Forever Is True

by Novoneel Chakraborty

  Saveer entered Prisha with one thrust. She instantly grabbed the blinds’s rope for both support and for the onslaught she knew was coming up. With every new thrust, she kept, quite unintentionally, pulling the rope which made the blinds go up, inch by inch. Light seeped inside the room slowly as Saveer continued thrusting, till the whole cabin was flooded with sunlight.

  Saveer turned around. Prisha let go of the rope. The blinds clattered down. While smooching Prisha, he pushed her gently towards his table. He turned her around and while she held on to the table for support, entered her from behind. Saveer nibbled on the nape of her neck and her shoulder. His thrusts were rocking not just Prisha’s body but her core as well. She gripped a nearby chair for support.

  She had come to the office to ask him what she had in her message the previous night. While lying on the hospital bed for months, she had an inkling that her inner shores were craving the waves which only he could bring forth. However, when he had kissed her minutes ago, she had realized that she didn’t just want those waves to crash on her shores but wanted them to flood her, inundate her. Conquer her such that there were no shores left.

  Saveer bit her neck hard as he pulled out at the last moment. She turned and kissed him. They were breathing each other’s air. It was scribbled all over their faces: they weren’t done.

  Prisha turned and pushed him, rather forcefully, on the couch. Saveer was still hard when he slumped down on the couch with a thud. Prisha straddled him, allowing him to grow stiffer inside her. This time, while she rode him, their eyes remained locked. As if nothing existed beyond them. As if the whole world was a facade. And in the garb of two bodies, only their souls existed. Prisha came soon and collapsed on his chest, holding him tight. Come what may, she thought, I won’t let this love go to waste. They lay on the couch for half an hour without uttering a single word. Then suddenly, Saveer spoke up.

  ‘I want to show you something,’ he said and stood up. He turned around to show Prisha the tattoo. She frowned.

  ‘I will fuck your every happiness,’ she read softly. And immediately recollected having seen the ‘I’ tattooed on his back a long time ago. I for Ishanvi, was what Prisha had concluded back then.

  ‘When did you get it inked?’ she asked, running her fingers over each word.

  ‘I didn’t. I found this tattoo on my back the morning we were supposed to meet at Nandi Hills.’

  ‘That’s strange. How could you have not known about it? I have seen it before.’

  ‘You have seen the tattoo?’

  ‘Not the entire line. Just the letter ‘I’. I thought it stood for Ishanvi.’

  Saveer’s mouth hung open. He had never inked it himself, ever.

  ‘I have no idea. I have been thinking about it for the last six months. But nothing is making any sense except . . .’

  ‘Except?’

  ‘I have a request. And promise me that you will listen to me,’ Saveer said, trying hard not to look crestfallen.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘We won’t meet again. Ever!’

  Prisha could have cried then and there. She held back her tears and said, ‘Will you be able to live without me?’

  ‘No, I won’t be able to,’ he grabbed her hand. His touch was warm. ‘But I can’t risk you getting killed. Don’t you still get it, Prisha? There is someone out there who wants to kill you because we got closer. I don’t know what his problem is. But my problem is simple: I can’t lose you.’

  Prisha looked at him for some time. There was a concoction of patience and restlessness in his eyes.

  ‘Don’t you get it, Saveer? Whoever that person is, doesn’t know that I love you more than he can ever hate you,’ she said and kissed him hard.

  Neither of them knew that that person was sitting in a small cafe right opposite G-Punch and had heard every bit of their conversation and all that they had been up to in that room. Every cufflink of Saveer’s was fitted with a microphone. The ones he was wearing was no different. The person finished a cup of cappuccino and thought, people never understand. That’s the whole problem. The person took a deep breath and murmured, ‘Unless, of course, they are made to understand.’

  5

  Prisha knew she had lost a considerable amount of academic time. It only meant that either she would have to drop a semester or work harder and sit for both the semester exams together. But for that she and her father would have to meet the dean and explain the situation under which she had missed her classes for the last six months.

