I smiled.
Rajat had his own ways of making me feel loved and while he had excelled in doing this in past ten years, he could never let our tenth anniversary go by without doing something remarkable. I knew he would make me feel special but I could never have guessed it would be this way. He had indeed made our tenth anniversary memorable. I shook my head at his loving gesture and felt lucky to be his wife. I was proud of our relationship. He was my world too and without him, I couldn’t live either.
After around half an hour when Rajat’s show came to an end, I decided to serve dinner. Dinner was organised in the big lawn attached to the club house. The lawn was maintained beautifully by the society and was verdant and lush. Some braziers were also placed in the corners. After all Bangalore’s chilly weather had to be combated by some warmth.
When dinner was announced, everybody assembled in the lawn. We had a variety of dishes to suit everyone’s palates. Soon everyone was enjoying the food. The guests admired the arrangements we had made. Some said it was beautifully organised and asked us who had planned it all. Rajat told them it was me behind the arrangements. They lauded my managing skills and some of my friends even asked me for tips.
During the entire dinner, I could feel Rajat’s warm eyes on me. Even after ten years, I had maintained my figure. I was wearing a beautiful green coloured silk sari and the adulation for my looks was clearly visible in his eyes. I beamed with happiness. He himself was looking adorable and handsome in his back suit. We went on attending to the guests. After two hours or so, the guests were ready to leave. Everybody seemed to have enjoyed themselves and appreciated our efforts.
We relaxed after the last guest departed. I instructed Gayatri to take the remaining food to her family. She was more than happy to do so. We collected our valuables from the club house and finally headed towards our flat. Sejal was extremely tired after playing throughout the long hours of the party. I quickly changed her dress and put her to bed in her room. She soon fell asleep. Rajat and I were finally alone with each other.
We went to our room’s balcony with two steaming cups of tea and sat on the swing. Rajat put his one arm across my shoulder and gently caressed my hair. It was a usual chilly night in Bangalore. We gazed at the twinkling stars, pleased to sit and enjoy the peace and quiet.
“So the projector, haan? From where did you get the idea? And since when you had been planning all this?” I asked looking at him.
“Today is a very special day for us, Maya. We have completed a decade with each other. I wanted to do something special and after juggling with many ideas, I came up with this one. I have been selecting and collecting snaps for days. My friends helped in setting up everything. Did you like it?”
“Like it? I loved it Rajat. Really! I had never imagined you would be doing such a special thing for us. The way you showed our guests ten years of our companionship was really innovative and your quick wit made it all the more enjoyable. I never knew you would plan all this. I feel very humble, love. Also, the party went well and the guests seemed delighted.”
“Yeah, everything went well. I am satisfied too. But I must admit that even after ten years, you look as beautiful and mesmerising as what you did at the time of our wedding.. What’s the secret by the way?” he leaned in to smell my hair. I could sense the brewing intensity in his voice.
I decided to intensify the moment further.
“No secret, honey. Your love is the elixir that can turn anyone into an evergreen beauty,” and then I looked at him. I felt the intensity of his love in his eyes. I lowered mine’s down under the affect of his sizzling gaze.. He gently pulled up my chin and kissed me.
“You are wrong, my love. You have some magic that makes me want more of you every time,” and our embrace tightened as we kissed tenderly. The warmth of the tea couldn’t match the intensity of our love. The coldness of night was suddenly pitted against our warm breath. Talking time was up. We returned to our room and though we were tired, we passionately made love. As we lay in each other’s arms, we talked about our college days. The photographs had made both of us nostalgic.
“You remember when we met for the first time during Antaragni? It was so unpredictable. I had never imagined that the guy I was meeting for the first time would become my future husband.”
“Yeah…I remember. Nor did I. We have come such a long way na, Maya. Ten years we have spent together…”
I cut him short, “And ninety more years to go together.”
“Ninety?” He chuckled caressing my cheeks. “You sure you can bear me for another ninety years?”
