Two Flights

Rohan enters Swiss Air’s flight to New York. He handed over his boarding pass to the air hostess who guides him to his seat number 13 A . As he moves towards his seat his eyes catch up with his co-passenger, he’s shocked to see Tia here.

Tia, whose eyes are glued to a magazine, realizes that her co-passenger is waiting for her to give him space looks towards him and is equally shocked to see Rohan here.

Rohan places his laptop in the luggage compartment and takes his seat.

Rohan – “you looking quite different”

Tia – “same goes for you too. I’m surprised that you took a window seat today, I remember you always loved the aisle seat and we used to have a fight for this seat”

Rohan – “last minute bookings so had no options”

Tia – “you can take my seat if you are uncomfortable”

Rohan – “thanks, but its fine now, I’ve got used to this”

The flight takes off and soon they are on their way to New York.

Rohan – “so where are you going, Zurich or New York?”

Tia – “I’m going to New York to attend my friends wedding. What about you?”

Rohan – “I’m going to attend a conference in New York. So a friend’s wedding ahh!”

Tia – “yaa, my friend Richa, she’s getting married for the 2nd time. We all friends are meeting for her marriage.”

Rohan – “that’s great. So what’s your plan, you there till what date?”

Tia – “her weddings on 20th Dec, so we friends have decided that we’ll celebrate the New Years together after so many years. Then will go back on 2nd”

Rohan – “ok.”

The air hostess gets the drinks trolley and asks them what they would like to have.

Tia – “I’d like to have white wine.”

Rohan – “wine makes you dizzy.”

Tia – “so what, or do you want me stay awake?”

A long silence.

Tia – “he’ll have Scotch with lots of ice cubes”
Rohan takes the glass and thanks the air hostess.

Tia – “how’s your wife?”

Rohan – “What! Oh you mean Nisha; we never intended to get married.”

Tia – “you never planned to marry her and still you left me for her?”

Rohan – “I did not leave you, in fact it was you who went away without informing and then suddenly the divorce notice”

Tia – “so what was I supposed to do, you were travelling in 2 boats at the same time, I thought by moving away at least you would know whom you have to be with.”

Rohan – “but you never gave me a chance to explain.”

Tia – “would that have made any difference? Behind my back you were busy sleeping with her.”

Rohan – “it was nothing of the sorts you are thinking about.”

Tia – “so what was it?”

Rohan –“what difference will it make now?”

Tia – “it won’t make any difference, just that I want to know why you did that to me, I waited for you in those sleepless nights and all you did was came home and slept without talking to me or giving me any time.”

Rohan – “ok then listen. Do you remember I had told you about my girlfriend before our marriage?”

Tia – “yes I remember your classmate.”

Rohan – “Nisha was my girlfriend. One day I received a call from her, she was sounding very low. She pleaded me to meet her for coffee to which I agreed. When I reached there I saw a very different Nisha. She looked so tired and pale. She told me that she was suffering from Blood Cancer and that the Doctors have told her that she just has 4 months to live. I was shocked hearing and seeing this, I remembered Nisha as a very strong person. We started meeting regularly then. We tried to relive the happy moments which we shared with each other.”

Tia – “why didn’t you tell me at that time?”

Rohan – “I was not sure how you’ll react. She was my ex girlfriend and I was spending more time with her than you, how would you accept that?”

Tia – “agreed, no wife would have accepted.”

Rohan – “1 day when I went to meet her, she was no more. When I came back, I found you were gone. I tried to contact you, but you changed your cell and address. What could I have done?”

Tia – “any way now that it’s gone, nothing can be done.”

Just then Rohan notices a ring on Tia’s fingers.

Rohan – “so you got married” pointing at her ring.

Tia – “well not married, but I’m engaged. We are planning to get married on 14th Feb next year.”

Tia could read the disappointment on Rohan’s face.

Tia – “listen I’m sorry. Dev always wanted his marriage to be on 14th Feb. When he told me this, I could not gather courage to tell him that that’s my divorce day too.”

Just then the air hostess comes back to refill their drinks.

Rohan – “yaa please repeat the same drink for me.”

Airhostess – “what about you ma’am?”

Tia – “I would like to have plain orange juice.”

Rohan thinks “so now she doesn’t want to get dizzy, interesting.”

After the airhostess leaves Rohan congratulates her for her engagement.

Rohan – “so where did you find Dev?”

Tia – “I did not find him, he found me. He’s a VP in a software firm. We met at a party and started talking. He liked me from the 1st time he saw me. I told him about my marriage and still he was interested in me. I took my time to decide and after 3 meets accepted his proposal.”

Rohan – “he’s widower or divorcee?”

Tia -“he did not get married before. He wanted to be successful first.”

Rohan had a big smile on his face which he could not hide.

Tia – “What? Why are you laughing?”

Rohan -“was thinking how a person can gauge his success and does this mean that he thought marriage is a distraction to success.”

Tia – “all have their own views.”

There was a silence now as both felt little high because of the alcohol. Tia tried to close her eyes and relax. Rohan felt Tia’s head moving towards his shoulders. He could visualize the past when they used to travel together and Tia used to rest her head on his shoulders. After her head was on his shoulders for some time, Tia realized it and moved her head to the other side. Again they were silent and tried to rest.
Tia remembered the old days when she would accompany Rohan to his conferences. When the conference would end she used to see other men’s faces dull and bored, whereas there used to be a smile on Rohan’s face as he used to rush from the conference straight to her.

The silence was broken with the Airhostess’s announcement. She said that in a short while they were about to land at the Zurich Airport. She informed that the passengers moving ahead needed to de-board the plane as they had a break of 3 hours.

