The morning tea over and Shweta in a happy mood, Anjali decided she needed to plan the day, three days in a 19th century old city was getting her travel feet a tingle. We decided we needed to keep Shweta as happy as possible, it wasn't a question of her having a tete-a-tete with my alter ego, it was important for her to understand that she had a heavenly purpose to her being here. Anjali had spoken to her while I had a bath, and she told me about the conversation, it was a little bit of girly talk and a lot of it had to do with her disenchantment at home, she had worked all her life and now for the past two years tending to her baby daughter and her irascible husband was taking its toll. When I walked into the living room, Arun was already there talking to Shweta and the toddler was playing on the carpeted floor, Shweta was moving her hands animated while she spoke, and I listened to her, she spoke of how there lives had changed ever since Arun had started making tonnes of money, they travelled less, spoke hardly a few words in a day and never ate together. It wasn't really a complain, more of a matter of fact statement of facts and I appreciated that of her.
"Accusations are best discussed in courtrooms, personal relations are more about building trust and understanding facts and stating them, leaving the doubts, personal animosity and irritation behind. My alter ego was one with a large ego and pride, two things that always colluded to spoil almost every interaction."
"You speak well," Shweta pointed out, looking at Arun almost being reminded of him when I spoke. I could sense recognition in her, like she had reached a deja vu.
The three of us continued talking, Anjali was quiet which was unusual, but then she was more engrossed playing with the small fire in the fireplace. She had her back turned back on us and was busy kindling the fire with the iron poker and it had started to roar, it was mid morning and still cold, the weather forecast had predicted that there would be Sun later in the day.
"Anjali is a friend or more?" Shweta asked feeling a bit awkward.
I understood their hesitancy in approaching the topic, realising that we were here for them more than they for us.
"She is the best friend I have got, we have helped each other out when there was nobody else out for us."
They sighed in relief, happy that I had told them about it, I knew now things would change from here on and they would understand why both of us truly wanted to help them.
Meanwhile Anjali came back from her reverie, "I am hungry again."
"Good to see you have this appetite."
"It must be the water around these parts."
"There is a theory around this, I do believe."
"Can I have more of that cake you are eating," she said and I passed her the cake along with a glass of juice.
The house was extremely quiet, just the sound of the fire crackling, they had built it well, outside I could hear the sound of an air plane as it got ready to land at the Sahnewal Airport. The weather had conspired with the conversation to make the air oppressive but that prodded me into talking a bit more about.
"There is nothing lackadaisical about a torn relationship, it just means that one of the person or both of the people involved have started to reach out for a solution."
Relations are like paper with some golden rules written on them, once burned you can't retrieve them unless you have memorised the rules and can reproduce them as is. Like everything, they evolve, the important thing to remember is that evolution of relations can't be brutally forced, they have to be nurtured to a higher level. Broken down relations resemble carbon that is the form that paper takes once it is burnt, long absence from each others life is akin to forgotten golden rules, and these vows must be renewed before there is rhyme and poetry in our lives again.
"I need to go out and breath some fresh air." Anjali said and so all us decided to stroll out.
Arun got the car keys and a relieved Shweta got the picnic hamper from the kitchen. Once in the car we decided a slow drive to the Nehru Rose Garden would be the ideal thing to do, it was a family place where the picnic hamper would not be out of place Shweta assured us. Arun took the wheels and I was busy in the front seat looking out, the city can get polluted in the summers but the winter air was fresh, I saw a lot of hawkers and the traffic was medium to heavy. Arun had taken the longer route and decided to drive through Bal Singh Nagar and then close to the Dal Bazaar taking a detour to Sahibjada Ajit Singh Nagar through to Model Town before reaching Civil Lines. He had driven in a kind of circle, actually three quarters of a circle as he explained to all of us. A signboard told me that we weren't far from the Punjab Agriculture University, and right now I could see cycle rickshaws moving with modern cars.
