meet him. She said she will cherish these six weeks of her life the most.

Now, it was Akash’s turn to answer the reason for the rancour he carried towards his mother. He said that he doesn’t remember seeing her even once. He said that she left his father for a neighbour when he was merely three years old. He said that it was the most selfish thing a lady could do. The calm and controlled Akash’s anger could be seen on his face. He said that he hated her for what she did, to him and his father. He said she ruined his life. He requested Dhara if they could stop it at that. He concluded the discussion by declaring that he will never forgive her in life.

Had they fallen for each other?

What do you think as a reader? What do I think as a writer? The two protagonists had to ask this question to themselves and then to each other. Necessarily in that order.

It was the fateful Friday and the bus had arrived at the same place from where they boarded it in the morning. They alighted and talked for another five minutes.

She said Good-bye. He said Good luck. They walked in opposite directions. Yes, Akash told her he had work in the other part of town. He was lying but he wanted this to end.

They turned back. They came closer. They hugged.

It was a moment of truth. It was the most honest emotion. It was what they felt for each other. They wanted to be together. They did not tell this explicitly but the hug told more than a story.

They remained in embrace for more than a minute. A passer-by stared and walked away. Many others did the same. They were oblivious to this.

While in the embrace, she asked him, “If there is one last thing, I could do for you, what would it be”? This time Akash did not hold back. He said he would have loved to marry her that very instant. Dhara told him she would leave everything and go with him if he was serious.

The moment of truth, the raw emotion that clouded their head slowly gave way to thoughts about society, people, relatives, friends, tradition, culture and innumerable such allied elements.

Akash spoke, albeit with a heave voice and a heavier heart. “I would be the happiest if we could be together for a lifetime. However, by doing so, I will create another Akash. I was three when my mother left us. Your son is three today and he will hate you for the rest of your life if you did this. I don’t want that to be your fate. I want you to have a respected and dignified life. I think you should go home.”

Dhara had started to subconsciously believe that Akash’s solutions are the best and she should go ahead with them without any regret. She did the same. They broke the long embrace, wished each other luck and were about to go their separate paths when Akash said, “I think my mother was never wrong. I can now see what she did. She was probably in this situation when I was three years old. I thank you for solving the biggest problem of my life. I will try to search her and make peace with her if possible. I won’t hate her any more. Thanks Dhara”.

And they went their separate ways. Their names mean the Sky (Akash) and the Earth (Dhara) and just as the names suggest, they are not destined to meet. What stopped them? The fear of society.  For the society will find faults, not happiness. That is something you have to find yourself.  

Was their love true? Was their love pure? Should they have been together? My answer is yes. And I believe it is progressive. What’s your answer to these questions? I would be happy to know your views. Do drop your comments. 

And before I conclude, the three condition my wife wanted me to weave the story around are as below:

1. It should be a love story

2. It should have a tragic end but no one should die.

3. It should made her cry. 

I will again ask the readers to let me know if I have met all the conditions with this story though I wont be particularly proud of having fulfilled condition 3.