“Yes, I am coming. Wait!”, squealed the elderly mother, as her flat’s bell rang aloud. She rushed straight out of the kitchen towards the door. The white-haired woman, walking with an erect spine and white pony tied with a centering clip, smiled and shook her head, witnessing Dr.Alok through the peephole.
She unplugged the gold-plated chain from its socket. Dr.Alok nodded with a wide grin. She chuckled as her eyes happened to go over a part of the green designer sari seen from the cloth bag in his hands.
“Namaste aunty!”, he greeted, bowing and extending his right hand to touch her feet.
“Arey, Nisha ke saath khush raho beta(Stay happy with Nisha)!!!”, she blessed, smiling along, with tears. His eyeballs rolled hither and thither like a restless student attempting to copy during the boards. Sandhya escorted him to take a seat on the couch.
“Daamaadji, would you prefer a cup of coffee or tea?”, she asked.
“I want Nisha,'' he replied.
She burst into a round of laughter. He shrugged.
As he blushed, chuckling along, Sandhya narrated, “Daamaadji, I know only to prepare coffee or tea including green tea but sadly I can’t offer what you requested. Haha!”
He leaned back on the sofa. He placed the shopping bag having ‘Indradhanush Silks’ written in dark brown on a milky white background, beside him.
“Aunty, where has Nisha gone?”, he enquired. Sandhya returned with a tray having a cup of tea and a tiny packet of potato chips.
“Daamaadji, she has gone to the grocery store”, she replied. Dr.Alok bulged his eyes and narrowed his grin as he grabbed his evening beverage.
“No way. Why is she straining right after the operation? Is she crazy to start roaming right away? Does she feel she is still in her young college days? We are in our late 40s, for her kind information.”
“Why did you let her go? Alok beta could have gone, instead. He must learn how to manage his internship alongside household chores. I’m sure the skill will come in handy for any responsible guy later in life. He is no longer a kid to be pampered…”, he lectured.
“Let's talk after you are done with the tea and snacks”, she interrupted him, chuckling along.
She took a handful of light flat orange chips and filled the little plate. She offered it to him as he placed his cup on the desk. While she tried to grab a snack, he shook his head with a loud ‘No’ as loud as the howl of his good old furry pet puppy.
“I’m finally happy for my daughter. Thanks to you, daamaadji!”, she thanked, wiping the drops of tears crowding near her eyes. As he smiled, she joined her hands together.
She sobbed, elated, with a broken tone, “You don’t know how much Nisha has been going through since her childhood. She lost a lot of fun, unlike the other kids. When she was five, her father dumped us behind.”
May it be a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, a couple of years, or even throughout one's life, relishing the most beautiful feeling on Earth-the love, it still matters.
While most couples are almost near the silver jubilee of their wedding anniversary, Alok and Nisha are just about to begin their love life!
Love at any age is love. Why not a middle-aged love story?!
Dr.Alok stopped eating. “Oh no, that's so sad”, said he, grieving for his beloved, with his meek and hesitant eyes.
“He hated responsibilities towards the family. I’m sure the first point my daughter would have seen back in you would have been your sweet attitude towards your family”, Sandhya cited.
“Family?”, Dr.Alok swallowed his tears, as the scene of his father frowning and closing the door on his face, flashed in his mind. “I miss you all”, he thought. “I wonder where you are. I wonder if I will ever meet you again in our lifetime.”
Sandhya nodded, continuing, “I remember every point crystal clear. I’m Nishoo’s best friend more than her mother. She used to tell me everything. One thing that I can guarantee is that she has never ever felt how she has always been feeling for you.”
As Alok blushed, she pinpointed, “When you shared that your mom fed you lunch that busy afternoon, Nisha was quite impressed. Also, when you said that you had to ask your dad if you must deliver saris and then you planned which bus you ought to take accordingly-this attitude impressed her.”
“Yes yes, aunty. I remember telling her all this”, acknowledged Dr.Alok, nodding along.
“However, these points just marked the beginnings. She liked you but wasn’t yet in love with you! But, she couldn’t help falling when you kept saving her every time from Madhu, her classmate who threatened to die for Nisha not letting her copy the assignment”, shared Sandhya. She grabbed a bottle of water.
After pushing two mouths in, she went on, “Nishoo loves you very much. She loves you more than anything else in the world including her own son or me, her own mother. I am jealous of you. Yes, I am possessive of my daughter.” She chuckled, shrinking her eyes and raising her eyebrows at her future son-in-law. Dr.Alok blushed again and nodded.
