Locked Hearts

This is the third time she comes out of the kitchen with her spatula and goes back making a grumpy face. He is still glued with his phone rendering instructions to his subordinates. These marathon corn calls are the most irritating of all. The utensils starts making more noise in the kitchen with an intention to let the other person know that now the lady of the house is really pissed off. Dev looks at the kitchen by the corner of his eyes and continued with the corn call.

 Theirs is an arranged marriage. The kind where the family makes you meet and to all your surprise becomes liberal and progressive overnight. All your life they will be lecturing you to stay away from the opposite sex and then all of a sudden when the boy or the girl will be of their choice, they will turn to the most supportive souls of free mixing. Nidhi stirs the poha once again with more force than needed.

 Since the morning the weather is cold and the sky is embellished with fluffy layers of grey. The romantic cords of her mind are playing Beethoven’s melody of love, her heart is starving to be allured and pampered by the man of her life. But the bloody corn call is showing no sign of getting over.

The dish of poha is served on the wooden tea table with a not so pleasant sound and the server dismantles herself on the opposite sofa with a jerk. Dev understands, his today’s breakfast will be accompanied with a bunch of beautiful words and high voltage drama. After a while the corn call finally gets over. Dev picks up the plate of poha and keeping the phone down he asks “ok now tell me what is it?”

 Nidhi keeps her gaze fixed outside the window where the skyscrapers are touching the illustration of the grey canvas. “Nothing” she says without interrupting her gaze. This “nothing” is a very dicey word when it comes from a woman. And like any other married husband Dev also knows he should never take this word as it’s literary meaning implies it to be. “Come on Nidhi I was working, please tell me what is it”. But getting answer from a woman who is mad at you is not so easy. But that doesn’t mean a husband can give up on his duty of trying. Dev softened his voice and asks again “ Nidhi please tell me what is it that bothering you?”

 Nidhi through a look of annoyance at her husband, what can you say to a person who has a zero understanding for romanticism? Who always prefers to keep his heart locked along with his emotions dangling somewhere between his practical responsibilities. Is it always necessary to be bothered about some earthly matters to have a conversation with your husband! She thinks but doesn’t say a word she has no wish to beg for love she stands up and lumbers to the window where the cool breeze starts playing with her unmanaged hair. If after two years of marriage a husband still doesn’t understand his wife then it’s clear he is not interested in knowing her at all.

 Dev couldn’t understand a bit what this is all about. This sudden climate change in mid-May is bad for business. Since the morning the pressure is on to meet the target as this sudden depression in weather is bringing a big slash on the sales of soft drinks. Dev is the sales head of a leading soft drinks company of the state so the pressure on him is too much and in between all these tensions God knows why Nidhi is acting weird. He quickly recalls the dates; no it’s neither their anniversary nor Nidhi’s birthday so at least this is not about forgetting dates. Then what it could be!! Dev feels like banging his head but controls as that would be a serious over reaction.

The murky mass of thick water droplets darkens the sky even more. Big droplets of rain starts coming down from the sky. Nidhi now leans out her upper body a little through the French window. Droplets of liquid crystals bounce on her face, painting a smile on her lips. The wet strips of her hair are getting stuck all over her face; the droplets are rippling through her silky neck to her soft upper torso. Dev is watching his wife from the couch, this Nidhi , this self-absorbed lost in her own world Nidhi makes him go absolutely crazy. He never told that mad girl but he could give away the whole world in a snap of his finger to hold this crazy girl in his arms forever.

He goes closer to Nidhi and holds her tight and whispers in her ears “what can I do for you my queen?” Nidhi lips spread with a wide smile she whispered back “the Queen wants to go on a romantic date”. He brings his lips closer and says “to be romantic do we really need to go anywhere!!” Nidhi giggled and her face blushed as Dev carried her to their bedroom and they did a beautiful make up sex. The rain started falling even harder. Nidhi asks Dev moving her fingers through the hairs on his chest “rain makes the weather so romantic isn’t?” Dev gives a drag to his cigarette and said “ya it is baby but you know it is bad for business” and laughter bust out all over the Morning.