The dreaded phone call came. It was the same person who used to call her every few months. The voice seemed to be coming from somewhere deep inside the caves. The questions were always in the same sequence; “How are you?”, “Why didn’t you come to me?”, “Why don’t you call me ever?”.
Reena wanted to shout at him, always, but somehow she didn’t have the courage to do that. May be she liked him at a subconscious level or maybe not. She couldn’t make up her mind. Anyways, she was too old for all this. The only question she had was the guy was much older and still persisting. What did he get out of this?
She had met the person somewhere long back. She could not place him right away when the first call had come. After much thought, she remembered, she was in college, when she was accosted by a person who was old enough to be her Dad. She was coming back from college and was at the bus station. The man was wearing a suit and a tie and seemed to be from a privileged background. He started talking to her giving away very little about himself but asking a lot of questions. Reena didn’t know what to do. Her first instinct was to be rude to him and ask him to go away but there was something in his mannerism that was attractive. She decided to play along.
Reena was from a single parent family with no siblings for company. Her childhood was very tough since her father died when she was very young. Her mother brought her up doing odd jobs. It was an uphill struggle for the both of them. It was a miracle Reena could continue studying and got into a college. Some of Reena’s mother’s employers were considerate enough to pay her enough to be able to afford her studies. Anything that most of Reena’s classmates were able to do without a second thought was a luxury for Reena. All these problems had made Reena timid. She thought many times before speaking anything. Life is such. It makes you work hard for anything and everything and you can’t have everything you want. Reena had stopped dreaming and was just flowing with the tide.
The man called himself Ram and was busy asking questions at the bus stop. Reena replied to the best of her abilities. They were obviously talking in Hindi which people in that part of the country spoke chiefly. Then suddenly, Ram asked whether Reena would be interested in marrying his son who was in the United States. Reena was flabbergasted. She didn’t know what to say. She finally said she would talk to her mother and get back. Ram asked her while she was thinking about the proposal, she would do well to learn English. English was what was spoken in the U.S. and it would be very difficult for her to sustain there without knowing the local language. Ram was willing to help her learn the language. He took out a book from his bag, gave it to her and while doing so came tantalizingly close to her. She was uncomfortable by this move of his. Reena wanted to run away from there. Ram wrote his address and phone number in the book while still being very close to Reena. As soon as he finished writing the address, Reena said a firm good bye and ran towards her home.
A couple of months passed by and one evening, without any prior notice, Ram appeared at Reena’s doorstep. Thankfully, Reena’s mother was at home. He spoke to her and asked her whether Reena had told her about him. An affirmative reply from Reena’s mother emboldened him and he wanted to meet Reena again. Reena was called and again that litany of questions began. Reena answered some of the questions. She was asked why she didn’t come to Ram for her English lessons and she went silent.
After that encounter, with her mother’s efforts, Reena got married to a guy named Sourabh, who was not Ram’s son. Sourabh was also in the U.S. Their married life was a living hell. Reena bore Sourabh two children who were 10 years and 6 years respectively.
The latest call that Reena received was while driving her children back from school. Reena wanted to say keep off and don’t call me again. From the other end of the phone line, Ram said,” I am going to be 90 next month. We are organizing a dinner at a place close to where you stay. Why don’t you come?” A slew of emotions came over Reena and without answering this question, she put the phone down.
–END–
