What's In A Name - Short Story - Part Four

Read previous parts here

That night after the movie, when we went to bed, I didn't have my back against him unlike what I was doing till now. Perched up on our elbows, we were talking how our day went and after that was done, I went on about all the non-sense Simi and I had done when we were kids.

"You guys were crazy!", he said when I recalled how we used to surreptitiously follow Varun, whom Simi had a crush on. (He is now her husband)

"We just wanted to know if he was single", I replied coyly

"And you thought you'd know that by following him? Anyways, I forgot to tell you... since you've not met my friends properly, they've arranged for a small party for us at Sutra on Saturday...."

"Wow, that's so sweet of your friends re", I said. More than being happy that he had nice friends, I was rejoicing at my chance to go to a disc!

***

"I don't have anything to wear for Saturday", I complained to Dhruvesh while serving him his morning tea

"So, go buy something", he said, looking up from the newspaper he was reading and taking a sip of his tea

"You'll come with me in the evening?", I asked, wanting to spend more time with him. So unlike me a month back!

"Shopping!! Why don't you go with Simi? I hardly know anything about clothes anyways", he tried his best to evade a shopping trip. "Take my credit card...."

"You're offering me your card!! Wow!! I love you!! Ok, I'll go with Simi.", I gushed at the benefits marriage could bring along with it and leaped at the card he held in his hand.

"What?", he looked shocked at my 'I love you'. I didn't know how to react as well, so I just kissed him on his cheek and bade him goodbye for office and excusing myself for a shower. I wasn't prepared for an I-love-you session right now.

***

I went shopping for a one piece dress to wear for the Saturday party with Simi in the evening. After the shopping spree spread to buying more than just one dress, we thought of dropping by at Megha's place. She was our common friend. I hadn't seen her since my wedding. She was rather shocked to see us, invited at her place.

"Hi... you didn't tell me you were dropping by! My house is in a state of mess.", she confessed, opening her pony tail and ruffling her hair.

"I hadn't heard from you since my wedding, so we decided to just drop by", I replied.

"Oh yeah, so, how's it being married?", she enquired of me.

"It's nice....", I blushed. "How have you been re and how's Vinay?", I asked. Vinay was her husband. Even she had a love marriage and I was really envious of her love story because Vinay was a real catch! Rich, handsome, intelligent....what more does one want in a man anyways! I used to have a huge crush on him. But He was like a mad puppy in love with Megha.

"I'm good re. He's fine too.", she replied.

 However, that didn't sound so convincing. Her voice shook while answering. That's when I realized that behind the hair that covered her face, was a swollen left cheek. After a few lies about having a tooth ache, she cried in my arms. Simi came close too. We were hoping against hope that it wasn't what we were thinking.

"What happened?", Simi offered her a glass of water and tried to calm her down. I was still holding her tight. Contrary to what men think, even women are inept at handling other crying women, even if they are best friends. She told us her story in between sobs and wails and that sent a chill through both Simi and my spine. 

***

I went home and I was still in shock. I didn't realize when Dhruvesh came home. He found me lying on the bed staring at the ceiling fan in darkness. My cheeks were wet with tears, which I wasn't sure were for Megha's state or fear for being in the same state myself. 

"Are you ok, Payal?", he asked me switching on the light. "Payal, Payal....", he came near me and looked over me.

I got up and hugged him and held him tight for a few minutes. That was our first hug. He placed his hand on my head and asked me in a soft and gentle whisper about the reason for my strange behavior. I told him about how Megha found out about Vinay's extra marital affair, about his drinking problem that she was trying to convince herself was ok till now, about how he hit her right across the face when she confronted him about  the love bites on his chest she found the previous night as she was changing his clothes for him as he was too drunk to do that. And before Megha could recover from the shock that Vinay was cheating on her, she also had to get over the fact that he had hit her. Dhruvesh just rubbed my hands to settle the goosebumps I had while narrating the story. I told him how I feared being Megha and he looked into my eyes and assured me he won't be another Vinay. My heart trusted him, but my eyes were still watering. That's when I realised how hopelessly in love I was with Dhruvesh to be so scared to lose him to another woman. 

