Time's Up: Every Moment Counts

by Vasu Velamur

  As he got up and looked out for his friends, they walked with a new person in the group. Since it was dark, Ranga could not figure out who it was. He waited in the same place for the others to reach him. As they came close, Ranga could get an unobstructed view of the new person. She was none other than the person exhibited in the device. It overwhelmed Ranga at that moment.

  “She came to us and asked us if there were three of us,” said Vashist frantically. “And also asked if we were Ranga, Vashist, and Vindhya. It stunned me”

  “How did she know our name and that too in this location?”

  “I have no clue but she has some information for us”

  “Of course, yes, the device showed her picture only” Then Ranga looked at her “good evening mam”

  “Good evening, kid, call me Kalpana. No, mam required”

  “OK, but how did you find us?”

  “I too don’t know. I received an email from an unknown yahoo account which said to meet three guys who need my help. At first I thought it was a prank by one of my friends in the hostel. Subsequently, I received another mail with the complete details which made me believe it and came here”

  “What details” jumped in Vashist, who could not stand one moment of suspense.

  “It said that one person in the group is the nephew of Vaidehi”

  They all went into a state of shock. Vaidehi, the name made everyone wonder if this was a pure coincidence or was it organized. They did not open their mouths for quite some time and the stillness was only present. It broke when Vashist said “Do you mean Vaidehi from Madras”

  “Yes, the girl who came here from Madras. She is staying with me in the hostel”

  “Do you know where she is now?” asked Ranga anxiously.

  “Yes, she works here in Hampi only. You guys don’t know that?”

  “No, since she left the house, we do not know where she is and what she is doing”

  “Well, she never speaks too much about personal details, but I know a few stories. First, we need to solve the current puzzle before we can get to talk about her”

  “What puzzle?” interjected a surprised Vindhya about how she knew about the device.

  “There has been a small incident that has taken place with her involved. I would like you to help me find out whose fault it is.”

  “If we solve it, will you let us know more about her?”

  “Yes, that’s why I came here. First let us go to my house, have dinner and sound sleep. Tomorrow we can discuss the problem”

  “I don’t think we have that much time,” said Ranga after he looked at the device to check the timer. To his surprise, the timer hard reset and had 17 more hours left. He said “Sorry I made a wrong forecast, we have enough time. We can listen to half the story tonight and the remaining tomorrow to be on the safer side”

  “OK for me, come let’s get an auto and discuss on the way”

  They were all intrigued by the developments, but still did not want to talk about them. So, for most of the journey, it was the silence that prevailed. Everyone was busy, absorbed in Vaidehi and what happened to her. They reached their destination in 20 minutes and freshened themselves up. They washed their feet in the bucket of water kept outside and went in.

  Kalpana was very enthusiastic the moment she entered the house and welcomed them. Vashist was the first to converse with her. He enquired, “You have a family and a house here. Yet you said you were staying in the hostel with his aunt?”

  “Ooh, that one is for a temporary purpose. You see, my work does not have a fixed time, so I do not want to disturb my aged parents. If work is lite, I will come home else will stay with Vaidehi”

  “Where do you work?”

  “I work for a pharma company in Hospet, around 15 km from here”

  “Where does his aunt work?”

  “She is a teacher in a primary school near the hostel itself”

  As they settled into the sofa, Kalpana went inside and brought her parents out. Her father, a retired postmaster, was old and carried a few spiritual books in his hands. From far it looked like Upanishad but is not very clear. For his age, he wore no glasses and walked all by himself. He looked to be in his early 70s. Following him came out her mother, clad in a typical Iyer-style madisar and looked very orthodox. Both of them welcomed the guests and escorted them inside the house with warmth.

  It was an independent house with two floors and the guest rooms were on the top floor. The ground floor belonged to the older parents because of their mobility. It was spacious and looked new. Vindhya could not resist her doubt “Is this your own house?”

  “Yes, we renovated last month only. It was an old traditional house, but none of the modern-day gadgets seemed to work, so we had to reconstruct it. I preferred the old house, they still fill my memories with it.”

  “Yes, I also liked my grandma’s house in Mannargudi a lot but also like my modern house in Madras”

  “It’s always like that. Old things are for memories only. It has to change, and cannot always be old. Let’s watch some TV and then have dinner. We have now got the new cable connection with all new channels”

  “What programs do you watch?”

  “Film songs. Today they are going to show a special on Roja. This new guy AR Rehman is too good”

  “Yeah, we got used to him a lot”

  “Used? This is only his first movie”

  “What I meant was, we will get used to him in the future.”

  Kalpana was a little surprised by the spontaneous answer, but did not want to show it. She could not understand how someone could have more information about something new. Were they high profile kids, related to the movies, but then she realized about their aunt. Little confused, she wanted the conversation to move forward, so changed the subject. “When would you like to have your dinner? Before or after the show?”

  “We will have it at your usual time.”

