The Sofa

Sitting on the suede sofa of her vast lateral drawing-room, Sanjana was waiting for Seema. She looked at the antique wall clock that was bought around five years back when she, Nitin and Aradhya had gone for a vacation to Switzerland. The couple was very fond of relics and most of the shelves were stuffed with valuable antiquities from almost every part of the world. Wondering why Seema didn't reach yet, she stared at the beautifully carved rosewood door with her distressed, stoned eyes that were craving to rest, but Sanjana dreaded to shut them.

Sanjana had always been a beauty with her exquisite features, snow-hued complexion, long jet black hair, slender figure, and lively, intelligent eyes. She could light up a room at one glance. Apart from being miraculously beautiful, she was meritorious too. She was one of the top choices of almost all the panels that had gone to St Xavier's College for Campus recruitment. But out of five offers she chose to join IBM because she didn't want to leave her parents and Lucknow. With her sharp wit and extroverted personality, she became the apple of Mr. Sinha's eyes, the Regional Head of Lucknow, who coaxed her to leave Lucknow to achieve what she really deserved. And just after a year, she shifted to Mumbai on her promotion only when Mr. Gupta assured her that they would settle in Mumbai after taking VRS.

Being a girl of a small city, Sanjana was sensing butterflies in her stomach since morning, as she was still not mentally ready to face Mumbai's fast and furious life. How she wished her father were there by her side! Mr. Gupta, her loving father had always been the support system of both the girls. At Sanjana's birth when her grandmother was exasperated seeing the second girl child, he took up for the three ladies, " Amma, you worship Kali, Durga, Saraswati, and Gauri every day relentlessly, but when pleased at your devotion they have come to your threshold, you are grudging. These two are my angels, and I promise, they will prove themselves ten times better than boys." The cab was waiting outside but Sanjana craved to talk to her father, she frisked her purse for phone and dialed his number. Talking to him dissipated her fear, her face lit up and she was ready to embrace the whole new world ahead.

Sanjana walked confidently in her twenty-seven storey skyscraper office at Bandra Kurla Complex. Black pencil trousers and a pink shirt with stilettos were adding charm to her perfectly chiseled body. Nobody over there could resist the temptation of looking at her again once she passed by. Her innovative outlook, sense of humor and considerate nature earned her a lot of friends. One of them was Nitin. Nitin was basically from Hyderabad but kept on switching places due to his father's job. He was an amalgamation of various splendid cultures and a perfect representation of diverse India. Nitin's flamboyancy smoothed his journey to the top of his profession. His colleagues would call him the Master Blaster of Foreign Marketing.

Both of them were fascinated with each other and having dated for two years decided to marry. Birth of Aradhya after two years was the icing on the cake of their blissful life. Mr. and Mrs. Gupta yearning to stay with their granddaughter moved to Mumbai. That proved a great help to Sanjana as Aradhya loved to stay with her grandparents so much so that sometimes she would refuse to come back home, but Sanjana would force her as she didn't want a sleepless night without her darling baby. After office, nothing could substitute her time with Aradhya. When Aditya was born after Five years, Aradhya was on cloud nine. Now, at twelve she's a carbon copy of Sanjana with her slightly overgrown ivory body, chiseled face, waist-length thick black hair and curious eyes. Aditya, icecream and the brown leatherette sofa in front of the TV were the three things that created Aradhya's world. She with Aditya would sit on the sofa for hours watching television, playing, reading stories and sleeping too.

Apart from being famous as the city of dreams, Mumbai is also known for its unusual rains. It had been raining unceasingly since night. Sanjana looked out of her sliding window, there's no hope for it to stop. While she was still staring at the strings of rains touching the glossy road, Nitin embraced her from behind and whispered those three magical words that always provided her resilience, in her ears and pressed his lips on her shoulder. Even after so many years of marriage, Nitin's kiss would tickle her from top to toe and transport her to some other world. She closed her eyes and tried to immerse herself in the moment. How she loved her life with Nitin, Aradhya, and Aditya! 

Aradhya and Nitin waved at her and Nitin reminded her to be ready by five and that he would be back from his meeting at Pune to join them. This year Nitin had planned to throw Sanjana's birthday party at Goa. They would leave by the evening Indigo flight along with Momma, Daddy, and some of their close friends and rest of the guests would join the next day. The family had been frantically indulged in shopping for weeks. Sanjana was on leave to avoid that unwarranted burden of going to office, handling kids, packing and hastening to leave. Though she had already had her morning tea, she urged to have another cup peacefully enjoying the rain in the balcony. For Sanjana, a super busy woman, this leisure was rare. She went in the kitchen and put the vessel with some water on the burner. Seeing her, Rama, her maid, offered help but she refused.

Sanjana sat in the balcony gazing at the road, sipped the tea and allowed its warmth to seep into her heart. Usually, the road was very busy, but today, due to heavy rain, hardly any pedestrian was visible. Only a few cars with desperate office goers, no morning walkers, no cyclists and no Deepak bhaiya, the fruit vendor who would sit in the corner of the road and seemed to be an angel when Aditya would hysterically cry for banana and Rama was not around. The dark gray bloated clouds , rain washed trail of trees along the road, soothing smell of rain, which was sinking in Sanjana's every pore giving her intense relief and satisfaction, made her traverse into trance, when Aditya shook her. She enveloped him with her long, tender, perfectly manicured hands and planted several kisses on his face. They played together for quite a while when Sanjana realized that being with Aditya she lost the track of time and there were thousands of things lined up for her.

Next chapter coming soon....