August 1, 2015.
The next day, I woke up at six in the morning and got ready by seven. I was still not in the mood to go out. My parents were sleeping, I left without disturbing anyone and sent a text to Drishti stating that I would be back by two pm. Hritisha instructed me to wait at RK Ashram Metro Station.
After having a cup of tea, I reached RK Ashram Metro. I noticed her coming by 'Tuk Tuk,' a battery Rickshaw and was wearing white kurti with pink embroidery and pink leggings.
'Never throw this kurti’ I said
'Why?' She asked.
'You look beautiful in this. Give it to me whenever you want to throw.'
'Achha? And what will you do with this kurti?' She asked.
'I will keep it safely so that our daughter can use it after twenty-five years.' I said.
She started blushing after hearing my future plans. A girl always wants a boy who is planning for their future.
We reached Gurudwara Bangla Sahib. The environment was calm and serene. This was the second time I was visiting Gurudwara after the first I had visited in Dubai.
It's a ritual that you need to cover your head before you enter the Gurudwara. Hritisha removed her pink dupatta from her purse and covered her hair with that, I too covered my head with my handkerchief; we kept our shoes outside and went inside. Kirtan sung inside the Gurudwara made the ambiance so spiritual and divine that I decided to stay there until 2:00 PM. We both bowed our head together and recited 'ek omkar' mantra.
There was a huge water pond outside the Gurudwara and we started taking a stroll around the lake. She was looking very pretty, especially in that pink dupatta with which she had covered her head. We clicked several photos but I deleted mine, as I was looking fat.
We sat near the pond and were watching the play of Fish inside the lake. We were just enjoying the moment under the spiritual atmosphere. Although we were not talking to each other, yet I felt we were saying many things to each other. We decided to sit near the pond and watch the playful fishes in it; just then we heard a Sardar’s voice.
'Oye putter, aithhe aa,'
'Na papaji, mennu fish dekhni hai.' A kid answered.
One cute Sardar kid about 4-5 years old came and sat in between Hritisha and me. He was quite cute so I wanted to take him on my lap. As soon as I lifted him, he started crying. I looked back; his father was talking to a volunteer of the Gurudwara, so he did not notice.
Hritisha took him from my hand and gave him a kiss on his cheek, surprisingly he stopped crying. I still can't understand why kids always hate me; do I look like a devil? His father came and apologized if his son had disturbed us. We both said goodbye to them and started laughing at each other.
‘You don’t know how to handle kids. How would you handle our kids?’ Hritisha smilingly said.
‘I would be the best father in the world.’ I replied.
'Let's go to McDonald's. It must have opened by now' Hritisha suggested.
We collected our shoes and headed toward the McDonald.
The weather was romantic; it was cloudy and not sunny, so we decided to walk from Gurudwara to McDonald's at Connaught Place as it was not so far. After 15 - 20 minutes walking we reached our destination. Hritisha showed me the Airport Express metro station so that I could reach the airport without facing any traffic.
We reached the McDonald's at Connaught Place and discovered that we were the first customer. The manager told me to wait for a while, as the kitchen was not completely open. I took his permission to sit until the kitchen opens, and he allowed us.
‘Oye Madam. Where is my Handmade Greeting Card?’ I asked Hritisha.
‘Haan baba, it’s with me only, keep quiet; don’t laugh please.’ She said.
Hritisha opened her tote and gave me one A4 size red envelope. I was shocked after seeing the cover. ‘Hritisha loves Siddhant’ was written on it and two hearts were made with some golden threads. She asked me to open the envelope and see the main card.
When I removed the envelope, ‘Our Love’ was mentioned on the top of the front side of the card and eight more small envelopes were crafted just below it, which had one-liner messages inside. One by one, I opened the little envelopes to read the words.
