RECAP 

T comes to India with KK Dus2r, to make a life close to Sun’s Head Offices at Kovalum island. Initially, T is quite overcome with Sun’s good looks and hearty manner, especially when he makes a couple of surreptitious attempts at an open dalliance. Sun has chosen the village of Pullu’s Villa, which bears a close resemblance to T’s childhood city of Sparta. The village and its ambience appeals to T. She is then taken on a tour of his island offices. Later at his beach-house, when T thanks Sun, he confesses that the choice of the village was deliberate, so that T could be at ease and begin anew. This overwhelms T as this feeling of being pampered is quite new to her. On am impulse, T then decides to tell him the miserable tale of her past at Sparta. 

CHAPTER 12 

“But didn’t Alexis say the re-design had made the boat top-heavy?” 

“Oh, that’s Alexis for you, always critical of anything high-end!” 

“Is it safe to take it out tonight? Do think again, Darius.” 

“Agape mou, would I be taking my family were it not safe?”  

Her mother had then pleaded, with a frown marring her immaculately groomed countenance, “Why don’t we leave Tanya behind with Celtos? I have an uncomfortable feeling about this, dear. Believe me.” 

Her father had then suddenly bellowed, “Had I not known that it is your gypsy blood, I would take serious offence.” And as suddenly, he had turned calm, “Any red-blooded Greek male would take that as an insult to his masculinity, dear. Now that’s final, both of you are coming along with me on this trip around the Aegean.” 

He had then caught her and thrown her up in the air, the way she had loved, laughing at her shrieks of joy, “Look, my Angelos is happy to go with her father. Am I at fault agape, to want my family to join in my moment of celebration? It isn’t every day that my firm has designed a boat along lines of remote-controlled navigation!” 

They had finally proceeded on the test trip of her father’s dream-boat. 

“Dada used to be proud of his shipping heritage, and would always begin any talk with ‘The Greeks have always been the best boat-builders next to the ancient Indians, and I have the blood of both’. This had almost become a cliché associated with Darius Guptapolos,” T commented sadly to Sun, “so much so, that he felt that nothing could go wrong with his boat design.” 

“That night was a black night, for the Guptapolos family and the boat business. To begin with, something went wrong with the remote system, so the boat steered off-course. We stumbled into the stormy waters of the Mediterranean. What was meant to be a couple of hours pre-designed navigation around the islands in Aegean Sea, turned into a nightmare as we veered to the south into a choppy Mediterranean and came right onto the path of a storm. Rain slashed fiercely on the decks and the waves splashed the boat from all sides. It was terrible…” T broke off with a sob. 

Sun took care not to look at her. He wanted her to give in freely to her emotions, in the wake of the remembered agony. Wasn’t this the best place for Tan to exorcise those ghosts of her childhood? On the verandah of his house facing the sea? It was a calm sea and a reddish-gray night, still glowing from the embers of the sunset long past; in direct contrast to the dark and stormy night of her choppy seafaring memories.  

He now knew she had never mourned that night or its consequences.  So he stood still, awaiting her to purge her soul. 

After what seemed to him endless moments, T spoke up. “Mama was right you know, she always trusted her cousin Alexis’ and his grey hairs’ verdict on boat-building. The re-design had indeed made the boat top-heavy, particularly on the stern side, and it gave way under the weight of the storm waters awashing it. It was as the boat listed that Mama slipped across the sloping deck and struck her head against the bulwark.. We could not save her …. Oh, Sun, I saw Mama slipping into the cavernous depths before my eyes … could never forgive him ….” 

Sun turned the wildly sobbing T into his arms. “Let go of it, Tan, cleanse your soul of your torment,” Sun soothed her. 

He let her cry her heart out, grieving the loss of her mother, mourning the death of a daughter’s devotion. Recalling the reports he had read about Tan’s estrangement with Darius Guptapolos, he now understood the reason behind the stand-off. A daughter’s falling out with her father over a misunderstanding, and what an imbroglio to last for years!   

 “He had not gone in to save Mama  …. I hated him for so long. I never understood then, that he was fighting to keep us both alive, to save me …..” 

Angelos, your mother is no more.  Leave her be, hold on tight ….I’ll pull the boat through this storm…Mayday Mayday Mayday… 

“I went into shock after that, never spoke to him, never called him Dada…..” Now I know the reason for her cold and indifferent persona, thought Sun. 

“Whenever I saw him, I remembered him dragging us along against mama’s wishes … I blamed him for Mama’s death.”

Her Mama must have been her link to warmth and reality, her death must have killed Tan’s very spontaneity. 

“Seeing my anguish, Dada left me in the care of Trustees and our e-housekeeper Celtos.” 

There was then a comfortable silence, punctuated with the cries of sea-birds coming home. Perhaps this is an omen for me, thought T nestled against Sun, it sure feels like I have come home. First, Pullu’s Villa and now this letting out .... I feel free, I can start over again. 

“The day I opted for the virtual marriage, I was very upset. I had just received news of Dada’s accident…. it made me realise what could have been. All those wasted years ….” T tailed off softly. 

 Let this be a complete catharsis for our souls, Sun reflected. 

“Tell me Tan, why did you …? Honestly.” 

“I guess I felt alone, felt the need to attach myself,” T stirred restlessly, “I really don’t know ….” and went to stand by the rails. 

“Or maybe it was your biological clock sounding its alarm, huh?” Sun tried to ease up T with his characteristic banter.  

Swoo..o..oosh! Sun quickly brought a handkerchief to his bleeding nose, “You pack a hard punch, Ta..aaan.” he said mildly, with a twinkle in his eyes. Better an angry and wild Tan than a cold, emotionless TEE. 

“Oh, I dd..don’t know what came over me,  beb..believe me. Sun, I am not so impulsive, I mean, I am NEVER impulsive!” T was very contrite and apologetic as she took his handkerchief and dabbed the blood staining his chin.  

Sun took up her hands in his. “This seems the day for purging one’s soul, so allow me to make a confession.” He caressed his face with the back of his knuckles, “You knocked me out for six Tan, the day you looked at me with those glazed eyes on the v- screen and accepted the virtual proposal.” 

All control is slipping…Angelos… 

Suddenly jittery with a nameless fear, T looked away from the intense expression on Sun’s face and threw the stained handkerchief at him, “I forgot to tell you one thing though, I swore very early in life never to lose control, the way my Dada had on that stormy night.” 

“I don’t know what you are driving at, Sun, nor am I in the least interested. I am here in India to give KK a normal environment, I……Oh, what the heck!” T stomped off inside the house, as Sun broke off into loud chuckles. 

Oh Tan, you can’t ever imagine what this hot and cold disposition of yours, does to me! “One day, I am going to break through those icy layers, and what an emotional high that’s going to be,” Sun whispered softly after Tan. 

                                          To be continued ....