Vicky and Vidya - Chapter 3: Please apologize

 

For me ‘We spent the whole day listening to songs by Rafi, Kishore, Mukesh, Manna Dey, Lata mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle. Adi uncle’s room smelled full of vintage aroma. Adi uncle was particularly fond of Rafi and he explained to me why in his opinion Rafi is the best playback singer in the history of Indian cinema. He played “man tarapat hari darshan ko” from the movie Baiju Bawra, some 4-5 times. Vidya was also enjoying every song with the involvement of a seasoned connoisseur of exotic art forms.

Annapoorna maami insisted that I joined them for lunch. I half-heartedly said “No maami, I will go home”. She said “Nothing doing. It is already 1.30. Your Adi uncle is like a saint. Thirst and hunger do not bother him when he is with his music system and particularly Rafi’s music. He would sell everything and everyone for a CD containing a collection of Rafi’s rare songs’.

‘What a brilliant idea to impress him. Now my job is simplified’ murmured the fiendish phantom in my mind. It did not take long for me to break the ice with the family. Within one month I had already become an inseparable part of Adi uncle’s family. I would visit his place almost every day and would take Annapoorna maami for shopping on my bike. I would help them with their household chores, visit electricity and telephone departments to rectify the faulty bills, post mails and took active part in doing all and sundry jobs. The only job I did not do was that of a Janitor hahahaha. I would offer free ferry service to not only Adi uncle and his family, but also to his brother, nephews and nieces who visited him frequently.

There was no sense of selfish motive attached to whatever I did but there was only joy, respect and love for Adi uncle’s family. In fact Vidya had become secondary as far as my relationship with Adi uncle was concerned. I must also confess that since all my time was devoted to Adi uncle’s family and Vidya, I had very little time for my parents, my sister and friends. I let them have the trouble of managing all the above mentioned responsibilities on their own. My small world contained only Adi uncle and Vidya and I spent all my time and energy impressing them.

Vidya accepted my love immediately without any melodrama or feline vanity. Within a few months we had started going out. I was the happiest man on this planet. I was enjoying every bit of her presence, her mellifluous sweet talk, her touch, and whenever I embraced her I used to pray to God to recreate the same scene during the last moment of my life. I did not have the faintest idea that all this rollicking time was soon coming to an end.

Adi uncle’s friends and informers started complaining to him about spotting me and Vidya together at various places. They warned him of the bitter consequences of this frolicsome behavior of both of us. One of them even said ”netthikk namma sethuraman kitte pesumpodh, Vidya eppadi irukkaa nnuttu kettaa. Endha vidya nn ketten. Adaa Vicky Vidya nn shonnaa. Ennamo pongo Adi” (Yesterday when I was talking to Sethuraman, he inquired “How is Vidya?” When I asked him which Vidya, his reply was “Vidya of Vicky Vidya fame”). Adi uncle suddenly started feeling very insecure about Vidya’s relationship with me. He started pondering on ways to cut me off from her. He did what was very natural and expected from an insecure uncle. He stopped picking my calls, ignored me in public functions and on one occasion he even very subtly ill-treated my father!!!! My story would be incomplete if I do not tell you some of these important incidents that happened when a lot of bad blood was running between him and me.

Once I had been to Chowdaiah hall in Malleshwaram for a concert. Before the show I went to the green room to meet the main artist. Adi uncle was also there since the main artist was his close friend. After a while, under the pretext of searching something, he searched the drawers in the table kept inside the green room. He later asked me ‘My Rs. 300 is missing. Did you see it by any chance? ’ The tone and tenor was not that of curiosity but that of a strong suspicion and a predetermined presumptuous allegation. My heart wanted to tell him “Mind your f**ing words. My parents have not left me a million dollars in my account but have instilled a great deal of noble virtues in me. Stop this absurd and obnoxious balderdash.” But my mind said “Do not cheapen yourself by letting your emotion take over. Let your senses prevail.” I replied with a very ineffective and innocuous “No”.

Then there was a period of lull for about 3 years. I could meet Vidya only occasionally for short chats. I lived all these 3 years with a HOPE that my Vidya will come back to me someday. And we will live happily as ever. I must thank you wholeheartedly dude. It was during this time that I got close to you in the college. I thoroughly enjoyed your company. Even though you were always surrounded by your friends and so many other people, the very few moments that we met and discussed about music, literature and your lessons on Sanskrit grammar are unforgettable.

One fine day as if all the planets, after convening a group meeting, had decided unanimously to pass the “Save Vicky” bill, I got a call from Adi uncle asking me to accompany him for a birthday party of a budding Kannada cinema hero. I felt so elated by his call that I did not even care to ask him when and where it was being held. Dishing the fear of him changing his mind, I jubilantly accepted the invitation. He said he will pick me from home in the evening. It was a very moderately extravagant but an extremely private occasion in a five star hotel. Invitation to the party was for very close friends.

They had arranged a musical evening of Rafi’s songs which was clue enough for me to know why Adi uncle who otherwise is not party type had decided to go for this one in particular. Adi uncle displayed his knowledge of Rafi songs by sending song requests to the singer. The singer readily accepted his defeat and surrendered to Adi uncle. It was easy to see that the singer was stumped by Adi uncle’s knowledge of Rafi’s songs that he did not miss any opportunity to introduce Adi uncle to his friends and praise him as an authority on Rafi’s songs. Adi uncle without mellowing down with this unexpected attention and veneration instead continued quizzing that poor singer with questions such as “kyaa aapne yeh wala suna hai? (Have you heard this one?)” and humming the tunes for him.

