Part 2: The aftermath

Ganesh took a sip of tea from the glass he held in his hand. The expression on his face turned to disgust. The tea was too sweet. He looked at the tea master and said "The tea's too sweet." The tea master did not respond. Ganesh was not sure if the tea master was ignoring him or if he did not hear the words. So he repeated. This time the tea master looked at Ganesh and responded "I will make another one for you." Ganesh waved his hand and said "That's ok." Ganesh got up and went towards the counter. He opened a jar and took out a groundnut cookie from it. For the next couple of minutes, he chewed on the cookie. It was sweeter than the tea but the sweetness of the cookie did not bother him. He picked up the glass of tea once the last piece of the cookie disappeared into his mouth. He sipped the tea from the glass and smiled. The sweetness of the cookie had dulled his taste buds and now the sweetness of the tea was just right.

He looked around and noticed a dog on the other side of the road. It was trying to cross the road but there were too many vehicles on the road.  The dog changed its mind and decided to go back to the pavement on the other side of the road. Suddenly a vehicle appeared behind the dog; the vehicle was speeding along the wrong side of the road. The dog jumped back with a yelp. It was shocked by the sudden appearance of the vehicle. Now it was completely confused. It looked to the left, right, front and back before running towards the pavement. There it lay down and attempted to comfort itself by licking every part of its body.

Ganesh sight moved on. He noticed the headlines on the newspaper held by a person sitting on the opposite side. The headlines announced "Minister arrested on bribery charges". The news surprised him. He looked at the words on the newspaper keenly. He had read it correctly the first time. He wondered since when ministers in his country got arrested for bribery charges. If that was the case, there would be no ministers in the country. He did not like to think or discuss about politics. So he dropped the thought. Before he could move on to the next thought, the mobile phone rang.

Ganesh could not identify the number of the caller. He hesitated for a moment. It could be one of those people who were desperate to give him a personal loan. He was in need of money but he knew that if he responded to the call, the banks would ultimately find a million reasons to not loan him anything. Yet, he received the calls from unknown people from the banks who promised to get him a loan. On the other hand, it could be the medical insurance people. Those fellows were even worse. They wanted your money but atleast they were good enough to wish that you live healthily and never went into a hospital. It could be the credit card people... He stopped his mind from meandering further. He picked the call and said "Hello". He did not hear a response from the other side. He repeated "Hello. Who is this?" He heard a series of sobs from the other end. He repeated again "Hello. Who is this?" Finally, he got a response, not for the question though. The voice on the other end said "Machan, she ditched me da!". The speaker on the other side started crying loudly. Ganesh felt stumped. He had no idea who got ditched and who had ditched the ditched person. But now his curiosity was piqued. So, he stopped questioning and said "Its ok da. Don't cry. Tell me what happened." The caller on the other side sniffed a few times and started talking.

"I loved her with all my heart da and now she says she is getting married. She called me yesterday and asked me to come to the cafe. I thought she was going to propose..."

Ganesh could not stop himself from saying "What! Girls never propose". The caller ignored the interjection and continued "She called me to give me the invitation for her marriage with someone else; not me!" The caller stopped the narration and spent the next few seconds crying. Ganesh tried to pacify him by saying "Its ok da". But the caller protest "Its not ok da. How can it be ok? I love her. I loved her for 10 years but she says we were only friends. You tell me how is that possible? How?" Ganesh did not know how to respond to the 'how' and so he asked "How?" The caller responded "Exactly! How?" Ganesh felt lost. He had already asked how and got a 'how' in response. It would be silly to respond to a 'how' that came as a response to a 'how', which by itself was a response for a 'how'. So he said "Hmmm". The caller seemed satisfied with Ganesh's response and said "Exactly. It is not possible. We loved each other. I know it. I felt it. I still feel it. Its not friendship. You know what!" Ganesh, unable to remain quiet asked "What?" This 'what', however found a response "I will tell you what. She says we never said 'I love you' to each other. Utter nonsense. Does anyone say 'I love you' in real life? That only happens in the movies. 'I love you' it seems! Am I Mohanlal to ask her to say 'I love her'?" At that moment, Ganesh realized that he was not talking to Mohanlal. "First she ditched you and now she ditches me. This is not correct." 

The phone slipped from Ganesh's numb palm and fell on the ground. He quickly bent down and picked it up. He heard the caller saying "... hello, hello, are you there? What happened?" Ganesh responded "Yeah, yeah. I am here. What did you say?" 
"That she ditched me."
"Before that."
"She said that I did not say 'I love you'."
"After that da!"
"That she ditched me."
"No. Didn't you say that she ditched me?"
"Yes. Remember, when you left the school after the tenth standard?"
"Vicky! Is that you?"
"Of course, I am Vicky. You mean, you did not realize till now."
"How do you expect me to know. I have not heard from you for 10 years."
"Then why did you not ask?"
"That's not important. I now know who you referring to. She didnot ditch me."
"She did"
"Nope"
"Don't lie"
"I am not lying."
"I have seen you crying when she ditched you for me."
"You were hallucinating."
"I don't hallucinate."
"You just hallucinated the whole business of she loving you."
"What! If you were here I would have strangled you. How can you mock our love like this?"
"Not our love. Your love."
"How dare you!"
"Enough! I don't have time for this. Bye."

Ganesh cut the call, switched off the phone and kept it back in his pocket. He looked towards the tea master and asked "Anna, one tea. Make it sweet; double sweet."

Part 1: The invitation

She was sitting at a table, at the farthest corner of the restaurant. She was looking at the screen of her mobile phone intently. He walked towards her slowly. As he reached the table, he asked the person waiting besides the table for a glass of water. She heard his voice and looked up. She smiled at him. He sat down on the chair and asked her if she was ok.

