the chronicles of the Singh's on lane 42 (vii)- Heaven

My hangover lasted the entire day. I went back home the following night after dinner. I was in no mood to leave Maya alone with her troubling thoughts and her broken marriage, but I cannot be drunk every evening. Well, it is not that I cannot, but I will not! Wishing to stay the following night would have been optimism to the point of foolishness.

A lot of messages were exchanged that night before I succumbed to sleep. I won’t discuss my dreams here to maintain a good image of myself.

We did meet at lunch the following day and bitched a lot about Deepak (I am sure by now his name was Deepak), and if God would have happened to be granting our wishes Priya would have been a toad right then.

On the later half of our talks, we shifted our topic to her work. Somehow, I convinced her to quit her last job on account of the proximity of the work to Deepak’s father. Deepak’s father was her boss there; and asked her to apply at my office.

On our return it started raining. Maya was taking out her umbrella; however with an outstretched hand I stopped her. A sly, childish smile erupted on my face. A similar childish smile was acknowledged. Like two small children watching the first rain we started walking on the streets of the national capital. The low, rhythmic and systematic humming of the rain pelting on the clayed desert was being vanquished by the “tak-tak” sound made by our footsteps. The city cars, the city people were hurrying to reach their places, but two fools were in no hurry.



By the time we reached her home, the rain had stopped. All I could observe at her door steps was her. A single rain drop had somehow entangled itself in one of her curls. It was now clinging with all its might and fighting against gravity. Gathering even the slightest strength it can muster, to be settled somewhere in her curls. It slowly trickled down her hair to her cheek, and from her cheek it went up to the chin. From the chin it crashed down on the floor. All of this happened in an instant, but it felt as if an eternity of beauty and perfection had just slipped before my eyes.

With some mutterings on my lips I bade her good bye and returned back. She was saying something about coffee; however the coffee had no stand before the happiness I had just witnessed. The serene feeling was different, something unique which I had never experienced before. Even death seemed a trivial matter right now.



I have a long day tomorrow at work. Have to convince my boss to take Maya in. However, I doubt that will be a problem, especially when I have some shots still left in my bottle!