The various sounds of an Indian wedding ceremony, the hubbub of the guests, the joy and glee in the air did not touch her. She felt an alien. She remained at a distance and watched everything. She was ignored by everybody. Everybody was too busy to notice the teary eyed girl that stood at a distance, looking pathetically at the bride who was practically glowing with vermilion on her head. However that glow, smile and joy, all got dissolved as her face contorted to that of a crying one and shifted to a cold one with lifeless eyes caused due to the rope bound on her neck.
A figure sat up on the bed agitatedly, sweating buckets at the middle of the night with the air conditioner turned on at full blast. The figure's heart beat wildly as if she had run from Kolkata to Darjeeling. The person beside her, being a light sleeper woke up and groggily asked;
"Ki hoyeche? You had a nightmare, babe?"
The addressed person attempted to speak but found her throat to be parched dry, so she simply nodded.
"Let me fetch you a glass of water, you must be thirsty."
The other one slipped out of the covers, picked up the bath robe and waddled towards the open kitchen of the apartment to fetch a glass of water for the parched one. As the latter person waddled towards the kitchen, the one who sat on the bed turned on the bed side lamp and revisited the scattered memories of the nightmare she just had. Although she had no recollection of what the nightmare was exactly all about, but through her emotions of fear and helplessness, all she could say that it was something that she would ardently wish never to happen in reality.
"Here Suhas."
She looked up at the person holding the glass of water. The latter's tousled hair, somewhat sleepy eyes and the robe exposing several bite marks and hickeys all over her neck cleared the daze of the person on bed. Reality and realization crashed back on her like a bucket of hot water.
After drinking the water, both of them turned off the bed side lamp and went back to sleep with the tousled haired one snuggling up to her girlfriend unaware of the fact that the latter couldn't sleep for the rest of the night as she held the former in tight embrace.
The nightmare that Suhas had experienced was the unfortunate death of the person snuggling up to her. She wondered why she had such dream as she tightened her embrace and vowed never to let the nightmare turn into reality.
Till the sun arose, Suhas twirled and played with her girlfriend's hair as she took a trip down the memory lane they had made together until now.
"Ei ei tora shunechis, those two are actually dating!"
Through the smoke screen that was exhaled, the black haired woman eyed the bubbly, spectacled, shoulder length brownish haired girl who talked animatedly to another girl, who had several piercings in her both ears and probably a tattoo on her shoulder as well that was poking out of her off-shoulder top.
"OMG really? That's nice!"
This juicy input earned some excited squeals from the other gossip mongers. However, they stopped short when they heard the door of the terrace opened with a disturbing noise and a girl of their age; probably a second year stepped out and climbed down the stairs nonchalantly. As soon as she is out of sight, the gossip mongers resumed their excited girlish squeals again.
"Yeah! Finally those two got together. I guess Kalki had feelings for Renna ever since her freshman years."
No matter wherever she went, it's always the gossip of Kalki and Renna, how they got together, who liked whom first, their interaction and blah blah blah. Don't they have anything else to talk about?....like about the abrupt changes in the climate of the world or something?
"Oma tai naki?"
The previous temporary rude interrupter stood quietly at the stairs leading the floor below and listened to the gossip of those girls.
"Haa re, and then on the day of Renna-didi's farewell party, organised by the Political Science department, Kalki confessed to her!"
When she told about it to her friends, both Saina and Avinash couldn't help but laugh.263Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX2zwf49JVh
"Goodness Suhas! Only you could think about such stuffs in the middle of spring, when love is in the air~!"
The three musketeers Suhasini, Avinash and Saina were sitting at their specific table in the cafeteria when upon listening to Suahsini, the latter two had burst out into laughter.
"Come on now, not everyone can think like that when we have got a new couple in this dumb, boring college!" Saina chewed the bland pasta of the canteen with a newfound enthusiasm.
They had already taken the food of their choice with Suhasini's plate consisting of noodles and Avinash's plate containing fried rice and chilly chicken.
"I know. I get the excitement but don't they get tired talking about the same thing?"
Avinash spooned off a bit of fried rice in his mouth and spoke whilst trying to tear the chicken with the spoon.
"Do you ever get tired of smoking, inhaling the nicotine and exhaling it through your nose and mouth?" Avinash had peered at Suhas and before the latter could say anything he continued; "You don't, right? Same here with the masses of this college. They don't ever get bored of gossiping."263Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡKpeFu96R9f
Avinash doesn't like Suhas' smoking habit, but never expresses it clearly to her yet hasn't missed a chance to show his disapproval of it indirectly, Saina on the other hand, is very chilled about all this.
Suhas had shook her head and decided to drop the subject for now, but what she couldn't pin point is the reason as to why she felt uncomfortable amongst these excited whispers and gossips, she had an unnatural urge to escape. She isn't a homophobic person but she likes to maintain a limit and this certain gossip is not settling with her properly.
As the weeks of Spring season rolled off, Suhas and her friends had dived deep into their assignments, project works and studies that were assigned to her class by their professors, she eventually forgot all about this 'new couple's' gossips as such. Avinash whined and groaned as to how he's going to die at this rate buried under the endless assignments and projects while Saina seemed highly sleep deprived and would drop dead at any moment.
The sky had started to change its colour from bright blue sunny ones to that of grey, almost black ones with purple lightening along with scattered thunderstorms which brought relief from the horrid heat-wave that Kolkata was experiencing until now. The trio planned for an outing to refresh their mind in the next upcoming public holiday which was the second last date of the month of June because by that time they'll be done with their semester examinations as well.
