Dream's Sake

Chapter 2

Chapter 2‘Shalt thou not teach me, in that calmer home,

The wisdom that I learned so ill in this—

The wisdom which is love—till I become

Thy fit companion in that land of bliss?’

— “Ihe future Life by ‘William Culkn ‘Bryant

As Aashi walked into Abhi’s home, the orderliness of his little garden felt like a big relief to her eyes. Even in the dimming dusk, it looked vibrant and full of spring colours. She halted her steps and took a deep breath of the cool, fragrant air. How lovely it all felt after a day spent in the misery of her rented property.

And yet, how much more enchanting would it all have been had the place been a little bigger, with dainty white statues, gushing fountains and decorative lamps adding glamour and romance to the verdure, instead of the worn out pipe curled under the tap in a corner and a lone bulb near the main entrance throwing shadows all around.

Many minutes passed away as Aashi stood watching Abhi’s garden and walking through the glorious vistas unfolding in her imagination. Many more moments might have found her lingering still, but she was suddenly disturbed by a ‘hello’ spoken in a manner more interrogative than welcome. The sound had come from the direction of the gate. Aashi turned and saw a young man looking at her enquiringly.

‘Hello,’ Aashi replied, ‘you must be Sid.’

‘Yes, I am, Siddharth, and you are?’

Akanksha Sharma, I moved here today,’ she said, pointing to her own home.

‘Oh, okay, Akanksha,’ he replied. ‘Were you going in or coming out?’

‘Going in.’

‘Let’s do that then,’ Sid said as he led the way. ‘So, who else is there in your family, Akanksha?’ he asked after a moment.

‘Just me and my mother,’ she replied as Sid pushed open the door and welcomed her in.

‘Oh, so you two have already met,’ Abhi said as he saw them enter.

Tes, she was admiring your garden when I came in.’

‘You have a beautiful garden, Abhi,’ Aashi said, ‘and a nice home too,’ she added as her quick eye took in the comfortable interiors.

‘Well, it’s okay if you complement Abhi for the garden. He works hard on it. But for the home, you must refer to Priyam. She’s the housekeeper here and the head chef too,’ Sid said and proceeded towards what Aashi later found out was the kitchen.

‘Why have you come alone?’ Abhi asked as he welcomed her to a chair.

‘I tried to bring Mummy but she refused. You see, my mother’s not used to being invited and would rather stay at home.’

That won’t do, I’ll go and bring her,’ Abhi replied, getting up at once.

‘No, it’s okay. She was resting when I left her.’

‘Well, okay. But I don’t like it. Won’t she feel lonely?’

Teah, but…she is used to it,’ Aashi said, shrugging and twitching her lips as she spoke.

‘I understand, Aashi. But don’t worry, we’ll soon make her forget all her loneliness,’ Abhi said.

Aashi nodded and gave a little smile.

‘But for now, let me take you to my sister,’ said Abhi, adding a more than usual cheer to his voice. ‘I’m sorry but you’ll have to accompany me to the kitchen because when Sid is there to help, it takes Priyam double the time to finish up her cooking. And we’ll really have to hurry them up if we want to have any chance of tea before dinner time.’

When they entered the neat little kitchen, she found a girl with long black hair brewing tea over the stove.

‘Hurry up, Priyam, how much time you take,’ Sid was complaining.

He was leaning against the basin with his long legs crossed in front of him and a cookie jar held securely in the crook of his arm. Half a specimen of its content was in his right hand and the other half was in the process of being chewed by his strong jaw.

The picture of a man eating direct from a cookie jar contrasted sharply with Aashi’s image of a dignified gentleman. But she wasn’t surprised. As far as Aashi knew, gentlemen had really become a very rare breed.

‘All done, Sid. Will just take a minute more. But you should really not eat so many cookies. It will make you fat,’ said Priyam.

Aashi looked at Sid. There was no indication of him getting fat anytime soon. He looked strong and healthy, but not fat. Though he wasn’t exceptionally handsome, he had a good and honest face and his athletic built went greatly in his favour.

There was an aura of placid strength about him, not merely physical but that which lies inwards. It shone out from his intense and penetrating eyes like a black fire, subdued and at peace now, but not extinct. He had a dusky complexion and a smile that brightened up on whom it shone because it was always genuine and straight from the heart. It was shining on Priyam now.

‘Never, mind about me getting fat. But turn around and meet your new neighbour. You have kept her waiting for long already/

‘Oh, hi!’ Priyam exclaimed, turning around quickly. Tin sorry, I didn’t know you were standing here.’

It’s okay, you were engrossed,’ said Aashi. ‘Let me help you,’ she added, wondering at the same time whether Abhi’s judgement about their being of same age was really true.

The girl who looked at her with big brown eyes seemed much younger. Except that her eyes were so much wiser and calmer. No turbulence rocked their placid depths, and there wasn’t even a hint of restlessness that flickered with such intensity in Aashi’s own eyes.