Arun was a methodical man, I could almost see the semi circle that he had mentally drawn so that we could breath in the air of Ludhiana and get a first sighter of what the city was like, it was like had moved the car from the old to the new townships before we landed at the rose garden, he was extremely sensitive to what we were seeing, and when he saw me staring at a Gurdwara in the distance, "Thats Nanaksar Gurudwara, and is one of the landmarks on the Ludhiana-Moga-Ferozepur Road."
When we reached the Nehru Rose Garden, it was crowded and the Sun was just beginning to peek through, it was about 3pm. I was happy to be in Ludhiana.
Romance in Life brings Creativity to Life.
"Accusations are best discussed in courtrooms, personal relations are more about building trust and understanding facts and stating them, leaving the doubts, personal animosity and irritation behind. My alter ego was one with a large ego and pride, two things that always colluded to spoil almost every interaction."
"You speak well," Shweta pointed out, looking at Arun almost being reminded of him when I spoke. I could sense recognition in her, like she had reached a deja vu.
The three of us continued talking, Anjali was quiet which was unusual, but then she was more engrossed playing with the small fire in the fireplace. She had her back turned back on us and was busy kindling the fire with the iron poker and it had started to roar, it was mid morning and still cold, the weather forecast had predicted that there would be Sun later in the day.
"Anjali is a friend or more?" Shweta asked feeling a bit awkward.
I understood their hesitancy in approaching the topic, realising that we were here for them more than they for us.
"She is the best friend I have got, we have helped each other out when there was nobody else out for us."
They sighed in relief, happy that I had told them about it, I knew now things would change from here on and they would understand why both of us truly wanted to help them.
Meanwhile Anjali came back from her reverie, "I am hungry again."
"Good to see you have this appetite."
"It must be the water around these parts."
"There is a theory around this, I do believe."
"Can I have more of that cake you are eating," she said and I passed her the cake along with a glass of juice.
The house was extremely quiet, just the sound of the fire crackling, they had built it well, outside I could hear the sound of an air plane as it got ready to land at the Sahnewal Airport. The weather had conspired with the conversation to make the air oppressive but that prodded me into talking a bit more about.
"There is nothing lackadaisical about a torn relationship, it just means that one of the person or both of the people involved have started to reach out for a solution."
Relations are like paper with some golden rules written on them, once burned you can't retrieve them unless you have memorised the rules and can reproduce them as is. Like everything, they evolve, the important thing to remember is that evolution of relations can't be brutally forced, they have to be nurtured to a higher level. Broken down relations resemble carbon that is the form that paper takes once it is burnt, long absence from each others life is akin to forgotten golden rules, and these vows must be renewed before there is rhyme and poetry in our lives again.
"I need to go out and breath some fresh air." Anjali said and so all us decided to stroll out.
Arun got the car keys and a relieved Shweta got the picnic hamper from the kitchen. Once in the car we decided a slow drive to the Nehru Rose Garden would be the ideal thing to do, it was a family place where the picnic hamper would not be out of place Shweta assured us. Arun took the wheels and I was busy in the front seat looking out, the city can get polluted in the summers but the winter air was fresh, I saw a lot of hawkers and the traffic was medium to heavy. Arun had taken the longer route and decided to drive through Bal Singh Nagar and then close to the Dal Bazaar taking a detour to Sahibjada Ajit Singh Nagar through to Model Town before reaching Civil Lines. He had driven in a kind of circle, actually three quarters of a circle as he explained to all of us. A signboard told me that we weren't far from the Punjab Agriculture University, and right now I could see cycle rickshaws moving with modern cars.
Arun was a methodical man, I could almost see the semi circle that he had mentally drawn so that we could breath in the air of Ludhiana and get a first sighter of what the city was like, it was like had moved the car from the old to the new townships before we landed at the rose garden, he was extremely sensitive to what we were seeing, and when he saw me staring at a Gurdwara in the distance, "Thats Nanaksar Gurudwara, and is one of the landmarks on the Ludhiana-Moga-Ferozepur Road."
When we reached the Nehru Rose Garden, it was crowded and the Sun was just beginning to peek through, it was about 3pm. I was happy to be in Ludhiana.
Romance in Life brings Creativity to Life.
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