February,
2003,
Midtown, Manhattan Borough, NY.
It was 18:00 Hrs. by then Aryan and Rekha had reached home after their outing. “Call Kalki,” Aryan’s phone sounded reminding him of the message that was delivered to him in the early afternoon. He treaded to his room in hasty and dialed her number.
Ringing…
The call was unanswered. Aryan trembled and redialed, it kept ringing but the call went unanswered for one more time. She has a habit of sleeping at this time after college, it should have been a tiring day for her Aryan thought. He slipped the phone on the table and drew the laptop from the sleeve bag. He clicked on the folder by name Personal and lay his eyes fixed on the pictures that she sent him the previous night. It’s been years I had seen you dear Aryan said to himself flipping an image. I have been missing you so much lately after your arrival into my life he talked to his heart flipping yet another image. He continued to gaze at the pictures and talk to himself by giving voice to soliloquy. In the due course of time, Kalki had already sent him thumping great bundle of her photos by mail. It was an inveterate line of business to skim all of them or gaze at a few till she reverted on his call. In more than half of the pictures he noticed the ring on her left hand middle finger and smiled at himself.
Beforehand Aryan told her to displace the ring onto the middle finger while it was on her ring finger. There was no clearly distinctive reason why he asked her to do it but he just asked her and she did it. Since then it was always there where he wanted it to be.
Kalki calling…
“Hey Kalki, been a while. How is everything with you?” Aryan asked.
She started weeping on the phone. “Honey, what’s wrong?” he enquired, “You don’t have to shed tears for no reason, for whatever it is. Break it down to me, I will work it out for you” he gave it a burl comforting her by letting his compassion out in moving heaven and earth. She didn’t respond but only stayed silent. He hated to see her in blue and asked her repeatedly on the rationales for her disconsolation. What happened next has changed his perception to life and people. He had given credence for it was not prepensed and he be convinced by it had just occurred. He accrued braveness and finally asked her – “honey, did you miss me?”
He did expect her to respond and so it didn’t take him by surprise when she voiced out words but the connotations caught him on the hop, “I don’t know, I may not live without you. I cannot handle myself in life without speaking to you. I did bring it to your knowledge before that you have turned out to be a part of my life. I missed you so much for so long; I am missing you one heck of a life now, where have been these days? No calls? No messages?” She began to pule.
“Baby, I am so sorry,” Aryan was entangled in tenebrous feelings, “I was stuck with problems at home. Hope you understand. Don’t you?” Aryan said hesitating to open on the demise of Dayanand.
“Alright. I am not going to put you at unease. I have you now speaking to me, I am happy and this is what I love about it,” She cleared her bunged nostrils, “will you like it to stay the same as we are now even after you are married?”
“Wait what?” Aryan was loud in his tone, “What do you mean?” He checked on her last statement. Before Kalki was on the brink of a reply, “You know what? Never mind. What’s up,” Aryan intervened her and digressed from the course.
After being thoughtful, he realized that woman had a clear understanding about a friend and a boyfriend. They had entrenched set of rules for each person in their life and are valid only to that person.
And yet again, his heart brought to his knowledge – “she needs you either way,” Aryan went with his gut and asked, “I wanted to ask you something, May I,” Aryan was in quandary.
“Never be on the horns of a hesitation. You just ask, idiot!” she said.
Aryan felt that he gained the freedom, “Would you love it if we devise a common tangent at the point of contact of our lips?” he exploited his freedom.
“What?” she said although she had already discerned on Aryan’s intentions. She did it only to propel him back on his notion.
“Would you love it if I place my lips on yours for a …” this time Aryan was stern in his voice but he didn’t appear to be cautious of what he was posing to her. He asked her not once but thrice to kiss him. He shut his eyes and recalled, Kalki never said No to my statements. In no time, he heard the peck on the phone. She did it He slapped his clasped fist on his right thigh and smiled.
Aryan believed that a women kisses her intimate either if she loved him to the deepest since long time or she would have a huge crush on him since a while.
He knew Kalki was not from the later and that left him with the former. He was only able to see her love to him and rest of his life with her.
“Honey, where is the ring on your hand?” he asked.
“It’s in the same place where you opted it to be. It will never change,” She confirmed.
“No darling, it should change,” He cleared his throat, “and it will change because I’m here to make consent the ring on to your finger,” He said.
She kissed him again and asked him, “Aryan, is this true?”
“If you had not felt my love, my love. You wouldn’t have kissed me again, I love you,” he finally gave a voice to his feelings.
“So am I,” she said and Aryan was knocked sideways when she catapulted those three magical words into his eardrum.
Power and Pelf 