***

Saturday had come. I was so excited to wear my new dress. Dhruvesh said that I was looking stunningly hot, obviating the need for the usage of rouge on my face! We reached the venue and met all his friends outside Sutra. 

"If I can't keep my hands off you today, it's all your fault", he said placing his hand on my waist and pulling me closer to him. 

"No, it still is your fault. You gave me the credit card to go shopping", I whispered in his ears, feeling very proud of my repartee about my dress that he was referring to also quickly planted a kiss on his cheek.

"It's not your dress. It's you. It has always been you.", he said looking into my eyes. And then, I suddenly didn't want to go inside Sutra. All I wanted to do was to go and sit with him somewhere alone..... But his friends had already reached and he guided me towards them. He introduced me to them again... This time it was more detailed and I was more interested. His hand didn't lose its position on my waist. 

When we went inside, he got a vodka for the both of us. I wasn't much of a dancer so, I just stood by a corner with him by my side But that didn't work for long, as we were dragged onto the dance floor whenever we escaped it. 

I noticed that he wasn't called Dhruvesh by his friends. It was always Dhruv. He later told me that the only people who don't call him Dhruv are his parents and relatives! He confided in me that he wasn't particularly fond of him name for the same reason that I didn't like it for.... the ESH in the end! 

Some time later, I saw him standing and drinking beer in a corner with Rajeev, his friend. I went to join them. Rajeev excused himself to get a drink. I complained to Dhruv, (yes, now I can not call him Dhruvesh!) about the smoke and loud music making it difficult to talk and I caught him looking at a hot girl standing behind me. 

"You said you won't be able to keep your hands off me and you're not even able to keep your eyes on me....even when I'm talking to you", I said, turning his face towards me. 

"Sorry na baby", he apologized holding my hand. Also making it the first time he called me 'baby'. I wasn't sure if it was alcohol induced.

"Forget it", I said, relieving my hand from his hand. I was angry. On the one hand he said, I was looking 'stunningly hot' and then on the other hand he keeps on staring at other hot bitches.... this isn't done!

He tightened his grip on my hand and pulled me towards him. My nose was now only 3 inches away from his. He looked into my eyes and said, "I love you". With that, all my anger just melted. It was like I was never angry! "And I love only YOU", he emphasized after a few moments. "Kept it within me for such a long time, now I feel so relieved", he confessed. I hugged him tight. He fell a little backwards as he wasn't expecting the hug. I hugged him tight, almost choking him. I had tiny droplets of tears in my eyes. 

Rajeev's wife Seema saw us and laughed, "You're just back from your honeymoon!!! Just go get a room!!"

"Let's go get a room", I said freeing myself and him from the hug. He looked at me in disbelief. After repeating it once more, he excused us from all his friends giving some reason that I didn't even bother listening to. His 'I love you' was still playing in my mind in loops.

When we entered our car, I just grabbed him by his collar and kissed him hard. He went into a deeper sense of disbelief. 

"I'm not complaining, but seriously, what is the matter with you!!", he said.

"Nothing", I said. The tiny droplets made a reappearance in my eyes.

"Payal... you're crying, what happened? Was it something I said?", he panicked.

"I was just so freaking stupid. I was going to throw all this away! I'm soooo stupid!! And how are you in love with such a stupid girl?", I said.

"Because the stupid girl is smart, she is independent, her smile has is in itself to light me up anytime of the day... though I'm seeing it only recently...and when she opens her hair and when they fly across her face, she looks divine. Enough for me to just look at her and spend the rest of my life doing just that", he said. The tiny droplets of tears now became big tears and rolled down my cheeks.

"I thought you'd get overwhelmed by all this and give me another kiss and all I'm getting is tears!", he joked.

"I'm just confused if I hate myself more or love you more", I said.

"How can you hate the girl I love?", he smiled.

