Redemption

Some Realizations....

Ishita loved this south Indian joint. Her Adi loved it too. Unlike his father, he didnot have a sensitive stomach. He could digest all the south indian delicacies. While Ruhi's taste buds were mostly like her father, Ishita found a perfect company in Aditya at such places. She remembered all the times when Adi would bring her here at one pretext on the other. She smiled inwardly recalling all such events. And for her part, Roshini was happy when she saw a perpetual smile pasted on Ishita's face right from the time they had entered this restaurant. 

And this was how Raman discovered Ishita when he entered the same restaurant. For a minute, he too forgot all his past grievances. Her smile brought images of their happy days and times spent here along with Ruhi and Adi. And then came the final blow. Just a thought of Adi was enough to rekindle all the hatred that he had in his heart for Ishita.

"No, I can't let myself be distracted. I will accomplish what I came here for." He was determined, as he grabbed the hand of his date for the night. Yes, she was not just some random girl, but the same girl from last night, whose photograph he had sent to Ishita. 

Walking ahead with a plan, he sneaked his arm in the waist of that girl, almost taking her in a half hug, she in turn blushed profusely. 

Raman had not even glanced at her ever since the time he picked her up from her apartment. And now when he saw her, he found her appearance to be satisfactory. Enough to trigger the buds of jealousy in Ishita's heart and mind. She was wearing a short flaired skirt that barely covered her thighs with an off shoulder top on her model type body figure. Her face made up by every cosmetic product that was available in the market. Raman was not exactly excited by her short clothes, but today for the moment he had to put up this pretense. 

As he took the table adjoining to Ishita's, he coughed really loud to grab her attention. But alas! No. That madrasan and her obsession with food. He remembered all those times when she thwarted all her romantic plans, in the name of dinner, lunch, tea and what not. 

But now Ishita just wouldn't look at her. He would not let Ishita ruin his preparations for the day. Right from the time, when he overheard the conversation of Roshini and Ishita about their plan of eating out, he had been restless. Yes, he had sneaked again in her building to vent out his frustrations on her, to create a scene before her neighbours, to humiliate her, embarrass her as he had done multiple times before. That had made her change her residence for some ten times in the past 7 months. 

But seeing her smile at the thought of eating out, he wanted to do much more than just name calling. He wanted to ruin her smile. So he searched for the number of the girl from last night in his contact list. He remembered her speaking about saving her no in his phone but by what name? Hell, he had not even bothered to ask her name. Now scrolling through some 1000 contacts he had to locate one that would help him execute his plan. It was not easy. After an hour long search, he narrowed down some 10 contacts he could not recall at all,  out of which 5 were out of service, another 3 were Pihu's teachers, 1 did not reply. The only hope was the last one and it proved to be successful when he heard her addressing him by his name seductively. Well it was not difficult for anyone to find out about his credentials from the Pub. He was their regular client. A nobody hovering there for some days could definitely sneak every information about him. Tanya, so that was her name. She had saved her contact no with this name. Raman for a moment wondered if that was her real name. But one thing he was sure about. That whatever her name be, she only wanted Raman for his money. He could be safe from all the emotional games. He had no time for attending to any emotional strings that some relationships sometimes would turn to, as he had heard from his associates in business circles. Well, he did not have the heart to hurt anybody's feelings when he knew he would never be able to offer them anything either physically or emotionally. Well, these feelings were reserved for someone else, as was his hatred, only for the one sitting across the table. 

But that woman would not look at him even once. His annoyance reached a different level altogether. Now, what happened to be an action out of instinct and anger, his fist hit the table so hard that a glass almost on the edge of the table landed on the cleaned floor, after what could be termed as a glorified fall, splitting all its contents before breaking into minute pieces.