“You bet, Mr Rajat. Nothing can tear us apart…nothing.”
“Hmm,” came his short reply. He was playing with my hair.
“And why did you tell the guests that it was my excellent idea of choosing the pottery theme during Antaragni? You know the truth, right?”
“I said that because I still believe Maya, that it was your brilliant idea that culminated into success. I just executed it in a different way. But remember when I had made suggestions, how reluctant you were to talk about it… remember?”
“How can I ever forget that, sweetheart?” And this way the conduit was opened through which we started to dive back to our college days.
Welcome Aboard: Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
“Iremembered the tiniest details of the first time we met in the third year of my Masters. We were both studying in the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK). The four-day college fest Antaragni was going on. It falls in October-November every year and is an epic blend of many cultural and modern activities. Hard core competitions and phenomenal events with the scrumptious seasoning of international flavour make it a symposium of a lifetime experience.
Junoon is a big platform for India’s upcoming musical bands while Synchronicity shakes up the crowd with its rock competition which is very much required in places like IIT where minds go insane with mundane studies. It has bands competing hard with one another to win prizes that cover five zeroes at the least. Antaragni has also bagged the credit for being the first ever event in India that stepped forward to give equal shoulder space to international bands. Antaragni is now considered incomplete without international bands. Every year, popular singers, bands and musicians come over to take the fest to the next level. Mridaksh presents IIT with a sensational pair of Mr and Ms Antaragni while Insights is loaded with endless journey of learning with a number of workshops, melas and exhibitions.
But one of the most talked about shows is Ritambhara. It’s a fashion cum glamour show with models who seem to have jumped straight out of the movies. They look breathtakingly beautiful. Every boy dreams to woo them and that is why this show makes every IITian girl feel left out at least for one day. A long list filled with other exciting activities makes Antaragni a ten on ten fest. All in all, it is a fun-filled jamboree that promises to give you a high ride of entertainment every year in the IIT K campus.
It is organised in the Student Activity Centre (SAC). In the SAC, the planning for all the fun and entertainment related activities is done. Several competitions are held in this fest. There are food and fun stalls, game zones and musical shows. The students offer a great variety for all, making the fest a huge success. Outsiders are not allowed unless they have the fest passes.
I had chosen a fun stall category. I had taken pottery classes as a hobby in my past. Therefore I thought it’d be perfect to put my hobby to good use. Basically there were two reasons to choose pottery as the concept of my stall; first I loved pottery making and second, I couldn’t come up with a better idea. Also, I felt it would be a great and unique concept to go with, only to realise later that it was going to be tagged as a not-so-good stall.
My plan was to give anyone a hands-on experience in pottery making with a reasonable charge. And the process was fairly simple-Come choose your design from the models kept on the shelves or shoot your own ideas, create, pay and take away. That was it. Pottery making is n
ot very tough and just requires some practice to shape the pots. To make the stall more attractive I had added a twist into it. I had put different coloured clay and decorative items along with the pottery items. People could also collect their pots later in the day when the items were dried completely. All in all, people could take their items with them right after they were done or later in the day, both the options were given.
I had neatly arranged all the stuff on the shelves and had provided enough space inside for the people to wander around. I also had arranged some beautiful gift wrapping sheets in a box and kept it under the payment counter.. As per the norms of the fest, there were two volunteers assigned to me. They were very excited to be a part of an epic event and at getting a chance to work with a senior IITian.
On the first day of the fest, I was electrified. We were really excited and invited everyone at the top of our voices to come and try their hands at fun-filled pottery making. A few people showed up and gave our day a good head start. We satisfied every query and answered every question posed about the pottery making process. Some munched on the idea thoroughly while others spat it out by leaving the stall without giving me a chance. Soon I realised that people had steadily started drifting away from the stall in the fear of getting their hands and clothes dirty.
