Chapter 41: Balloons
The girls stood on the short wall that fenced the shoreline. Their shoes were lying on the ground. Avantika and Seher held the hem of Veena’s skirt, their hair flying onto their faces except Seher’s. Her hair only budged in the direction of the breeze before springing back into its place every time the breeze slowed down.
— “You know, we literally have never been sober.”
— “You figured that out, now? That’s our thing. Pot, alcohol, random banter.”
— “No, I mean, ever since I first met Anand at the party. We have never hung out without there being alcohol and pot.”
— “We have built ourselves a subculture in this city. We are survivors in this glorious age of party. And you picked the wrongest time to be spiraling into a bharatiya naari guilt trip.”
— “No, no… I don’t think that is the case. I just feel like my entire relationship with Anand depends on substance abuse.”
— “I am not buying that. You guys don’t even smoke cigarettes at home. And if you think it’s the drugs and alcohol, we could all go sober till you sort yourself out.”
— “Except for the one after dinner. And us, sober? Remember the fortnight of the dreaded elections?” Veena guffawed at Seher’s comment after correcting it factually. She took a deep breath before diving into a rattle of words. “You don’t get it, do you? We have had fights but then by the time we get around to resolving them, we’ve met you guys and we’re high again and then by the time we get back to what we were fighting about, we don’t care anymore and just do whatever is the easiest option. I am having this dirty feeling of being… of being drugged through my entire relationship, like a lotus-eater.”
— “You realise, you are accusing Anand of kidnapping you?” Avantika had burst out laughing as she said that.
— “Nooo! That’s not what I meant…”
— “It is alright, V. Clearly, nobody has ever put a pill in your drink.” Seher pulled Veena closer as she wrapped her arm around her. “So I can assure you that you don’t know what you are talking about.”
Meanwhile, some broken bricks (with their cement coating eroded or broken or chipped at various places) were being warmed by Anand’s and Kartik’s butts. The guys were talking about the marathon too. Kartik couldn’t hold more than five of those watermelon-sized balloons so the seventh, eighth and ninth were given to Anand. Anuj was on the tenth balloon.
— “Do you think I made a mistake carrying her? Does she think I don’t respect her enough?”
— “Anand! Now even I think you are going too far.” Kartik handed him two of his balloons. “That is like me saying, I don’t have Anjali by my side today because I didn’t stop and stare at every plane that flew by during our run.” He pulled out a packet of scented supari⁷¹ that he had in his pocket and tried to eat it with one hand as he used his legs and the other hand to hold onto his balloons.
— “I don’t think you missed any in your little rat race.” Anuj pulled out the marker and wrote the words, ‘Imagine there was a boy’ in block letters on it.
— “What is your problem with the marathon exactly?”
— “Nothing. It is a great art installation.” Anuj didn’t really have a problem with anything. He had a problem with people. He walked to the nearest gate and taped the balloon to it.
— “What does that mean?” Kartik shouted that out so Anuj could hear him.
— “Not the time, Kartik. Not the time.” Anuj returned to take another balloon off Kartik. Predictably, he wrote, ‘Imagine there was a girl’ — once again in block letters. “And come walk with me, I don’t want to keep walking back and forth.” Holding two balloons in each hand, Anand and Kartik jumped off the wall and followed Anuj to the third gate on their way.
— “How long has it been since the girls left?” Anand had never been this fidgety about Veena not being around. This wasn’t even the first time when Seher and Veena had taken the car. “Can someone text them and see where they are?”
— “Give me your phone.”
— “Yes, that’s a great idea. Give him your phone.”
— “No! What if Veena calls?” He hadn’t ever waited for a call like this. It didn’t matter if it was the big interview when it came to his job, or even the deal with the quarter billion dollar client. This was a very new feeling for him and he wasn’t exactly sure how to deal with it. If his hands hadn’t been occupied with the balloons he would have checked Veena’s relationship status on Facebook.
— “If she calls, I will pass the phone to you.” Anuj slipped his hand into Anand’s pocket and took his phone away as Anand screamed. “Stop acting like we are mugging you to leave you naked on the streets of Bandra on New Year’s Eve.” Anuj laughed as he pocketed Anand’s phone and started writing on the third balloon: ‘Imagine this is where they met’.
— “I haven’t seen you like this in forever. The last time you had this phase was when the principal had called your parents to college because of your poor attendance.”
— “That was funny.” Anand put on a sad smile. “My granddad just laughed at the principal saying: I spent money on a cab, wore an ironed kurta, waited outside your office for half an hour just to hear that Anand has bunked a few classes? The professor really had no clue what hit him.”
— “You do have cool grandparents.” Kartik had been the only one from the group who had met Anand’s grandparents. Kartik only had two balloons now, as Anuj’s next line was, ‘Where they first kissed’. The gate after that would see: ‘Where they spent hours talking’.
— “Yes, and I have told them that when they land here in a couple of weeks, I am going to have good news for them.” The last sentence that Anand said looked like he was talking to his buttons. He remembered the day Veena and him decided to move in together. That was also the day his house would be named Sparta.
⁷¹ Kartik had hated scented supari for a long time. For him scented supari represented weddings in the family. Till one day, he got a packet instead of change when buying cigarettes. The guy didn’t have any mints. Not wanting to let go of that rupee, he smoked a cigarette while chewing on the supari to realise the connection he had to his roots despite having ignored them forever. So supari and smokes became a thing for him.
