Present Day – Anjali’s POV
Waking up from her alcohol induced slumber Anjali felt a heaviness and jittery. Alcohol always had the effect of knocking her out for a while, but not a long while, because after the heaviness wore off, the alcohol always took on another form and agitated her body and made her jumpy and jittery.
It’s funny how her dreams kept taking her back to the past. Maybe it’s because the turn of events over the last 24 hours had her going down memory lane analyzing how it all started, how I got to this. Her thoughts seemed to pick up where her dream had ended – thinking about Raj and how the night at the Fund Raiser had changed her entire life. What if she had never attended the fund raiser would her life still have turned out this way? Or would she be married to someone else or not at all, would she have had kids, would she have ended up in California? All of these questions had her jittery so she grabbed her room key and decided to walk downstairs and get some fresh air and walk on the beach.
Walking on the beach she kept thinking how the night at the fund raiser changed her life. At the time it just seemed like one evening out on the town, but time would show her that evening changed the course of her life. In her scrapbook at home she still had the clipping of the newspaper with her picture on Page 6 from that evening. She’d had to deal with the wrath of Raj that night and not being able to be found. The morning paper had her picture splattered on the society column of Page 6 with her on Alex’ arm. The short write up wondered if this was Alex’ new fling and if Anna and him were on the outs. Everyone wanted to know who she was? Was she some Bollywood actress that was attending the concert? The picture didn’t help any because in it they looked like a couple. She knew she should never have taken Alex’ arm. Raj had been livid when he saw the paper. He couldn’t believe that she was his fiancé but now all of New York was wondering if she was dating the famous Alex Shergill who was known for being such a player. Raj had already been so upset the night before because she couldn’t be found and she had seduced him out of his anger and he had eventually calmed down and spent the night. She had assumed all was well until the morning paper arrived and the anger started once again. She couldn’t remember how she had calmed him down a second time but she was definitely relieved that neither of their parents read the society column otherwise she would have been dealing with their anger too.
She remembered how she just wanted to crawl under a rock that Sunday morning but the phone kept ringing off of the hook with all of her friends calling to ask her who the hottie she was pictured with was. Then Tarun cha cha called her later that morning to ask if she would look at his designs and give him her opinion. She had been surprised to hear from him and hadn’t expected to ever see him again. But, that had become the beginning of both a personal and professional relationship with Tarun cha cha. As she thought of Tarun cha cha fondly she wondered if she should call him. He’d been a father figure to her. He’d know her since her late 20’s. He’d been there at her wedding, the birth of her children, and the sickness of her mom. He’d trusted her without even knowing her. She’d worked with him and Alex for 6 months looking at designs. Going over to the workshop all of her free evenings and weekends. She needed to speak with someone whose opinion she could trust.
She stopped walking and headed back to the hotel. Near the hotel she found a table outside and ordered a cup of coffee and picked up the phone to call Tarun cha cha. It would be early morning in India, but she knew he’d be up so she didn’t feel bad calling him.
She dialed his number and heard the beep – the long beep that signaled that you were calling overseas. On the third ring Tarun cha cha answered.
“Hello.” Tarun cha cha said
“Namaste cha cha. It’s Anjali. How are you?” she said.
“My sweet Anjali, you don’t have to tell me it’s you I would recognize your voice anywhere. It’s been too long since we last spoke, how are you beta? How is the family?”
I bit my lip to keep from crying and giving away how I felt and I muttered, “Things could be better. I miss you. I wish you were here. Are you coming to the States anytime soon?”
“Anjali beta what’s wrong? Are the kids are okay?” he asked
I took in a deep breath and I finally let it out, “I think my husband is cheating on me.” Once I had verbalized the words the tears started all over again. I sobbed while I waited to hear the sage advice that I was hoping Tarun cha cha would have for me.
“Are you sure? Sometimes things can be misconstrued? I don’t think he would do this to you. He loves you too much.”
