RECAP

Ishaani is spending a wonderful day with her poet, whose name is Shayan, when a phone call from Diya brings her back to earth. Her daughter is pregnant, ecstatic, and wants to meet her. The dinner preparations are interrupted and she is en route Diya’s home, suddenly feeling rather old as a to-be grandmother.


CHAPTER 4

Ishaani waited at Phari, looking at her watch far too often to allow any serious passage of time. She hated waiting in public places but mercifully didn’t have to wait for too long as Aditya’s car soon pulled up alongside. They traveled in silence. Aditya stopped once at a Gole Park florist’s to buy some flowers and then as he got back inside, asked,

Do you want to buy some sweets?

Pretty pointless. Di’ll just scream at us for sabotaging her figure.

She’ll not worry so much about her figure now.

Girls these days, you don’t know them. Di will probably put on just five kilos during her entire pregnancy!

Do you remember how fat you had become with Di?

Aditya started laughing as he said this and indeed Ishaani’s figure had reached preposterously mammoth proportions during her first pregnancy, thanks to an old-fashioned gynecologist who told her to eat to her heart’s content, a constant supply of her favourite foods from her mother and a very doting husband who was always buying her chocolates and ice cream. Ishaani too laughed at the memory of how she could barely move around during the last month. It was an embarrassed laugh though, as she suddenly felt very aware of all the intimacy that they had shared.

It was a fairly short drive from Phari to Diya’s Jodhpur Park home even in the rush hour traffic and they were soon inside Diya and Sandip’s cozy and rather crazily done up flat. Diya had opened the door and opened her arms as wide as her smile, seeking to be engulfed in both their embraces at the same time. She took the flowers and ooh-ed over them while looking for a vase to keep them in, and generally kept up an incessant, excited chatter, not really noticing anything strange in her parents.

Sandip says I should go an live with you all during my pregnancy, but I said no way. He can’t escape taking care of me!

Of Course I want to take care of you Di, but they say a mother-

Forget it, I want my hubby to pamper me. I have always dreamt of the day when this would happen, when you’d wake me up with tea in bed-

Sandip made a terror-stricken face, waking up early being his most loathed chore. Ishaani smiled while wondering how she would ever explain that there was no longer a mother in that home. Aditya marveled at how transparent Ishaani’s face had always appeared to him and reading the concern, said with a touch of cruelty,

Ish, don’t you think Diya should come home? It would be nice to have her around and-

As Ishaani looked at him across the room, he wished he hadn’t done it. She looked betrayed, cornered.

Baba, don’t be on Sandip’s side!

Diya was sitting with her head on Ishaani’s shoulder, unaware of the expressions passing across her mother’s face. Sandip was pouring out some drinks.

My boss will have a fit when he hears that I am pregnant!

Sandip, handing out the drinks, said,

Yeah, he’ll probably sack me!

Great Sandy, you can stay home and cook me nice meals!

Di, Sandip, I have to tell you something.

The seriousness of her tone made them realize that Ishaani had something unpleasant to say. Diya raised her head to look at her mother.

I know that this is perhaps not the right time to do it – it’s a happy moment – and what I have to say might cause you grief. I have to say it though and I hope you try to understand that this is something that gives me happiness. It is something that I have wanted to do since a long time. I didn’t do it earlier because being a mother to the two of you was the most important thing in the world for me... And for your Baba... we wanted you to have a proper home... which is why I waited so long...

Ishaani looked around and took a deep breath before the final words.

I have left home. I know you’ll be shocked – horrified perhaps to know that your Baba and I will be divorcing. There’s someone else whom I want to be with.

Ma, you don’t love Baba-

Ishaani looked at her daughter, on whose face accusation and incomprehension were writ large. Sandip was trying to look normal. Her gaze shifted to Aditya.

No, I don’t love your Baba. But love isn’t the only feeling that you can have for a man. We’ve been together for twenty five years and I know he’s a wonderful person, a great father, a man capable of understanding how a woman’s mind works... He’s known for a long time that I loved another man, but he has tried to be nice... almost like a very good friend... I wouldn’t have managed to-

Diya started weeping. Ishaani tried comforting her but that made her cry even louder, so she gave her place to Sandip. Diya held on to him and cried. It felt strange to suddenly feel like the villain of the piece, to have no right to claim her bit of happiness. Help came from unexpected quarters and Ishaani was relieved when Aditya spoke. 

Di, don’t cry love. You are a big girl now. You know what it is like to love. Try and understand that your mother lived away from the man she loves for twenty years... and this was because she loves you.

But Baba, was our entire childhood a sham? This isn’t fair to you!

You don’t need to ask me if your childhood was a sham... we were a happy family, and if not love, I know your mother cares for me. She has never been dishonest with me and I respect her for that. Maybe it’s not fair, but life isn’t always fair.

But our home-

It’s still your home. Your bedroom will always be the same, with all those silly teddy bears. You can always come home when you want to. And you can meet your Ma and me whenever you want to.

But not together-

Diya burst out weeping again and Sandip shrugged indicating his inability to do anything. Aditya got up.

Ishaani, perhaps we should leave now.

Aditya insisted on dropping her even though she said she would take a cab. Inside the car, he knew without looking at her that she was weeping. After they crossed Phari, she had to give him directions as he didn’t know where the Poet lived. By the time she got off the car, she was more in control of herself.

Thanks Aditya.

Take care of yourself.

You too.

It was a short drive home and as Aditya let himself in, Runu purred around his feet. He went to the kitchen and poured out some milk for her.

                           To be continued .....