However, soon the three musketeers, especially Suhas realized that how in life neither everything goes the way one wishes nor everything they don't wish exactly happens the same.
On the day of the trio's appointment, nature didn't seem too keen to allow these three to have a best time of their life as the sky remained cloudy since morning and by afternoon; it was raining cats and dogs. A highly disappointed Suhas was about to return back to her rented apartment from the bus stop since neither of her friends could make it because one of them was down with unexpected fever and the other's colony had been badly waterlogged. Suhas had worn grey jeans and her brand new anime t-shirt which she had been eyeing for quite a few months in Amazon and finally she bought it after saving quite some money that her father transfers to her bank account and she was pretty excited to show it to her friends but alas, fate had other plans. She had opened her umbrella after stepping out of the bus stop since the rain at present is not coming down as hard as it was previously, when she spotted someone familiar at the other side of the road, drenched to the bones, standing quietly, head hung low. That person didn't seem to have the intention of crossing the road at all. For some reason, Suhas couldn't ignore her.
She thought for a bit then decided to approach her. Just as she had thought, it was none other than Kalki. The girl looked like a drenched cat with her orange one-piece that clung to her body like a second skin.
The wet brown mop had looked up when she felt that for some reason rain had stopped falling on her. She looked up and saw a girl probably of her age holding an umbrella over her. The latter was a bit taller than the former with black straight hair, combed nicely that reached at her slim waist that was covered with a high waist grey jeans and a t-shirt. Though her attire is kept quite simple yet she exuded a unique beauty with an almost expressionless eyes and face.
For a moment or two neither of them spoke.
Then, "Is that Kakashi on your t-shirt?" was the first question that slipped out of Kalki's wet pink lips before she could stop herself.263Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUDgDUcIXOx
After that the almost emotionless eyes twinkled and the almost emotionless face developed in to a smile that got etched on the dark red lips which expanded itself and showed the pearly white teeth that made the drenched girl wonder inwardly if human beings had always looked so heavenly whenever they laughed.
Kalki received the answer to her wonder at the end of her last semester in college as she sat with her girlfriend in the college canteen for the last time and looked back on these memories. How from wondering about the anime character on the owner of the umbrella's t-shirt, to introducing of themselves and subsequently Kalki's acceptance to be escorted to her rented apartment by Suhasini and then discovering that they were neighbours with their apartment doors basically next to each other yet by some odd miracle they never bumped into each other until now; to giving each other homemade meals which Kalki excelled at more than Suhasini and practically stopped the latter from burning down her kitchen when she made an effort in cooking and told former later on that she had been living onto restaurant and college canteen food; to how gradually they became close enough to share each other's secrets as well as Kalki's confession of how she was tricked by Renna thinking the latter to be a lesbian only to be called as an 'experiment' later on as Renna introduced her boyfriend and insulted her 'junior' in front of a full packed restaurant when the former confronted the latter breaking the 'junior's' heart into tiny pieces; to claiming their relation to be best friends in order to reason out the unnatural longing and the way their heart beat for each other; to a sudden love confession from Suhasini that made Kalki realise that how by calling themselves best friends, they had been doing nothing but were fooling themselves and denying their true selves.
Kalki knows that Suhasini is a kind hearted caring girl from her heart when she had expressed to Kalki much later after their confession followed by an intense session of love making;
"I was scared that you might kill yourself. The way you stood in the rain..."
Kalki couldn't help but laugh out loud at this. She had assured her partner that after the unexpected incident with Renna, she was very shocked, that's all. There's no way she'd give up on her life because of that! And she is thankful that she hadn't arrived at that decision at that time of killing herself else she wouldn't have been able to meet a wonderful person like Suhasini.
"Your marriage has been decided. Come back home. Now."
Kalki simply couldn't believe her ears.
"What? Baba, I have only few days left for semester examinations...how can I..?"
Few minutes ago rain had graced Kolkata with its presence, relieving the city from its tremendous heat wave.
"Baba I have a girlfriend! And I love her!"
The rain may have relieved Kolkata but it didn't relieve Kalki as a new storm erupted in her life. No matter how much she tried her best to make her father understand about her sexuality, he just wouldn't understand and dismissed it as 'just a phase'. Instead he started to yell at her, calling her a sinful existence to commit such sin of harboring and involving herself into such shameless activity.
"Did I send you to Kolkata to do all these? You said you wanted to study, so I sent you. Enough of those studies! What good will come out of that for a girl? I got a nice groom for you. You both are a good match. Come home soon. I won't ask a second time."
The phone slipped out of Kalki's hold and fell down on the damp grass beneath her and she didn't bother to pick it up. She looked above at the dark clouds that had accumulated a the corner of horizon showing signs of another round of shower and also signified the uncertain future that she had with Suhas.
"...Won't we be able to stay together in this life as well, Suhas...?"
Author's note:
Ki hoyeche - a term equivalent to 'what's the matter?'263Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmpMvmlYgD9
Ei ei tora shunechis - a phrase equivalent to 'hey hey have you heard'263Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡewUbUiXyHb
Oma tai naki - a phrase equivalent to 'oh is that so?'263Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjCQd5OUcEZ
Haa re - a term of confirmation263Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNR5kabxNlE
Baba - a term to address one's own father263Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY8m4OdBQH5
