Dark Secrets

14

As soon as Shreshtha and her friends were done visiting the Dargah Sharif,the girlfriend wanted to do some sightseeing. Shreshtha wanted to visit Yuvansh's home. She told them to meet her in the central market point in an hour and, using the GPS on her phone,she made her way to the address that Yuvansh had provided. She used the hired car in which they had driven from udaipur to ajmer, while the girls decided to traipse across to the nearby market.

Shreshtha was almost at the house when she began wondering what she would do when she eventually got there. His parents were dead,and she didn't even know whether someone lived there or not. She decided she would click a selfie in front of the house and then would probably join her friends in the market square.

When the car stopped in front of the house,Shreshtha alighted and checked the address in the message she had received from Yuvansh with the one etched on the marble slab on the gate post in front of the house. They matched perfectly. The slab read: Shailesh Thakur. That was Yuvansh's father. She wasn't sure whether she should open the gate or not,so she turned on her mobile phones camera and was just framing herself with the house as a backdrop for a selfie,when,before she could click,a man photobombed  her shot,standing on the other side of the gate.
'What the hell!' Exclaimed an astounded Shreshtha.
'Ranisa visiting my home and nobody to welcome her! How is that even possible?'Yuvansh said.
She flung open the gate hastily and hugged him,'Fuck! Have you done a course in surprising people?'
'Not people. Only you',he replied smoothly.
Yuvansh took her inside after instructing the car's driver to park by the gate.
Yuvansh showed her every nook and corner of the house,especially his room. She saw his parents' picture, his family photographs and his childhood pictures. In one of the pictures,she saw a girl with him.
'Who is she?'
'That's Dimpy. She used to be my bestfriend.'
'Used to? What happened?'
'We lost touch,' Yuvansh lied.
'I wish we were bestfriends as kids. I wish we knew each other from the time you lived here as a kid,'she said wandering on to the terrace.
You did know me then, Ranisa,you did know me,Yuvansh thought, and said,'Maybe we did.'
'And I don't remember?'
Yuvansh shrugged, amused. She knew that he was only kidding.
'Wait, Let me show you something,'Shreshtha said. She made him sit by the little wall and went to the centre of the terrace. She struck a Kathak pose that she had learnt from her Kathak classes and danced for the next fifteen minutes.
There was a time when she had danced on this very terrace and he had watched her in awe. Once upon a time,she was a wish. Now, she was in reality. The journey he had traversed to reach from point A to point B had been an education in love. Against all hope.
Just as Yuvansh kissed her forehead, her phone rang;it was Shraddha. She answered the call to be told that her friends were waiting for her. Shreshtha told her that she would be with them in ten minutes.
As Shreshtha drove away in the car, Yuvansh heaved a sigh and called his mother.
'Hello ma,did you and papa reach safely? How is chachaji and everyone at home?'
As Yuvansh's mother started updating him about all the family gossip, he knew that this had been a close call. If he had not made a quick travel plan for his parents to go to his uncle's place in Bikaner,both Shrestha and his parents would have found out a side of him that he was sure neither could have handled. Not now, not ever.