Part 3-Let’s have the TALK
After a few moments, she said, “you know what breaks my heart?”
He turned towards her a little and asked “what?”
She continued,” in college, we had this big ass group, we were this half a dozen of crazy weirdos who were never seen alone. We used to be glued together, we’d never leave each other alone. Until one day in the final year.”
She took a breath and continued,” you know none of them are here today and four days back even I was planning not to come.”
Aditi turned towards Viren and said in a low voice trying to explain herself, ”As happy as I am for them, it took me by surprise when I received a wedding invitation of people whom I haven’t talked to in 5 years.”
She went on.,” You know, we used to talk about this day in college. A month in their dating we had decided on our dance number at their wedding reception.” She could not help but smile thinking of the days that have gone by.
“Had you told me back in the day today would turn out as me sitting next to a stranger telling him our sad story, I would have laughed at you. There was nothing that could break us. Well actually turns out there was.”
She realized that she was getting too deep in her thought. She shook her head and attempted to lighten the mood. “Anyways, it is a beautiful wedding.”, she said with a smile on her face.
Viren was listening very closely all this time. He wanted to ask her all about what happened but he did not know how to do so. When Aditi smiled at him, he carried the conversation forward.
“You guys were very close na, you must be missing them”, he asked with a mild smile. She smiled back. This gave him the courage to probe a little. Very cautiously he looked at her and asked, “If it is not crossing a line, may I ask what happened that led to the falling out of your friends?”
Aditi looked away and took a deep breath and answered in a callous manner trying to change the topic. “Oh! that is a long story and not very entertaining in any way. Achha, you, and Mahesh were classmates at IIM. Right?”
He got the clue to not probe further. He replied to her plainly, “Yeah, we have been buddies since.”
At this point, none of them spoke. The conversation had gotten too heavy and it was better to let it go. But they were right next to each other. It was killing them not to talk when that is all they wanted to do.
So after a couple of minutes when both of them had not spoken, Viren all of a sudden asked, “Do you wanna get married?”
This was not a question Aditi was expecting to hear right now. Her shock was visible on her face when she went, “What?”, with a look of utter confusion on her face.
Viren immediately realized how the question must have sounded and in a hurry, he started speaking, “I mean in general, do you ever wanna get married. Like do you believe in the institution of marriage?”
His nervousness made Aditi laugh. Then she took a second to think before she spoke, “Oh, okay. That… is a good question”. She said with a chuckle as both of them laughed at the clear misunderstanding
Then turning completely to face Viren she started speaking in a friendly manner like she was out of her thoughts and feeling like herself again. “Hey, don’t get me wrong. I love weddings, but marriage…”
Viren was now mirroring her energy and was ready to have a heart to heart conversation with her. “What about marriage?”, he asked.
She spoke slowly and thoughtfully trying to choose her words correctly. “It’s just that I have never witnessed a happy marriage. So believing that mine would be an exception seems like just wishful thinking.”
Viren was happy to receive an honest answer but was puzzled at her inference. “What are you talking about? There are so many happy couples”, he said in a sort of defensive manner.
Aditi knew that she was sounding like a pessimist and maybe in another social setting she would have hidden her thoughts. But with him, she wanted to be honest and speak her truth. She continued in a sane tone trying not to turn this conversation into a discussion or even worse an argument. “Maybe there are happy couples, but I have never seen one that fits into my definition of happy. Also, I am not against marriage. I like the idea of marriage, having one special person all to yourself, coming back home to someone. These are nice things, but at the same time they are terrifying.”
“How so?”, he was genuinely interested.
“Its just that so much importance is attached to that one person and what happens if you marry the wrong person. what if one day you marry someone thinking they would make you happy and the very next day you meet someone who is a better fit to be your partner. What do you do then?”, she stopped and looked at him. Then again continued, “Not being a cynic but the probability of you finding that perfect person in this world of over 7 billion people just seems too much of a gamble……. And when do you know that this person is good enough for you? How do you know that you can settle for this person and cannot get someone better, someone smarter, more successful, more caring, more suited to you.”
His face was blank as he was trying to wrap his brain around all that she just said.
“You must be judging me big time right now.”, she said taking her gaze off him.
For a moment he gathered his thoughts and spoke, “Ummm, no, no I am not. I am just amazed. For some reason, I thought you would be the one to believe in marriage and fairy tales and happily ever after.”
“Well, I am sorry to disappoint you.”, she said while still looking in front.
Viren could not contain himself and asked, “Seriously though.”
“Hmmm, I am listening.”, she said, still not making eye contact.
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“You don’t believe in marriage and you are talking about people as if they are commodities.”, he said kinda flustered.
“Well, are we all not?”, she said looking back at him, “All I am saying that it is a risky affair to make such a huge commitment for a lifetime, no actually 7 lifetimes.”
She kept looking at him when he suddenly spoke, “You have never been in love. Have you?”
Aditi took a breathe and said with a smile, “As a matter of fact, I have. And don’t faint of shock when I tell you that I have been in love twice, or I think that was love.”
“Okay, then what happened?”, he asked instantaneously.
“Aren’t you being too nosey?”, she asked surprised by his enthusiasm.
“Maybe I am. But you cannot make such strong remarks and not have me get curious.”, he said all excited to know the story.
“Okay, valid point. But remember we are getting on to you next.”, she said with a smile.
“Done.”, he said while crossing his fingers.
“Okay so, there were these two guys. At different times of course.”, she started narrating in a guffy manner.
“Of course.”, he laughed.
“The whole, girl meets boy, sparks fly, butterflies in the stomach, late-night talks, always texting. All of that happened and then one day it all went away. In the first case, one fine day our boy number one realized that he has better things to do than spend time with me or even reply to my messages. The whole trying to work it out shenanigan went on for a week till I knew that the “LOVE” has vanished.”, she said conclusively.
She looked up at his face and he was waiting for her to continue her story. She smiles and kept speaking, “And with our lovely boy number 2, it went great for around 3 months and he also got me considering the idea of one true love and shit when one day I found he was cheating on me.”
She paused for a second and casually continued, “So very long sad story short. I no longer trust my judgment of people and cannot even dare to think of putting all my eggs in one basket. No pun intended.”
Both laughed at her joke. That moment hundreds of different things went through both their minds. For a couple of minutes, there was silence between them. The environment resonated with the mantras of the wedding taking place in front of them. For several moments they closely observed the Shaadi when suddenly Viren spoke.
“You know not every guy is like that.”, he said.
“I know.”, she said.
“And not every guy is such a jerk.”, he said.
“I know.”, she said.
“And not every guy is stupid enough to let you go.”, he said.
“Hmmm”, now she was smiling.
“There may be a guy very close by who…..”, he looked at her from the corner of his eye.
“Viren…”, she said stopping him from speaking further.
“Who may want to…”, he continued anyway.
“Viren…”, she said pressingly.
“What?”, he knew what she was doing but asked innocently.
Aditi knew where he was going with this. She put her hand on his and said in low voice, “Please don’t.”
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