“Maybe he loved me a lot at one point but I don’t think he does anymore. I knew things have been off for a while, I never see him, and he’s always so busy with work. He missed our anniversary. He’s never done that in all of the years we’ve been together. I barely even see him anymore. He’s usually home after midnight and gone by six am almost every morning. Roommates see each other more than we’ve seen each other since moving to San Francisco. It’s like he just keeps his stuff at the house but he’s never there. I thought it was because of work, but I think there is another woman involved. I can’t believe this is happening to me again. How can I be so naïve twice?”
“Beta that’s awful. That doesn’t sound good. Have you talked to him yet? You need to confront him, maybe there’s a reasonable explanation.” Tarun cha cha asked
“And what if I’m right? What do I do?” Anjali sobbed.
“I don’t know. I wish I knew the answer to that. If it’s true I can’t begin to tell you how disappointed I will be in him. But, first you have to find out for sure before you start worrying about what to do.” Tarun cha cha suggested.
“I’m not sure I’m ready yet to do that. I’m hiding out in a hotel hoping the strength to face him comes to me. But, I can only hide out for so long.” Anjali confessed.
“Do you want me to call him?” Tarun cha cha asked.
“No cha cha. I know this is something I need to do. I just needed to hear your voice. I needed your guidance. I guess that’s why I called. I’ll call you in a few days once I have things figured out. I miss you. Say hi to cha chi for me.” Anjali said and with that hung up.
(*Cha Chi means the wife of cha cha. Cha cha once again means your father’s brother and cha chi would be his wife. Also, “beta” means son but is also used generically and on girls too so giving the meaning of child. It’s common to call someone your child’s age beta or beti (for a girl) if you want to be exact.)
Tarun’s POV
As Tarun hung up with Anjali he couldn’t believe what she had told him. He had blessed them at their wedding. Never in a million years would he think that she would have to go through this again. His wife, Preeti and he had never had been able to have children so his childhood best friend, Jatin’s sons had become like his own sons. He had treated them the same way he would have treated his own sons and they in turn had treated him like a second father. But, when he met Anjali in New York so many years ago she snuck into his heart and became like a daughter to him. If he had had his own daughter he would have wanted her to be just like Anjali. From the very first time he met Anjali with Amar, Jatin’s eldest son, he had been amused by her. He was surprised that even though she had been raised in the U.S. she had a great love of Indian classical music; dance and she spoke Hindi beautifully. She had this carefree spirit that touched him. She was such a blend of both East and West cultures which is why he had asked her to help him with the designs for Tarun Jewelers U.S branch even though she had never designed jewelry. He looked at her and wanted his jewelry to reflect what she as a person reflected. It was the best of both Eastern and Western philosophies. The respect, the need for tradition, the inclusion of family, the feeling that you are one part of a whole that came from the East, and yet she also had the sense of independence, the ability to speak her own mind, create her own path, incorporate other philosophies, and be self-reliant those traits came from her Western upbringing. Although in some ways the traits seem like a contradiction yet she blended them as if they were seamless. He needed that same feeling in his jewelry – traditional yet unique, colorful but not gaudy, eye-catching but not ostentatious, expensive but not snobby looking. And she had definitely delivered that. His gamble had paid off with Tarun Jewelers opening in the U.S. In fact, he now had stores all over the world. He had gone from being a jeweler that caters mainly to the Indian market to being a world class jeweler that people from all over the world could appreciate and want to buy. His pieces could be worn just as easily on an ornate Indian bride as well as an American bride dressed in the classic white dress and in both cases the pieces would look stunning. Just like Anjali, she could go anywhere and fit in – you could take her to a dinner at the White House and know that she would never embarrass herself and you could also take her to a homeless shelter in the middle of NYC and know that she would blend in with all of the volunteers and treat the homeless with the same respect she would treat any dignitary. How do you cheat on someone so unique and extraordinary?