“It's not an easy joke, Dr.Alok. She lost interest in life after you refused her. But she at least lived with the hope that you were perhaps reluctant to admit your love, perhaps you were shy to speak your heart out so you told her that you were not interested.”
“She began living like a zombie after learning that you have feelings for another girl. You left her life completely after college. She has been living in her so-called sweet memories of unrequited love.”
“I had lost hope of fixing her life. She never listened to my advice. When she was 30 I forced her to get married. She fought with me while leaving for Pune for a client meeting. That's where she adopted Alok beta from a local orphanage."
Dr.Alok smiled at Nisha hugging teenage Alok in the photo on the wall beside them.
Sandhya followed his eyes, resuming, "I saw her smile and laugh again after years.”
“Although I could not accept her foster son in the beginning I later felt my daughter becoming a child again and living her childhood again, this time more happily, as she raised young Alok.”
She rested her right leg upon her left. She relaxed her back as Dr.Alok hastened the cushion behind her. They smiled while she continued,” I don’t know why but she just couldn’t stop her emotions for you; they only grew further, over time. Now that I realize what made her love you.”
Dr.Alok knelt in front of her. He caught her hands. He shook his head.
“I understand. Back in college, I don’t know why I couldn’t feel the same way as her. It was after my first wife demolished me that I longed for Nisha. I badly wanted Nisha to be beside me. I wanted to rest my head on her lap and weep my heart out. “
“Everyone loves you during your hard times but someone special in your life must stay by your side despite your odd times. I still remember the day she did the same. My friends didn’t want to interfere and I was blank.”
It was an afternoon in February 1993.
“Nisha medam!”, called Alok, pushing the door open. He looked around. None else sat in the little study room. Nisha was busy solving problems on the first bench.
“Hi saar!”, she exclaimed, turning behind and chuckling at him. He hurried towards her.
As she stood up, asking what the matter was, he stated, “Mujhe aapka CN notes chaahiye (I need your(addressing with respect) CN notes). I don’t understand anything that big medam does. There is so much to learn. She did bulla in class…”
“Bulla?”, asked Nisha, laughing along. “Alok saar shabdhkhosh(Alok’s dictionary)!”, she remarked. She opened her bag and grabbed a long thick unruled notebook. She handed it over to him.
“But, saar, I need it by the end of the day”, she ordered. She raised her eyebrows, emphasizing, “I too have to study. Not just you!”
“Thenks vary much for helping this poor Alok guy, medam”, he thanked, closing his eyes and joining his hands together. He grabbed the blue marker. He drew a zig-zag line on the whiteboard. He drew a straight line below it.
“Saar, what are you drawing?”, exclaimed her, shrugging along.
“What ma’am explains is like this”, he compared, pointing at the horizontal line. She laughed.
“For me to understand, lectures should go like this”, he stressed, pointing at the zig-zag line. She burst into a round of laughter.
“Yeah, I understand. Her lectures are monotonous”, she decoded, at which he nodded. She blushed, as her rich black pupils dilated along.
“Alok Sharma!”, yelled a middle-aged man, in a light blue tracksuit. He wore a whistle chain around his neck. He had a scary dark mustache with tips like that of the ends of a bow in the mythological sagas.
The whistle throbbed on his stomach as he barged inside. He frowned at Alok. As he neared, blocking the sharp beam of sunlight falling on Alok and Nisha, he displayed a black bag wide open.
Alok, with his meek and hesitant eyes, developed goosebumps on both hands.
“Cigarette?” exclaimed Nisha, shrugging at the disciplinary committee member.
The strict staff nodded. “Your friend brings cigarette packets to college. We planned to check bags secretly today. See what we confiscated”, he added.
“But, sir, no. I admit I smoke sometimes but never in college. Of course, I don’t get cigars in college. I have never ever dreamt of ruining the college’s decorum. Sir, believe me…”, Alok defended himself.
“Shut up! Isn’t this your bag, Alok?”, yelled the master.
“Sir, no way. Alok is telling the truth. I am his friend. We have been classmates for a year now. I know about him. He is a gem. He treats his friend’s problem more than his own problem. Such an ideal student can hardly violate the norms of KTU. I insist you investigate before concluding…”, Nisha supported Alok.
“Stop advising me. Remember that you are students”, the master yelled again. He caught Alok’s ears firmly.
Will Nisha save Dr.Alok?
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