"Mayank," Dia came in search of me.
"I could not find you inside the green room, I guess we are ready to make it big," she had the twinkle in her eye that showed how happy she was. I held her hand and smiled. I moved in, not wanting to make any eye contact. I did not want her to catch me low. She stood there in perplex at my reaction and followed me in a while.
"So are we set to go out there?" I cleared my throat before I yelled out the question. I could hear a 'yes' in unison. The energy in the room was influencive. I kept Aarti aside for a while now. I had an act to pull off, this would give the direction I was striving for in life. The entire troupe moved out of the room and took the back stage. Rahul and I chose to enter from the front and we took our positions.
"Put your hands again for Shadez! Spectacular indeed," Sankalp, the host for the night spoke. After a twelve minute tiring performance, all we could hear were the roaring applause and smiles every where around. I turned around to see my troupe, all were beaming and I could see myself enjoy the moment. We knew we had killed it. The foreign delegates seemed impressed, the event manager who roped us in for this was satisfied. I could see him nod at us when we stood on stage with contentment.
We left the stage and moved back to the room allotted. The event organiser followed us. He called out Rahul and I as he had to handover the amount decided for our performance. This was in a way our first payment.
"So, what do I say? Perfecto!" Andy, the event organiser congratulated us. We smiled in return. He took out an envelope that had the pay cheque. That moment was a one to be proud of. I let Rahul take it and I could hear the troupe hoot as we received it.
We turned back while Andy stopped me. I turned back and Rahul left to show it to the troupe.
"Well, that indeed was an amazing show," Andy said.
"Thank you, Andy. Thank you for giving us the opportunity, you.."
"Shh!" He stopped me in between.
"Do not say thank you, not yet," he said.
I looked at him perplexed. He laughed looking at my expression and my knitted brow.
"Well, I have been working with you guys closely since a month, and I must say, this is one heck of a team!" He rolled his eyes in amaze. I could not decode what he said then. He took me out to the balcony.
"Let me not drill you more, and get straight to the point. There is an event that is going to happen in Delhi," he paused to capture my reaction.
"Okay, and.." I trailed eager to listen to him complete.
"And I want you to organise the entire event, " I saw his face glow as he said that.
"You are kidding me, let's get in," I put my hands over his shoulder and tried dragging him inside.
"Whoa whoa! Wait, who says I am?" He holds me back.
"Andy, we have been only performing at events, now to take over an entire event and organise it, is not a child's play," I tried to debate.
"I have heard a lot from Payal about you and the way you have delt with events at college. Yes, I agree this will be your first venture, but trust me, every thing in life needs a start," he tried to convince me.
Payal and Andy were friends even before I knew her. She had not mentioned about him till the troupe was formed. In a way she introduced us to him.
"You can take over the organising part with a help of a two or three. The rest of your team can practise to showcase how best they are," he seemed too determined to sell the offer and I hardly had any choice but to agree to him. He smiled and turned to leave.
"Aah, yes! Miss Sanon will be your point of contact. I will send your details to her and she shall get in touch with you. Trust me, she is one pretty lady I have ever come across," he left saying that with a wink. Andy was gay by choice and he making a pass like this seemed amusing.
That was not what had caught my attention. The surname he said, stole almost every beat of my heart. I felt this huge lump with in, I felt a boulder of pins rammed at one shot into me. I stood still, till he left. My knees went weak and I had to catch the railing beside me.
Just the surname had adverse effect. Can the Miss Sanon be Aarti Sanon? One side of my brain asked, while the other said, she would be happily married now and she would no more be Sanon, and why on earth would she be in Delhi. I was just over thinking. The thought that she would be married, sent jolts with in. I needed a drink to get over this. Andy said it is dated two months from now, I shook the thought out of my head and moved to join the team.
After a good show, we left the place to reach our dance room. We had all the reasons in the world to celebrate. We traveled back singing our favorite minion anthem, making faces teasing one an other. We were a happy troupe. At the age of twenty four and twenty five, this behavior was socially unaccepted, but too bad, we did not care much! On reaching the room, everyone threw their bags down and settled at random places. I announced for a party in joy and everyone seemed elated at the idea. For us party meant, to get food from outside and some drinks if needed and sit in a circle in our room and eat happily. Rahul and I left to do the needful.
On the way I spoke to Rahul about the offer Andy had put our way. Rahul seemed all positive about it, but he sensed the jitters within. He knew about Aarti and I being together back at college and he had guessed it, that we were no more with each other by now.
"What happens, happens for the good! We should definitely take this up and fly to Delhi," he said and I hummed in return.
"How sure are you that 'Miss Sanon' will be Aarti? May be you should just let the time answer it for you and take things as they are in front of you," he spoke sense.
Somewhere deep within, I knew that the trip to Delhi would change things alarmingly in my life. I remained silent and we bought the food as per people's request and we headed back.
