Chapter 41
Amaal was a know-it-all. She knew when he had a bad day, she knew when he hadn’t eaten, she knew when he was happy. The last one was impossible to figure out because Samar never knew it himself. He hardly ever experienced joy with awareness, forget projecting it outwards.
AMAAL
You are in Srinagar since the last four hours
Come show me your face!
His chest inflated. It had been a year to the start of their relationship, and yet the way she wanted him, sometimes needed him, swelled his breath to bursting.
They had met only a handful of times this year, but what memorable meetings they had been.
Late night drives where he drove (in case of check posts), followed by early mornings spent at his flat sharing breakfast (upma banned), and talking about so much that he knew he had exhausted the entire dictionary, and yet still be ready to talk the next time they met.
SAMAR
Have you seen the time? Everyone will be waking up
It was 6 in the morning.
AMAAL
I
don’t
care
Fuck it.
Samar was already ready. He shut the windows, switched off the fan, grabbed his keys and left his flat. In record time, he was parked a few hundred metres away from Aamir Haider’s house, pressing the button to dial his top Favourites contact now.
“What?”
“Come out.”
“You are seriously here?”
“Hmm.”
“Eeeeeee!”
“Don’t scream.”
She cut the call. A minute later, she was bounding down the slope, her arms out like a lunatic. Sometimes he saw Adil, Noora and Maha all stuffed inside her. Samar laughed, unlocking his car to let her slide inside.
“Hi!” She threw herself onto him, and he engulfed her, breathing her scent in.
Lilies, sleep and coffee. He pressed his mouth into her neck, kissing skin and hair and comfort that he had embraced after three long weeks.
The shortest they had been apart, but it was getting difficult to do so with each passing day.
She kissed his mouth quickly because the day was bright already, and pulled back, enough to look decent if they were to be seen. The CM’s house was not far away.
“I miss you,” Amaal said what he had been feeling, her head falling sideways to the headrest and knees folding up. He liked how she instantly became comfortable in his car, curling herself like this whenever they went out.
“Me too.” He pushed her hair over her shoulder and stroked it before pulling his hand away. He wanted to do so much to her, he had planned it in detail for tonight. “What’s your day looking like?”
“Secretariat, then all-party meeting at Atharva’s house. That’s what you are here for, no?”
“Not only that.”
She frowned.
“Remember I told you I had been compiling solid reports for HDP?”
“Yes? 18,000 party workers across Himachal.”
“Those were preliminary, active members. Mainly from Solam, Palampur and Manali. I had kept the sleeping members count out of it. We are crossing 50,000 this month.”
“What?!”
Samar smiled.
“Seriously?”
“The year I spent away from you had to count for something.”
Amaal’s face split into a beaming grin, her hand landing on his thigh.
“This means… You know what it means, right? Panchayat elections get smoothened for you, and funding from KDP gets flowing. You have two legs to stand on against Himachal Jan Sangathan and Janta Party. A real party is coming, Samar!”
He couldn’t help the grin that split his mouth. “Himachal Development Party.”
“HDP. Imagine the possibilities.”
“I have been imagining them for a while now.”
“Sorry,” she smiled sheepishly. “All this while we have been talking about it but now suddenly everything has come into perspective for me.” She bounced in her seat. “Suddenly I am excited about it.”
Samar ran his knuckles down her cheek, pushing one into her dimple — “I know. That’s the case with everybody I am talking to nowadays. While I was building it, it wasn’t visible to the rest like it was to me.”
Amaal turned and pressed her mouth to his knuckle. Samar sighed. “I have a feeling Atharva won’t stand in my way any longer.”
“He won’t.” Amaal iterated.
“How are you so sure?”
“Because a lot has happened in this year. He caught Sufiyaan Sheikh and that chapter ended. He has scaled this government and the state beyond anybody’s imagination in just two years.
They are finally completing their family with the twins…
oh, oh, you know, I saw their hands and feet under Iram’s tummy yesterday? ”
“Hmm?”
“It was so magical, to actually see the outlines even through the layer of clothes!”
“It’s common, especially with twins. The skin gets distended faster.”
Her eyes went wider, awed. “Just imagine what must be going around inside there!”
Samar smiled.
“But my point is, that Atharva has moved onto a better phase of his life. Time has passed. His anger has also subsided.”
“Does he say it?”
“Not explicitly. But I sense it in the way he becomes when your conversation pops up at meetings or just like that. He is not as… opposed to talking about you as he once was.”
“Anyway, we promised not to talk about them.”
“Yep. So let’s talk about us.”
“It’s going to be 7 and your CM might leave on his run.” Samar eyed his sideview mirror.
“Look at me here.”
He turned his eyes and she was kneeling over to his seat. Samar laughed — “Amaal, get down!”
She took his mouth. He kept laughing, trying to hold her face and kiss her back but so amused that he kept missing.
She pushed back — “You are not even a little romantic! What did you even get out of coming here? You didn’t even take advantage of me properly.”
Samar shook his head, figuring he won’t be able to leave her if she cracked him up one more time. “Ok, now, get out of my car. I need to go to KDP then come back here.”
“You are throwing me out of your car?!” Her mouth dropped open.
“Hmm.” He poked the dimple on her cheek.
“You are my boyfriend!”
“Still throwing you out. Show me if you can get out nicely like a good girlfriend.”
She turned and bit his finger and snapped the door handle. “Ow!” He vibrated, shaking his finger. She got out and banged the door shut, fuming at him. Samar held her eyes, then popped the tip of his bitten finger into his mouth.
“Fuck you,” she snarled, her mouth pulling into a smile.
He grinned, adjusted his specs and drove away.
