Part-Time Devdaas...

by Rugved Mondkar

  “Tell me what? That the love of your life that you waited for so many years is back and you want to get back with him?” I was so pissed that rest of the voices took over my mind.

  “You are getting it all wrong, Arjun.”

  “Oh really? Then why were you so scared back there? Or was I imagining that too?”

  “I was scared because I didn’t tell you earlier.”

  Shashank and Neha got out of the car.

  “What’s happening guys?” Neha asked.

  “Why?” I asked ignoring Neha.

  “Because Abhi has wanted to meet me for the past month, and I knew it would bother you if I had told you. I didn’t want that.”

  My anger totally looked through her genuineness.

  “Abhi? Wow.” I said as she referred to him by his nickname.

  “You knew about this?” I asked Neha.

  “Abhi is back?” Neha asked Hrida.

  “’Couldn’t you have told him that that your boyfriend wouldn’t like it?”

  “I wanted to meet him too.” She said and paused. “I had to clear a few things with him.”

  “Oh ya, I know the big closure and all,” I smirked.

  “There is no need to be rude.”

  “He wants to get back with you, doesn’t he?” I almost screamed.

  “Poncho, don’t create a scene here,” Shashank said pulling me back.

  “Yes,” Hrida replied.

  “Wait a minute… does he know you are with me now? Have you even broken up with him, Hrida?”

  She kept quiet.

  “This is amazing, you stay away from me.” I took a deep breath and began to walk away from Shashank’s car.

  “Arjun please wait ya,” Hrida whined.

  “Don’t scream… don’t scream… don’t scream...” Voice One repeated.

  “Scream! Scream! Scream!” the rest of the voices cheered.

  “Rickshaw!” I screamed at the top of my voice.

  I was desperately swimming across the sea, my hands fiercely cutting through the dark choppy waters but the container vessel stacked with billions of containers tied to my shoulders was slowing me down. I turned to look back when I heard the thundering sound of the lightning bolt strike the conducting rod of the ship, and saw the eye of the storm forming just a few metres behind me. The load was too much to pull. I was exhausted but I knew I had to make it fast or the storm would have me and my containers for dinner and I wasn’t going to let it happen. I took a deep breath and fired up all the energy I had and began to pull my containers to safety. The lightening thundered again and it began to rain. The winds grew gusty, the water started freezing. The spine chilling temperature of the water was forcing my brain to give up the resolve to save my world I had locked in the containers, but my heart was determined not to give up. I turned on my back and wound the rope around my hands for better grip and got back to pulling it. The rains blinded me and I couldn’t see anything. Suddenly I felt land below my legs. I smiled and my heart began to race.

  “Almost there... no giving up now,” I told my mind.

  But then, as if some evil power heard me speaking to my mind, all hell broke loose upon me. The lightning struck the bolt again and lit up the night like a day. The winds began to whirl around me, dragging me to the eye of the storm. I tried to hold on to it by anchoring my heels on the rocks. My bleeding heels turned the dark waters below me red. I was slipping away. I could feel the warmth of my tears rolling down my face.

  “No!” I wailed, “Please stop!”

  “What you want isn’t happening,” a growling voice said followed by thunder.

  And in a fraction of a second, I was right in the vortex of the storm with all my containers flying in circles around me. I looked at all of them for the last time before the water gulped me down. I felt the agonising salinity inside my throat as the cold, freezing sea water entered my lungs. Finally, I saw the last air bubble escape out of my body. Everything went silent and ‘the white light’ appeared.

  I opened my eyes desperately, gasping and snorting.

  “You planning to come out of that bed anytime soon?” Devika asked pulling the curtains aside.

  “That explains the white light!” I whispered to myself, “What a nightmare,” I said to her. She smiled back.

  My eyes kept following her all over the bedroom while my naked body lazed on the bed. She dropped the bathrobe revealing her black boyshorts and stretched her hands behind to hook the bra up. Her still wet hair dripped water on her bare back which slid down her spine to her hips. I could see her face in the mirror as she applied the moisturizer on her neck and chest. A wave of lust shuddered through me. I got out of the bed and slid my hands over her waist to her belly. From the goose bumps that sprouted on her body the instant I touched her, I could clearly tell that her body reciprocated with the same intensity. The scent of her body combined with the smell of the cosmetics was fatally intoxicating. She rolled her eyes and dropped her head back on my shoulder as I began to nibble her neck.