He had loved working with her. Anjali would come to his workshop or to Alex’ office after her own full-time job to help him with the designs. It had first just started out with him asking for her opinion on the pieces he had completed so far. And then slowly it evolved into her giving him suggestions for jewelry pieces and then she started to design some of the pieces herself. It had evolved so naturally. During the day he would often work by himself and he would look forward to the evenings when she would burst through the door with a smile or some interesting story from the day. She felt sorry for him because he was so far from his wife and he had to eat out all of the time that whenever she could, she would cook for him and bring it to the office. She would only cook enough food for him and he would rant and rave about how delicious her cooking was. He remembered the day that finally it had gotten to Alex and he said something.
“Hi cha cha, I hope you’re hungry because I’ve brought saag paneer, chicken keema, rice and chapatis.” Anjali stated as she walked in and settled down to work.
“It smells delicious. Why did you cook so much? You already have a full-time job and then you come here in addition to the classes you teach. When do you rest?” he had asked.
“Cha cha I didn’t cook for you I cooked for me and I made extra for you. I love to eat. I do need to eat you know and I’m not about to eat those horrible tasting frozen entrees. So it was no extra effort at all. Plus, this way I’ll hopefully get a really great discount on the jewelry.” Anjali stated as she smiled mischievously.
“And what about me?” Alex asked. With that Alex grabbed the lunch bag and started eating out of it. “Why don’t you care that poor old bachelor Alex doesn’t have anything good to eat. I’m so far away from home and I have no one to cook for me here.”
Anjali laughed as she said, “First of all I didn’t even know you like Indian food. Second, it’s not my fault you date women who have an aversion to food themselves so that not only do they not eat they don’t let you eat.” She then walked over grabbed the dinner out of his hands and handed it back to me.
Alex looked stunned and said, “Who could possibly not like home cooked Indian food? And, don’t you think it’s rude you come here every day and bring food for cha cha but not for me even though I’m working late too.”
Anjali shook her head and teased, “Oh poor bachelor Alex no one to cook for him. You know if you just had asked me nicely I would have brought food for you too. By the way, Raj can’t stand Indian food.”
“So are you going to cook for me too? And, by the way, Raj is crazy.” Alex asked as he grabbed a fork and started eating from right under cha cha.
“You haven’t yet asked me nicely.” She stated.
Alex rolled his eyes and then put on his sexy smile and started, “Anjali Malkani have I told you how beautiful you look today in that blue dress? Absolutely stunning. And your smile..” Anjali cut him off and said, “I didn’t ask you to flirt with me, just ask me nicely. There’s no need to butter me up. I’m already here helping you on the jewelry aren’t I?” She said tossing a wadded up paper ball at Alex.
“Okay in all seriousness, this chicken keema is amazing and I really mean it. Would you please, please, please bring food for me too?” he asked with puppy dog eyes.
“That wasn’t that hard was it Alex. And yes, I’ll bring you food from now on too. Now can we get back to work I need to get out of here so I can go dancing!” she said.
Tarun remembered it was the first time that Amar really interacted with Anjali. Normally Amar would work silently on his laptop and only talk about business related matters. It was Anjali and him who would talk about their personal lives and share personal stories about themselves to fill the empty space. He didn’t think that Amar’s silence was odd because in the last seven years Amar had transformed into the serious brooding New Yorker and he’d finally accepted it. Amar hadn’t always been like that. As a child and a young man he had been your stereotypical Northern California boy. He used to be carefree and adventurous. He worked so he could live, but now he lived to work. It had been hard for him, and his parents Jatin and Helen to see Amar change so much. At first they all thought it was a phase and that he would eventually grow out of it. But, it had been seven years now, and he’d finally come to terms that Amar wasn’t going through a phase. This was the new Amar whether he liked it or not.
But, that conversation about the cooking was the first of many. Slowly, Amar started to participate in the conversations he and Anjali had. It had been gradual, so gradual that he hadn’t noticed that over time Amar was participating equally. And so gradual he hadn’t noticed the mess that was starting to form. It wasn’t until the photo shoot that he realized what had been happening under his nose for the past few months. In fact, he still wouldn’t have noticed had it not been for Shekhar spelling it out for him at the photo shoot.