No matter where you are in your life, you may be regretting choosing the wrong love.
You may be repenting some bitter deeds you committed in the past.
What is it like if life luckily gave us a second chance? Could these issues be resolved at least then?
"Two plates of pulav", ordered Mihir, to the aunt, at their college canteen. As she nodded with the plastic cover on her head nodding along and went inside, Sooraj added, "Aunty! An apy bottle for me too!" The waitress shrugged and looked at Alok, enquiring, "You don't call me again. What do you want? Order it right away!"
"No, I always eat my mom's cooked homemade lunch. Nothing is tastier and healthier than her cuisine", responded Alok. Meanwhile, professor Alok pulled a chair two tables away and smiled at student Alok secretly. The aunt smiled and complimented, "Aww! Such a sweet son your mom has. She is indeed gifted, I say!"She turned at his friends and commented, "Learn from your good friend!" Sooraj and Mihir stood erect, moved their right leg like a cop, and saluted at Alok.
As the three friends turned back, Dr.Alok nodded and smiled at Alok. They walked towards his table and wished, in chorus, "Good afternoon, sir!"
"Home food!", exclaimed Sooraj, pointing at the professor opening his Tupperware yellow lunch box. Dr.Alok gestured for them to accompany him for lunch. They smiled and stared at each other wondering what to do. As he pushed the first spoon of lemon rice inside his mouth, Sooraj and Mihir hastened to grab the chairs opposite Dr.Alok. Poor student Alok was left behind! While he shrank his eyes at his friends, Dr.Alok gestured for him to sit on the chair beside him.
"Sir, but how do I sit beside you?...", dragged the timid and good student. "See, this is the problem with you students. You never want to treat us, your professors like your friends although we would love to. Learn from Kamal, your batch mate from the C section where I handle Software Engineering. He is damn cool and you!.."
"No way! I too am cool, sir", defended Alok, sitting beside him the very next moment. "That's the spirit!", complimented Dr.Alok, as the two Aloks burst out a formal round of laughter. "Your food is here!", announced a guy, placing two plates of pulav on their table. As Mihir and Sooraj smiled and hogged, the Aloks submerged themselves in their home food boxes.
"I feel surprised to meet a guy like you in this materialistic generation, Alok", acclaimed the professor, a smile accompanying his appreciation. "Sir, beware of danger ahead!", interrupted Mihir, highlighting, "The last time we called him a mama's boy had a very emotional ending...."Sooraj too shook his head and requested the professor not to comment anything about Alok's beautiful bonding with his sweet mother. Dr.Alok blushed, revealing, "Nisha and I were classmates. We happened to meet again recently after twenty-eight years. Look at it! I am a faculty here at Rishi University where her beloved son studies. Now I understand why the world is tiny and round!"
As Alok's friends threw their mouths open, Alok nodded, and smiled back at his professor, adding, "Sir, I too feel happy for both of you. There must be a reason behind meeting you after such a long span of time. I hope everything turns out well this time. But, was she just your classmate? Was she never anything more than a random girl in the college?"
"What!", exclaimed Dr.Alok, turning at Alok as he stopped eating. As Alok chewed his mom's greens curry, he looked at his startled mates and professor. "Oops! I meant friends, isn't it? Sir, weren't you and my mom good friends?", reminded Alok. The professor whirled his eyes, smiling at the scene of Nisha concluding that moment after his rejection, "Let's be good friends!", flashed in his mind. He nodded recollecting how Nisha ran behind him in the corridor while he ignored her and walked away rudely, some other day, back during their college.
"I too love home food. I too am a mamma's boy like you. But now she lives with my elder brother and occasionally visits me.", shared Dr.Alok at which Mihir and Sooraj grinned at the two Aloks smiling and chuckling at each other. "Exactly! What's wrong with loving and respecting your mom? Moms are very sweet and caring. They do everything for us", said Alok as he did a hi-fi with his professor. Alok's friends informed them and left to wash their hands.