“That is not a good way to start the fest,” I bit my lip at this thought but shook my head. There was absolutely no way I could think of my idea being a failure so early. After all, it was my first chance to do some actual work during this fest. During the previous two years I had always been part of a team so I didn’t have to carry all the responsibility solely on my shoulders.
But this was the first time when I was in charge of something. I was the overseer here and also its carrier. Despite being a third year senior, I was nervous and now sceptical on whether I would succeed.
I tried hard but the situation wasn’t looking promising. By the time it was dusk, I began to feel very dejected. I had been unsuccessful in attracting crowd to my stall. I cursed myself for choosing this so called unique idea. The worst part was that these stalls would have to stay open for all the four days of the college fest. That meant I would have to sit in my empty stall for the next three days and the pottery items I had made would be mocking at me.
This was a horrible thought. I wasn’t prepared for such failure. I had thought of giving wings to my idea but strong winds of despondency had started to cripple them. But I decided not to lose hope this early and assured myself of a better second day. With the help of my volunteers I made some plans for the next day and decided to carry on with the same idea. I sighed as I wrapped up my stall. I was desperately trying to clutch onto the castle of my fragile confidence. I stepped out of the SAC and chose to go to my room despite my friends calling me to attend other events with them. My volunteers had already disappeared in the crowd, enjoying the electrifying evening.
The first day my stall had caught some attention but on the second day, hardly anyone came by. We kept inviting people with attractive hoardings and advertisements but to no avail. Few faces turned up but they left with a big ‘no’ on their faces when they spotted a girl spoiling her dress as she tried to make a cylindrical pot. This became an impediment towards my already hard-to-achieve success. We did our best to convince people that it was a lot of fun despite the mess. Some were polite enough to refuse with plausible excuses but others were rather rude and tossed gruesome comments too. Needless to say, I cursed them. Throughout the day I kept thinking of a way to achieve success, but no one seemed interested in pottery making at all. My first attempt to do something entirely on my own during Antaragni had started to seem like a distant dream. I was desperate enough to make my idea work but I couldn’t think of anything to do. I realised that it wasn’t going to steal the show. I would have to bear my empty stall along with the unanticipated failure for the next two days.
When you put your energy into something that requires tremendous effort, your mind works more than your body. At the end of the day, I was tired; not because of handling people but because of the failure of my stall. I realised that the remaining two days were going to be even bigger disasters. There were so many fun things to do during the fest but my stall was a responsibility to me. I couldn’t just go and dance to disco music while I was failing at my own laid task. I could see the faces of my volunteers. They were sad, gloomy and bore no more traces of hope. Had my concept worked, Antargani would have been one of the best-est events of my life so far. For my volunteers, my stall was just an activity; but for me it meant a lot, more than I had imagined.
Despondency had done quite a good job taking over my confidence and crushing it with every passing minute. I realised there was no point keeping these volunteers with me for the next two days. After some consideration, I asked them to choose another stall, or just to go and enjoy themselves. After few minutes of muffled hushes and hesitant nudges, they agreed. They wished me luck and drifted away. I sighed. Now I was all alone. My face was droopy and my heart had sunk deep into the ocean of the potpourri of my emotions, deeper than the Titanic itself.
With a heavy feeling in my heart I started to pack up my stall. I was putting the clay in the boxes when a guy came over. I looked up with a dejected face. He looked familiar but my mind was so absorbed with the stall I didn’t think harder to recall where I had seen him. I was also not in the mood to talk to anyone. I wanted to go to my room, shut the door and sleep till eternity.
Looking at my confused face, he waved and said, “Hey Maya! How you doing? I am Rajat, by the way. And your face tells me you didn’t recognise me. So as a kind reminder, I am your classmate in one of our HSS courses; you know, the Humanities and Social Sciences thing.”
‘Oh yes! He is in my Economics class and his name indeed is Rajat,’ I thought. I wondered what brought him to my stall because we had never talked to each other
I replied with a confused mind and busy hands, “Errr… yes Rajat! Sorry I forgot your name. I am doing well. What about you?” Though I was debilitating inside, I tried to look normal.
