Page 43 of Musafir Cafe

‘All right, tell me your story. Why did you leave home?’

‘Yaar, I just couldn’t take it any longer. I was living with Sudha for almost a year. I tried to coax her in a thousand different ways to get married, but she just wasn’t up to it. My job was going well. I got promoted too, but always had this nagging feeling that while I am running every day I am really not reaching anywhere.’

‘So you’ve broken up with your entire world to come here?’

‘You could say that.’

‘That’s good. What’s the problem? There must be a few breakups in life.’

‘Yeah, there must be, but this one is a bit different.’

‘All breakups are the same.’

‘No, it is a bit different.’

‘What’s different?’

‘Sudha is three months pregnant. I didn’t want to leave her in that condition, but I wasn’t able to stand her either.’

‘Was there any love left between you two?’

‘Yes, plenty. In fact, I was the happiest when I got to know about the baby; I felt that now Sudha would agree to the wedding.’

‘Did you ever ask why she didn’t want to get married?’

‘Yeah, the reasons that she gave for her stance weren’t right, but they weren’t wrong either.’

‘What was the reason, mind telling me? Only if it’s not an issue?’

‘No, no; no issue as such. Sudha often used to get sad on Sunday evenings, and she would drink when that happened. When she would get even sadder, she wouldn’t touch alcohol. She would often stay silent for a long time and then start mumbling. When we had just started living together, one day she got mopey and asked me, “Sometimes, do you miss someone very much?”’

‘Yeah.’

‘Who?’

‘My girlfriend.’

‘Not your family?’

‘I miss them too but not very much. Whom do you miss?’

‘I miss an uncle of mine very dearly. Sometimes I think Mom should have married him.’

‘Which uncle?’

‘An uncle used to visit our house. My father wasn’t a very good man. When I used to call him Uncle, he would tell me to call him Papa. His daughter was my age. He always used to get loads of books and toys for both of us.’

‘Why didn’t your mother marry him then?’

‘Because Dad never divorced her.’

‘Where is that uncle now? You never tried looking for him?’

‘Nope.’

‘Why? You should have looked for him. At least you would not have to spend your time crying like this.’

‘I didn’t look for him because if I found him, I would have stopped missing him. Don’t talk to me on Sundays.’