"Because the girl you love is supremely stupid.... she wanted to have a love story before marriage and only because that didn't happen, she thought she'd never get it and hated the idea of marrying a guy whom she didn't love before marriage... pretty stupid isn't she?", I said. 

I was careful in not mentioning that I also didn't like him earlier because his English was pathetic and his name sucked. And realizing later that having bad English is any day better than being beaten after having being cheated on by an English speaking glib talker.

"You know when was the first time I saw you?", he asked.

"When you came to see me at my place with your parents", I answered.

"Naaaa.... "He laughed. "I saw you at Nirav's wedding". Nirav was his cousin who had married my distant cousin Preeti. "You were trying to eat your food, finding it difficult to balance the plate on your hands and keeping your hair in place, which were falling on your face because of the fan you were standing next to. I found it so cute....to see you take care of your hair and still manage to eat. I really really liked you that time. I told Mom that I'd like to marry you if you were single. And you were."

"So you decided to marry me basis how well I handle my hair while eating food?", I asked in disbelief.

"I know that's stupid.... but isn't it how love stories are supposed to be anyways?", he said, putting strands of my hair behind my ears. Now I understood why he insisted that I don't cut my hair. 

And here, I had my love story that I always wanted. The only difference was that it happened post-marriage as opposed to pre-marriage as I wanted. But it was pre-marriage for Dhruv at least! So that counts!! And I finally did get a guy who'd fall in love with me when he would see a strand of my hair on my face and loves it.

"Why did you not tell me all this earlier?", I complained. 

"Because I knew you didn't love me when we got married. I just wanted to give you some time. Also, it's unfair to some level yaar.... one month was really a very small time period. But having said that, I wouldn't have been able to wait for long!", he said.

I hugged him. "Thank you for giving me such a beautiful love story", I said.

"How?", he asked puzzled.

"I always wanted to have a love story that no other girl had. A guy no other girl had.... and trust me, no girl on Earth would have a patient husband who'd be ok with not touching his wife on his Honeymoon. Thank you.... seriously", I said. This time, he kissed me before I could finish the sentence. 

"I love you. I seriously do. And I'm just glad I wasn't the stupid rigid girl who ruined her marriage for some teenage romance expectations!"

"I love you too", he kissed me and stroked my nose later.

We were still in the car and we saw Seema knocking on my window. I rolled down the window and she said, "I told you guys to get a room....and you started in the car!" She went ahead and told the entire group about our apparent make-out session in the car. We then went to have a late night dinner where they further pulled our legs.

I have never been so happy in my life. Simi was right. Some love stories happen after marriage. My love story happened after and Dhruv's happened before our marriage. That night, I officially lost my heart to Dhruv and also a tissue....

The following morning, I woke up to Dhruv kissing me softly on my cheek to wake me up. 

"Good morning baby" he said.

"Good morning", I blushed as our last night's love making scene flashed in front of me. 

"You look beautiful", he said. And I knew I wasn't. After we came home, we couldn't wait for me to come back after washing off my make-up so my make-up was still on me. My kajal , eye-liner and mascara had all smudged over my face. And Dhruv still found me pretty when I was looking like a ghost.

"Dhruv, can I ask you for something?", I said.

"Yeah, tell me...."

"Can you take a week off..... I want to go on a Honeymoon"

"A week!! That looks really difficult. I had already taken almost a month off for our wedding...", he said

"Oh ok. It's ok...", I said, trying to smile so that he doesn't feel guilty.

"I'm so sorry baby.... I can take Monday off in the next week... Tuesday is a bank holiday anyways.... We can go to Lonavla on Thursday night and return on Tuesday night....... It's almost a week", he said, trying to bring a genuine smile on my face.

"Lonavla?", I cribbed. That wasn't a place where I wanted to have my Honeymoon.

"It wasn't me who wasted a week in Maldives na", he teased me.

"I hate you", I said, hitting him with a pillow for the Maldives comment.

"But I love you, Mrs. Payal Dhruv Shah", he said kissing me passionately.

After Dhruv, there was one more thing I fell in love with.... my new name.

