Ulti

Vivek banged the door as he left the house. The fight hadn’t ended. It had been three days.

Rajni got ready to leave for her office. She wasn’t her chirpy self. As she closed the door behind her, she pulled out her phone to text.

“In case you’re home early, the food is in the fridge. Warm it. I won’t be around to do it for you.”

She sent the text after pausing for a moment. She closed the elevator door, checked her phone and waited until the two tick marks appeared. Quickly she kept her phone inside and waved at the passing rickshaw.

“Bhaiya BKC chaloge?”

The rickshaw driver made a clicking sound with his tongue and nodded to indicate a NO.

Rajni got irritated.

“Ek minute ruko. Problem kya hai… seedhe jawab nahi de sakte ho kya… muh main zabaan nahi hai kya?”

The stunned rickshaw driver did not know what to answer.

“Isiliye log ola se jana pasand karte hai… tumko dhandha karna nahi hai to rickshaw nikalte kyun ho?”

The rickshaw driver folded his hands and said, “sorry madam, shift khatam ho gayi.. ghar jaa raha hun.”

He drove away.

Rajni exhaled in frustration and turned to find a rickshaw parked on the side. The driver had just witnessed her fury.

And before she could tell him the destination, he said, “madam baith jao… jahan bhi jaana hai hum chhod denge.”

He did not want her wrath to befall on him too.

She pulled out her phone again to check. The tick marks had turned blue. She lifted her head and looked at the road. And again turned back to her phone,

“I will be late as I have to go to star bazaar to buy grocery. Will be home by 10.30”.

Vivek was online. The ticks turned blue. He went offline again without replying.

The rickshaw stopped at a signal. Rajni was still staring at the phone. She turned her gaze towards the traffic. Amidst the horde of cars waiting for the signal to turn green, she saw a familiar car, a silver colour Hyundai i20.

It was Annie’s car. Annie (Anita), her cousin and her very close friend was going through a difficult marriage. Rajni would spend hours on the phone giving her advice on her marital problems.

Rajni smiled and was about to wave at her when she realised that Annie wasn’t alone. Rajni leaned to look at who it was. An unknown man was seated next to her. They were busy chatting in a jovial manner. Rajni was curious.

The signal turned green. The cars moved forward. Her rickshaw changed lanes and went on to the left side of Annie’s car. Rajni wanted to have a closer look at this guy.

She nodded her head in disapproval as she could not recognize him, ‘maybe they are colleagues.’ She wanted to give them the benefit of doubt.

The rickshaw again changed lanes and came to the right side of the car, close to the back door of Annie’s car.

“Aap baar baar lane kyun change kar rahe ho… adha se zyada traffic jam to aap log hi karte ho… ” said Rajni.

The driver did not respond.

Just then Rajni’s benefit of doubt went straight out of the rickshaw.. The man leaned over and kissed Annie.

“Ah!” Rajni nodded in disdain, ‘what is she up to… she is going to get in so much of trouble.’

“Ab kya hua madam… seedhe to chal a raha hun…” said the driver.

“Arre… aap chalo… ye aage wali gaadi ko jaanedo…”

Rajni pulled out her phone and went through the contact list… she stopped at ‘Annie’.

‘Call karun isko… What will I tell her… I am not sure… why?’

She shook her head and scrolled ahead. She stopped at ‘Hubby’ and dialed. The phone rang ‘I so hate you Vivek. Please pick up the phone’ but Vivek did not pick up her phone.

Rajni leaned back to avoid being seen by Annie.

She kept her phone inside her bag. The rickshaw turned left while Annie’s car went straight ahead.

The rickshaw stopped outside a posh MNC office building in BKC. Rajni stepped out and handed a 200 rupee note, “chhutta hai ki nahi?” her voice was stern.

“Chhutta hai madam” replied the driver and handed her the change.

Rajni entered the office building and was greeted by the receptionist, “Hi Rajni…”

Without replying Rajni callously walked into the office and went straight to her cubicle.

She kept her bag down, switched on her PC and logged into FaceBook. Soon she was going through Annie’s friend list.

In the next couple of hours, she found out that the guy in Annie’s car is Abhishek, the owner of a fine restaurant.

‘The guy seems rich.’

She looked at her watch and slowly picked up her bag, opened her tiffin and ate her lunch.

‘She is messing up her life.’

Her landline rang. She hurriedly picked it.

“Is the presentation ready”, asked her boss.

“Not yet, but will be ready by end of day.”

“Ok. Mail it to me before you leave.”

Rajni opened a file from her PC and started working. She had no option but focus on the presentation as she had a limited deadline.

As Rajni typed on her keyboard incessantly, her mind kept wavering into what she had witnessed in the morning.

‘It’s still morally incorrect. Why the hell doesn’t she take a divorce.’

‘What would happen if Annie’s husband came to know?’

‘Anyway, he is not interested in his own wife… how does it matter.’

It was 6:00 p.m.

‘I’m so glad Annie doesn’t have any kid yet or it would have been messy.’

Kalpana walked up to Rajni’s cubicle, “Hey Rajni… busy today?”

“Yeah yaar… ppt finish karke mail karneka hai… don’t mind yaar… will catch up with you guys tomorrow.”

Kalpana walked away.

Rajni pressed Control S on her keyboard. She mailed the file to her boss and she was done for the day.

It was 7:00 p.m. already, she quickly packed up her bag and left.

She rushed out of the lift and stopped the next empty rickshaw, “Andheri?”

The rickshaw driver turned the meter down as she sat inside.

“SV road se lena…”

As they passed by the famous Biryani restaurant, “bhaiya yahan zara 2 minute ke liye rokna…”

She stepped out of the rickshaw and got a parcel of biryani.

It was 8.30 p.m. She entered her house. Vivek wasn’t home yet.

“Good!” She quickly changed her clothes and seated herself near the window.

As she saw Vivek’s car entering the compound she ran into the kitchen. She warmed the food from the refrigerator, placed the biryani in a bowl and readied the dining table.

The main door opened and Vivek entered the house. He kept his bag on the nearby chair and sat down to remove his shoes. He walked into the kitchen and was surprised to find Rajni waiting for him.

“Oh! Weren’t you supposed to go to star bazaar?” He poured a glass of water for himself.

“I dropped the idea. I’ll go tomorrow.” Rajni uncovered the bowl of biryani and the fragrance was obvious.

“Biryani!” Vivek frowned. He seemed curious.

“Woh raaste main…”

“Lucky hotel tumhare raaste main nahi aata…”

“I know but I thought you would like to eat…” She placed the spoon into the bowl.

Vivek walked around the table…

“Bhao khaa rahe ho kya… Biryani khao na…”

Vivek had a smirk on his face… He loved his wife. They spoke to each other about everything. It had been three days that they had not spoken to each other. He knew what was happening…

He sat down, pulled the plate as Rajni served him the biryani.

Rajni’s gaze was fixated on Vivek.

Vivek took the first bite and asked, “ulti karni hai??”

Rajni smiled, her eyes became big and she started, “you know what happened…”

(THE END)