Priyam had a charming face and a figure too slender to admit the possibility of curves as perfect as Aashi’s. She looked a delicate and frail creature and Aashi might have been in danger of pitying her had the serene lustre of those brown eyes not told her how little Priyam was in need of that emotion.

‘Oh, everything’s ready. I was just making the tea…’

‘Which would soon be adorning the stove if you don’t pick it up now,’ Sid remarked as he popped another cookie in his mouth.

‘What? Oh!’ Priyam exclaimed twirling around just in time to turn off the gas stove before the tea spilled over.

‘See, I saved you just in time and you have no appreciation for my help,’ Sid said, putting the lid back on the cookie jar and placing it on the shelf before picking up the tray of snacks. Priyam followed him with the tea tray while Abhi went to the refrigerator to take out the ketchup.

‘Alright now,’ Abhi said joining everyone, ‘let’s begin our little party.’

‘Begin?’ Sid questioned, popping the remaining half of a sandwich in his mouth.

‘Oh, begin would be a wrong word, I see,’ said Abhi, ‘since you are already half-way through it! At that pace, Sid, you’d soon be a fat, bald man,’ Abhi said.

‘Fat I can understand,’ Sid said, ‘I’ve already been warned of that eventuality. But how bald?’

‘Why, your head would swell so much with fat that all your hair will fall off,’ Abhi replied.

Maybe, but it’s not my fault that your sister is becoming a better cook every day,’ Sid mumbled between the bites.

Aashi smiled at the merry banter. She could see why Sid was a daily visitor to this house. Who could stay away when such love and companionship awaited him?

Abhi and Priyam’s home was a perfect little haven. It had nothing to boast of luxury, yet everything to give assurance of comfort.

Unlike Aashi’s home, it was fully built and had several rooms. There were two bedrooms on the first floor, and one on the ground floor as well. Aashi hadn’t yet seen the first floor, but there was enough space downstairs to accommodate a comfortable drawing room c*m dining space, one bedroom and a nice kitchen.

As Aashi looked around, her eyes were arrested by a photograph. It showed a couple smiling pleasantly at the camera. There was a garland of dried roses on it.

‘Our parents,’ Abhi said, as he saw Aashi looking at it. ‘They died in a car accident.’

‘Oh, I’m so sorry. It must be terrible to lose both of your parents.’

Tes, had Sid’s father not taken us in his house…’

Then I’d have left his house too,’ said Sid, with an amount of bitterness that surprised Aashi.

Tou have done it, Sid. You’ve left him alone,’ Priyam said in a low voice.

‘He deserves it,’ Sid replied.

‘He does not,’ she said, keeping her voice low, but firm.

Well, tell us something about yourself, Aashi,’ Abhi said in an obvious effort to change the direction of the conversation.

‘My father’s dead too.’

Accident?’ asked Abhi.

‘No, work of some bloody maniacs. You perhaps remember the serial blasts that occurred around Diwali time about ten years ago.’

Yes, many people were killed in it,’ Abhi said.

‘55, as the papers put it.’

And your father was

Yes, he was caught in the one that blew up in the Sarojini Nagar market. And…all because of me,’ said Aashi, biting her lower lip as the sound of the bomb going off flooded her ears again.

‘How can that be? Did you plant that bomb there?’

‘No, Abhi. But…he would not have been in that shop had it not been for me. We had already done all our shopping. We should have left the market by then. But I noticed another dress and decided that I wouldn’t leave the market before buying it too. Mummy said no, but my father never refused me anything. I was his princess. So while Mummy dragged me away from the shop, Papa went in to get it for me. Well… he never came back.’

That’s terrible!’ Priyam said.

‘Everything changed after he left. In an instant… everything was lost.’

‘Well, you at least have your mother, Aashi, we are all orphans here,’ Sid commented, trying in his own way to make her feel better.

You are not an orphan,’ said Priyam, ‘Your father is alive.’

‘Not for me,’ Sid muttered under his breath, stuffing his mouth the next moment with another piece of sandwich.

It must have been a big blow,’ Abhi quickly added.

It was. I did not just lose my father in that bomb blast. I lost my home too and the pampered life that I had been living. My grandparents took us to their home. My father’s two brothers took up our responsibility and comfortably robbed us of our shop and house. Their wives found a free slave in my mother. Though they could never bend me to their wishes. My mother had no close surviving relative. She did everything to keep her in-laws happy. But…I revolted. I have left that house forever now.’

‘Why now?’ he asked again.

To escape a forced marriage.’

And what are you planning to do now?’ Abhi asked, leaning a little forward in his chair.

‘Start a boutique.’

‘Do you have any experience?’ he asked.

And funds?’ Sid added.

‘I have fifteen lakhs, plus a little more that I saved so far from my salary. I’ve been working as a designer at a big boutique for the last two years. The clients there know me and like my work.’

