The Folly of Love

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9th December 1998

It was pitch dark outside. With hardly any traffic on the roads, the bus hurtled through a few potholes every now and then. The driver and his helper boy were both donning sweaters and the woollen monkey hats that covered most of their faces. Compared to them, most of the passengers were fairly under-dressed.

Sameer shifted in his seat yet again, trying to find a semi-comfortable position. The flights from London to Dubai and then Dubai to Ahmedabad had already left all the passengers feeling weary. The prospect of another three hours or so on the bus had left majority of the passengers groaning and few cursing. But, some of them started snoring as soon as they were on the road.

They must be about half way through now, he decided glancing at his wristwatch. Unable to fall asleep, he watched the swiftly changing sights outside the window. Though he couldn't definitively recognise the surroundings, they did have a vague sense of both familiarity and foreboding.

He was too lost in thoughts to notice the arrival of dawn, till the driver stopped the bus outside a decent looking restaurant. The passengers were notified that some arrangements for hot beverages had been made at the venue. Though the response from the travellers was not very enthusiastic to start with, everyone exited the bus on being told that the place also offered the only hygienic restrooms before they reached their destination.

Everyone ambled towards the entrance. Along with the mid-December chill, there was the distinctive smell of smoke in the air. Some of the restaurant employees awaiting their arrival were huddled around a small bonfire. They now quickly approached the travellers and started guiding them towards the area set-up for refreshments.

Sameer looked around comparing the landscape to the one that had surrounded him less than twenty-four hours ago.

***

The morning before he had found himself wrapped in a thick black jacket and grey cashmere scarf waiting for a cab to the airport on the footpath outside his London flat. The salt scattered on the sidewalk to avoid the creation of ice had crunched under his boots. The trees lining his street had all become absolutely bare in order to survive the bitter cold months, their bare branches creating dark sculpture-like silhouette against the early morning grey sky.

But he liked the cold. His bones always welcomed the cold seeping into them and the crisp air filling his lungs. His spirits would start rising as soon as the leaves started changing colours; first yellow, then bright orange and then deep red before an earthy brown as they merged into the soil.

Maybe during the childhood years, it had meant that Santa would be arriving soon. It was time to start working on that letter, explaining to him how he had been good that year and then list the gifts that he felt he was entitled to. His family obviously celebrated Diwali in the real sense, but had adapted to their surroundings and Christmas was celebrated for the sake of the kids and their non-Indian friends.

For Sameer, the idea of Father Christmas had held a special appeal.

He had lost his biological father to some sudden illness even before he was born. His mother Vishakha had remarried Vivek Somani when Sameer was about two years old. Vivek was a widower with a young son Rohan, who was just a few months younger to Sameer. Whether it was due to the urgings of their families, or by their own choice, a third child had been added to the family about three years later. Vishakha was especially pleased when the baby turned out to be a girl, as she was probably too overwhelmed with the three boys in her life. Deepika soon became the apple of everyone's eye and was pampered a great deal.

Vivek's mother was a bit of a tyrant and gave Vishakha a hard time for the first few years. Luckily Vivek turned out to be one of the better men and moved his family to London as soon as a business opportunity presented itself. The distance between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was conducive to the development of the bonds between the children and the overall family dynamics.