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~ Little moments of happiness squeezed in between hard times throughout the life is better that larger moments for just the one time which leads to bigger expectations and then be dissatisfied for longer periods of time.~
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Manik's outfit
Nandini's outfit
“Do you want to just hangout here?” Manik questioned Nandini as she sat down on the floor of Manik's balcony. Like they had planned the other day, Nandini showed up past 7 at Manik's place as he promised to show around. According to the plan, after he would be done showing her his place, they were supposed to stop by the coffee shop in his neighborhood but when they stopped at their last stop, the balcony, Nandini couldn't move her legs from there.
His apartment was on the 16th floor and thus the night view from the balcony through the glass railing was scintillating. Everything in the city was lit up and far away it vanished into total blackness indicating that it was the seashore which might be more visible in the daylight.
“Yes! This is so beautiful.” she expressed in few words and he smiled thinking that the balcony had sprinkled her with the charm that he had been obsessed since the time he had moved into this place after his engagement had broken up.
“I'll get us coffees then. Just be a little careful around that edge because the glass is cracked there.” he said pointing at the bottom-left corner of the railing while moving inside the living room to get them coffees. She nodded looking at him and then pulled out her mobile from her sling bag to get a good snap of the view.
“Did you tell your parents ?” Manik asked her while he made himself comfortable on the floor beside her but at a feet's distance from where she was seated.
“Yeah, I did. They were so happy as I said yes and why not, afterall that was the only answer they wanted to hear from me.” she mentioned and he felt like she was hinting around something absurd with her and her parents.
“Whom did you tell about your answer?” Nandini questioned him before he could say anything and he closed his eyes for a minute feeling the weirdness getting injected in his bloodstream. He hated talking about this but he just cannot escape from it forever so better be it today than any other time.
“I have no one to tell about this. My parents passed away when I was 8 and after that my entire family abandoned me. Since then I've been on my own.” he said it two sentences and she looked at him in surprise.
“I probably should've told you this yesterday itself but I just couldn't. I don't generally talk about this to anyone so bringing up it on our first meet seemed difficult. I won't keep any grudges if you wish to change your decision now that you've learnt this about me.” he continued after having a look at her face. She seemed at loss of words and maybe family was a big deal to her, he thought. Only if he knew.
“Are you this impulsive always? A little tip for future purposes, listen to what I have to say first and then make your judgements about what I might feel. About your situation, it doesn't matter to me where you come from and as long as I'm comfortable with you, nothing else matters. Also, when I say that, it also means that you must have the same approach as mine even I tell you about my equations with my family.” Nandini's initial part of her speech relieved Manik a great deal and that also amused him. He has always been a subject of pity for whomever with he has shared this information about himself. She was the first person to not give it much importance just like he wanted everyone to do.
He was a self-made man and not just a victim to unfortunate incidents. He sure missed his parents and at times it bothered him that he had no one to turn up to when he needed someone but that certainly didn't mean that he couldn't live by himself. When Nandini acknowledged that, he felt happy. Nobody except for Cabir had ever done that. All the rest of his friends tip-toed around him with respect to family stuff and he understood that. It made him feel left out when they considered him different just because he was alone. Even his ex-fiance for that matter of fact used to pamper him always because of this. He enjoyed the attention at the moment but later on when he realised the reason behind it, he would just be upset about the same.
“What is your situation with your family?” he quizzed.
“I ran away from my home when I was 22. Well, technically I didn't run away but I lied to get out of there. I told you yesterday that I work in an event management company but I didn't tell you that I'm a MSc graduate from IIS in Bangalore. Basically, I come from a family of scholars and since childhood me and my brother grew up hearing that arts is just a waste of time and if we choose that then we'd be bringing shame to the family.” she paused her monologue because he hadn't spoken anything yet. She raised her eyebrows at him to which he just gave her a confused look.
“What? Don't expect any reactions from me! I have zero experience in stuff like these. I've always done whatever I felt was right for me so I cannot say that I understand what you're saying.” he shrugged saying that and pulled out the empty coffee mug out of her hand and put it on the tray that was on the other side of him. She rolled her eyes at him before continuing.
“So as I was saying, I wanted to do this event management course from Mumbai for which I applied while I was in the final year of my MSc without telling my parents. When I got selected, I decided to leave for Mumbai but I lied saying I got a professor job in Mumbai University and came here else they wouldn't have let me come here. But, I do know that life of any lie cannot be long so before anyone else should tell them I asked my brother, to tell them what actually am I doing, who by the way knew everything since the day one. From that day till today I haven't been to my home and neither did they want a disgrace like me to be there. In fact, just so they'd be free of the hypothetical ties with me, they wanted me to get married as soon as possible. The day we get married, they can finally breathe in peace and focus all their energies on my elder brother.” she finished telling him about her situation and he listened to every word of it patiently. Nandini sure did sound nonchalant about the whole thing but he caught the scintilla of longing in her eyes while telling him about her family. According to what he heard, he could contemplate that she was away from her family for almost five years but she has missed them for that long as well.
“Are you sure this doesn't bother you?” he couldn't stop himself from asking her that.
“Don't psychoanalyze my speech. I get that you're a great mind reader.” she said and he laughed out loud at that.
“Fine let's not get to depths of family situations, today. How ironic though? I don't have a family and you have one that doesn't feel like one.” he pointed out that and she chuckled sarcastically at that. It was pure irony that their situations were so similar. The silver lining was that they could finally have someone with whom they could talk about this anytime from now. It was clear that none of them are judgemental of the other's situation and so talking about this with one another wasn't going to difficult for them.
“But I am close to my elder brother. He's been a great support to me. I'm sure you'd like him but I cannot say the same for him.” she said blinking her eyes innocently.
“Wait, what? Why don't you think he'll like me? Is something wrong with me?” he questioned seriously, suddenly feeling very conscious about himself.
“It's just this little thing that he hates late-comers.” she teased him and began giggling at that herself. He took a moment to realise what she said but when he did he couldn't help but laugh at it himself. That being late thing on the first meeting was going to be an epic story for the rest of their lives, he knew. He liked how she made little things enjoyable and the positivity she carried with her. In these two days, he already had started to wonder how the rest of their lives would be together. For the first time in his life something as spontaneous as this had managed to make him happy in just two days. She was like a book he'd want to keep reading for the longest she'd let him.
A lot of things could still go wrong. Of course, they cannot predict what their future would be like based on just two meetings but the thing about momentary happiness was that it was addictive as hell and sometimes you cannot control but get high on that.
The actual question is that if this momentary happiness could turn into a constant companion of them for the rest of their lives? Because little moments of ecstacy amidst the difficulties of life is what keeps us going.
The two messed up minds of Manik and Nandini had taken a little break for that night as they stared at the city glowing and let the chilled wind caress their faces in silence.
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