The Reunion

The Reunion

She stepped out of her car. Thanked her chauffer. There stood her alma mater, in all its magnificence. How it felt to be back a decade later. Almost like a fresher with all the apprehensions of a juvenile mind. “What would be the crowd be like?” “Will be the guys be cute?” & “The Director seems pansy” were just some of the thoughts that came back. A decade later.

There she stood at its threshold, frightened more by the memories than the apprehensions. “I shouldn’t have come at all”, she murmured to herself. No, she was not round the bend. She talked to herself often. It seemed to be her only company.

Rhea Bakshi, General Manager, Human Resource of one of the monoliths of Indian industry. Age, 31 years. A woman of substance, she was as comfortable in the boardroom as in the kitchen.

Today is the reunion of the class of 1994. She’s arrived just to please me, her best friend Natasha. I would not let her stay home in peace on the day of our first reunion. She’s had a tough life. I have always been by her side. Right through college and then these tumultuous 10 years. She calls me her pillar when she feels her own legs wobbling.

As she entered the hallowed portals, she saw me awaiting her. I could see her heaving a sigh of relief. There were very few people she was comfortable around and I am one of them. We exchanged pleasantries and proceeded to meet the rest of the batch.

She hoped she wouldn’t see him. The barriers of time faded away and she found herself back to the days when college had just begun. She’d begun to notice him in class. He was tall and fair. He had a certain boyish charm that attracted her to him. He was already popular with the girls. He was voted Class Representative within the first few days. Rhea was so smitten.

He appeared to be an absolute Casanova. “That’s not my type of guy”, Rhea reminded herself often. Yet it was as if he was pulling her closer. The magnetism was almost palpable. The disquiet could be cut with a knife.

He, Pratyush Rai, was looking for a new piece of arm candy. Another few weeks and then a newer one. So on it had been. Until he met Rhea. Rhea was neither hot nor the most beautiful. She wasn’t about to be crowned Miss World and neither was she interested. But he’d seen something in her eyes. Something he’d never seen in the scores of girls he had dated. Something ineffable.

It drew them closer. Months passed amidst glances and text messages on their phones. He seemed to her of a different world, unattainable. He thought it couldn’t be just a fling now. It had to be something more.

They got talking. Met up for coffee. Ice cream. Long drives. Walks on the beach. Rainy afternoons. Hours downing cups after cups of coffee working for group assignments. They fell in love.

Did someone say coffee? Rhea jolted out of the past and back to the present. I was asking if she’d want some coffee. “Yes, Decaf please.” She noticed I was so gracefully draped in a saree. And so were most other women present. She looked at her herself in her crisp suit and neatly tied up hair. She’d lost interest in dressing up. It was just another prosaic mundane activity. Monotonous business suits occupied most of her wardrobe.

In fact, she’d lost interest in life. Except for her job, which she loved, there was not much she was concerned about. She spent most of her waking time in her office cabin. Both shifts of staff members, the liftmen, watchmen and security officials knew her as the crazy workaholic lady who doesn’t want to go home. Staff incentives, appraisals, recruitment, exit interviews, she insisted on doing it all herself. This was Rhea’s life. Lots of work, lots of money, bonuses, company flat, company car, company sponsored vacations. And no one to share it with.

She didn’t seem to mind. She’d trained herself meticulously for these ten years not to.

Life for Rhea was the same each day. Same route to work and same route back. Same workout at the same gym in the same old favourite tracks and tees. Same couch and same TV and same laptop. Same bed, same pillow and same photograph to say goodnight to. “Goodnight Pratyush. I love you.” Another day was history.

As she stood amidst her batch-mates of yesteryears she was in an ambivalent state of mind. One part of her wanted to see him, talk to him, touch him. “After all these years would he have changed? Would he remember me?” Yet another part of her wanted to leave the place unscathed by the memories and the harsh realities of the present. Leave just like she’d come in. Bulletproof. Nothing did affect her now.

Well, almost nothing. She saw him entering and she realized he still did affect her. Her heart skipped a beat and she closed her eyes. She was in two minds. To run or to hide.

She sought refuge among a big group gathered in a corner. She observed him from a distance. He was dressed in a gray suit. Courteous, calm and composed. Muscular and rugged and yet at the same time benign. This was the only man she’d loved all her life. And she was seeing him after a decade now. She wanted to run to him and tell him how much she’d missed him and how much she’d wanted him to be there beside her.

She found herself silently wiping a tear under her rimless spectacles. She’d changed a lot, she thought. “Would he even recognize me?” Her doubts were laid to rest the next instant as she saw him walk toward her. He stopped keeping enough distance between them. They waited. Eventually, he extended his hand and said “Pratyush Rai, remember me?” It seemed like a joke to Rhea. Yet the seriousness in his solemn voice told her that he had really meant it. “Of course, Pratyush. How have you been?” she asked in the most professional of her tones. Her voice seemed mellifluous and yet choked with emotion.

They chatted aimlessly for a while. Professional lives mostly. Stocks and corporate trends were the main conversation. She finally mustered enough courage to ask, “You’re alone?” He looked deep into her eyes and said, “Yeah, my wife’s gone for a vacation with my two year old son”

Rhea could barely see through the haze formed in her eyes now. She excused herself and ran for the restroom. “No God!” she wanted to scream. “Why do you weave such intricacies in my life?” All she managed was a cathartic blow of her fist on the wall and all her emotions ran loose. I’d been observing them and had followed her when she ran off. I’d never seen her as devastated. I knew that she still had believed that they’d be together eventually. Today she felt that last hope drown.

We came back to the hall and Pratyush approached her again. I left them alone. He suddenly came closer. He held her by the small of her waist and kissed her forehead. She held him tight and began to weep.

She felt someone shaking her. “Wake up, love. What’s wrong?” she heard. It was Pratyush, Rhea Rai’s husband of almost a decade now.

“Hey sweetheart, seems like you’ve had a bad dream. Rise and shine. Today’s going to be a hectic day. We have to visit college for our reunion, remember? Wonder how that moron Raj has been doing.”

“Yes, I remember. We’ll go together right? What are you wearing?” Rhea enquired.

“Of course. How about this gray suit?” Pratyush replied.

“Perfect”, she smiled. It was just a dream after all.