Although a city that Tanmay didn’t prefer to live in, Pune had now turned into the place of salvation for him. By bringing Jia into his life, Bangalore did give him a reason to like it but that had just acted as a neutralizer for the friends Tanmay had to leave behind when he moved from Pune to Bangalore. Reuniting with friends & having Jia by his side, he couldn’t have asked for more.
All the bags were packed, everything set for the move. Tanmay had actually helped Jia pack & organize everything. This had never happened in the era of this Unkempt person. “What are you more happy about? — that you didn’t give in to my father’s offer or that you are going back to your friends?” Jia asked, as the flight ascended. “Can you try NOT asking questions that I would never be able to answer satisfactorily for you?”, said Tanmay. “Okay, so you don’t want me to ask you anything at all?” Jia’s sarcasm had no match. Looking outside the window, Tanmay took a deep breath & chose to ignore what he was asked. In his mind, he knew what it meant for him to go back to Pune. He was hoping that the tussle he was going through would eventually come to an end. He had tried to give Jia the best at every step but somehow, she had started to think that she deserved better. All the fights had been happening for that very reason. It was getting difficult for him to contain the tension or avoid any reason that sparked such fights. He considered himself lucky to have found a job that would solve some of his problems. But he didn’t know how Jia would react — would the feeling of not getting what she deserved go away or there wouldn’t be any change at all? Only time would tell, thought Tanmay. All he could do for now was hope for things to get better.
Tanmay had a week to set up the house before he was supposed to join the new organisation, but Jia had to report the very next day at work. Her family didn’t want them to move. If her father had his way, he would keep the couple with him but Tanmay would never be able to be cope with the ‘unconditional love’ that would be showered upon him. Like any other father whose daughter had married against his will, he never left an opportunity unutilized to criticize Tanmay. “If you had married the guy of my choice, you would’ve lived life queen size; with Tanmay, you are not even close”, he would say. He was happy to know that his ‘alludu’ had got a better paying job but would he show it? Of course not! Let alone congratulating him, all he had said to Tanmay before they left was, ‘Bon Voyage’. Just like Jia, her father too felt she deserved better. Till now Tanmay had been unsuccessful in proving both of them wrong.
“Mohit must be on his way to the airport to pick us up. In all this rush, I didn’t ask you whether you would be comfortable with staying over at his place for a couple of days. But I thought it would make things easy for you as you are joining tomorrow; he has a nice & cozy 2 bedroom apartment.” Tanmay turned to Jia as the flight started descending into Pune. ‘I hope Mohit believes in a healthier lifestyle unlike you when you were staying at your old apartment. I still vividly remember the fridge that had stopped working months ago, but still stacked food in it, the shoe rack, the pile of socks beside it, empty pizza boxes that sometimes had a laptops in them, the dirty dishes, the unmade bed underneath which, I would find food! It was difficult to figure out what was contributing more to the ‘fragrance’ of your apartment!’. ‘Oh come on! I wasn’t the only person living there, I tried my best but others were careless, so there wasn’t any point cleaning up the mess. I still did what I could. Whatever livable conditions were left in there, people should thank me for it!’ Tanmay interrupted & tried to reason with her. ‘Thank god I came into your life, otherwise you would have continued to live in that dump!’, she said. ‘Jia, I ‘thank’ god for bringing you into my life for more reasons than that, you know right?’ Tanmay winked and smiled at her.
‘Welcome to Pune Airport, the temperature outside is 32 degree celsius’ the flight attendant announced as they touched down at Pune. Tanmay switched his mobile on and called up Mohit, ‘Haan bhai, I’ve just landed, tu pahoch gaya kya?’, ‘Haan main yahi hoon, tu aaja!’ ‘Cool!’ Tanmay hung up. The joy of meeting his friends was quite evident on his face. The short flight that it was, was just the first step towards what Tanmay hoped would bring a better time for both of them in every way.