  “OK, it suits me well. We will see the program and then have dinner. I cannot wait to hear the songs”

  As advertised, the program had 4 songs from the movie Roja, followed by the trailer of the movie itself. Aravind Swamy the protagonist was a hot throb then and Kalpana was so enthralled. They needed to act surprised, at least not show their disinterest in these old songs. As the program neared its end, Kalpana reached out to the remote and asked, “Can we have dinner and then talk. There is nothing worthwhile on TV after this''. Irrespective of the response, she had switched off the TV. She then stood up, ready for dinner.

  Dinner was plain and very homely, which comprised bhindi masala and mysore rasam. The taste was exceptional and the hunger in each of them was very clear in the way they gobbled. Dinner conversation was very sparse. They all concentrated on their plates. The aged parents of Kalpana did not like to talk while dining. So the friends finished their dinner and then went upstairs to the room. Kalpana led the way and warned them like a cracked record. “People, the place is not so tidy, please adjust,” and opened the room.

  “Don’t worry, Kalpana, I’m used to sleeping in Vashist’s room for a long time. Nothing can beat that”.

  “Ooh. So he is a lazy person in the group?”

  “Of course, look at him. Do you think he can work fast?”

  “Why not? '' barged in Vashist, who could not resist his reputation going down the drain. He was the cleanest person in the group but unfortunately now was at the receiving end.

  “Kalpana, can we stay and talk before we sleep? We are not yet ready for sleep” enquired Vindhya.

  “Of course, I do not sleep early. My parents will go to bed soon but we can stay till 10:30 if you want”

  “Sure,” said Vindhya, jumping on the bed as usual to reserve her place.

  Kalpana spread the straw mats for the guys to sleep and pushed the bed to a corner next to the wall. So they all could sleep. Once the arrangement was complete, they all sat down and looked at Vindhya to start the gossip.

  “So what do you want to talk
about?” Kalpana broke the silence and also requested Vashist to switch on the fan.

  “Nothing, we want to know how you become friends with Vaidehi”. Vindhya blew the topic open with no warning. Ranga shocked and Vashist overwhelmed, and Kalpana looked normal.

  “Ooh, that’s a big story and a nice one too” she pulled her pants down to a more comfortable position “let me see where to start”

  Meanwhile, Ranga bit his teeth and was angry at Vindhya. She was keen to listen to the story and so was Vashist. The two curious cats could not stop before hearing the story out. Kalpana noticed Ranga and looked at him “Boy, nothing wrong in what she asked”

  “Right, but why dig into personal life when we can look at common topics” muttered Ranga with controlled anger.

  “What’s there? I like to talk about it and she is ready to listen. So no formalities friends”

  “Yes yes, carry on with the story” Vindhya hugged a pillow to her stomach and was eager to get the information.

  “It was in mid of July the rains started here and because of it, I used to stay the whole week in the hostel. I will visit home only during the weekends. On one Wednesday when I was coming back from the office Maitreyi came rushing to me with some urgent message”

  “Who is Maitreyi?” Vashist discontented without proper facts

  “She is the receptionist in that hostel, a lovely little village girl. She came to me excitedly and said that I had a roommate from today and she had come with only one small suitcase with her. I was thinking it’s alright. Since my room is infrequent in occupancy. For sudden or short duration needs, they will default my room for allocation. So I went upstairs only to find a very short but good-looking Tamil girl standing in her nightdress. She smiled at me and then went on with her activities. I was a little surprised but did not want to disturb her privacy”

  “So you did not talk with her on the same day?”

  “No, I could not resist being silent in a room. Sleep was not coming, and the girl was also very sad and depressed. So I got up and went near her and asked her name. She replied in one word - Vaidehi. From the reply, I found she had no willingness to talk, but I could not take such answers. My mind was eager to know more about her. So probed her with the second logical question, from where are you coming for which she said Madras.”

  “Madras, you must be joking the answer should have been Chennai”

  “What is Chennai, we all know it as Madras only. The old name was Chennaipatnam which nobody uses”

  “Shut up Vashist and listen with care” shouted Ranga

  “No fighting Ranga. He cannot take suspense, but he has confused himself a lot. The same thing happened for AR Rehman and now with city names. He reads too many fictional stories, I guess”

  “Yes, Kalpana, he always dreams about science fiction and blabbers a lot. Leave him alone and you carry on with the story”

  “The moment I heard the word Madras tears flowed from her eyes and it drifted towards her cheeks. She wiped it with her scarf and got up. Her face was so beautiful, a perfect round, and nice long eyes with sharp eyebrows and a pointed nose. Only the smile was missing, yet she reminded me of Saritha, the actress, but a fairer version of her. I was also unsure what to do. Then, wanting to break the silence, I asked her if it was her first time outside her home or if there was any problem. She replied, shaking her head to concur with me, but I did not understand for which question”

  “Must have been for the problem” shouted Vashist

  “How do you say that, again, some of your vague theories? I want to listen to it”

  “Well, since she had packed her bag and that too a small one, it meant that she was to return to her home soon. So that must not have been the issue. Elementary, my dear Watson”

  “You are good this time”

  Ranga barged in and wanted to know more about the issue and so suggested to Vashist, “Keep quiet, you dumbo. Kalpana, you please continue”

  “She opened up but then was not sure who I was and can she trust me? So she wiped her tears with her blouse and then said she was sleepy and that we can talk tomorrow. For me, the entire night was a goner. I could not sleep and was up thinking, what would the problem be for such a beautiful young girl?”

