All is not well Chapter 12

Technically, the first date, when Ashmi and Akhil went out all alone, happened on a weekend in July. An equally sultry and muggy Sunday, when the duo decided to stroll in the park in the heat of July, with a tired and dehydrated mali to give them company. By-the-way, the preparation for the first date was done with great effort, complete with shopping new outfit for it. On the ‘D’ day, she wore a pink suit which she teamed with a green duppatta and a kajal. On that fateful morning, she was hovering around the dining hall at 7.30. What do you do when you are awake since five in the morning? She gobbled food and did away with the temptation of an extra cup of coffee. After all, makeup had to be worn, though the stroke of kajal was more than enough to make her almond shaped eyes come alive.  Fifteen minutes before nine she was in the guest area to collect her exit slip, the ticket to freedom for hostellers. Quickly she rummaged her slip from the several ones lying ignored, but just for next ten minutes. Soon, the gang of girls would swoop there to pick their ticket to freedom. She quietly sneaked with the slip ten minutes before eight (which was officially not allowed) before anyone could catch her. Outside the red gate Akhil was waiting for her on the other side of the road, hanging on the bus stop. The moment he saw her, he crossed the road and escorted her on the other side. Ashmi suggested to take the bus but then Akhil was in favour of an auto.

This was technically a date, and it deserved this much of spending. Needless, to say, their budgets were measly. The big question was, where would they go? In the extreme heat of July, they went and sat in a park, because Ashmi didn’t want to go to his flat, which was shared by other men as well. The only option left now was the park. They huddled in the shadiest corner available. Still they were sweating.

What do you expect in Delhi heat when the temperature is around 40? The tired mali gave them a bored look. He had seen many like them before in the sweltering summer heat. The conversation  flowed jerkily.

‘We aren’t marrying for the next three years,’ said Ashmi.

‘Agree,’ he nodded.

‘How can I marry?’ he thought. The thought of marriage scared him completely. And this was first date!

‘How is the college?’, he wanted to deviate the conversation.

‘It’s okay,’ she said.

‘What next?’ he wanted to know.

She didn’t have an answer, may be I will go to JNU, she said.

The conversation began to peter out. She wanted to go back.

Somehow the whole prospect wasn’t appearing alluring enough.

‘Shall I go back? There is a lot to study,’ she broached the subject gently.

 ‘Why so soon?’ he asked.

‘Because I don’t like staying with you, as you are boring me to death,’ she thought, but then didn’t have the courage to speak that.

‘Actually, we are doing group study and I have to be part of it,’ she said.

‘As you wish,’ he conceded and he escorted her all the way back. She was back just before lunch, which was invariably alu paratha on Sunday. Once back, Ashmi doubled over the wash basin with yoghurt to massage her face so that she could erase the sun tan. The whole date thing was a huge fiasco. There was just no fun it. She ran to join her friends for lunch.

The next time they met was a month later at Uphaar cinema hall (the same theatre which got embroiled in a fire tragedy later). Dressed in white a take off from Chandini days with a bandhini dupatta that had silver coins at the border, which made it heavier than the whole ensemble put together and a neckline that plunged deeply at the back, Ashmi waited for Akhil in the afternoon at Uphaar cinema. Akhil was supposed to be there, but he hadn’t reached till now. She could feel a pair of eyes boring inside her. She looked at her watch once again in frustration and she decided to give Akhil ten more minutes. ‘If he doesn’t come then I am leaving,’ she thought. The ten minutes crawled.

‘Okay, giving five more minutes will not hurt,’ she contemplated. The pair of eyes x-raying her had begun to multiply by now. She was afraid too. As she took the first step to retreat, Akhil sprang out from nowhere.

‘What made you take so long? We were supposed to meet at 2.30,’ she was visibly upset.

‘You are right, love, and I left on time too, but the bus got flat tyre,’ he said.

‘Then, why didn’t you take an auto?’ she wanted to know.

‘Because, I couldn’t get one. Then I started walking and had been walking for the last 30 minutes,’ he elaborated on his predicament. Ashmi had lost interest.

‘Let’s go inside and watch the movie. You are sweating profusely, the AC will do you some good,’ she said. Akhil nodded his head.

‘I am going to visit the men’s room. Why don’t you get something to drink?’ he strode off.  

Ashmi went to get two bottles of Pepsi along with a bag of chips.

‘You bought it, good, now, let’s go inside,’ he said.

She tried to keep pace with his steps, while trying to hold both the bottles of Pepsi in her hands. Akhil moved on with a bag of potato chips. He had the tickets and he navigated her through the maze of steps and crowd of people. All of a sudden, he was nowhere to be found. Ashmi could just not focus. ‘Where did he disappear now?’ she wondered.

In a reflex action she turned her neck to spot the face that was calling her name. Akhil was seated and munching on the chips. Ashmi with two bottles of Pepsi in her hands staggered towards him and sat down next to him.

‘When did you come here? I thought that I had lost you in the crowd,’ she said in a voice tinged with irritation. Akhil sensed it. ‘I tried calling you, but you moved on without paying attention to me,’ he explained.

‘I get your point. Have you ever tried balancing two bottles of Pepsi and a duppatta that weighs a ton, and a purse that keeps falling off your shoulder and hair that has been let loose at the same time, while you walk in the dark trying to find your way?’ she asked clearly exasperated with the lethargy of this man who refused to offer help.

 ‘You are making things up,’ he said flatly. ‘Why didn’t you ask me to hold the bottles. I could have done that. Anything for you, my love,’ he said. It sounded fake to Ashmi’s ears as well.  The people were getting seated next to her and he wanted to end the debate. ‘Fine,’ Ashmi blurted, as you say. Now, let’s have Pepsi and cool off.

This was her first introduction to the patchy truce that they had built that day. The foundation of the truce became thinner over the period, but by the sheer force of the will it did survive.