————————————————————
Samar drove down the estate road to Atharva’s house and rounded the porch. The security flagged him. He slowed, lowering his window. He had been frisked at the gate, but security had to be tight today as the entire J&K government plus Janta Party President Yogesh Patel was here.
“Sir, the parking on this side is full, you will have to leave the car here.”
Samar glanced at the side entrance, teeming with delegates, PAs, secretaries and so many people from Delhi that he now knew thanks to his KDP Presidentship.
His own car was full with two secretaries and the party steno.
Samar nodded, turning the key and getting out as everybody else followed.
The sudden warmth outside fogged his specs.
He pulled them off and wiped the glasses clean on the hem of his kurta, then ran a hand down the white cotton, another new addition to his wardrobe, courtesy Amaal.
She had also insisted he wear a white koti over this kurta today but he had drawn the line there.
He had picked up his leather jacket instead.
“General Secretary sahab has called for a pre-meeting in the outhouse. Will you be joining, Samar Bhai?” Fahad met him on the porch. Samar eyed the line of cars behind. They were Z+ security, but did not belong to Atharva. Which meant…
“Has Yogesh Patel arrived?”
“Yes. He is with Atharva Bhai.”
“Hmm. You all join the meeting at the outhouse. I will be there shortly.”
If Atharva and Yogesh Patel were meeting alone, there was definitely talk of Himachal on the table.
Samar had been getting feelers from his regional leaders in Shimla all last month.
He strode up the verandah and began to step through the open house door, tucking his specs into the neck of his kurta to let them air.
The flooring under his feet gleamed. He had never seen it shining this bright before…
He ran into somebody and looked up in time to find Iram going off-balance. He gripped her arms as she gripped her stomach. “Samar!” “Iram!” She looked like she had passed the final stages of pregnancy, which he knew she hadn’t. But twins.
“Are you ok?”
She was breathing heavily, her stomach held tight in her hands. It took a second, but she nodded. Samar saw Shehzad step forward in his peripheral vision and let her arms go.
“I’m ok,” she huffed, fumbling with her mobile and purse. “The party delegates are using the side entrance,” she said.
“I know, the parking there was full so we parked here…” he turned back to the main door and stopped. Samar squinted, then put his specs back on. He recognised the driver who was inside Iram’s car. But not from KDP. Where, where, where…?
It clicked. The first time he had gone to meet Sufiyaan Sheikh in Old Town… the tall guard who had accompanied him and Murtuza. He was messing in the driver’s seat of Iram’s car.
“Iram, go inside.”
“What?”
“Go inside, I said.” He grabbed her arm and pushed her completely inside the door just as Shehzad pushed between them. Samar grabbed his collar and shoved him in too — “Who is that driver?” He shut the doors and locked them.
“Samar?!” Iram’s yell fell on his ears as he turned. The driver had already jumped out at her voice. Samar ran, flying down the steps towards him. He made a beeline for the garden.
“Hold him!” He yelled, and ran back to her car. Something was fishy…
Samar stopped outside the open driver’s door.
“What are you doing? What’s wrong Samar?!” Iram kept yelling from the open window. He pushed inside the car and ran his eyes down the steering column. Zip tie and a wire. The radio was playing on loud. He forced it shut. An electronic tick was beeping low under the seat.
Fuck.
The fucker had activated it and run.
Samar dropped on all fours and there it was, winking, diagonally across from the driver’s seat at the back. Where Iram would sit. He jumped to his feet and splayed his palm out at Shehzad through the window. STOP. Pointed to the car.
“Samar!” She screamed through the window. “What’s there inside?”
He sat down in the driver’s seat and found the car idling. This was not the place to let it explode.
“Is there a bomb?!” Iram screamed. “Samar! Wait, wait… no!”
“Amaal knows everything,” he yelled back. “Ask Atharva to talk to her.”
Samar put the car in gear and turned the wheel, pulling away from the porch and towards the estate road.
Everyone began to fall away from his way and security barricades opened up without him needing to yell.
He kept an ear out for the beeps. Today was the end, and it would count for something.
The beeps went loud in his ears. His ears began to roar.
Ashutosh shashank shekhar chandramoli chidambara… the hum was louder in his ears.
Samar saw the road open up in front of him and the estate jungle come into his view. No people in sight.
Koti koti pranam shambhu koti naman digambara… Mummy’s voice.
Beeps were unending. He slammed on the accelerator, eyeing the house and the people in the rearview, left in the distance.
Samar heard the beep click faster.
Fuck you!
He threw the door open and jumped, his body propelling as the world exploded behind him.
Don’t let it end today, please.
————————————————————
“Amaalamaalamaaal….maaaa….amaaal…”
His body broke into a shiver. Water landed. It burned his chest.
“Amaal… Amaal…”
Green. Grass. Burning his back.
“Don’t dunk… water…” his teeth chattered. “Prev…en shock pre…. vent A maal…”
Water landed on him again. He wiggled.
“My ba… on my back,” he muttered. No water. Shock. Hypothermia. No water.
“I can’t turn you on your stomach, your chest is burnt.”
Liar.
Atharva.
Water was hypothermia on open burns. He knew it. But he would do it. He would liberate him.
“You can,” Samar tried to open his eyes. His eyelashes were stuck. “Let me on my side. I am not going to survive… just… back’s burning… ease it.”
I can’t take it. Let me go Atharva. I want to stay for Amaal but let me go.
He felt hands turn him. Samar tore open his eyes. Atharva’s face. And blue sky.
“You’ll live,” Atharva said, smiling. He didn’t dunk him in water.
“I’m here,” he said. Didn’t fucking bring water!
“You will live.”
Amaal knows everything. Let me go.
Shock choked him, and gave him relief.