You mean they might break away from there and turn to yours?’ asked Abhi.

They might.’

‘But you’ll need workers, tailors etc,’ Priyam said.

‘I know, but till we can afford all that, I guess I’ll have to depend on my mother’s skill and my own hands. What I need right now is a place to open my shop in. I wish my uncles had not sold my father’s shop. It would have been such a blessing now.’

Taking up a shop on rent will add to you expenses,’ said Sid. You don’t want to spend any unnecessary penny from your limited store.’

‘Hmm, you don’t need your shed, do you?’ asked Abhi after thinking for some time.

‘No.’

Then use it for your office. Simple.’

‘Oh no, I can’t!’ Aashi exclaimed with horror at the thought of welcoming her rich clients in that sordid little…something! She couldn’t find apt word to describe the horror she considered her garage was.

“Why not?’

It’s… it’s too small.’

‘So is your business. And it will just be temporary…till you can afford a real boutique.’

‘But…’

‘What?’

It’s so filthy!’ said Aashi, making Abhi break out in a fit of laughter and causing even Sid to smile. ‘What have I said that’s so funny?’ she retorted.

‘Aashi, you seem to think of dirt and filth as a permanent evil. Don’t you think that it can be cleaned?’ Abhi asked. ‘If we clean and get that shed painted, it will look fine. And we can easily arrange nice shelves and counters etc in it to make it look like a proper shop,’ said Abhi.

‘I guess…,’ Aashi mumbled, her heart revolting at the picture of her covered in grime and scrubbing away at the dank interiors of the garage. Not even at her uncles’ home had she lowered herself to that level. There was a servant there for such work and her mother to take care of all the rest. Besides, she was her father’s princess. And princesses don’t sweep!

‘Well then,’ said Abhi, ‘we’ll start the operation cleaning from day after tomorrow, that’s Sunday.’

‘Oh, there’s no hurry,’ Aashi said, ‘I haven’t even informed my employer yet. And she demands at least two weeks’ notice from anyone who wants to leave the job. We can do the cleaning later.’

‘Okay. And when did Mr. Mishra said he’d be getting the house painted?’

‘He said nothing.’

‘What? You took up the house without discussing it? The house desperately needs painting. You should have got it done before moving in.’

‘I know it does. But…1 didn’t know I could ask him.’

‘Hmm, I see. Well, never mind. I have his number, I’ll tell him to get the job done as soon as possible. Then we must do something with that garden too. It’s a horror to look at.’

‘I was waiting for you to get to that, Abhi,’ said Sid. ‘For long you’ve been itching to get your hand on it!’

Yeah,’ Abhi nodded with a sheepish smile. ‘But it’s such a torture to see a perfectly nice garden turn into wilderness.’

‘But how much money will the gardener ask?’ Aashi asked.

‘Gardener? Well, I don’t know about that. We never had one. First my father used to manage it, and now I do.’

Aashi’s mouth fell open. That was another shock for her fine sensibilities. The man of the house sullying his hands with mud and manure! Gross!

Aashi had scarcely recovered from the jolt when Abhi stuck in another blow and it appeared to her, not without some mischievous pleasure.

‘Don’t worry, Aashi,’ he said, ‘I’ll teach you all about gardening. In no time you’ll be managing your own little green space, without giving a single rupee to the gardener,’ he said in a voice that sounded serious enough. But there was laughter twinkling in his eyes with an amount of mirth that made Aashi squirm as she looked at him.

‘Okay,’ she mumbled, trying to smile and keep her thoughts from bursting out on her face. She would have managed it perhaps, had her eyes been in any practice to dissemble. But they had always been too bold and frank to put on any sort of disguise. ‘Well, I guess I must leave now,’ she said finally. ‘Thanks for everything. It’s such a relief to have someone so near to turn for advice.’

‘Sure,’ Abhi replied, ‘we are professional in giving advice. You know, we three have a super bank of brainpower among us. This Sid here is super intelligent, my little sister is super sensible and I, as you can judge yourself, am super clever. So whatever advice you need, you know where to turn to.’

‘Yeah, and I guess I’m going to need a lot of it. I’m feeling so terrified right now. My mother says I’ve done the greatest mistake of my life by leaving my family. And I’m scared it may just be so.’

‘No use worrying now, Aashi,’ Sid said, ‘you’ve done what you have done. Now bear it up.’

‘Besides, now you are not alone. And even if things go wrong, we all are here for you. Are we not?’ said Abhi.

Aashi’s head jolted at the words and she stared at him. ‘My…my father used to say that to me. How did you…I mean…’

‘Maybe your father’s spirit put those words in my mouth. But now that I’ve said them, I’ll stick to them,’ said Abhi, looking confidently in Aashi’s eyes.

She stared at him for a long moment. And then quickly walked out of his home.

* * *