"Yeah, I am fine. You seem tired."

"Yeah, too much work at the office."

"I ordered samosas and tea. Do you want anything else?"

He shook his head and said "No. That should do."

She dipped her hand into her bag which lay on the chair besides her's and took out a card. She held it below the table for a few seconds. She smiled and stretched the card towards him. "I am getting married" she said. He looked at the card and then at her for sometime. He did not take the card off her hand. She continued to extend the card towards him. The smile disappeared from her lips slowly. She said "Please take the card." He broke out of his spell and said "Married?" She did not say anything. He took the card off her hand and looked at it. He only saw her name on the card. She watched him quietly. Finally, he looked at her and asked.
"Married? But what about us?"
"Us? What about us?"
"What about our relationship?"
"What about it? We were friends and we will continue to be friends."
"Friends? We love each other."
"Love! Have I ever told you so?"
"No,..."
"I don't remember you saying it to me either."
"But that is not the point. You know we have loved each other for many years. Everything can't be expressed in words."
"We have never mentioned to each other that we love each other. So how can you say that we have loved each other for years?"
"Come on! The amount of time we have spent with each other over the past many years is proof enough for the love we feel for each other."
"You know Madhav?"
"What?"
"Do you remember Madhav?"
"Yes, I remember. What about him?"
"I spend a lot of time with him too. Am I supposed to be in love with him too? Do you expect me to marry him too?"
"Don't talk nonsense. He is your friend. You have told me so yourself."
"So are you! What makes you think that my relationship with you is any different?"
"But it is! I know you have felt it. I have seen it in your eyes."
"Please don't do this. We have been good friends. Please don't mess it up now."
"Mess it up! You have cheated me."
"Excuse me! Mind your words! How have I cheated you? Did I ever ask you to marry me?"
"No, but..."
"Nor have you! Neither of us have made promises to each other and yet you assume that we were in love with each other."
"But I do love you. I thought you knew. Please don't do this."
"Do you remember when you last called me?"
"Its been a few days. I was busy. I am sorry."
"Do you remember, I called you a month back?"
"Yes but we couldn't talk much."
"Talk much? We did not talk at all. You said you will call back and that's the last I heard from you."
"I told you I have been busy." 
"... and you claim that you are in love with me."
"This is not fair."
"Listen! We have known each other for years. I consider you to be a good friend. It will be great if you can come for my wedding. I can't say anything else."
"This is not fair. You did the same thing with Ganesh."
"Who is Ganesh?"
"Our classmate from 10th standard."
"Goli?"
"Oh! You remember his name still?"
"What the hell! What about Ganesh?"
"You were in love with him too and later you refused to accept it."

She did not respond but stared at him. She looked at the road through the window for a few seconds. She got up, picked her bag and walked away.

In the closet

He looked at the road through the door that led to the balcony. On the road, vehicles ran here and there , but he did not notice them. He was not looking at the road at all. He was not looking at anything at all. Thoughts occupied his mind, and it did not have the bandwidth to process the sights that reached him through his eyes. Suddenly, he felt a pain rising out of his knees. He realized that he was standing. He did not remember for how long he had been standing at that spot. He turned around and walked towards one of the chairs in the room. He sat down and looked up at the fan. He was not looking up at the fan really. His mind continued to be preoccupied and it did not know what to do with the sights that were reaching it. He closed his eyes in an attempt to stop his eyes from disturbing his thoughts. He wished he could do something to stop the thoughts too, but he knew that would not be possible. His tightened his fist and punched the arm of his chair. He let a stream of unconnected curses escape his mouth. At the end of the stream, he shouted in frustration "How the hell could you fuck up like this?" 

He had messed it up again. He liked living in this neighbourhood. He thought he had finally left his past behind. He felt the blemishes of the past were erased. He was looking forward to living the life of a respectable old man. But he was cheating himself. The sight of that young man had changed everything. He started fantasizing and worse, started believing in his fantasies. He felt that finally he had a chance to live the life that he could not live earlier. The thought made him bold, and he did something that he should not have done. He revealed something about himself carelessly. For the first time in his life, he had exposed himself. In the sixty fifth year of his life, he finally had the guts the take a step forward boldly. He had opened up and extended his hand. But he had extended it to the wrong person. He was not the person he thought he was. The young man had shunned his hand. No, no, that would be wrong to say. The young man was not interested in his hand at all. He had misread the intentions and made the wrong move. Now, he felt like an idiot. He shouted once again in frustration "Feel like an idiot? You moron, you are an idiot."

He wondered how he could go on living like this. He opened his eye and looked up at the fan. He said softly "No. I can't do it." Once again, he closed his eyes. A tear drop appeared at the corner of his eye. Soon, the drop turned into a stream and flowed down his cheek. He did not wipe it. It was many years since he had felt tears roll down his cheeks. But the feeling did not last long. The tears stopped flowing from his eyes. He did not feel sad. He only felt anger, but he did not know the object of his anger. It was definitely not against the young man. He was not pompous enough to think that he was angry with the world. He did not think he was angry with himself. He felt confused. He thought he was probably angry with life. But that felt even more pompous than being angry with the world. At that moment he realized that he was angry with the world or more precisely the society around him. He did not understand why the society would not allow him to be himself. Why did the society have to put him through such embarrassments. He laughed and said "Yeh society ek number ka villain hain, Ajith jaise villain. Saala, it is drowning me in liquid oxygen - the liquid will not let me live and the oxygen will not let me die."

He got up from the chair and switched on the light. It was time for dinner.