First Envelope: Delicious Kisses
Second Envelope: Endless Talks
Third Envelope: Warm Embraces
4th Envelope: Cherished Moments
5th Envelope: Shared Laughter
Sixth Envelope: Cute Romance
Seventh Envelope: Strong Trust
Eighth Envelope: Love-struck Hearts.
‘Stop. Don’t turn the page’. Hritisha stopped me from turning the page and look inside it. She was feeling shy and I could see that on her face. I turned the page, even after she denied and saw a beautiful message was written inside the card.
On the Left side, it was written,
To Siddhant My Love,
Kisses that linger on,
Talks straight from the heart,
Moments those become happy memories,
Hugs that fix it all,
Laughter that lifts our mood,
Romance that’s never enough,
Trust we’ve built along the way,
Hearts that brought us together.
On the Right Side, it was written,
You’ve filled my life with
The sparkle of your love, making every day
Special and every heartbeat
Count… you make ‘falling in love’ a
Beautiful journey and
I can’t imagine happiness so complete
Anywhere else but..
By Your Side
Only Yours,
Hritisha.
‘Bluffing, too much bluffing in this card’ I mocked her, but in reality, I felt myself to be lucky to get such a beautiful and caring person in my life.
‘Give me back. You don’t deserve it’ Hritisha took the card back.
‘Arrey, just pulling your leg. It’s amazing, seriously; mann karta hai pakad ke pappi kar lu ek’ I said.
‘Get lost! Pyaar ke bhoot’ she said.
‘Oh really?’ I got up and sat beside her.
Hritisha thought I had come to kiss her after reading the card, and she became uncomfortable. I told her not to worry, as I would not kiss her in public place, particularly when CCTV cameras are there.
Finally, the kitchen opened and started taking orders I ordered two veg McMuffin burgers with two coffees. Hritisha checked my phone and found that I had one folder named ‘Hritisha’ in which almost 700+ photos of her were saved. She deleted few, which she did not want me to keep.
As she was surfing my phone she came across Shruti’s message and she realized that it was Shruti’s birthday on that day. Hurriedly she wished her and expressed the feeling of satisfaction, that she did not miss it. Hritisha also read the conversation, which Suraj and I exchanged on the day when her parents canceled the meeting, and I got worried. She assured me that nothing like this would happen in future.
Now it was my turn to check Hritisha’s phone. When I started checking her phone I saw plenty of her beautiful pictures. She asked me to transfer whichever photos I wanted to keep with me. I ended up transferring around 200 photos from her phone to my phone. Finally, I found I had almost 900+ pictures of hers in my mobile at that time.
I asked Hritisha how she got a job in Genpact. She said while she was doing her MBA one of her friend called her to inform about the walk-in interview for the fresher in Genpact. Hritisha was intelligent enough to clear all the levels of the interview and got the job. She started recalling her old memories and shared few things with me. She told me how she and her college friends would bunk college lectures and visit the same McDonald’s in which we were sitting.
‘So, what about my dowry?’ I cracked a joke.
‘Hahaha, you will get nothing okay?’ Hritisha said.
‘Whhhhyyyyyyyy?
‘What why? Taking dowry is a wrong practice and illegal too.’ She answered.
‘No, it's not.’
‘Shut up Siddhant’
‘No Hritisha’
‘Bye,’ she got up from the chair pretending to be angry and pushed me.
‘Areey sorry I was just kidding.' I told her.
‘Me too.' She said with a smiling face.
‘Achha nothing will I get?’ I asked
‘Bola Na? No means no.' Hritisha roared.
‘At least two crore rupees?’ I went on pulling her leg.
‘Hahaha, shakal dekho, two crores.'
‘Bas naaaaa? Aisaaa Karne ka naaaaa’ I made sad face.
‘Haaaaaan’ she said.
‘Achha one crore?’ I said again mischievously.
‘No.'
‘Fifty lacs?’
‘Get lost.’
‘Ten lacs?’
‘Hahahahahahahah’
‘Do not laugh, I am serious’
‘Hmmm’
‘Achha naa aapka naa mera, hundred rupees? Deal?'' I started laughing.