  Saveer wanted to drop her back home but she insisted on going back alone. So Saveer asked Krishna to accompany her to her apartment. Prisha was happy that her gut feeling had been right. With Utkarsh, she had been grossly wrong. With Saveer, the opposite had happened. She wanted to tell him about a lot of things that could possibly be clues to why she was pushed, and why so many people had died on his birthday. Their conversation in the office was interrupted by Krishna as there were a few meetings lined up for Saveer. Prisha had to leave. Not before tearing up the termination letter and telling Saveer that she would be joining back once she had clarity on the academic front.

  Although her parents were staying at Zinnia’s, Prisha wanted to spend some time with her friends before going back home. The moment she stepped inside the flat, Gauri said, ‘Diggy and I have had a bet of Rs 500.’

  ‘What kind of bet?’ Prisha asked.

  ‘She thinks Saveer and you must have kissed today and I think not. I mean you guys just met after a long time,’ Diggy answered.

  ‘There is a reason why you are forever single,’ Gauri taunted him.

  ‘What do you mean? Prisha isn’t as tharki as you are.’

  ‘We didn’t kiss,’ Prisha said. Diggy jumped up in joy and started demanding his prize from Gauri. The latter threw an I-am-disappointed look at Prisha.

  ‘I mean we didn’t just kiss. We made out like two animals in heat.’

  Diggy paused. His mouth hung open. A slow smile spread on Gauri’s face.

  ‘You make me proud, bro,’ Gauri hugged Prisha and told Diggy, ‘You know what to do now.’

  Diggy made a face and said, ‘You guys were meeting after six months! Who does that kind of thing?’

  ‘People in love!’ Gauri said, ‘I want the details.’

  Prisha was about to begin when her phone rang. It was her mother. She had called her up a couple of times when she was at G-Punch but she hadn’t picked up. She knew that Gauri would get a call next. Prisha had messaged Gauri to tell her mother that she was sleeping.

  ‘I think you better take this one. Aunty had called up twice,’ Gauri said. Prisha nodded and took the call. She told her that she would be at Zinnia’s flat in some time.

  ‘Let’s go to Zin’s place. I’ll tell you what happened in the cab,’ Prisha said.

  ‘Cool.’ Gauri stood up to get ready.

  ‘Even I want to know,’ Diggy whined.

  ‘No! We don’t want to spoil you, Mr Saint. Moreover, you’ll stay here and finish our assignments. It’s your turn, remember?’ Gauri sounded as if she was making a declaration. Diggy’s face fell.

  On their way to Zinnia’s, Prisha shared every detail with Gauri.

  ‘Are you serious? You kept pulling the blinds up?’

  Prisha blushed.

  ‘I wish I had a man in my life right now. I would have sucked him dry. That’s how horny I’m.’

  The cabbie stared at them. Prisha gestured Gauri to shut up.

  ‘I’m happy, Gauri. I never thought reconnecting with Saveer would be this easy when I was in the hospital. Believe me,’ she said with moist eyes. Gauri held her hand and said, ‘I’m really happy for you, bro.’

  ‘I know I won’t ever meet anyone like Saveer who would love me because of love alone. There’s nothing more than that.’

  Gauri understood what she meant. Love, often, is a result of many conditional agendas. People mistake love to be a cause when many a time it is only an effect of someone’s physical need
s. She had experienced it with Sanjeev. He always said that he loved her but his love was limited. Limited to the body. And just like the body, anything that is limited, is destined to die. Every step taken is towards an ending. While a love beyond the body, is a path towards new beginnings.

  Prisha and Gauri reached Zinnia’s place to find her parents packing.

  ‘Mumma, I thought you are going to stay for one more week,’ Prisha said, sitting down on the bed.

  ‘Your sister has school. We’ll have to leave. Our tickets are done.’

  Ayushee came and hugged Prisha from behind. ‘It’s been ages since you’ve come home, Didi. It’s waiting for you.’

  Prisha frowned. She broke the hug and glared at her mother.

  ‘What’s she talking about?’

  ‘We are all leaving for Delhi tomorrow.’ It was her father.

  ‘What? Why?’

  ‘Why? Don’t you know why?’ her father said. ‘You’ll study in Delhi from now onwards.’ It was more of an announcement.

