RANIKHET…..PRESENT DAY
Vaidehi had often wondered what she would feel if she were to meet Kunal again. Sometimes, she had dreamt of all the scathing things she would toss at him. But now, as she stared at him standing twenty feet away, she was surprised to feel nothing at all, except the sort of mild displeasure one feels on discovering an old stubborn stain on a favorite piece of clothing. She waited for the old hurt to rise, gently probing her heart to rouse some feeling, any feeling: regret, sorrow, bitterness, anger. But except for that one pang, there was nothing. The twenty feet which separated them carried the distance of twelve years. The distance of a life time.
He was greying at the temples, she noticed. The rimless glasses he wore suited him as did the mustache, which had grown thicker. After the initial shock, her first thought was for the twins. She had always been open about the fact that she had separated from their father months before they were born, although she had never been very forthcoming about the reason. She had told them that their father was a very famous doctor in Mumbai, had even asked them if they would like to meet him as they grew older and realized that theirs was a family which lacked an important member. It was a testimony to the great upbringing and all- encompassing love which she had given them that they never wanted to meet him. Of late, they did not even want to know much about him. Perhaps, they had probed the hurt of the past in the uncanny way children sometimes had.
“We are off to get ready for school, Aie. Don’t be too long. We have an extra sports class this morning,” they said in unison before disappearing indoors.
“I can see that I have messed up the timing as usual,” Vaidehi had never thought that she would ever hear Kunal sounding as rueful as he did now.
“Indeed. You are far too late as usual,” she said as he took a step forward.
As Kunal stared at her familiar yet changed face, he could see the steel woven in the once pliant mind and knew that the time of explanations and recriminations was long past. He had lost far more than he would ever admit.
“I am sorry I have to go,” as Vaidehi turned on her heel and headed back to the house, she felt a different kind of freedom, as if she had finally faced and exorcised the ghost of the past. There would be no more accommodation and no more second thoughts.
Staring at her receding figure, Kunal finally knew that the time had come to walk the endless path of compromise if he was to ever win her back….
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