'I am officially, completely, exhausted,’ Riya said. She wore a pink
kurti and dark blue tights. Her face had turned pink to match her kurti.
She plonked herself on the four mattresses we had dragged into
her apartment.
‘Remove the plastic covers at least,’ I said.
She ignored me. She lay down on the mattresses and did side leg
twists like we used to do on court.
‘Cut the drama,’ I said.
‘Do we have to do everything today?’ she said.
We had made four trips to the market, one each to buy groceries,
electrical appliances, utensils and mattresses.
‘Why do you need four mattresses?’ I had asked her in the shop.
Two for the bedrooms, and two will become a diwan in the living
room. I don’t have a sofa.’
‘Let’s get a sofa,’ I had said. She refused. She wanted a 'casualchic’
look. I guess it means not rich-looking but still classy.
‘Get up,' I said and pulled her up by her hand.
Thanks,’ she said. 'Thanks for everything today.’
‘Mention not,’ I said.
‘Please don’t mention it,’ she said.
‘What?’
‘Sorry, correcting you.’
I laughed.
‘I thought we only learnt English on weekends?’ I said.
‘No, sir. We practise it all the time,’ she said.
I looked at my watch. ‘It’s nine. I better leave.’
‘What about dinner?’
‘I’ll get something from outside,’ I said in slow but correct English.
‘Why? We have stocked up. We have a hot plate. Would you like
some Maggi?’ she said.
It took us a while to unpack and set up everything. She
inaugurated her hot plate and utensils. An hour later, we ate Maggi
noodles in new stainless steel bowls from which the stickers wouldn't
come off.
I slurped the noodles from my spoon. At one point, she removed a
noodle from my chin. I wanted to spill noodles all over my face.
We finished dinner and cleaned up the kitchen.
At ten, I decided to leave.
‘You will get an auto?’ she said.
‘I can walk to the bus stand,’ I said.‘There is a bus to Dumraon at
eleven.’
‘Maybe I’ll come with you next week. Let me settle in.’
‘You’ll be okay alone?’ I said.
‘Yeah,’ she said, her voice heavy, or perhaps just tired.
‘Sure' I said.
‘I look forward to being alone, Madhav,’ she said.
*
‘You sure your mother will be okay with me staying over?’
‘Of course. It’s a long way to go back the same day,’ I said.
We were riding in her company’s Innova, which made the journey
a lot faster than the bus I usually took. The roads of Bihar are, well,
for the adventurous, to say the least.
‘Ouch,’ Riya said as her head bumped against the car roof.
‘That bump is a sign we are close,’ I said.
*
I showed Riya the guestroom.
‘These rooms are massive.You really are a prince.’
‘Everything is falling apart,’ I said.
I took her to my room. She noticed the basketball posters on my
wall. I sat on my bed, she took the chair opposite me. It reminded me
of us in Rudra, years ago.
‘You still play?’ she said.
I shook my head.
‘Me neither,’ she said.
‘Want to? This evening?’
‘Work first. You have to watch The Godfather on my laptop.’
‘I did,’ I said.
‘You saw the first part. Now see part two with subtitles.’
I made a face, which didn’t impress her much. She wore a fitted
white T-shirt and black tights. Although fully covered, the snug outfit
highlighted her curves. I couldn’t believe Riya was in my room in
Dumraon.
I wanted to kiss her. I thought about how mind-blowing that
would be after so many years.
‘What are you thinking? Like, now?’ She snapped her fingers.
Her question made me freeze.
‘Huh? Nothing. Lunch. Should we have lunch?’
‘Did you think of that in English or Hindi?’
I tried to remember. Well, I had not thought about lunch at all. I
had thought about kissing her. And you don’t think that in any
particular language.
‘See, Madhav, the so-called fluent English speakers, they think in
English. Not all the time, but a fair amount. Like, when you make a
decision in your head, do you make it in English or Hindi?’
‘Hindi, of course,' I said.
‘That’s the issue here, If you want to speak English well, it has to
start in the head.’
She knocked the side of my head.The contact made me feel a bit
drunk. I guess guys are born with this defect. Once they like a girl,
even an accidental touch can he intoxicating.
‘I’m trying,’I said.
’Good.You have Internet here?’
I shook my head.
‘I wanted to show you some speeches,’ she said.
’There is a cyber cafe nearby,’
’Let’s go, I will get to see Dumraon,’
*
There isn’t much to see in Dumraon. Yet, she found everything
exotic.
‘Sueh cute roads,’ she said, as we walked along the narrow
chicken-neck path outside my house.
‘You should see them in the monsoon. Not so cute then,’ I said.
We came to the Shakti Cyber Cafe. A bunch of local guys sat
before dusty computers.They pretended to look at news websites, even
though they were probably downloading porn from other open tabs.
‘Steve Jobs’s “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish”,’ she said as she opened
YouTube.
Hungry for you, foolish for you, I thought.
‘Oh,’ I said.
‘What?’ she said as the video took time to load.
‘I thought of something in English.’
‘Excellent. What?’
I quickly shook my head and watched the video.
‘You want subtitles?’ Riya said. It was magical how she could sense
what I wanted even before I thought of it.
I nodded. She had already picked a video with subtitles.
Steve Jobs had founded Apple Computers. He had competed with
Bill Gates of Microsoft, the man who I had to give a speech to. It was a
perfect situation in which to use a word I had learnt in English classes
—ironic.
Steve, a thin, balding white guy in graduation robes, stood on a
podium at Stanford University. I listened to the speech and read the
subtitles.
‘I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest
I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today, I want to tell you
three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.’
I was immediately hooked. I didn’t know this guy but I liked him
in seconds.
He spoke about how he was born to an unwed mother who had
put him up for adoption. A CEO of a major global company speaking
so openly about his past stunned me. He talked about dropping out of
college to save his adoptive parents’ money, and then sleeping on dorm
floors and attending the classes he liked.
‘I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent deposits to buy food with,
and I would walk the seven miles across town every Sunday night to
get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it.’
He had said nothing about his achievements yet. Still, you felt his
greatness.
‘And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and
intuition.’
‘Intuition?’ I said.
‘Gut instinct, what you feel from the heart,’ Riya said.
Did I have the courage to follow my heart? Did I have the
courage to propose to Riya again?
Finally, Steve ended his speech.
‘Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for
myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.’
The crowd in the video applauded. I joined in.The cyber cafe’s
owner turned to watch the whacko customer who clapped after
YouTube videos.
‘Can I see it again?’ I said.
‘Sure. I will check my mail on another computer.’
I watched the speech three more times. I repeated some of the lines
as practice. I stood up after an hour.
I saw Riya in the adjacent cubicle, her mail open on the screen. She
looked grave.
‘Should we go have lunch?’ I said. I guess staying hungry isn’t so
easy after all.
I glanced at her monitor. I just about managed to read the subject
line:‘Dad’.
She pressed ‘send’. The screen disappeared. She logged out and
stood up.
We walked back to the haveli in silence.
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