Page 28 of Can This Be Love?

Our Apartment, Delhi, 7 March 2013, 2.00 a.m.

It’s 2.00 a.m. and I am sitting upright in my bed; sleep is as far away from me as is possible. Is this going to become some kind of a nocturnal ritual now?

Go away Rajeev, go away!

Shoo!

Boo!

3.00 a.m.

Do you think Rajeev has married his binge-drinking girlfriend, Teena?

3.01 a.m.

No.

3.02 a.m.

Yes. He is married, I am sure. Married with three kids. Three fat, screaming kids who throw tantrums at the drop of a hat.

The image of Rajeev’s (other) girlfriend, all fat and stodgy after not being able to get rid of the post-baby fat, came to my mind and I heaved a sigh of deep satisfaction. I closed my eyes, folded my hands and prayed fervently that Teena had put on at least 500kg. It would be poetic justice and we all like poetic justice.

4.00 a.m.

I can’t sleep, so I am in the kitchen making mooli ke paranthe. Rajeev is probably awake too, sharing the marital bed with his grumpy, obese wife and screaming kids.

As I smeared one perfectly round parantha after the other with generous dollops of ghee, I knew that somewhere in the cosmos, Veena Aunty was dying of an unexplained heart attack.

The unfairness of life.

9.30 a.m.

There is something horribly and hopelessly wrong with P.P. Padma.

The forehead is missing the bindi. Is this the end of the world? A year late, but here nevertheless?

10.00 a.m.

I am the one who has been up all night because of a man who cheated on me two years ago and is probably married to his (other) girlfriend and P.P. Padma is the one who is grumpy.

Really?

11.00 a.m.

P.P. Padma has snapped eleven times this morning. I counted.

Seven times at me (have I ever had the chance to mention how much she loves me?), twice at the peon and twice at Mr Vijaywada, who is now scurrying around the office on tip-toes, trying his best to keep out of P.P. Padma’s way.

The woman is transformed into a crazed, vile witch. Not that she was not one before.

Noon.

Do you think Rajeev ever thinks of me after all these years?

12.01 p.m.

No.

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