‘Beta ek futi kaudi nai Milne wali, so shut up.’ Hritisha replied.
I pretend to cry like a small baby.
‘Hehehe, maza aaya maza aaya.' She laughed.
‘What yaar, now I will marry you only on one condition if you give me dowry or else I will not finish the marriage rituals in mandap.' I said.
‘Hahaha, my family members will beat you in the mandap with ‘LEATHER SHOES. She mimicked.
‘Hahahahahahahah.’
‘Le, hass raha hai yeh banda.' Hritisha said.
‘I imagined something funny.'
‘What?’ She asked.
‘Imagine if I ask for dowry during marriage rituals and as you said your family members would beat me one by one and after that, I will wake up and ask ‘Yeh Rishta pakka samju?’ And again they will start beating me.' I explained my imagination.
‘Hahahahahahahah haha, so funny.'
‘Hehehe.'
‘Seriously I think no one can beat your sense of humor.' She complimented me.
‘Yesssss, even my friends tell me the same, I am far better than any other comedian on earth.'
‘Hatt. Jutha.'
Hritisha always used to appreciate my sense of humor. I read somewhere that if a boy makes a girl laugh; she can fall in love with him. We had spent almost 2 hours at McDonald and I noticed that the waitress wanted us to leave to make space for other customers. I paid the bill, and we left the place around 11 pm.
Suddenly Hritisha reminded me that I wanted to purchase a nice shirt and for that, she took me to Snowhite at Connaught Place. Again, she selected a light yellow plain shirt, which was totally opposite to my taste. She asked me to try it and to my surprise, I was looking more handsome than before, after wearing that shirt. I still remember whenever I used to wear it in office in Dubai, everyone would praise me. Hritisha insisted on paying the bill, but I did not allow
‘Didi Didi, kuch paise dedo didi’ A little girl, begged in front of her.
‘Kuch nahi milega, chali jaa’ Hritisha scolded her and asked her to leave.
I advised her not to talk with the beggars so rudely but she asked me to keep quiet and explained to me how some beggars are engaged in trafficking, she even said, some of them are quite rich. The girl had continuously followed her and pushed her to the Wenger’s when she got a scold from me.
‘Just see her guts, she pushed me and asked me to buy a cake from Wenger’s. Never show your mercy towards this kind of people’ Hritisha said with an angry look.
‘Yaa yaa. I got it. But at least talk to them nicely.’ I said.
‘It depends on whom I am talking. I never talk like this with the fruit and vegetable seller as they do not beg; at least’ She instantly defended.
‘I got your point madam, now calm down, please. I am sorry.' I relaxed her.
‘Hmmm, it’s okay; now tell me where you want to have your lunch?’ Hritisha asked.
‘Actually, I don’t want to eat more as I am full after eating a burger.’
‘So what kind of food you will have?’
‘Anything, but light food.'
‘Hmm. Let’s go to Saravana Bhavan. We’ll have some nice light food there.'
‘Great Idea! Let’s go.' I agreed
We reached Saravana Bhavan at Connaught place only and ordered my favorite Coconut Uttapam for myself and Masala Dosa for her. We fed each other with our own hands. Though I do not like sambar but as she was feeding me, I had to eat it all. We were behaving like a typical couple who were madly in love with each other and did not bother how the people around would think about them.
Dad gave me a ring to ask where we were, I informed that we would be reaching the hotel within half an hour. Hritisha bought some chocolates for Heer. After the lunch, we headed toward our hotel and I asked Hritisha to meet my family, she agreed.
As we entered the hotel room, Hritisha’s attitude changed radically. She became shy and silent in front of my family. Heer was watching 'Tarak Mehta Ka Ulta Chasma' on TV. Once I told her long time, back that if a Gujarati is not watching 'Tarak Mehta....’ He/she is not an authentic Gujju. She recalled it and started smiling. I noticed that dad was normal at that time, maybe everyone tried to make him understand the situation.
