‘Get up Tanmay, don’t you have office today?’ Aai pulled my blanket away early in the morning to show me the sun. The clock said 8.30 AM. It was one of those mornings, when in spite of knowing I was running late I didn’t want to get up. I pulled the blanket over and tried sleeping. Couldn’t. I was never woken up this way in the last 3 years….Jia never had to, and if she did, she would consider throwing a bucket of water over me. I was in the same house, on the same side of the bed, sans her. Aai knew I needed someone to be with that’s why she came to Pune. She pulled the blanket again,” Get up Tanmay, get ready.” School days were the same, Aai used to pull me out of bed ten times and I would go back again. This time, I got up, half-heartedly, got ready and the only thing I was thinking of all this while was how things had turned out to be and I hated it. At the table for breakfast now, Aai was saying something and I wasn’t even listening. She smiled at me as I was about to get up and I just smiled back.
The moment I entered the office, people stopped giggling and chatting with each other. They looked at me like I was not human. Ignoring them, I just walked to my desk and started reading my mails. I could see people talking now like they were playing Chinese whispers. Assholes! No awards for guessing what were they talking about! Jia left me alone, taking our kid with her, what more exciting news would people wanna talk about? So what’s gonna happen now? Divorce? Would she come back? Did Tanmay have an extra marital affair? And things I couldn’t even think of. Those who knew me would never think that I had an extra marital affair because impressing Jia had taken me almost a lifetime and that wasn’t going to happen again in this life. Women at work were looking at me as if I was a wife beater or something of sorts. I so didn’t want that but couldn’t help. My mind was wandering in a border-less world of its own, hadn’t spoken a word since morning. Awful Morning.
Mohit walked in, like he always did every morning. He knew what people were talking about outside. He sat on the table & just patted on my back saying, “Don’t worry, everything’s gonna be alright. She will come back.” I just got off my chair in a flash, turned around and walked towards the window, still not saying anything; I didn’t need to. “I know it’s difficult to live this way but you can’t stop living Tany. Did she? Why the hell should you? Come on buddy, this is so not you, I guess you didn’t see yourself in the mirror this morning otherwise you wouldn’t have been this way.” I really didn’t remember if I did look in the mirror, I just looked at him like I was about to speak but stopped before I even began. “What?” He said, raising his eyebrows. “Oh, wait a minute! I know what’s bothering you more than ever. Damn I should have known it. That’s what you are worried about!!” and he tapped the table. When I saw him in the eyes he looked so confident I thought he knew the answers to all the questions including the one about what came first?, the egg or the chicken. “What?” That’s the only word I said with a question mark on my face. “Your credit cards are still with her!!” And he just bit his tongue. A two-second laugh & I said “Yeah! You are right, my credit cards! Thanks a lot for reminding!” I walked to him, punched him on his protruding tummy. “Saaley, tu nahi sudhrega!” We walked out for a cup of tea and started talking about something else. That PJ helped….moreover Mohit did have a point, Jia had my credit cards. And statistics suggested that for revenge, she might decide to go shopping! That’s what she was best at, like every other woman on this earth! What Mohit said took me back to the day when I had first swiped dad’s credit card to buy her a dress. That was long back in during my engineering studies…..Perhaps, the best days of my life in every way!
The moment I entered the office, people stopped giggling and chatting with each other. They looked at me like I was not human. Ignoring them, I just walked to my desk and started reading my mails. I could see people talking now like they were playing Chinese whispers. Assholes! No awards for guessing what were they talking about! Jia left me alone, taking our kid with her, what more exciting news would people wanna talk about? So what’s gonna happen now? Divorce? Would she come back? Did Tanmay have an extra marital affair? And things I couldn’t even think of. Those who knew me would never think that I had an extra marital affair because impressing Jia had taken me almost a lifetime and that wasn’t going to happen again in this life. Women at work were looking at me as if I was a wife beater or something of sorts. I so didn’t want that but couldn’t help. My mind was wandering in a border-less world of its own, hadn’t spoken a word since morning. Awful Morning.
Mohit walked in, like he always did every morning. He knew what people were talking about outside. He sat on the table & just patted on my back saying, “Don’t worry, everything’s gonna be alright. She will come back.” I just got off my chair in a flash, turned around and walked towards the window, still not saying anything; I didn’t need to. “I know it’s difficult to live this way but you can’t stop living Tany. Did she? Why the hell should you? Come on buddy, this is so not you, I guess you didn’t see yourself in the mirror this morning otherwise you wouldn’t have been this way.” I really didn’t remember if I did look in the mirror, I just looked at him like I was about to speak but stopped before I even began. “What?” He said, raising his eyebrows. “Oh, wait a minute! I know what’s bothering you more than ever. Damn I should have known it. That’s what you are worried about!!” and he tapped the table. When I saw him in the eyes he looked so confident I thought he knew the answers to all the questions including the one about what came first?, the egg or the chicken. “What?” That’s the only word I said with a question mark on my face. “Your credit cards are still with her!!” And he just bit his tongue. A two-second laugh & I said “Yeah! You are right, my credit cards! Thanks a lot for reminding!” I walked to him, punched him on his protruding tummy. “Saaley, tu nahi sudhrega!” We walked out for a cup of tea and started talking about something else. That PJ helped….moreover Mohit did have a point, Jia had my credit cards. And statistics suggested that for revenge, she might decide to go shopping! That’s what she was best at, like every other woman on this earth! What Mohit said took me back to the day when I had first swiped dad’s credit card to buy her a dress. That was long back in during my engineering studies…..Perhaps, the best days of my life in every way!
