A box of Chocolates

Love Aaj Kal - Part 3

Rai works in Paris now, as an environmental researcher. She lives by herself in a one bedroom apartment by the Seine river, and takes the metro to work every morning. From their rented house in the by lanes of Kolkata 16 years ago to this apartment amidst a row of colour changing maple trees in Paris , Rai has come a long way.

In these 16 years, a lot of water has flown under the bridge. While Rai was still in college, they moved out of that rented house and in to a tiny two bedroom flat her father bought in the same neighbourhood. Soon after, Rai's mother fell terminally sick and through the years that followed, she and her father fought a long and tiring battle, caring and providing for her mother. Eventually one winter morning 6 years ago, Rai's mother passed away, leaving behind a trail of bittersweet memories and a hole in their hearts that would never be filled again. After that incident though, Rai's life took a turn for the better. She got a completely unexpected call from this reputed organization she had applied to, on a whim, and they asked her if she would want to join them in Paris as an intern. It was her father who pushed her to keep aside her apprehensions and take up the offer. Rai has always wondered why – why did her father shelter her all his life only to push her out when he was at his loneliest and in the most vulnerable phase of his life. How could she have known that parents want their children to take flight, even though they dread the empty nest that is left behind.

It did take her years of hard work to convert that internship into a permanent position and reach where she stands today, but it's one heck of a struggle Rai is immensely proud of.

Every once in a while, her father visits her in Paris for a few months, but for the most part he lives alone in their 2BHK flat in Kolkata. Apart from her father and a few cousins, she is hardly in touch with any of her school or college friends. Most wiggled their way out of her life when Rai's mother was first diagnosed, and she desperately needed a shoulder or two to cry on. But in the recent years, with her increasing social status, many of them did try to sneak back into her life by sending her sweet messages and friend requests on social media. Unfortunately for them though, Rai has grown a strong allergy for fair weather birds. Life has taught her to smell such opportunistic people even from a continent away, and run as fast in the opposite direction, as her legs could possibly carry her still chubby self.

Overall Rai leads a fairly peaceful life....or should we say she used to. She used to until she received a selfie from Raghavendra Rathore taken at her Kolkata home.

Raghavendra Rathore works at the same place as Rai, albeit as an economist, but he is neither as serious nor as scary as his name or profession might trick you into assuming. Infact, if you saw the two of them at a restaurant on a weekend, bickering over food, you'd think they are 1st year students at some university. Raghav (he likes to go by that name because come on, which Parisian would pronounce Raghavendra) is seeing Rai, but Rai lives in denial and calls him her best friend forever.

Rai is literally panicking now.

Before flying to India, when Raghav had asked her for her address in Kolkata, she had flat out refused.

If there was one bone of contention between Rai and her father, it was the men in her life or their absence thereafter. The boy who ghosted her on Diwali 16 years ago wasn't the only guy she had dated in life. There had been other guys, may be a couple of them who had come in between and broken her heart just as mercilessly. Her father had liked neither, and had warned her as well.

Post that there was a long dry spell in Rai's life. Her mother had always wished to see her settled and so when she passed away, Rai's father took it upon himself to fulfil his beloved wife's last wish. After much coaxing, he convinced her to create an online matrimonial profile. In the beginning Rai did comply like a good daughter, but when she started encountering one disaster of a man after another, she decided to shut her profile down for good. Like every worrying father and every rebellious daughter, they had numerous arguments around it until it became an unwritten rule between the two to avoid any topic concerning a prospective match, to save their individual sanity and collective peace.

But now Raghav was at her home, with her dad. How the hell did he manage to get her address... 

To be continued..