Moving Home
As if I wasn’t feeling bad
enough, Raghav called to give me his big news.
“Hey, guess what?” he
said.
“What? You told Sonali
you’re in love with her?”
“Yes! You always do guess right with me!”
I had meant it as a joke,
but I was careful not to let him on. “What happened? How did it go?”
“Well, we were chatting
online, and I told her how much I had enjoyed meeting her…”
“When was this?” I
interrupted.
“Last night.”
“At least he still calls
me up when he has important news,” observed Miki, relieved.
“And I said I wished I
could meet her more often, and that I missed her. She said she missed me too,
and that I was the best friend she had ever had.”
“Indeed.” I tried hard to
keep any vestige of sarcasm out of my voice – if I failed, Raghav was too happy
to notice.
“Well, I told her she was
the best friend I had ever had, too.”
“Better than Miki,
she asked. I said Miki and I have been the best of buddies, but she – Sonali – is
different. I told her she means something really special to me.”
“Original,” oberved Miki –
not aloud, thankfully.
“She said I was the nicest
guy she’d ever met. All the other guys she had known were – well, they seemed
out to take advantage of her or something.”
“She doesn’t sound like
she has a lot of friends, does she?” said Miki spitefully.
“Neither do you,” retorted
Mandakini.
“Then I asked if she’d be
interested in being more than friends,” Raghav continued. I said I really liked
her – that I thought I was in love with her.”
“And?”
“She said she thought she
was in love with me too,” said Raghav triumphantly.
“Hallelujah!” I rolled my
eyes.
“Well, we talked some more
– she told me she’d liked me ever since she knew me in college, but it was only
after Amit left and we started really talking
that she began to fall in love with me.”
“That’s perfect.”
“Yeah, isn’t it amazing?
I’m so happy right now, Miki.”
“I’m happy for you,
Raghav.” It wasn’t very difficult to mean it. He was happy and I loved him. How
could I not want him to be happy?
“Oh man, I wish I could
come over and talk to you.”
“I guess you’ll be coming
over more often now, huh? Though I don’t know if I’ll see much of you any more
when you do come.”
“Don’t be stupid. How can
I not want to see you?”
“See?” said Mandakini.
“I’m not losing him! He’ll still be my friend.”
“We’ll see,” said Miki.
I concentrated my efforts
on not thinking about Raghav. It was no use wondering about what might have
been. He was in love with someone else, and I had no wish to dig deeply and
find out that I might have wanted him after all.
Besides, I had to move to
my new house.
The move kept me busy the
following weekend. Divya even gave up on going to her parents’ to help me pack
and move. She refused to let me hire a truck and insisted on ferrying everything
over in her car.
“After all, you only have
these four boxes and these bags,” she said, coming into my room to look over my
stuff. “The mattress is thin, so we can roll it up and put it in the back seat.
That little rack will easily go in. And the pillows. Don’t worry, we’ll move
everything in two trips.”
And we did. I had finished
my packing on Saturday, except for what I needed overnight and that I packed up
in the morning. By Sunday afternoon, we had moved everything to my new place. We
had even bought a few things on the way – tea and salt and sugar and bread and eggs
and instant noodles for when I got hungry, matches and candles in case there
was a power cut on my first night, and a lock to put on my new door. The
landlady saw us lugging the stuff up the stairs and put her head out of her
window to ask if we wanted some tea.
“No, thanks, Auntie,” I
called back politely.
“I’ll make you some tea in
my new house,” I whispered to Divya.
When we had carried up the
last box, we were exhausted. Divya gamely said, “Hand me a pair of scissors and
we’ll start unpacking.”
“Don’t bother,” I told
her. I bent over a bag. “Let me just get out fresh sheets so we can sit on the
bed. And then I’ll make us tea. Would you like some Maggi?”
“Sure, I’m hungry. It’s
four and we haven’t had any lunch.”
We sat there, tired but
happy, sipping tea and having noodles. Now that the deed was done, I was
feeling rather nostalgic. I would miss the old house – the large airy living
room, the balcony where I had spent so much of my time, the lovely driveways
lit up at night where I used to walk in the evenings, and the garden with the
swing which I visited often and where Raghav and I had sat not so long ago.
“You’ll miss the fridge
and the TV, I bet.” Divya’s mind was on the more prosaic, as usual.
“Well, I can get through
the winter without a fridge,” I said. “I will buy one after a few months. And I
can do without a TV, I think. If I feel I desperately need it I’ll get it – but
I doubt that.”
“You should get one.
You’ll get bored all by yourself.”
I gave an involuntary shudder
as I thought of how lonely I would be. “I’ll think about that later,” said
Miki.
“I should go.” Divya got
up. “You’ll want to freshen up and unpack and I’ve got an early day tomorrow.
I’m gonna go to office at seven and try to get in some extra work done so I can
finish this stupid project on time.”
There I was in my new home
with only myself for company.
3 comments:
Good ... the move seems uneventful thus far ...
Exciting days ahead ... I suppose ???
CA: Wait and see, eh?
- Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
- Two outta Miki's life...Ol'home and Ol'Raghav
- the former forever
- the latter for the time being ;D
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