Made in Heaven?

The lobby of the 5 star hotel was huge. The interior was tastefully decorated as only hotels can be. The huge French windows showed the beautiful city outside in the midday sun. The sea was glimmering like it had been sprayed with diamonds. The couches were occupied and he stood still for a second to spot her. There were 3 single women on different couches and he walked to her. He homed in on her more like it! She was sitting writing something seriously in her diary. Her bent head was dark brown with short hair falling across her fair brow. She was in deep concentration and had no idea she was being watched. He saw her tasteful powder blue blouse exposing smooth fair arms, the firmness giving away the fact she was working out regularly; her cleavage showing a mere glimpse of what lay beneath the demure top. Her trousers, were they jeans? Yes, they were navy blue cords! He was enamoured already. He saw her slender fingers gripping a pen, they were neatly shaped but with no paint. She was wearing black pumps. All in all she was a sight which was appealing in her simplicity and lack of pretense. He looked at her face and saw the small nose sitting prettily on her face…unobtrusive and yet something he inexplicably wanted to kiss! Her chin was determined and had the hint of a cleft revealing a woman who had passion and was social…in short a flirt!

He walked up to her and said her name gently, “Nikita!” (Please note it was not a question but a statement) he just knew it was her. Nikita looked up at Rohit and he was taken aback. It was like he was hit by lightning, a bolt from the blue. Her eyes were large pools of melted chocolate. They demanded that you drown in them. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. The illusion of simplicity was wiped out in an instant with that direct gaze of hers. Her beauty lay all here in her eyes. He saw the world in it, his world. He saw his neatly arranged world disintegrate in those eyes. Then she smiled. And he was in shambles. How could this be happening? She was standing up and he saw she was as tall as him. She held out her hand and her warm, firm clasp showed him her character. She was strong and fearless. She was honest and she was leaving his hand!! He wanted to hold it forever…. He thought he was going to dissolve in a heap when she spoke and said his name, “Rohit”. He never realized he had anything left to lose till her husky voice, lined with humour reached his ears. It was like he was being dismantled bit by bit and left there with no help to be brought back whole. He was lost completely and it was just 5 seconds since he had spotted her. How did he know it was her? Instinct? Whatever it was it was potent. He knew he had to be a man and make a mark but he was at a loss at to how he would word his next sentence. Effortlessly, Nikita said she was so happy to meet him finally and sat down gracefully. He followed suit. She asked him if wanted a beverage and he knew he needed a stiff shot of scotch but it was only 12.30 p.m and he never drank in the day!! She ordered her coffee and he asked for chamomile tea…to calm him!! This was the start to an afternoon that he never wanted to end.

By the time the beverage was done, Rohit was in control of some senses and he offered to show his favourite eating place. The drive down was thankfully short! He was hypnotized by her proximity and that fragrance….what was it? This fruity, fresh fragrance…bright and cheerful it was such that he wanted to lick it off her skin to figure out whether it was as tasty as it smelled! Once in the restaurant with the place crowded as usual, they were given a table for 2 near the waiters’ table. It upset Rohit but Nikita seemed at ease and said it was the company that mattered not the place or the food. As they sat, the proximity got closer and he felt her knee against his. He was electrified by it. She gently moved her leg away. He chased it with his knee but it was gone. He was bereft of the contact. Suddenly he saw her hands. They were playing with the napkin; nothing unusual in that, is there? Oh, but it was odd. She was nervous and covering it very well in this mask, in this cover-up of being a sophisticated woman of the world! He didn’t say a word but he kept his observation on unnoticed! And he saw the hands do a merry dance with a lot of the tableware, the salt shakers got a perfectly good waltz as did the fork! She was partial to the spoon though..she kept turning it round and round as if twirling her partner to a song she was playing in her head. The conversation continued unabated with sparks flying, both matching wit for wit and the humour keeping the company in splits. Each time he saw her laugh he was falling more and more in love. She laughed in a full throated manner, with no pretense and no fear of what the people would think. She was happy and she would show it. Her eyes, large, expressive pools of bitter chocolate, sparkled with fire and he kept drowning. Only too soon it was over and he had to drive her back. That is when he saw a flicker of apprehension in her eyes. He knew why, but he had nothing to say now. He held open the door for her and watched her enter. Her back was shaped such that it curved into her waist… not too slim to look fragile but not large enough to look embarrassing, flared out into hips that begged to be held and coveted. Her tight behind commanded attention and he knew from walking behind her that it swayed with a magic that was unreal. It held itself against gravity and he felt a throb in his loins he knew he had to quell before he grew bestial with desire. Once she was settled, he got in and drove off with her in silence. The drive back was stilted with electricity sparking off every surface. They didn’t look at each other but the chatter continued unabated. Only too soon they were at the place he was to drop her. She thanked him for a lovely afternoon, shook his hand, looked like she was going to peck his cheek, but he held back and she was gone. He saw her lithely running across the road into the maw of the station that eats up hundreds and thousands of people every day. She was gone and he was left like his world had stopped rotating, stopped glowing, and stopped just like that. But he knew what was to be done now. He wondered why he had fought so hard. Why, oh why, hadn’t he heeded their suggestion earlier? He called his mom. She answered after a few rings in which time Rohit was shivering with impatience. “Rohit? How are you son?” Such an innocent question, but oh so loaded! ‘I am not fine Ma! I am in deep trouble. I can’t think straight. Help me Ma. Tell me what to do?” He could hear her chuckle at the other end and he was irritated. She quietly said the words he hoped she would say, “Should I accept the proposal then? You liked her I think!” Understatement of the year!! Liked her?? He was head over heels in love! He? How did it happen? He was dead set against arranged marriages. He had been resisting his parents for years and when they pushed him into a corner this time, playing the emotional game only too well, he succumbed to his mother’s sad eyes, he agreed! The fact that she was exactly what he had been waiting for all his life, and he hadn’t found on his own made him cringe! He the archetypal womanizer needed his parents to find his dream woman! Would he ever live it down?? Who cared? He was in love and he wanted to sing it out loud, dance with the wind, yell and scream in joy! He softly told his mother that he accepted the proposal and could they please start the proceedings immediately so that they can get over with the ceremony in a week!! His mother’s peal of laughter was embarrassing and he blushed. He would be with Nikita soon…he couldn’t wait! Could she??? 