At the end of the party Adi uncle asked me in a regretful tone “When will you come home?. It has been a long time.” I responded by asking “How is Vidya?” He was puzzled with my answer which clearly got reflected on his facial expression of “Didn’t I ask the right question? I am sure this is not what I asked”. It was clear to me that he knows that I know that he knows what is there in my mind. I took a while to gather my wits and said “Sure uncle. I want to meet Annapoorna maami also. Can I come tomorrow?”

It was a new beginning. I was back with MY Vidya. All was rainbow and sunshine again. Her very presence made me as calm as a millpond. Every night in my dreams, my angel would hold my hands and walk me to the shore of ‘the ocean of love’. We took the dream boat to traverse the entire expanse of the clear blue water beneath us that reflected the galaxy of stars from the resplendent clear night sky above. As the night moved out giving way to the dawn, the scene in the dream would slowly get metamorphosed into a pristine forest through which blew a gentle cool breeze with drizzles of rain and singing birds’ early morning tweets, as if they have all gathered to play the sweet orchestra titled ‘season of love’ to entertain the king of the forest. If life was like a box of chocolates for Forrest Gump, to me love was like a box of assorted, expensive candies. A box that contained both good flavors which you want to have more and more and the bad ones which you cannot throw away because you have paid for them. Around the same time, Adi uncle and family moved into a new house for which he had borrowed some money from a lady called Sushmita.

Since I was back actively participating in all the household activities, Adi uncle took me to his bank, gave me some money, and asked me to hand it over to that lady. He also warned me not to reveal to her that he was in Bangalore. I called her on her phone right in front of Adi uncle. ‘Hello’ a feminine voice answered the phone on the other side. ‘Hello may I talk to Sushmita? I am Mr. Adi Keshavan’s friend…” ‘Hello..Hello…cannot hear a bit…S***…tell me’ ‘Hello, may I know who is this? I want to talk to…’ ‘IT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, TUM ENGLISH NAHIN JAANTE HO TO HINDI MEIN BAAT KARO’ she replied furiously. I also got furious and tried to raise my voice but Adi uncle gestured me to cut the call. ‘Call her again and apologize to her. What to do she is a crazy woman’ Adi uncle said calmly. ‘But why the hell should I apologize to her uncle?’ I asked him defiantly. ‘Just do it for me, please’.

She later called me in the middle of the night to her apartments and made me wait for more than 2 hours. Then she got out of her car smoking a cigarette, along with a group of friends some of who were in a semi-conscious state because of excessive drinking. ‘No wonder she is crazy’ I thought. ‘I am sorry, I did not mean to offend you (I am not sorry for what I said, FU bitch!!!). May I request you to call Adi uncle as a token of receipt of money? (FU, call Adi uncle)’ ‘I know Adi better than you’ she replied rudely.

For the first time ever in my life I had apologized for the mistake I had not committed and it did not leave a good taste in my mouth. In another occasion, Adi uncle had asked me to photocopy his passport to give it to one of his former bosses, who was planning to take Adi uncle to Dubai after two months. His boss asked me to photocopy the first and last page, which I sincerely did and handed it over to him at his office. From there I directly went on a three day trekking trip to Hassan with my friends. I had carried the passport also with me thinking of returning it to Adi uncle once I was back.

In the meanwhile, Adi uncle had tried everything possible to contact me but to no avail, since my phone was not reachable. At one particular location where the signal was strong, he could connect with me and said ‘I want the passport immediately. My Boss wants some more sheets in the passport’. I assured him to solve the problem and called up his boss. ‘Don’t you have any sense? How could you take the passport with you?’ he answered the call in an offending tone. ‘Why did you not tell me to photocopy other sheets as well when I met you?’ I asked in the same offending tone. He cut the call and within a minute Adi uncle called me. ‘Please apologize to him. For me and do what is necessary. It is a very important business trip for me and I do not to miss this at any rate.’

By now I had understood how insensitive he was to my emotions so did not bother to reason out with him. Instead I called up his Boss. ‘You cannot brush it under the carpet Vicky, how dare you talk to me like that?’ ‘Ok. I am sorry.’ ‘You cannot brush it under the carpet with a sorry. I want you to immediately fax me those pages of passport’. I spent the rest of the day in finding a nearby town that had facsimile facility and tried sending the pages he had asked for. He would complain about the clarity of the print and ask me to resend a few pages. When I finished sending all the pages, he said “Vicky the quality is not so good. You are coming back day after to Bangalore isn’t it? You can bring them to me then’.

I felt as if my heart was being fed into a self-respect grinding machine over and over again. I concluded ‘While the bitch of the life had crushed my ego, love of my life forced me to crush my self-respect’. Bro, all my sacrifice went down the drain within the blink of an eye. Within a span of two months, Adi uncle got an earth shaking idea, ‘Why shouldn’t I consider marrying Vidya to my son Nikhil and cut Vicky off once and for all?’ Without giving a damn to how his idea would affect and shake Vicky’s hope of his life he endeavored to execute it. And yet again he started playing his old chicaneries with which I was already familiar by now. He stopped picking my calls. Whenever I tried contacting him, Annapoorna maami would have multiple answers ready such as ‘he has gone to Chennai, gone out with friends, gone to meet his boss and he is available only after a month’.

‘Sir, what would you like to have for dinner, Veg or non-veg?’ inquired the airhostess when Vicky was about to continue his soul-stirring soliloquy. ‘Two veg dinners please’ I ordered for both of us. ‘No. I am not feeling hungry, one is enough’ Vicky said somberly. ‘Shut up. Nothing in the world is going to change if you stay hungry. Two please!!!’ I did not have an answer had he asked me ‘Would my gloomy world without Vidya change if I ate?’