What's In A Name - Short Story - Part Three

Read Part One Here

Read Part Two Here

The next day Simi dragged me along with her to a salon because she wanted a haircut.

“Why do I have to come along? I don’t want a haircut. I want to sleep!”, I complained

“Shut up you lazy ass. You’re coming with me because you’re not being given an option! Come on! Who’s gonna tell me if the haircut suits me or not? I always used to come with you…..”

“Fine! I hate best friends! Bloody blackmailers!!, I gave in. I accompanied her to the salon and sat there reading Bridal magazines! Somehow they brought a smile to my face.

“I’m feeling very bad re. You’re sitting alone…. Why don’t you get a haircut too?”, Simi said while her hair was being shampooed.

“I don’t want a haircut”, I said. “I’m happy with mine and besides Dhru…” I stopped in my tracks before finishing the sentence.

“Besides what…?”

“Besides I haven’t washed my hair”, I lied and tried to control the blush and smile on my face

“Stop blushing!”, she said. I was right, she’s God! She knows everything!

“Nothing yaar”, I said coyly

“Just spit it out”, she said, losing her patience.

“Dhruvesh is not as bad as I presumed him to be. In fact, he’s really nice”, I smiled immersing my face in the magazine I was flipping through.

“Finally!! Thank God! I told you he’s nice!”

“Yeah I know. He said he likes my hair and I shouldn’t cut my hair…. So…”

“Oh my God! I don’t believe this! Trust me! It took just one dinner for this! Shit, someone should’ve recorded the dinner!! Why didn’t I give you a lecture before 

your honeymoon? God, I hate myself!”

“Don’t hate yourself. If I am blushing today, the reason is your lecture”, I said. She got up with lathered hair and hugged me. And then urged me to get a haircut too. Just some layers.

***

“Hey”, Dhruvesh said when he called me while I was still at the salon, getting a haircut

“Hi”, I said.

“I got tickets for Shor in the City… I hope it’s ok with you… it is at 6.30 at Juhu PVR”

“Ok! So, you’re leaving early from office?”, I asked

“Yes. And I have told Mom that my Boss has invited you and me for dinner that’s why we won’t come to Pushpa Aunt’s dinner. Maintain the same story!”

“You lied! That’s bad!!”, I teased him

“Ok, you be the good bahu and go for the dinner. I’ll go for the movie alone”, he teased me in return

“I’ll save you the misery of watching the movie alone…. I’ll come with you!”, I smiled.

“And now people have started talking in hushed voices”, Simi laughed.

***

I met Dhruvesh directly at the theatre. He was 20 minutes late.

“You’re 20 minutes late”, I complained when he came.

“Traffic” and then he gave the classic I’m-late excuse one gives in Mumbai to which there’s just no counter argument!

“I hate waiting!!”, I screamed.

“But you don’t mind making people wait!”, he smiled slyly.

“I… ummm”, I understood what he was referring to. And to that, I didn’t have an answer to.

“I was just joking. You had a haircut?”, he said noticing my haircut

“Yeah… it’s just layers, I didn’t cut the length. Actually, I didn’t want to… but Simi… you know she forced me…. I told her that I don’t ….”

“Payal, it is ok! It looks good on you”, he assured me.

“You told me you didn’t want me to cut my hair… but…I don’t know how I agreed..”, I defended myself.

“It seriously looks good on you.” He said keeping his hand on my head and ruffling my side flicks. He held my hand and guided me to the screen. We held hands even while watching the movie.

“Your hair smells great. “, he said playing with my hair.

“They’re washed like an hour back!”, I said looking into his eyes.

“I know”, he said kissing my forehead.

 I put my hand around his arm and kept my head on his shoulder. He rest his head on my head. We kept on talking in whispers and giggling. The giggling changed to a kiss on my nose and then a kiss on the lips! And I couldn’t believe that my first kiss with my husband happened in a packed movie theatre and not in the privacy of a room in Maldives! And yes, I didn’t know what was going on in the movie after that.