The twelve of us are till the brim and had an amazing day. No body wanted to leave to their respective homes. We stayed back imitating one another and their style of dance. Pictures, videos, stunts kept all of us awake for a long time in the night.
It was two in the night when few of them had dozed off at the places they were sitting, I got up from my place and moved to the corner. I took my phone out, I had a lot of messages to reply for and a few unanswered calls. Most of the calls were from my mother, I smiled looking at the count.
I opened the messages to find a few from Nishant, a few from Payal. The rest of them were from few groups. Nishant and Payal were slightly getting busy with the arrangements for the marriage. I had to accompany the two of them for their purchasing. Both of them knew how I hated it, and yet I had no choice. Among-st all the messages there was one from an unknown number. I could not recollect the number, nor could I identify as there was no display pic. It read 'how are you?' I stared at the screen for a while and gave up thinking about it.
There was a slight whisper, and I looked up to see Dia awake. She crawled and came to sit beside me.
"What is keeping you up, you fool?"she questioned. I chuckled. The way she talks can comfort anyone. I shrugged my shoulders in return as an answer. Her face had an 'i-know-it-all' expression. I felt naked beneath her eyes and gave a sigh.
"You have spent quite a lot time in grief now. Yes, those splendid years are not going to come back, but you are curbing yourself from a accepting something better than that," I nodded in return.
"I know, it is not going to make it any worth. Somewhere your gut says she will come back. I see that yearn in your eyes. I agree, what you both shared was veritable and unconditional. You do not know what her situation was, you don't know how hard it would have been for her. The sad part is, you won't know it as well," those words made me cringe my face. She flicked my forehead pretty hard and I looked up at her.
"You are going to be an uncle in a few years now, get going and settle the battle with in. You can not keep fighting with yourself forever...uncle," she said and giggled. I smiled at her.
"That was lame, get back to sleep, you bum!" I pushed her. It was almost three and I felt my mind switching off gradually.
The next few days I spent at home, irritating mom and trying all my possible ways to dodge the topic of marriage. Nishant getting married has become a huge thing at home. I want to kill Nishanth for opting to marry this soon, because of him, the frequency of marriage topic has boomed to sky level.
"Mayu," mom yelled my name from the living room. She was brewing over her coffee and it was her time of leisure. I hated that nickname, the moment I heard that, I yelled back at her.
I went and sat opposite to her and I knew she would not discuss anything other than another girl. By now, she had tried her luck thrice. I had disagreed to even look at the photographs.
"What is your age now?" She intrigued.
"Mom!" I raised my brow.
"Arre answer," she was persistent.
"I will be turning twenty six in a month," I had not relaxed my brow still. She giggled and I narrowed my eyes perplexed.
"Get back to your normal face, that itself is funny enough," she smirked.
"Ma, not you of all at least," I turned my face away.
"Then what, I have not even started the topic and you are already flustered, I want you to listen to me, this time I shall not compel, do what you wish for," she paused to hear my reply.
"Do I have a choice?" I asked her rhetorically.
"Now that's like my baccha. Okay so there is this girl.." She saw my face fall down and she paused.
"I am listening," I held both my ears and yelled looking down. I could hear her smirk.
"She has just finished her graduation from DU, uncle Mathur's daughter, I do not expect you to remember her, as you would have seen her when you were way too young," I stayed silent and let her talk.
"Now that in few months you will be flying to Delhi, if you feel it is right just meet her once," she stopped to know my decision.
"There is still two months for that, and I know by then you will have a few more lined up, so let us keep this at bay, ma" I pursed my lips.
"Son, you are twenty six, have had a fare share of the IT and now you have started doing something which you like and god's grace things are going good. I only want you to let the past go in the grave and build your life on it, if you feel I am wrong, the choice is still yours," she said and walked off.
Mothers know it right, which chord to strike and when. That emotional one liner at the end summed it up. I now had no other choice but to agree to meet this Miss Delhi, not that I wanted to. I wanted to meet her only once as per mom's request and then I knew how to cover things. I could never let anyone take Aarti's place in my life. I only wished my mother understood it.
I laid back on the sofa surfing for channels on the television while my phone buzzed. I took it out to see it was a text from an unknown number. The same unknown number from which I had received a message a couple of days back.
' Mr Sharma, I got your details from Andy the other day and I dropped a message the very next moment which went unanswered. We have an event to work for and believe me, loads of work to do.
Waiting to hear from you,
Miss Sanon.'
Who on earth sends a 'hey how are you' in the first go. How would I know it was Miss Sanon? I flipped the cell back into my pocket and left to my room.
In the evening, Nishant and I met at his place. He had dropped a message with all capital letters asking to meet. I could not understand the rage in the message. I packed my duffel bag with my tracks and left to his house.
"You are not going to Delhi. Tell a 'no' to Andy or who ever it is!" He blurted. I had just then entered his house and his out burst was more of a shock to me. I settled on the bean in question staring at him.
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mynote : enjoy your read! :)