  “Shhhhhhhhhh...” she turned and pushed me away placing her hands on my chest, “Away you go from me!” She said. “You are going to get me fired.”

  “Yippie!” I said resting my bare body on the window wall and draping myself with the curtain.

  I looked at her. The morning sunlight that bounced off her face made her skin glow.

  “Dev, what’s this?” I said as I stretched to pull out an envelope lying on the parapet of the window. She began to laugh.

  “God!! its been there all this time. I’ve been looking for it all over.”

  “What is it?”

  “Offer letter.”

  “For what?”

  “A post opened in ANZ last month. They are offering a good package but it’s in Delhi, so …”

  “I think you should take it,” I said trying to mess with her.

  “Really? Chalo I’ll mail them then.” She played along.

  I stood there looking at her through the mirror drying her hair with the dryer, her eyes too locked on to me.

  “Shit...” She said noticing the hickeys I had left on her neck the earlier night. “Were you planning to have me for dinner? Pass me the concealer.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because…” she turned to me, “I don’t want the bitches in my office to know that I am hiding a Kratos in my house who does atrocious things to me.” I passed her the concealer.

  “The next thing I know is my house is full of corporate suit-clad sluts.” She sucked her lower lip in to control her laughter and began to nod her head. I just gazed at her jutting my lips out in sadness as her eyes fixed themselves on me again.

  “Oh god...” She did a classic Devika-eye-roll and walked up to me stomping her legs on the floor. “Okay, but let’s please make it quick.” She whispered putting her arms around my neck. “I can’t bunk office today,” she said, her eyes eyeing my lips.

  I held her face and began to suck her lower lip. She pulled me closer holding my hand and placed it over her hips. Fingers of her right hand running through my hair while the left hand held them fiercely for grip. I let go of the curtains to lift her up and in the bargain my legs got tangled in the bathrobe that was still on the floor. So with her in my arms, I tumbled onto the bed. A few seconds of guffawing later, gnawing at each other’s bodies began, leaving a few more hickeys behind. I slid my hand up her back and clicked the bra open, mentioning that is of importance because I find it a gargantuan achievement. After tossing her bra away, she repeated the same action with the boyshorts she wore. Then the sheets covered us up to keep the act a secret from the ceiling fan, the wardrobe, the rest of the furniture and the pigeons in the window.

  Devika and I, apart from each other’s bodies and the bed, shared one more thing – a similar state of mind. It was amazing how I had no absolute thoughts in my head. For the first time in years, there were no debates over what was right or wrong. The contentment of being together had brought the animals out of t
wo empty and emotionally drained souls who wanted each other’s bodies and bodies only, or so we thought then.

  It took us four hours and a wake-up call from Devika’s father to get done with the let’s-please-make-it-quick thing. The phone rang three rounds before Devika picked it up. Since I was sleeping, she began to sneak out of the bed to talk, but I pulled her back and snuggled up to her.

  “Shut up it’s Pa.” She whispered gritting her teeth.

  “Hi Pa,” she said groggily

  “No I’m fine, was sleeping.”

  “Ya it’s an off today.”

  “I mean I didn’t go.”

  “I know I said I’m fine.”

  “Because I didn’t want to go.”

  “Pa, why have you called?”

  “Yes I know. I’m booked on 5th night, so I’ll be late, but I’ll be there.”

  “Isn’t it enough that I’m going to be there for the wedding?”

  (Long silence and excessive noodling of hair.)

  “What guy?”

  “And why wasn’t I told about this?

  “What do you mean why?”

  “Who is gonna marry him?”

  “Me? right?”

  (Long silence)

  “Because, I want you to meet someone.”

  “Yes, there is someone.”

  “Pa, stop yelling or I’m hanging up.”

  “Stop yelling.”

  “Pa?”