They say everything changes after your first kiss and they are right. I just started liking him yesterday and after the kiss today, I think I’m falling in love with him! So much so that now I can’t take his name not because I don’t like it, but because I just genuinely not able to!

____________________________________________________________________________________________

I know I had promised that this would be a three part series. But due to popular demand, I'm writing more on this story! Hope you'll like it!

P.S : This chapter was dedicated to the movie Socha Na Tha (I was watching it while writing this).... the cutest movie on arranged marriages! 

Short Story - Part II

This is the second part of the story that I had started some time back. Read the first part here.

It had been two days since I came back from my one week long Honeymoon to Maldives. It was Dhruvesh’s surprise for me. Before our marriage, he had once asked me if I would like beaches or mountains, and I picked beaches. Beaches meant Maldives. Simi had come to meet me at my ‘new’ home for the first time and she was visibly excited about my Honeymoon too.

“So, how was it?”, Simi asked in her excitement.

“It was good. Maldives is a nice place. Their beaches are better than ours”, I replied

“Fuck Maldives, how was your honeymoon??So what did you do huh? Come on give me all the details!”, she asked.

“Honeymoon was good”, I replied choosing my words very carefully.

“Did you do anything or no?”, Simi asked, visibly irritated with me. I just looked out of the window. She turned my face to face hers and asked me again, “A kiss at least?”And I turned my face again to continue staring outside the window

“What is wrong with you?”, she fumed

“What is wrong with me? What is wrong with everyone? I can’t sleep with a guy whom I just know for a little over one month! Is that my fault? No, I don’t think so!”, I exhaled and removed all the pent up frustration I had in me for the past one week.

“You’re still not happy with him?”, she asked and I continued looking out of the window, but with this question, tears came rolling down my cheeks. “Why did you marry him then?”

“I didn’t have an option”

“Bullshit! You always had an option, you just chose not to stand up for yourself and exercise the option! You could’ve put your foot down the minute things started getting finalised saying this is not the guy you wanted. Your parents would’ve tried convincing you, but never force you! Instead of telling me one night before the wedding, you could’ve told your Mom about it. Calling off your wedding one night prior to it is better than calling it off after the honeymoon!”

With that, I couldn’t control my tears. I hugged her and cried as much as I cried during my bidaai after the wedding.

“You know what Payal, the problem is not Dhruvesh. The problem is that you don’t even want to give him one fair chance. He could be the guy you wanted. You won’t know if you don’t allow him to show it to you. He deserves at least that much! Come on! That guy didn’t even get to touch his wife on his Honeymoon!” And with that, I wiped my tears and smiled. “ You know, Payal, life is about making compromises. And some of them are really beautiful compromises. But you get to know them only with time. Life is not a Bollywood movie. It comes nowhere close to it. Accept it. Your love story could be beautiful, if you let it bloom. And if you do let it bloom, it will not be like the ones shown in movies!”

“I know life is not a Bollywood movie but”

“See, ‘But’ is a conjunction…. You join two sentences with it. You can’t ever end one with it. Think about what I said. It’ll make a lot of sense only if you want it to make sense to you”, she said. That hit the nail. She was right. I was way too rigid and I refused to bow down. I just simply refused to even think that maybe, even after all the things about Dhruvesh that I didn’t like, there might be something that I might just like. Whichever ways, it wasn’t like I had any other option but to like him.

“Maybe you’re right. I just have never given him a chance … and I needed someone to drill it into me.”

“Hmm. Good. So what did you tell him for not you know…..”

“One night he was trying to you know get close and stuff, so I told him very politely that I need some time to get comfortable with him…. And I think he understood. He didn’t try after that night”

“He respected your decision. That was a sweet thing to do. And I’ll also tell you one thing. Take time to get comfortable with him but don’t take so long that he runs out of patience and you know has an affair or something!!”

“Really?”, I asked, flummoxed.

“I know you were born at night, but didn’t know that it was last night!! Dude, you seem to have forgotten all the men gyaan we gathered through our teenage!!”