  Prisha looked at her father, then her mother and at last at Gauri.

  ‘I’m sorry but I can’t leave Bengaluru!’

  Except for Gauri everyone else looked incredulously at her.

  ‘I mean I can’t leave my studies in between,’ Prisha clarified.

  ‘Who is asking you to leave your studies?’ her father countered. ‘You’ll get into some Delhi University college. I’ve had a talk with a friend who has connections.’

  ‘New college, new people . . . I’m comfortable here, Papa. Please, understand.’

  With every argument she had with her father, Prisha felt as if she were being taken away from Saveer. If she agreed to her parents’ plan then it would be a slow death to her and Saveer’s story. He won’t be able to come down to Faridabad all the time. And she wouldn’t be allowed to leave Faridabad for the next three years. Everything sounded disgusting to her.

  ‘I’ve had a talk with my head of the department. He said I won’t be losing any time,’ Prisha sounded desperate.

  Gauri gave her a when-did-this-happen look.

  ‘But if I change colleges now, I will lose time. And my friends will get ahead of me,’ Prisha said, sitting on the bed. Her father gave her a look. The doctor had asked him to keep Prisha away from stress since the trauma of the accident was yet to sink in. He went to her, caressed her head and said, ‘All right. Stay here.’

  Prisha jumped up and hugged her father.

  ‘But I want to meet the head of your department before I leave.’

  Prisha gulped nervously and glanced at Gauri. The latter had no answer. She looked at her father.

  ‘I hope that shouldn’t be a problem,’ he said.

  ‘Not at all,’ Prisha said.

  6

  ‘Are you mad?’ Saveer said after listening to Prisha’s plan over the phone.

  The plan was simple. Her parents had not met the head of her department before. Nor had they met Saveer. Not even in the hospital. Saveer had intentionally not met Mr and Mrs Srivastav. He didn’t know what to introduce himself as. Friend? Boyfriend? The thirty-five-year-old boyfriend of a twenty-year-old girl? Which father would accept such a relationship? Especially when his daughter was in the Intensive Care Unit. Saveer preferred to stay quiet. And now when Prisha asked him to pose as her professor and talk to her father, he was getting cold feet.

  ‘Listen, Saveer, either you meet him or I’ll have to move back to Faridabad,’ Prisha said, with a note of finality. After trying to convince him for the past one hour, she realized that shifting to Faridabad was her last shot.

  ‘But where will I meet him?’

  ‘My family has a flight to Delhi in the afternoon. I will convince Papa to meet you before that. In some cafe.’

  ‘In some cafe? Which parent will meet a college professor in a cafe?’ Saveer asked, amazed.

  ‘Let me handle that. You just stick to the script please.’

  ‘Script? Is this a film?’

  Prisha laughed. ‘But you got to agree this is filmy.’

  ‘I swear it is!’

  Next day, Saveer reached the Starbucks outlet close to Prisha’s college well before time. He carried a few books with him to make it look real—props to the real-life skit that they were going to pull off. He ordered himself a frappe. Prisha and her father arrived ten minutes later.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Rathod sir,’ Mr Srivastav said, shaking his hand eagerly as he sat down opposite Saveer.

  ‘I had to disturb you on your holiday,’ he added.

  Saveer wasn’t surprised. Prisha had called him late at night to inform him about the story that she had cooked up with Gauri and Diggy. Saveer was on a holiday with his family and thus on leave. It was after Prisha had specially requested him that he had agreed to meet her father. That’s the reason he had chosen the cafe for the meeting and not the college premises.

  ‘And who is going to talk to your real professor to let you sit for both your semester exams together?’ Saveer had asked her.

  ‘My local guardian,’ Prisha had said, sounding confident and amused.

  ‘Who?’

  ‘My boyfriend, Saveer Rathod, who will act as my local guardian. There are perks of being in a relationship with an older guy, you know.’

  ‘Yeah, right!’ Saveer had said. Surely, teenagers nowadays were far more creative and daring than they used to be when he was young.

  ‘It’s all right. Prisha is a bright student. So, it’s ok,’ Saveer told her father.

