Are you the one for me?
Khushi was enjoying the most happiest day of her life. She could feel Rohit’s arms wrapped around her as they sat munching on her favorite black forest pastry. They took turns to feed each other as the evening sun spread across the sky above their heads.
‘Khushi, I love you so much,’ said Rohit as he licked the cream off her nose.
‘Ah, Janu I love you too,’ Khushi wanted to melt in his arms.
‘We should come here often so that you can stay in my arms for as long as you like,’ he snuggled beside her on the warm sand. Khushi had always wanted to go to the Goa beach with Rohit ever since the day she met him. She couldn’t believe it was finally happening. She and Rohit in GOA!
‘Oh, Rohit dear… I just want you to go on… on… on’.
Suddenly Khushi felt someone slap on her face very hard. Oh no, Rohit was slapping her. But why? What had she done? It was all very confusing.
‘Idiot, silly cow,’ shouted Rachu, ‘Uh, get off my leg’.
‘What? Where is Rohit?’ Khushi woke up from her dreamland to the reality inside her one bedroom flat.
‘Rohit isn’t here so you’d better you stop seeing silly dreams, ok,’ snapped back Rachu.
‘Silly? My dream will come true one day. Just wait and watch,’ said Khushi in a confident tone. She was sure of more than anything else.
‘Khushi, when will you ever grow up? Don’t you realize that guy doesn’t even care for you,’ Rachu tried to shake some sense into her stupid friend.
‘Of course he does. What makes you think he doesn’t?’ shot back an extremely annoyed Khushi. There was no way you could convince Khushi for something she didn’t want to believe.
‘Do you honestly believe what he says? If he cared for you then why did he dump you thrice earlier? He just comes trotting behind you when he is bored and you always take him back. Don’t you realize you are the one who is being fooled’?
‘Dear Rachu, you don’t know Rohit the way I do. He is just a bit childish sometimes but don’t you worry. He is perfect for me,’ beamed Khushi with a smile plastered on her round face.
Rachu lifted her hands in protest but gave up. She knew it was no use talking to Khushi about it. She had been through the same discussion at least a dozen times in the past two years but Khushi just wouldn’t open her eyes to reality. There were times when she wanted to bash up the rogue for exploiting Khushi’s emotions but there was really nothing she could do.
‘Hi Janu,’ Khushi was on her way to her office in a local train while talking on her mobile.
‘Helooo,’ replied back a sleepy Rohit from his king size bed.
‘You’re still sleeping honey. Wake up, it’s nine o’ clock’.
‘Hmmm, yea... I know’.
‘And do you know what date is it? It’s the 20th of February,’ said an overly excited Khushi which made the onlookers peer at her in curiosity as to what could be so special.
‘So?’ Rohit obviously had no clue what she was talking about.
‘You don’t remember at all, is it?’ It seemed Khushi would burst into tears any moment.
‘Well….’
‘It’s our anniversary dumbo. It’s been two years since we love each other,’ the excitement returned again on her face as she spoke. That was Khushi. She could sulk and laugh in a single minute.
‘Oh, yes. I do remember. It just slipped out of my mind,’ said a least bothered Rohit. He faked the memory, confident that Khushi would blindly believe him. That’s what she’d been doing always.
‘Ok cool, so let me remind you that we are meeting at 8.30 pm at Crowne Plaza. Is that fine janu? I know you are always busy so I’ll call you up and remind you around five’. Busy for Rohit meant clubbing and dancing in the pubs all day with people who were as jobless as him.
‘Hmmm, ok. That’s fine,’ he sounded as though he hadn’t heard a word of what she had just told him.
The truth was that Rohit didn’t give a damn about Khushi. Actually, he didn’t give a damn for anybody on earth. And he was not the only one to be blamed for that. His dad had brought him up with all the riches but failed to teach him the importance of emotions and feelings. Deep inside, he knew no guy on earth could get an understanding girl like Khushi but he never made the effort to make it up to her. He took her for granted because he knew how much she loved him. He knew even if he were to stand up and tell he didn’t care for her, she wouldn’t believe.
That was just Khushi, always in her own dream world unaware of reality. For her, love was the most important feeling on earth, a feeling built upon trust, faith and hope. One that should never be broken. She wanted a long term relationship while Rohit couldn’t stand a girl for more than a month. How Khushi survived with him was a wonder for everybody who knew him. She had the most simplest dreams like any other girl. To live life with someone you loved. Little did she know that life doesn’t work that way always.