Rohan and Tia moved out of the plane. Rohan suggested that they have a round at the duty free. They went to the chocolate store.

“Tia what do you say, let’s have some chocolates. I still remember your craze for chocolates. At midnight whenever you were hungry you used to grab the chocolates from the fridge.”

“It was then Rohan, now I have stopped eating chocolates. I work out now and have reduced for the marriage.”

“Whose marriage yours or your friends” said Rohan teasingly. “Come on Tia we are at Switzerland and if we don’t take chocolates from here then it will be like we going to Agra and not seeing the Taj Mahal.”

“Well in that case let’s buy sugar free chocolates.”

Rohan agreed and they shopped for chocolates. After that as they were roaming Rohan’s eyes stopped at a spa.

“Look Tia a spa there. I remember you used to enjoy spa treatments. I suggest that since we have so much time let’s head for a massage.”

“You know me Rohan; I get over relaxed and fall asleep. I can’t risk missing my flight.”

“You won’t Tia, I’m here with you. Even if there will be a chance of missing the flight, I promise you will not be the alone to miss it. Come on go for it.”

Tia agreed. Rohan booked a therapy for her.

“I thought we both were taking the therapy Rohan.”

“How can we take it together Tia?”

“Come on Rohan, it’s fine. We have been through these a numerous times and I don’t mind.”

Rohan finally agreed. They both changed into disposables and laid on the massage tables. They were together in the couple room. They chatted initially till Tia fell asleep. Rohan asked Tia’s therapist to go slow on her and to massage her back only as she felt it very relaxing. He also instructed her not to awaken her.

Rohan’s massage was completed. He went to take shower. When he returned back he could see Tia’s body shining with the oil. In that dim light she looked gorgeous. Rohan was unable to take his eyes off her body. Realizing that they’ll be late for the flight he went ahead and awakened Tia.

Tia got up and saw Rohan already ready. “I thought we were going to get ready together.”

Rohan – “What?”

Tia – “sorry, I think I was dreaming and felt that we were 3 years into the past.”

Rohan moved out and waited for Tia. She got ready and then they proceeded for their onwards journey. The Flight took off for New York.

As they were seated Tia asked Rohan why he and Nisha have a break up.

Rohan – “we were the best buddies in our college. We shared all our secrets, all our crushes and finally we found out that we were compatible only with each other. Once we felt that, there was no looking back. We were the Laila Majnu of our college. Things were going great till be completed our masters. After that we applied for jobs. We both were successful in getting good jobs. Our joy had no boundaries till we both landed in jobs with rival companies. What was love now turned into competition. The rush for wage hikes, promotions and the urge to win over each other took the front seat. We started to go through each other’s personal mails and notes to find out our firms secrets. It turned into a great mess. The firms were the winners and we were the losers. Finally we called it quits.”

Tia – “so that’s the reason that you’ll were never bound to get married. It’s because of that love which was there once that you went to take care of her. Maybe Rohan if you would have spoken out at that time things would not have been this worse between us.”

Rohan – “maybe.”

Suddenly there was turbulence due to weather. The Pilot requested all to take their seats and to fasten the seat belts. Rohan looked at Tia and assured her that they’ll be fine.

“I don’t care now Rohan as I’m happy for this moment and prepared to die too now.”

Soon the plane was out of the clouds and all were relaxed. Tia put her head on Rohan’s shoulders and this time didn’t care to move it the other side.

They were in deep sleep when the landing announcement was made. They de-boarded the aircraft and moved to collect their baggage. Rohan helped Tia collect her baggage and then they started moving out of the airport.

Rohan – “you want me to drop you to your friends place?”

Tia – “no, my friend had told me that’s she’ll be coming to pick me up. You carry on. Rohan, here’s my US number. Since we are in the same city, we can meet up for a coffee.”

Rohan -“yea sure. I’ll give you a call.”

As Rohan left the airport, Tia kept on gazing towards him.

The next day Rohan called up Tia and invited her for coffee.

They were sipping coffee when Rohan noticed the ring had vanished from Tia’s finger.

Tia -” I’m thankful to my friend as because of her I’m here with you and that we could meet again.”

Rohan – “actually it’s all thanks to my friend Sumit.”

Tia – “why Sumit?”

Rohan – “actually he was supposed to be here on this trip. At the last minute he said that he has to attend a marriage and he requested me to take his place in this conference.”

Tia – “yes. He deserves the thanks.”

Rohan – “and especially because he did all this for us.”

Tai – “what? How?”

Rohan – “today when I called up my office, I came to know that Sumit has not taken any off and he’s in the office itself. It then strikes me that it was not a mere coincidence that we were on the same flight and on the same seats.”

Tia – “yes Rohan, it was all planned out. A year back I met Sumit by coincidence. He told me all about you and suggested me to give our relationship one more chance. I thought about it a lot and finally agreed. He made this plan then.”

Rohan – “what about the ring, was it fake?”

Tia with a smile on her face – “no the solitaire wasn’t, yes the marriage proposal was.”

They both burst out laughing.

“What about your friend’s marriage, that was a lie too?” questioned Rohan.

“That was a lie too. I came here just for you” replied Tia.

“Then why stay in a different Hotel, why don’t you shift with me?” questioned Rohan.

“I’ll shift tomorrow as from tomorrow a double room is booked in your name” said Tia laughingly. “I knew Rohan as I had given you my number you’ll meet me and then after knowing the truth you’ll invite me to stay with you, so we had already made the bookings accordingly.”

They both burst out laughing.

__END__