  ‘She must have told you about the trauma she went through in the last six months.’ By the time he finished talking, Prisha’s father was overwhelmed. She grasped his hand.

  ‘I know. Prisha told me,’ Saveer said as the scene from Nandi Hills flashed in front of his eyes.

  ‘I just want to make sure that she is all right. Not that I doubt my daughter. But . . .’

  This time, Saveer leaned towards Mr Srivastav and said, ‘I understand. Don’t worry. She won’t lose any academic time.’ Saveer paused and then added, ‘And also . . . I’ll take care of her.’

  For a moment, Saveer and Prisha’s eyes locked together. This wasn’t part of the script. But it was truer than any other word in the script. I’ll take care of her, it reverberated within her.

  ‘Thank you, so much. Students need more mentors like you,’ Mr Srivastav said, feeling confident about Prisha’s decision.

  The meeting lasted for five more minutes after which Prisha and her father took Saveer’s leave. Prisha texted Saveer that she would meet him at the office after dropping off her parents at the airport. Saveer told her that he would send Krishna to fetch her.

  * * *

  The moment Prisha entered Saveer’s cabin, she hugged him tight.

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘Don’t make me feel so desirable. Okay?’

  ‘Okay,’ Saveer smiled.

  ‘Not okay. You don’t have to listen to everything I say.’

  ‘O-kay!’

  Prisha broke the embrace and looked at him.

  ‘I mean not okay.’

  They laughed together. Prisha went and sat down on the couch. Saveer put his laptop on sleep mode.

  ‘I have thought hard,’ she said, looking outside through the blinds.

  ‘About?’ Saveer pulled up a chair and sat next to her.

  ‘The voice was similar to yours.’

  ‘Whose voice?’ Saveer frowned.

  ‘Let me tell you from the beginning. The first time I had a feeling that you were hiding something from me was when I spotted you in the mall while you told me that you were driving to the mall.’

  ‘When was this?’

  ‘Remember the flash mob we did for G-Punch?’

  Saveer nodded.

  ‘When the flash mob ended, I saw you. On the first floor.’

  ‘You saw me?’ Saveer looked genuinely taken aback. Prisha nodded and said, ‘I chased that person but lost him in the crowd.’

  ‘You sure you sa
w me?’

  Prisha seemed thoughtful. It was clear that she was trying to recall that day.

  ‘Almost you. I mean, I don’t know. He was wearing aviators. Had a similar jawline like yours and . . . the voice was similar to yours as well. Slightly heavier.’

  ‘You talked to him?’

  ‘Before I was pushed off the edge, the person told me that he was sorry. That forever was a lie. I turned around but someone flashed a light in my face so I couldn’t see anyone. But . . .’

  ‘But?’

  ‘He visited me in the hospital.’

  ‘He did? When?!’

  ‘One night. I don’t remember the date. But not recently. Basically what he said was that he had been killing people for many years now.’ And that he would kill me if we got any closer, she didn’t tell him the last bit lest he panicked.

  ‘This means that all those deaths were never a coincidence?’ It sounded more like a question that he was asking himself.

  ‘That goes back twenty-five years!’ Saveer mumbled, amazed.

  ‘There’s something even more disturbing,’ Prisha said, feeling her throat go dry as she thought about what she was going to tell him next.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘The night he visited me in the hospital, I saw him leaving. And he was in a woman’s attire.’

  ‘A woman’s attire?’ Saveer’s had a deep frown on his face. ‘The obvious reason could be to hide his real identity.’

  ‘Yeah, I thought so too.’

  Saveer stood up and started pacing in the room.

  ‘The tattoo . . .’ Prisha said. Saveer shot an inquiring glance at her.

  ‘I had seen the first letter ‘I’ but I thought you always had it. I for Ishanvi, you see.’

  ‘When did you see it?’

  ‘Again, I don’t remember the date but we were on the terrace and . . .’ Prisha realized that Saveer wasn’t really interested in the conversation. He looked distressed. She stood up and walked towards him. Then she cupped his face in her hands and said, ‘Don’t get stressed out.’

  ‘There are just too many inexplicable things happening.’