Her office usually ended at seven thirty but on that particular day Khushi made an excuse of illness and left office by 6.45 pm. She rushed out of the office to the rest room to change into a top and skirt. There was no way she was meeting Rohit in her boring office clothes. She knew he hated bad dressing sense and so she changed her clothes in the restroom. Re-checking her make up several times to make sure she looked attractive, she picked up her pink purse and walked to the taxi stand.
Crowne Plaza was twenty five minutes away from her office. Honestly speaking, Khushi never preferred to go to the giant hotels. It was just not her style as she loved the simpler smaller ones but then it was Rohit’s style to dine only in grand restaurants where food tasted like shit and the place seemed like a silent bombshell. With Rohit, she had visited almost all of the major big shot restaurants in Delhi. She never understood the need to spend large amount of money to have such rotten food. Nevertheless, if Rohit loved anything; she would love it at any cost.
‘Hey there, it’s nine honey. Are you still on the way?’ poured in Khushi cheerfully on her phone.
‘Yeah, umm… give me few minutes…,’ Rohit sounded as if he were in the middle of something really big.
‘Alright, but don’t forget I am waiting for you’.
Khushi had been waiting for the past twenty five minutes with no sign of Rohit. When she tried calling him again, his phone was switched off. She frowned at first but assumed that it must be low battery. Clutching a heart shaped gift which was wrapped in red, she sat uncomfortably on the couch near the reception area. The hotel was pretty huge but people threw such strange glances towards her side which made her want to scream at them.
Her short skirt made her feel all the more worse. Though she lived in a metro, she never liked wearing revealing clothes but Rohit always wanted her to look sexy no matter what hour of the day it was.
‘Excuse me, could I use the phone please?’ Khushi requested to use the phone as she was running low on balance. If you happen to have a boy friend, running low on balance was evident.
‘Sure ma’am ‘.
With a frustrated look, she dialed the number only to hear an automated female voice on the other end. As she turned around dejectedly, she noticed the guy at the reception was ogling at her. As it is, she was bothered by weird looks and now this man was staring directly at her breasts. Resisting the urge to shout back, she went and sat on the comfy padded couch which failed to comfort her.
In that one hour, she must have glanced at her watch at least a hundred times and dialed Rohit’s number at least a fifty times and she was still waiting in a huge stupid hotel with stupid people who behaved as if they hadn’t seen a girl before. This was sick.
At nine thirty, her phone rang but it still wasn’t him.
‘Hello,’ she croaked into the speaker.
‘Khushi, where are you? Its nine thirty,’ it was Rachu. Rachu hated late night outings. Khushi had already been warned to avoid late night meetings a number of times in the past.
‘I am waiting for Rohit at Crowne Plaza,’ she said in a sad voice.
‘Waiting at this hour? Are you mad?’
‘It’s our second anniversary Rachu. The plan was to celebrate and I guess he must be on his way, ‘ said Khushi unsure if what she said was true.
‘What? That idiot hasn’t reached still. Did you try calling him?’
‘His phone is switched off’.
At ten minutes to ten, Rachu forced her to catch a taxi and return home. As she sat in a black taxi with darkness all around her, Khushi felt thick salty tears streaming down her face. Why didn’t he turn up? How could he possibly forget that she had been waiting for him so long? Could something… could something be wrong with him? The thought scared her.
Suddenly, she asked the driver to change directions and head for Rohit’s flat at ten thirty in the night. Her heart was beating as all the negative thoughts clouded her mind. What if he had met with an accident? What if he had got lost somewhere? What if? What if? The what if’s clogged her mind like the bees which swarmed the honey bag.
She decided to hop into Rohit’s flat to check what could have possibly gone wrong. First it was anger that boiled her blood because he didn’t turn up but now it was worry that made her head ache. She had been to his flat on three occasions earlier as it gave them all the privacy they could ask for.
She took the lift to reach the seventh floor of Prime Apartments, the most posh houses in the city. Khushi knew she would never be able to afford one like that, at least not with the money she was earning. It would probably take aeons but then Khushi never fancied big houses. She always preferred simple living without complications.
She rang the door bell twice waiting for the door to open. Rohit must probably be having a hard day so he must have slept off early, forgetting to inform her. She would sulk at first but then he would promise to make up for the evening and eventually she would forgive him. That was it. That was the way it was supposed to happen. So simple. But no. The door still didn’t open which deepened her worries even more.
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