“I am good too and I can see how good you are.” He said pointing towards my stall. I sighed. So he had already figured out the level of my inner turmoil and poor state of the stall. Now that I had accepted my fate, it was futile to look cheerful. So I decided to spill the beans.
I shrugged, “Umm…so you know everything. Yeah! My stall is not doing well. I thought it would work but sometimes even brilliant concepts can backfire with unexpected results. By the way, what brought you to me and how is your stall doing?” I smiled tersely as I packed my stuff.
He pulled a chair from the stack of chairs.
“My stall is doing pretty well. I was wondering why your stall is not attracting people despite being different.”
My hands stopped but my mind did not. So he had come over to rub salt on my wounds. I knew that he had set up a gaming stall offering the crowd various games like shooting balloons, chase the maze, hit the jackpot, strength tester, and so on along with a long list of other video games. Everybody, ranging from younger ones to adults, seemed to enjoy those games. I could say this after eyeing enviously at the crowds at his stall throughout the day. It was easy for me to shoot quick glances at his stall because it was diagonally located to mine. However, it was rude to patronise others, especially then when they are struggling and you are successful.
I turned to him with absolutely blank face, “As I told you, sometimes even brilliant concepts do not work out as you expect them to.”
“Hey, I am sorry if I offended you. I didn’t mean to hurt you, Maya. Please don’t get me wrong. I just dropped in for a little chit-chat and ask you if you’d like a hot cup of coffee with some snacks. Are you interested?” He asked apologetically.
“What happened to your friends? Are they not interested in going with you?” I asked sarcastically.
“Well, no. Everybody’s left early so that they don’t miss Synch. I am tired and not in the mood to go. So I
wanted someone kind enough to bear me for a while. I see your volunteers have also gone somewhere. To Synch I guess. You too have to go to there?” He used Synch as the short form for Synchronicity.
I shook my head. I did not know what made me soften; his innocent face, soft voice or the hunger cramps I felt the moment he mentioned coffee and snacks.
I gave up and accepted his offer, “No! It’s okay. I am not in a good mood either. My volunteers have abandoned me, but I don’t blame them. No one salutes a setting sun. But I can’t say no to the coffee and snacks. I am in.” I managed to come up with a weak smile.
I wrapped up the stall and we went off to the Hall 1 canteen close to the SAC. We used our fest coupons and ordered two cups of coffee, a packet of chips and two double cheese sandwiches. We both were tired and very hungry after a long day’s work. It was hard to find time to eat during the event. We sat in silence till our order arrived.
“Nice coffee. How about yours?” Rajat asked relishing the sweet taste and the dense aroma of his Nescafe.
“Yeah! I agree,” taking a big sip of the coffee, “The sandwich is good too.”
“Absolutely!” and we proceeded to finish our food first.
After we were done, Rajat asked me if I’d like to go for a walk with him. I thought for a while and hesitantly agreed. My satiated stomach had reduced my chagrin up to an extent. Also, I didn’t have much to do back in my room. I could go later and sulk for the rest of the night. There was nothing I could do back there. The failure had taken a toll on my positivism and energy. I was left with no any other ideas to change the fortune of my stall. I wanted a distraction to take my mind off the things. Rajat proved to be good company and seemed like a nice guy. Whatever it was, I wanted someone with whom I could chat, and to go for a walk with a classmate with whom I had scarcely spoken didn’t seem too odd. Also, we knew nothing about each other; so we possibly couldn’t open the diaries of our personal lives. Chatting with a stranger make things easy sometimes because you can talk about different things like the weather, your interests and ambitions, festivals; things about which you usually don’t talk with people you know as they already acknowledge it all. But I wasn’t aware that this walk would alter the paths of our lives altogether.”
It’s Never Too Late Page 2