Vicky and Vidya - Chapter 2: How do you feel?
Vicky and Vidya
Chapter 1
It was perhaps in the year of 2011, a lousy Thursday afternoon in the month of October, while I was spinebashing at my friend's place in College Station, Texas, contemplating which Raag I should play for my upcoming concert that weekend, I heard the doorbell ring. I walked half-heartedly to the door and opened it, cursing them for disturbing my rest. I saw a group of God's mahamantris (ministers), who wanted to liberate all the sinful souls from this world. One of them said
"We are here to spread the word of God. How do you feel if the God you have believed in all these years turns out to be false?" It was a foreign land! So I was still in a quandary on whether I should be rude/soft when my friend immediately jumped in for my rescue. "We are not interested in this. We are practicing Hindus", he said "Oh really? That is wonderful. Can you explain to us about your religion?" they continued relentlessly.
I got a little courageous by now and took this opportunity to preach the preachers, "First of all let me tell you that I am an atheist. As far as Hinduism is concerned, it believes that the whole cosmos, you, me, a dog, a fly, are a manifestation of the same divinity..." I began my discourse. "Sorry I have an exam to prepare for, you may go now", my friend interjected.
When they were all gone, he asked me not to entertain them. ‘They are idiots and a nuisance in the city. Do not open the door if you see them again’, he added. Now after my meeting with Vicky, had I encountered them and if they asked me the same question, I would have in response asked them "Forget about God which is an extremely personal thing and a profoundly conceptual entity like the infinity in mathematics. God has already been rendered infinite because of the possibility of infinite perceptions and infinite imaginations of the human mind, so it is waste of time discussing God formally using the extremely weak, inefficient and an informal logical framework and the modest vocabulary that people like you and me are familiar with. Instead I will ask you something more concrete and tangible. How do you feel if what happened to Vicky had happened to you? Wondering who is Vicky? What is in the name? Forget Vicky, how would you feel if you had invested all your emotions, money, time, self respect on someone but only to get constantly snubbed or misunderstood for 15 years and you still do not see any signs of this trend changing? Please come inside I will tell you a sad-but-true- love story of Vicky and Vidya" and would have told them my dear friend's story. Vicky is a very old good friend of mine.
We studied together for many years, later because of our professions we had grown apart physically but emotionally we were still very close with occasional meetings and chats. It was only last week, after donkey's years, while I was flying back to Bangalore from Mumbai cursing my luck for yet another dry flight that I met Vicky and I could have a longish one to one session with him. Vicky was in a different row and I requested my neighbor to barter seats with Vicky and he kindly agreed.
When Vicky sat next to me I started the conversation by breaking the silence. "Long time buddy. I am doubly happy. One I met you and two this flight is not going to be that dry" "What do you mean by a dry flight", he inquired "The curse of having to sit with another guy during the entire flight. It can get all the more painful when you are traveling abroad is it not" "hahaha" It was a half-hearted laughter, I gathered.
I continued probing him further, this time using my native tongue. "yaako dull aagiddeeya? (why are you looking so dull) is everything alright?" "Bro, I have known you since college days and I have admired your frankness and boldness. I want to share something very personal with you and seek your advice" "Thanks for trusting me with your personal secret but I am not sure if my advice will be of any help to you" I tried comforting him even though my funny 'mean' self kept taunting me "Hello agony uncle, you want a dry flight or a flight like this? "Oh shut up! Boy", I told myself.
"Do you remember Vidya?" Vicky inquired, wanting to confirm my knowledge of the characters involved in the plot before he commenced his story. Not just Vicky, any serious story teller would hate people asking puerile questions when he is engaged deeply in his business. "Of course, I do, I have seen you with her many times. You introduced me to her. There was a rumor that you both are going out together and might get married as well. But this was in 1999 when I was in 1st year Engineering?" "yes bro. I might snap ties with her soon. It has been 15 years and still nothing is clear with her or her father. She and her father are still dilly-dallying about my marriage with her"
"What? You want to snap ties with her after 15 years? What the fu*&? Excuse my French" I could not resist using the F-word at that moment. "I will tell you briefly what happened so that you will know exactly what weighed upon my decision. I wish I could tell you the whole story but I do not want to bore you to death with the details" "That’s OK. Go ahead. I have all the time in the world at my disposal. We can continue at the coffee shop at Bangalore airport for some more time if you want." I said, masking a mixture of emotions: curiosity and genuine concern.
"Thanks Bro. I met Vidya for the first time at a family friend's place during some religious ceremony. She had come along with her maternal uncle Adi Keshavan (Adi uncle as we used to call him). I heard from someone that she lives with her uncle in Bangalore, she does not have her mother and her father Mr. Raman Ranganathan lives in Chennai. Even though I did not even care to talk to her on that day, I cannot claim that I was not attracted to her at all, at the first sight".