  “I’m hanging up.”

  “You are still yelling Pa.”

  “No, Ma didn’t know. I was planning to surprise you guys.”

  “I’m bringing him along with me.”

  “No.”

  “Okay.”

  “Fine.”

  “Yes.”

  “Bye.”

  “Bye.”

  “I’m hanging up.”

  “Phew!” She chucked her phone away and pulled her hair. “Arrrggghhh...”

  “Dev?” I said and turned her towards me as she calmed down after three punches on the pillow. She wrapped her leg around my waist and upped her chin with closed eyes asking me to kiss her. I did.

  “What happened?” I asked kissing her cheek a minute later.

  “I told Pa I’m seeing someone and that I’ll bring him to Nishi bhaiya’s wedding.”

  “I heard that, but why?

  “Because he wanted me to meet some US-based big money IT guy,” she picked up the packet of grass and began to roll up.

  “What’s the harm in meeting him?”

  “Harm? If I agree to meet, they’ll conveniently assume I’ve said yes for the wedding and push me off their chest in fifteen days,” she slurred licking the Rizla to tape it. “You remember last time na?”

  “Ooow, that got out of hand.”

  “Right?” She lit the joint and took a long drag.

  “So what’s the problem now?”

  “I am not seeing anyone!” She said raising her eyebrow and held the joint between her fingers for me to drag it.

  “I can play the part if you want,” I said and pulled in a hard one.

  “You will? Really?”

  “Ya, but on one condition.” I took the joint away from her.

  “What?”

  “For a month, you’ll roll up spliffs for me.” I smiled

  “No way!”

  “Then forget it.” I shrugged. She rushed to climb up on me and pinned both my hands with hers on the bed and kissed me.

  Seven days later, I was on a flight to Gwalior with Devika.

  Nishi bhaiya was Devika’s first cousin. I found it amazingly silly to call a guy year younger than you ‘bhaiya’, but since Devika called him that I blindly followed. The guy was a walking flesh shop. He was five-feet-one-inch tall with a round face, round body, moobs for a chest, a triple chin, permed-curly hair, scary L-shaped locks, bunny teeth and thick-glassed Gandhi specs. Years back, I had met him at Devika’s birthday party, He was a chubby kid then but now it seemed like someone had pumped air into him.

  “Debucho, aye Debucho!” He yelled in his ultra rugged voice making himself the centre of attention at the airport.

  “I didn’t know they called you that. What a cool name!” I goofed.

  “Oh come on, your Poncho wins hands down.”

  “Debucho, here!” He came running towards us. I moved away from his line of run as the thought of what if he couldn’t stop himself petrified me.

  “Nishi bhaiya!!” Devika waved and jumped.

  “Debuchooooo!!” He skidded twice before he could bring his sweaty body to a halt.

  “I’m so happy to see you kiddo. You’ve gotten so thin.”

  “Ya and you look like you’ve put on a tonne.”

  “What do I do ya, this mouth doesn’t stop eating,” he whined.

  “Aww!” She pinched his cheek and they hugged again.

  “Wait I’ll take the bags,” he enthusiastically leaned to pick up her bags lending me a full view of his hairy butt crack.

  “Nishi bhaiya, this is Arjun.” Devika said as he picked up the bags.

  “Hi, Arjun...” I extended my hand.

  “Hi, hi Arjun...” He said putting the bags down. “Oh he is ‘the guy’?” Devika just nodded. “Oh man, ‘to be jijaji’ I am so happy.” He said and engulfed me in a bear hug, his sweat now wetting my clothes too. “I’m so happy man, I”m so happy,” he said to himself nodding his head and yet again leaned for the bags, What luck I was in to have gotten to see a three inch hairy butt crack of my ‘to be brother-in-law’ twice in a day.

  “Hey Nishi bhaiya, I’ll take it,” I said trying to take my bag from him.

  “No!” the look he gave me after the no scared me significantly, so I let him be.