“My mind’s just not working. I don’t know what I am doing in life”

“Oh your life… you’re not doing anything much. You’re just ruining it, that’s it!”

“Fine! I’m listening to your advice! Save the sarcasm now!”, I replied.

***

I felt really good after I got the pasting from Simi. I think I really needed it. I thought I’d call him for a change today and ask if he would like to go out for dinner. He agreed and we went to dinner. At the dinner, I realised that he wasn’t as bad as I was assuming him to be. He was interesting to talk to. He was funny at times, sarcastic sometimes and he could make me smile. I realised that I liked talking to him too. But it just wasn’t in the language I wanted. After dinner, we went to Marine Drive for a walk and talk some more before we went home. We had just started opening up to each other.

“The city looks so amazing here na”, he said.

“Yeah. It’s beautiful. I used to come here with my college friends. It used to be so much fun with them!!”, I answered.

“I don’t want to go to dinner at Pushpa Aunt’s place tomorrow! It is going to be so boring!”, he said, talking smaller steps to be able to keep pace with me.

“Same here! Can we not go? Please!!”, I urged. “Let us both go out for dinner instead. And probably a movie too”, I said. I wouldn’t have imagined myself saying this 24 hours back!

Dhruvesh just looked at me and smiled probably wondering what had gotten into me. “Ok.”

“It is like role reversal now! Earlier I was hardly talking, and now you are hardly talking!!”, I said.

“It’s not that I’m complaining, but just wondering what has suddenly happened to you!”

“I told you, I just needed some time”, I lied because I didn’t want him to know how shallow his wife is.

“I understand”, he smiled.

“Thank you for being so understanding and so patient with me.”, I said

“That’s ok! It’s not a big deal. People take time to adjust to new situations. And besides, you really didn’t have time”, he quipped

“You didn’t have time either!”, I replied. He just smiled. “What is the smile for? You too didn’t have time to get adjusted with me”, I asked, perplexed with his smile.

“Anyways, when are you resuming work?”, he asked me.

“I still have three more weeks”

“That’s a real big holiday you got from office!”, he said.

“I know! I was lucky. I was thinking of quitting work”

“Why? You said you love your job na”

“Yeah, I love my job…. But I don’t know I was just thinking that probably I’ll just stay home…..”

“You want to be a housewife?”

“Kind of!”

“And waste all that talent that you have? You’re not getting to do that! You’re working and not staying home doing nothing!”

“I don’t think I can manage home and office all together….”, I said.

“It’ll be fine. Don’t worry. And besides Mom is there na. You don’t have to run an entire house by yourself! Don’t even get this thought again. You’re working until you genuinely get bored of it. I don’t want you to waste your talent.”

“Thanks”, I looked at him and smiled. I felt it was a big thing for him to do…. To let me work. I know of many of my cousins who stopped working because their husbands didn’t approve of it. Simi was really right when she said that Dhruvesh wasn’t that bad!

“Your job has made you who you are today. I don’t want you to lose your identity only because your surname has changed”

“I am really lucky to have such a supportive husband”, I said and meant every word that I spoke.

“Being supportive is just a polite way of saying ‘I don’t mind the extra income coming home!’”, he laughed. I laughed too. While walking our hands clashed and he let them touch. The touching later progressed to our fingers intertwining with each other’s and walking holding hands.

“I love your hair. Don’t ever think about cutting them!”, he spoke after some time, putting a strand of my hair behind my ears.

“So, now you’ve stated giving me orders!”, I joked. “And I thought you were all supportive and understanding”. I said and he laughed.

“You should get a taste of both!” and with that I smiled.

We left for home after some time. And I put my hands on his shoulders while sitting on the bike  with him. It felt good. Simi was God! She knew everything!! I liked the first set of physical contact that I had with him. It was romantic yet subtle. Not over the top like how it is in movies!! 

There were no roses, no candle light dinner, no moon lit stroll on the beach, but still, it was the most romantic evening that I had. Street food for dinner, a walk with honking horns for background music and so much to talk!