She was secretly smiling to herself all the way home. When she walked in her mother hugged her hard and said that their proposal had been accepted and they had to rush since the young man refused to be kept away from her any more than 7 days!

Siddharth's Stick

Siddharth was a man who had reached a phase in life where many many things were finally making sense. He was reaching 40 and was still youthful to look at. He had the kind of face that ages slowly and while doing so it gets charming by the minute. His chocolate brown eyes twinkled with a merry delight when he allowed himself to laugh and they grew into large orbs when he was faced with wonder that life brings. His patrician nose wrinkled in distaste when he was exposed to injustice and the nostrils flared in anger. His chin was blessed with a deep cleft that was attractive ad more than one woman had fallen prey to the flirt in him. He was not very tall, may be around 5’9” or so and he was not built like a brick house…he was lithe and wiry and one time he prided himself on his fitness. 

Well, that was changing. For one thing, Siddharth realized that his days of smoking were numbered. He had been going at the tobacco stick for years, more years than he cared to remember! He had begun as a schoolboy and had continued in college where the pretty girls found it very grown up of him to be the prouder of a Zippo lighter. He carried on the habit well into his youth and fell in love a few times. There was a time he loved an old school friend who tried to stamp her authority in him by telling him to choose between her and the cigarette…getting more and more maniacal with her statements – If you smoke, something bad will happen to me! And then corroborating this same line by concocting fanciful stories that she had been abducted and taken to some far off place by strangers, molested and then left to go!! She thought these would get Siddharth to stop his habit. It didn’t work! It did, however, get him to leave this psychotic girl for good!

 The habit continued with him, going along with him like a faithful shadow. It became his closest friend, someone he could rely on to give solace, comfort, to hold and have in the dark, lonely hours of the night. 

Then he met the love of his life, and married her. She smoked too but not as much as he did. The best part was that she never told him what to do or not to do. She let him be and told him he was an adult and responsible for himself. If he chose to smoke 5 cigarettes it was ok with her as much as it was okay with her if he chose to smoke 40 a day. She did, nonetheless, remind him gently on and off that the cost of the 40 cigarettes was telling on the family budget.
There came a time when Siddharth was told he was going to be a father. His wife gave up her habit in a minute and never looked back. He was told not to smoke in her presence for dear of damaging the foetus. He was good and did as he was told but he continued his smoking unabated. The happy day dawned and the son, his prince, arrived. He continued smoking – only this time – he wore a smoking jacket! His wife told him time and again that the smoking would damage the baby, the enamel on the babies teeth would get damaged too and all the other related issues. But, Siddharth was immune to all and could not give up his first love.

Siddharth’s son grew up in a haze of smoke around him. He was so used to watching his father smoke that he would even bring the packet when he was asked by Siddharth. Then, the prince started teething and lovely pearls were formed, reinforcing Siddharth’s belief that all the talk of damages by passive smoking was hogwash! The child was healthy. Then came time for the permanent teeth to arrive and lo! And behold! Why were the young prince’s teeth so odd? Why was there a yellow mark running through the length of the tiny tooth? Why was it de-shaped? Why did it not look like the teeth of the other kids? Was it true? The enamel was damaged? Were those talks of passive smoking true?

Siddharth took his young prince to the best dentist he could find. The prognosis was that the enamel was damaged!! You would think it would stop his habit!!! But, no, his once close friend and confidante was now a ghoul around his neck who refused to go. No matter how hard he tried he could not get rid of her! She was there, luring him, tempting him, holding him prisoner to his own weakness. 

That is when he knew he had to do something! He knew it was time that he got the strength to divorce himself from his lifelong friend. He confided his desire in his wife who knew that it would be a trip up the toughest road for him. She had observed his health failing, his once fit and toned body was now thin and weary. The lustre in his sparkling eyes was gone and surrounded by a grey shadow that refused to go. His finger looked like it had been dabbed by some yellow pigment. It was frightening listening to him cough or sleep – the rattle in his chest, the effort to take in a breath! She knew he needed to give up. She asked herself if she  had  been right in letting him do as he pleased for so many years? Would it have been different if she had nagged? He would have done it on the sly! The result could have been worse. But she knew that his need to get rid off the monkey from his back was something she would help him with.
So the endeavour began….the long ride uphill, with both holding hands and taking it each step at a time. Siddharth suffered pangs and shivers, he wanted his friend his back and he wanted her now! The times he faltered, he found his wife with him and he knew he could win this time! He is still struggling…but today he has hope and he has the belief that he will be free of this habit. It will be hard since nicotine is an insidious drug that is more potent than even brown sugar. It remains in the body for years after giving up smoking thereby making it easier for the person to return to this habit. It is a killer and does so quietly. How many of us are there who need to lose this friend? I know I am one. I hope that I find it in me to lose this friend!