  Devika’s ancestors were high ranking Sardars in the palace of the Maharaja of Gwalior and that explained her family’s ownership over this palatial property right in the centre of the city with sprawling well-manicured lawns, perfectly cobbled roads, and grand lady statued fountains. The area was so huge that after we crossed the elephantine arch gates, it took nearly thirty seconds for us to reach the royal porch. I had heard stories about the house from Devika, but had pictured it more like a bungalow, but this place was behemothic.

  “Must have twenty rooms at least?” I asked Devika pulling the luggage out of the car.

  “Twenty-two,” Nishi bhaiya said as he snatched the bags away from my hand. “But every single one of them is buzzing with people right now, so you’ll be sleeping with me. Debucho, we’ve put you in Tittu’s room unless you want to share your room with Rakhi bua.”

  “No, I’ll manage with Tittu.” Both of them giggled.

  “I still think I should have stayed in a hotel,” I whispered to Devika.

  “No!!” came instantly followed by the scary look. I surrendered and obediently followed my ‘to be brother-in-law’ to his room. Walking down the corridors propped with framed swords, daggers and the portraits of heavily-moustached fierce looking warrior ancestors of Devika, the thought of what would happen to me if these people found out what Devika and I were up to made my stomach cramp.

  “Haven’t you seen those swords? Stay away from me,” I said and brisk walked away from Devika as she came close to kiss me. I caught her flying kiss before entering my room, though.

  The tinkling sound of ghungroos skittering all round me woke me up. But since my eyes were still glutted with the sleep fairy’s magic sleep potion, I could only see five or six multi-coloured lehenga-clad female figures hopping all around the room.

  “Good morning!” one of the girls said waving her hand to me while rest of them giggled. I waved back and buried my head in the pillow. By the time I woke up, the warrior family had almost completely painted the groom yellow with haldi. Hundreds of ladies surrounded him while the lucky few who made it across the crowd smothered his flabby body with the turmeric paste. I stayed in the room for most part of the day, trying to avoid a rendezvous with Devika’s father. And since I was put up in the groom’s r
oom, it was always crowded with aunties who didn’t want to miss the chance to bathe their dear nephew, or over-enthusiastic cousins who accompanied an extremely effeminate tailor for the final fittings of the groom’s wedding costume or the totally psyched out groom himself who, every thirty minutes, gulped a mouthful of rum to keep the pressure off. So I kind of didn’t miss much of the action. By the time it was evening, Nishi bhaiya was three bottles of rum drunk and was sleeping in the bathroom hugging the pot making noises like the possessed Emily Rose. The sangeet party was an hour away and the bride was on her way. Devika assigned me the task of getting Nishi bhaiya ready. So with the help of a few other guys, I pinned the yellow stained drunk body of the groom under the cold shower. An hour of tussling with clothes, eleven lemons, eight redbulls and five puke fountains later, Nishi bhaiya was ready for his sangeet party just in time before the bride arrived. The joint mission to sober up the groom introduced me to Devika’s cousins, who like Nishi bhaiya shared the same excitement to meet their ‘to be jijaji’.

  The bride’s entourage consisted of another hundred expensively dressed people. From the greetings and touching-of-the-feet that took place, I could easily tell that it was the girl’s father. He looked like one of the men from the framed photographs in the corridors so I assumed he too belonged to some warrior family. But it was difficult to spot the bride in the crowd since every girl was decked up as if it was her sangeet. Then in the crowd of unknown faces, my eyes fixed themselves on the face they knew forever – Devika. I imagined her walking down the stairs in a classic Madhuri Dixit from Hum Aapke Hai Kaun style. The only difference was the golden and red lehenga. Her eyes were fixed on me and just when I was about to go on my lust trip, Nishi bhaiya squeezed the living hell out of my hand.

  “There she is,” he said.

  “She, who?” I asked, words barely making out of my mouth.

  “Nishi-ta.” He said, while his body went cold.

  “Nishi!”

  A man in the crowd yelled in a voice ten times rugged than Nishi bhaiya’s. He forgot he had my hand and pulled me with him to meet her. The bride as compared to Nishi bhaiya was quite a babe. I somehow managed to loosen Nishi bhaiya’s grip on my hand before he could reach the storm’s eye and found my way out of the crowd to the bar counter.