  “So what was your prediction?”

  “I narrowed it down to three reasons. One was the death of her most loved family member or failure in college or she got cheated by her lover. What do you think, Vashist?”

  “I’ll go with the third option”

  “Is it a wild guess or do you have some deductions?”

  “Let us say it’s a wild guess. Please continue,”

  “I spent the next entire day in my job figuring out by natural deduction of the facts and I could not conclude. So I came back soon from my office and then had a shower and sat at my table waiting for Vaidehi to come. She was already there in the room and today was feeling better. So I asked her if it was fine if we talked for some time and then finished dinner. She said the other way.”

  Kalpana then picked up the water bottle and drank some water. She continued, “After dinner, she was ready to narrate the story. She said that she was doing her BSc in Fine Arts from Stella Maris college. In one of the cultural programs, she met a Bangali boy and they became good friends. After some time, the friendship blossomed into a little intimate relationship. Then she put a question directed at him one fine day. Are you ready to marry me?”

  “Wow!!! This is in the 90s right?’

  “Why do you think I am telling some science fiction story set in 2020?”

  “Still, it's mind-boggling. What did he say?”

  “He took around two days to think and then finally said yes. The very next day Vaidehi went to her parents and told them about this boy and the fight started in her family. Every day after work, her father would shout in cadence at her to say it was impossible. She should forget this crazy idea. She would ask for some rational reasoning other than South Indian culture. This exchange went on for a month when finally her mother convinced her father and they agreed. They agreed on a condition that it was possible only if her paternal grandfather agreed”

  “Hmmm, so enter the villain”

  “The same routine continued, but her grandfather is a very stubborn man and one day the fight went out of control. In a fit of rage, she packed her bags and came to the Central station. The only train which left was the Howrah mail. Tickets were available only till Rajendranagar and so she bought the tickets. From there she took a mofussil bus to Hampi and reached in the morning.”

  “So you mean she knew somebody here in Hampi?”

  “No, that is what I also thought. She said she was in no mood to think and went to destinations that had means of transport available. She landed there and went to the public school nearby and applied for a music teacher job and got it. That evening is when she came to our room since the principal of that school knows this hostel very well. Then Maitreyi knows me very well. So we became friends”

  “You became close to her so soon?”

  “No, the first weeks we were like North Indian and South Indian put into the same room. Will only answer the questions and then mind their own business. Then, out of curiosity and to help the other person, I approached her to be my friend and open up with me. Then we became a little closer. As we speak now, she is on the way to Jabalpur with her class to attend some music competition and so only I am here in my house”

  “What, when is she leaving?” cried Ranga in total surprise

  “They are taking the school bus and it starts from the school campus by 9 PM. I guess as of now they must have left the city and reaching the highways”

  “Ooh, so we cannot meet her, you are saying”.

  “Why she will be back in three days, then you can meet her.”

  “No, we will leave by tomorrow afternoon” said Ranga, but his face and eyes displayed his sadness. It was visible, but the other friends jumped in to save him.

  “He is a little
desperate to go home. A little homesick that’s all” said Vindhya as she patted Ranga on his back to boost his morale.

  “Oh, so the baby is out for the first time?” Kalpana waved her hands to show that she was joking.

  “No no, but every time it is the same” Vindhya waved her hands at Ranga to calm down “can we continue the story, please”

  “Oh, so you two are curious cats?” pointed at Vindhya and Vashist. Vashist nodded his head as a confirmation and she nodded as a rejection. Confused, but she started again, “Having to stay here long she wanted to get in touch with her friend. So she used the hostel number for reference and daily the phone used to occupy her.”

  “Sangeetha Swarangal aa?” Vashist pumped his fists with a blushing smile on his face

  “So you also know this song? I love it”

  “I also like it, but it is my father who told me the story behind the song. I saw the video only recently and got the joke. So it was much like the movies”

  “Yeah, she was only happy during those calls. After that, she would return to her morose state and monosyllabic answers. If the call was good, then I could get some phrases and sentences as answers.”

  “Did she not try to contact her home anytime?”

  “Yeah, she used to contact her mother secretly and try to gauge the situation back there. It was always a NO from that end for their marriage. Those calls were depressing, and those nights were horrible for me. Like being in a haunted house with dogs howling in the background”

  “So when did you become thick friends then?”

  “That is where the entire story turns around on its head. The Bengali guy” Kalpana started but got interrupted by Vashist “What was his name?”

  “Hmm, you seem to have got engaged in the story. His name was Abhijit Banerjee and was a fine tabla player. His family had recently moved to Madras.”

  “Sorry for interrupting you, but I cannot withhold my mind. How did they meet?”