'Kyaan Kyaan Fari aavya?' Dad asked us about the places we visited since morning.
'Pehla Bangla Sahib Gaya, pachi Connaught Palace, McDonald's and Saravana Bhavan Ma Lunch' I told him the names of the places we visited.
'And what about you?' I asked.
'Kyaan nai. We woke up quite late and then we went to eat chhole bhature of Sita Ram' Mom said.
I gave an angry look to Hritisha because she had promised to bring Sitaram Chholle Bhature for me and she did not bring.
Hritisha indicated me to show everyone the Yellow shirt.
'See, I bought a Shirt' I said.
'Saras chhe. Color pan saro chhe ane material pan. Kone select karyo?' Mom praised the shirt and asked who chose the shirt.
'Tari vahu ae karyo' I said.
Everyone laughed. Hritisha could not understand what I expressed in the Gujarati language.
'Kya hua?' She asked softly.
'Arrey, He said to mom that her daughter in law selected the shirt, means you.' Drishti translated it to Hritisha and she too started laughing.
'How much time left?' Jiju asked.
‘Bas, almost one hour.' I answered
'Go and start packing' mom ordered.
Drishti, Jiju, and Hritisha also joined me to help me with the packing, in another room.
When Drishti started packing my bag, suddenly I recognized that I had hidden the diamond ring inside the bag, which Drishti was meddling with. Immediately I stopped Drishti or else Hritisha would have faced an awkward situation if Drishti had seen the ring. Only half an hour left so I decided to spend some time with Hritisha alone. Drishti was continuously talking to Hritisha so I signaled Jiju to take Drishti out of the room for some time.
After they left the room, Hritisha became conscious.
'Have you sent them out...?’
Before Hritisha finished her sentence, I locked the door, put my head on her lap and wrapped her in my arms. I did not speak a single word for a while. I did not know when we would meet again, and this thought pained me inside. I started whipping.
'Bettu, don't cry okay?' Hritisha tried to stop me.
She was playing with my hair with her fingers; she was caressing and pampering me by touching my cheeks and neck. I held her so tight that no one can imagine snatching her away from me.
The conflictual emotion was working inside me. I felt like pausing the time and went on kissing her forehead and cheeks.
I slightly lifted her face with both my hands and was about to kiss her lips, when she pushed me back and said.
'Someone is coming.' She heard the sound of someone's footstep.
My parents were coming to check whether I was over with the packing.
I expected Drishti and Jiju would manage my parents and would stop them from coming to the room, but they failed.
Hritisha very swiftly opened the lock and I sat quietly, far from her.
We changed the topic immediately when they were entering.
‘Ask your parents to give their verdict as soon as possible. Got it?' I pretentiously asked Hritisha.
'Are you done with your packing?’ Dad asked.
'Haan bas, we were just talking in general and were waiting for you all ' I replied.
After few minutes all assembled in my room, only ten minutes was left to leave for the airport. I signed the blank cheque, which would help my dad to draw money from my Indian bank account.
'Hello?' I picked up the intercom.
'Sir, Your cab is waiting' the receptionist told me from the other side
'Great. I will be there in five minutes' I said.
I picked up my hand luggage and Jiju picked up another one. I wanted to hug Hritisha in the lift also as we were alone, but I could not because of CCTV camera.
'I will miss you' I told Hritisha when we came down.
'Me too mottu' she said. I noticed tears in her eyes.
'So what's plan now?' I asked.
'I will go to Didi’s home after some time.' Hritisha said she would go to her aunt’s home. Her voice was shivering.
All the family members came down to see off. The receptionist introduced me to the cab driver and he picked my entire luggage and kept in the cab. I touched the feet of all my family members, gave a kiss to Heer and Hugged Hritisha in front of all. She felt quite shy, but I did not want to say a typical BYE.
