"You should've told me you were coming." Maya and Akshay came to a café named woke'n'chill after locking up the storage of the temple to get some coffee. Maya couldn't take Akshay home yet as she needed an uninterrupted conversation with him.
"Like you told me when you were leaving?" Akshay mocks. When he heard from Abhir that Maya had left for India, he felt this sense of betrayal that she didn't care to tell him, but he couldn't deny that he didn't miss her. They had been the best of friends for as long as they remember, which is all the reason he never tried to be anything more than that.
"Fine. Got it." Maya knows that she should've told him, but somehow, it slipped her mind. All she was thinking at that time was that her little brother was not by her side and that is a loss she is not willing to experience. "What did dad say?" Abhir hasn't called Maya after reading the letter, and Maya doesn't know how to interpret his silence. All she's confident about is that now that she's in India she'll only return with her brother.
"Not a word. Dad told me that you left after hearing it from uncle but beyond that, he didn't say anything. But I think it's uncle who asked my dad to send me here. Uncle is just being hard on himself for not being able to do anything while you guys were making decisions by yourselves."
"I am just worried that he will think we are not giving him any importance. I just don't want him to be upset." Maya couldn't stop thinking about how her dad must've felt while reading that letter. She is still angry at Aditya for making her do this. One fight has escalated into such a dubious situation.
"Trust me. If anything, he's worried about you guys. He loves you guys so much, Maya. Especially you, I don't think he'll ever be upset no matter what you do, which is why he hadn't reached out to you or come here. He trusts your decision and is giving you a chance to deal with this your way." Akshay's words had assured Maya enough to bring back her smile. They went on talking about how things were in London and about the work he was going to do in India. Maya tells him about the campaign and her friends there.
"Where are you going to stay, by the way?" Maya is more than sure that he will not be staying with her at Rajvansh's house if she has a say in it. Also, she has an idea of what his answer is going to be.
"Maheshwari's House. I was initially planning to stay in a hotel or a lodge but Varsha Dadi insisted that I stay in their house."
"Hmmm. If you're going there now, drop me on the way." Maya takes a mouthful sip of her coffee, finishing it as fast as she can.
"Sure, but you have to show me the way because I have no idea about the routes here." Akshay drops her at Rajvansh's house and rides back to Maheshwari's house. Varsha had been fawning over him the entire day, asking about his life in London. He patiently answered all her questions and sure enough, they became close quickly. With all the talking, he went to bed quite late, but before that he messaged Maya, asking her to accompany him on jogging the following day to which she agreed.
***
Maya wakes up early and leaves the house for jogging. Akshay and Maya meet at the park and continue their track. On their way, they come across a tea stall and Maya is reminded of what her mother wrote in her diary. Her mother and her father used to meet at a tea stall and her mother described that the tea tasted like success. Maya suddenly craves the tea and asks Akshay to stop with her at the stall.
Indeed, it was the best tea she ever had and they have many types of teas in England. The hot liquid makes its way done her throat leaving a warm milky aftertaste.
"Wow, this is good," Akshay says with his eyes closed.
"No, this is heaven." It is the taste of success. After coming here, Maya had been reminded of her mother countless times. Maybe it's because it's India, the country where her mother was born. Yet it doesn't escape her that this was also the country where her mother died, but she'd rather not taint such a beautiful country with her pitiful past. Maya wants to remember India as a country that brings her close to her mother.
"Let's leave quickly, I must go home and pack." Maya has to leave for the camp by tomorrow. They have arranged for a bus to take them to the camp and leave at 7 am in the morning. Only if she packs her things by tonight can she peacefully leave tomorrow.
"You're leaving?" Akshay had hoped that now that he came here, he could get to spend more time with her but that is not the case, apparently. He can't really complain as he needs to report to work tomorrow too. Even though the main reason he came here is Maya, he still needs to do his part in interning at the company.
"Yeah, for the camp. I will leave tomorrow."
***
The buses were parked right outside Sakhi one-stop centre, which is located at the centre of Rajkot, and may had to carry her mini suitcase all the way from the side road as there is no other way for the vehicles to enter. She made her way to the bus assigned to her along with Pradeep and her other colleague she got close with, Trisha, who is also a South Indian. Maya has no idea how she ended up becoming friends with the only two South Indians on the camp. Probably because her Hindi is as good as theirs. One thing she realized after talking to them is that they talk Hindi very well and English even more so, which has washed her stereotype about Indians finding it hard to talk in Hindi. Till now everyone she had met was pretty accommodating and comfortable talking to her in English, which in turn made her feel at ease. She places her suitcase on the top railing and sits on the bus. She does not realize that her dupatta is hanging out of the window and starts listening to music with her airpods in her ears.
Ranav places everything on the back seat of his wrangler and walks towards Abhimanyu.
"Everything's set. When are we supposed to leave?" Ranav had been eager to work at the camp. Though he is not a doctor he volunteered to help with electrical appliances and so on. He had been working as a musical composer for seven years now and had been quite tired of it lately. He hopes that this volunteer work may help him get some inspiration. Looking at people getting treated with the trust of their doctors, he would like to be a part of it. Since he is an anonymous artist who never revealed his face before, he had the freedom to do such activities. Many people had called him a coward for not revealing himself and some even doubted his existence but in spite of the hateful remarks he knew that if revealed himself he wouldn't have the chance to escape from a whole load of different remarks again. It's not like his haters are not going to suddenly like if they knew how he looked.
"Just a moment the buses are about to leave, and we will follow behind." Abhimanyu turns back to his assistant to go over the medical supplies that they might need for the next week.
"Okay, I will stay near the jeep." Abhimanyu nods absent-mindedly as Ranav makes his way back to the jeep. As he got close to the bus Maya was sitting in, he pulled out his iPod to listen to some audio files he recorded last week. Maya's bus started moving and so did the other buses. Ranav quickened his pace as he observed the buses moving, tucking his iPod back in his pocket. The wind blows and the dupatta, which had been half out of the window already, blows away with the air as a surprised Maya tries to reach for it.
"Oh my god!" Maya exclaims as the duppata flies behind. Ranav turned around at her voice and as soon as he did, his vision was obstructed by a white cloth. Through the barely see-through material, he could only see a person sticking out their head. He quickly removed the cloth from his face to see the girl waving her hand at him. He quickly started running towards the bus to hand it to her but the bus sped away. Now, he can only find her at the camp and return it to her. He takes the duppata back to the wrangler to tuck it when he finds its smell quite familiar in more ways than one, which he finds strange because the smell is definitely not that of a perfume. The smell felt smooth in his nose. It smelled like milk but in a mild way. More like butter?
Anyway, he tucks it in the back and returns to the camp, making it a mission to return the duppata to its owner.
***