"So, has she visited you now? Has your mom cooked for you, or is it Payal aunt's taste?", enquired the young Alok, as the two were almost done eating. The scene of Payal hurrying to sign her divorce papers and throwing them on Dr.Alok's face flashed in the middle-aged Alok's mind. He swallowed his tears as he recollected the way his mother cut his call on the very first ring that morning.
"It must be Payal aunt. You're married now, right? What am I asking? I am such a dumbo!", Alok cursed himself, smiling and slamming his forehead. He took a spoon of greens curry and added it to his professor's plate, challenging, "You must taste my mom's food. I'm sure it will outsmart your Payal's!", chuckled he, concealing his tears as he wished, "Sir, why couldn't you fall for my mom? She is damn sweet. I don't think Payal aunt was ever right for you. My mom still loves you. Who can love you more than her? I bet my life Payal wouldn't care for you as much. Didn't you want your girlfriend to be caring and affectionate? Wasn't my mom up to the mark?"
As Dr.Alok saw his student's food in his box, he recollected how Payal, in a yellow saree, after the marriage, threw his tiffin box on the floor, shouting at the top of her voice, "Are you seriously a man, Alok?" Her husband, back in his early thirties, hid his tears and looked at her with his meek and hesitant eyes. They lived in a one-bedroom individual house in Bangalore. "Why the hell can't you fix our house forever? Where do we move out again? I suggested that we could live in my dad's house but no! Your ego, I swear!... The company where you work is running in loss and you are unable to pay the house rents. Did I marry you to live on the streets?..."
"Shut up!", screwed Alok, pointing his right index finger and with red enraged eyes at his wife. Payal faked a smile, speaking out, "Rashi was right. You aren't so handsome. I shouldn't have loved and married you...You aren't even responsible. Why the hell did you marry me? You could have struggled alone....."Alok lost his cool and thrashed her. "Won't you support your parents during their hard times? Why not me, your husband, your lover? Why don't you understand my shattered situation, you selfish woman? Will you leave your family when they are in a tough situation? Hard days strike everyone's lives. I feel I should have loved Nisha. She would have been by my side all the time...I feel that she was my true love after you showcased your cunning face just now."
"Awesome!", exclaimed Payal, clapping and interrupting him, "Then why the hell did you chase and marry me? Nisha too would have left you because a man is meant to solve his family's problems and you aren't the pillar of our family. Do you think a woman can tolerate it?"
"Sir!Sir!Where are you?", asked the student Alok, shaking his professor who wiped the drop of tear at the entrance of his eyes. He faked a smile and tasted Nisha's food.
He smiled, wondering, "I can feel her love till here. How silly! Nois cooking, Nisha." He gestured the thumbs-up sign, complimenting, "Sexy! When did my friend learn how to cook? I will ask her the next time we meet?" The Aloks chuckled as they packed their boxes. The long bell rang at which Alok stood up and waved at Dr.Alok, wishing, "Sir, I will update your rating to my mom. I wish you taught us some subject!" The excited professor concluded, "Of course, next semester! I will volunteer for your class!", smiling and standing up to leave.
"May I come in?", requested Ashitha, pushing the cabin's door. Nisha took her eyes off her desktop, offered her a wicked smile, and nodded. Ashitha enclosed her palms together tightly as she took baby steps towards the table behind which was a big bulletin board to which colorful post-it notes were stuck like a pyramid's collage. There were glass shelves on either side of the table. The wardrobes were filled with several hard-bound files of no fewer than a hundred pages. Nisha's table was painted like a bar of plain dark chocolate.
"Take your seat, Ashitha", smiled Nisha, closing her laptop. She leaned back in her seat and folded her hands, observing her opponent's neck swelling. "Feel easy, dude. Why are you very nervous?", teased Nisha, at which Ashitha moved her hand suddenly and the small Bisleri bottle fell down from the table. Nisha frowned as Ashitha bowed, picked it up, and placed it back on the table.