I got emotional. The whole movie of last four days, which I had spent in Delhi, was running in my mind. I did not want to leave, but I had to. Again, I had to stay away from my family for almost six more months. I rushed towards the cab and sat inside immediately, because I could not have if, I would stay a few minutes more.
I said bye to Hritisha and my family.
Bhaiya, jaldi chalo' I said to the cab driver to leave without wasting a single second. I could not speak properly as I was feeling depressed and eyes were full of tears.
I looked back from the car; Hritisha and Drishti were talking to each other. I could not see her after few seconds. I was worried thinking, whether I was watching her for the last time or not. I thanked God for the best four days of my life.
I received a call from Hritisha after some time when I was in the cab.
'Haan mera bachha' I said.
'I am not your bachha; I am your bachha's bachha.'
I did not know that Reet was on the other side.
'Ohh Hi Reet, Sorry I thought Hritisha was calling' I said.
'Naah, she is here only. I wanted to say sorry to you because I couldn't meet you.' Reet said.
'It's okay dear, better luck next time.'
'Hmmm. So reached airport?' Reet asked
'No not yet, still fifteen minutes more I guess' I said
'Okay okay, have a safe journey. Wait I will pass the call to your bachhi' she said.
'Hello,' you said.
'Haanji.'
'Reached airport?'
'Mmmmm, within fifteen minutes.'
'Hmmm.'
'Achha suno.'
'Muuuuaaaah. I love you.'
The cab driver looked at me through the mirror and smiled at me.
'Abey Pyaar ke bhut.'
'I love you. I love you. I love you. Mmuuuuuaaaah'
'Mmmmm. Mottu, shut up' Hritisha said.
'Say love you too.'
'I hate you.'
'Achha? Bhaiya jara gaadi ghumalo wapas Paharganj' I said a driver to take U-turn and get me to Paharganj again.
'Abbey... I love you. Okay? Pagal' She said.
'Give me kiss also.'
'Mmuuuuuaaaah.'
'Oye, Phone Gila ho jaega tera' Reet said to Hritisha not to kiss over the phone; it will get wet and I could hear that.
'Shut up and do your work' She said to Reet.
I started laughing.
'Achha I am getting fresh. Let me know when you reach the airport' she told me.
'Sure dear.'
'Bye TC'
I called Hritisha almost one hour later after finishing Immigration and customs process. She could not pick up the call. I dropped a text that, I reached the airport and completed all the airport formalities. Hritisha later on informed that she was unresponsive because she was sleeping. I was looking at our selfies, which we had clicked during last four days. I told Hritisha that I did not want to go back and I was missing her badly. When she said she was missing me too. I started I was crying in front of fifty passengers who were also waiting for the final call of the flight.
'Don't cry baby. I am always with you, wherever you are. Got it?'
' :('
Hritisha sent me a selfie to make me smile. I clicked a selfie of my sad face and sent her as well. She replied whether I forget to laugh or what? I tried a lot but could not smile. I was terribly missing her. The gate of my flight opened. Hritisha told me to buzz her when I would reach Dubai as she was about to leave for her Didi's home.
Somehow, I managed to stop my tears. Even such beautiful Air Hostesses of Indigo Airline did not impress me.
‘Reached Didi’s home, see you Bettu.’ I got a text from Hritisha when I arrived in Dubai.
‘Reached’ I Replied.
She did not respond for almost half an hour. I got fresh and called my dad to inform them also that I had arrived in Dubai safely. They were still at Gurgaon Station.
Two hours passed, and none of my single messages was delivered to her. I again started worrying about her. I could not call her because she was at her relative’s home. My roommates asked for a party, so I ordered pizza for them and me. I could not even eat properly and was continuously staring at my mobile screen and waiting for her reply. I waited around five hours.
I was missing Delhi badly; I was missing Hritisha, memories, the romantic four days. I did not know when I slept while staring at our chat window because I was so tired.
I left my Dil (Heart) in Dilli (Delhi).