"I am sorry, ma'am. Very sorry...", apologized Ashitha. Nisha laughed, enquiring, "Why sorry? For the bottle or anything else?" Ashitha bulged her eyes and looked away from her boss who smiled, raising her eyebrows along.
They heard a knock. "Come in!", permitted Nisha, waving at the servant. He placed a tray having a cup of hot coffee on her table. She closed her eyes and smelled the milk coffee. "Yummy!", complimented she, smiling, at which the servant smiled in return, shrank his eyes like a puzzled boy at Ashitha, and left.
"It's for you, Ashitha. Have a coffee!", offered Nisha. "What! Did you really call me only to have a cup of coffee?...", exclaimed the startled intern. Nisha shook her head, pointing at the cup. She smiled, challenging, "Why can't I surprise my budding programmer with an evening drink? Don't you like coffee? Shall I order tea or do you drink green tea?..."
"No ma'am, that's so great of you!", exclaimed Ashitha, happily thinking, "I thought something else. Thank god she didn't find it out otherwise it would have been my last working day in the company." She sipped her first mouth of the coffee. No sooner did it cross her throat than she grabbed her hanky from her pants pocket and spat it out.
"Oh gosh! Didn't you like it?", asked Nisha.
"Ma'am, he has added...", replied Ashitha.
"Sodium chloride NaCl..correct?", asked Nisha, leaning forward and bulging her eyes into the clueless girl's.
"Nisha, dude? How?..", reacted the surprised Ashitha.
"Because I am your boss, dude!", announced Nisha. Ashitha was about to stand up and escape when she pressed her shoulders hard and made her sit back on the seat.
"Ouch! It's hurting. Why are you harassing me, dude?", yelled Ashitha.
"Who is harassing whom, dude? Who followed me after office till the temple that evening? Who threatened that they would cut their hand if I don't allocate the project to them and lastly, who hid the mike in my personal conference room?", her sharp eyes threw the right questions striking her enemy's heart like a hunter's pointed arrows at the targeted animal. As she shook her prey, the latter nodded with tears.
Nisha deliberately opened Ashitha's mouth and poured the tea very slowly. As Ashitha tried to spit it out, Nisha closed her mouth and forced her to swallow the saline coffee. She opened her mouth again and continued pouring, warning her, "Listen, let me make it crystal clear to you. I hate people disturbing my goals. You know how much I love my career. This is your punishment for having tortured me, a senior project manager of the company. People like you will never bother about a week's suspension or even getting fired from a job. So, my style has always been different."
Ashitha continued to scream inside the enclosed cabin. However, the hindless Nisha continued pouring coffee inside her junior's mouth, narrating, "You remind me of my worst enemy, Payal. She manipulated and snatched away my true love from me. One day, when she had left her bottle and gone to the washroom, in no time, I contaminated it with my favorite chemical, NaCl just like your drink today. She was very thirsty but the poor girl couldn't drink water. She starved and I relished every second until her friend happened to rush there with a bottle of water. I love seeing people who hurt me suffer."
Nisha stepped back and placed the empty cup back on the tray. She smiled widely at Ashitha who apologized and requested her to pass the Bisleri bottle. She opened the half-filled bottle, held it upside down, and emptied it. She smiled, as Ashitha stood up and hurried towards the door.
"Some things may seem to suit you from the outside but they actually don't such as this coffee or my project you are aiming for. They are beyond what you can guess!", advised Nisha.
"You have no humanity, dude. You will never get what you love, I curse you, for everything you have done to me", challenged Ashitha, leaving the cabin.
As soon as she left, Nisha frowned at her draw, opened it, and took out her college class photo. She massaged it, with tears rolling down her eyes, as she looked at herself standing gorgeously in lehenga and beside a frowning Alok and wondered, "I love you so much that I can't see anyone else near you. I couldn't see Payal too back then. That's why I had totally changed. I might have acted slightly violent but in the end love matters, right?"She hugged the photo, confessing, "I love you very much, Alok saar."
Will young Alok manage to patch up his mother and the professor? Alas!How love transforms people! What was Nisha's unseen side?
Dear readers,
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