EPILOGUE The Tale of G, M, mm, m1 & m2
— MAYA —
Is leaky roof really better than a leaky umbrella?
Drip. Water fell into her eye. Maya squinted. No.
“How long will it take?” She skipped aside, waiting for the couple before them to be blessed by the Punditji.
“You wanted to run and get married,” Gautam grumbled, holding Megha securely in his arms. The temple was alive with sounds of bells and gongs, people praying, chanting, talking. The Mumbai summer heat made her perfectly slicked bun feel greasy too.
“Why did I say I wanted to run and get married?” Maya wiped the sweat off her brow, eyeing the leaky roof of the crumbling temple and the water droplets looking threateningly down at her.
“Don’t fall,” she threatened.
“God is fond of his ears and hearing capacity. He won’t fall on you.”
“You mean I am loud?!”
Some temple goers began to peer their way. Gautam only cocked one eyebrow.
“You know what? If you want to taunt me on day one then I don’t want to get married to you!” She began to move away from him but he wrapped his free arm around her — “Oye, ok, ok. I’m sorry.”
“Ab aaya na utth pahad ke niche,” Kumar bhai laughed. “You own him Maya, this is exactly how you have to keep him in check for the rest of your life.”
“You wait now, Kumar bhai, I will avenge both of us.”
“ Both of you? What did I ever do to you?” Gautam hiked Megha higher on his shoulder. She was beginning to get fussy and eat his kurta buttons. Thirty minutes more for her mum-mum time. If they weren’t married by then… the temple would be brought down. And not by a leaky roof.
“Seriously though, it’s not even raining!” Maya complained. “Why is this roof leaking?”
“Shri Gautam Kumar, Kumari Maya Kotak?” Their names were called. And Maya literally ran, probably the most eager bride to get married. The first thing she did when she reached the temple courtyard was check if anything above leaked. Nothing. Clear blue summer sky. Maya smiled, running a hand down her white and red bandhni saree, in keeping in tradition with her Gujarati roots. Gautam hadn’t minded the rituals or clothes as long as he was married to her so she had put him in a cream cotton kurta (because it was hot and she didn’t want another complaining baby on her hands) while Megha wore a cute red cotton frock with matching bows on her two ponies. Six months old now, she had the perfect smiles and frowns to give. Right now she was frowning, probably at Kumar bhai because after long battles he had surrendered to switch his blue paghdi for red, but wouldn’t swap his plain white kurta-pyjama.
“Aap aaiye,” the Punditji called Gautam and he handed Megha over to Kumar bhai.
As the Punditji took their details from Gautam, Maya gazed at Megha laughing in Kumar bhai’s arms, playing with his beard, hiding in his shoulder. Her own parents hadn’t once come to see her. Maya had resigned for Megha not to have anybody except her, and the friends and community she would make as she grew up. But here she had a grandfather, and a father, who was devoted to her like he had been to nothing else. Her throat clogged.
“M?” Gautam called out, and she rolled her eyes to drink up the tears. No mascara mishap today.
“Were you crying?” He asked as they stood in front of each other, varmalas in their hands. She shook her head.
The Punditji chanted mantras and gestured for her to garland him. She stepped up, expecting him to act highhanded and crane his neck back. Instead his face softened, and he bent his neck for her, smiling so wide when she released the garland at his nape. Then his hands rose to garland her, but didn’t stop there. They came and thumbed her eyes clean of tears. Maya laughed, turning and following the Punditji to the Havan Kund.
“It feels like Saathiya, no?” She waggled her brows at him.
“Like what?”
“That film I showed you last Sunday! The one with Rani Mukherjee and Vivek Oberoi?”
“Which one?” He frowned. She rolled her eyes. When she glanced back he was busy winking at Kumar bhai and Megha. Her mouth dropped open — “I’m not marrying yo…”
“Om swaha…” the Punditji passed a platter of grains to them and she immediately sobered up. Gautam smirked, following the rituals as the Punditji prescribed. They finished the marriage havan, took their pheres holding hands, and on a sultry Mumbai morning, with the sun above them and the sweet chaos of devotees flocking around them, they were married. Their daughter right there to witness the event along with Kumar bhai, who had been continuously taking photos one-handed.
“Ab aap inke pati hai, aur aap inki arthaangini,” the Punditji announced the conclusion of their marriage vidhi. “Bado ka ashirwad lekar apne naye jeevan ki shuruaat kare.”
They folded their hands and touched Punditji’s feet, then walked to Kumar bhai and touched his feet. The man didn’t have a free hand to bless them thanks to Megha, and Maya’s command to take unlimited photos of the ceremony.
“Khush raho! Dudho nahayo, fudo falon…”
Gautam took Megha from his arms and Maya went for the phone, thumbing through the last hour.
“Kumar bhaiii!” She whined. “All blur?” She turned the phone to Gautam, swiping through the pictures — so many of them blurred or out of focus or unframed. The men laughed.
“I told you hire a photographer,” Kumar bhai held his hands up.
“This miser kanjoos makkhichoos G said ‘no, it will only be us and our family,’” she imitated.
“Talk properly, I am your husband now.”
Her heart skipped a beat. She glanced at him and he glanced down, their blinks simultaneous. “Uhh…” she shook out of that private moment, trying to wipe the shy smile off of her face, “Look, this one, this one is good…”
His hand came around her shoulder — “Let’s take my wife home, huh Kumar bhai?”
Maya felt red rise to her face. It was so hot.
“What happened, M? Why is your face so red suddenly?”
“Show?” Kumar bhai leaned down.
“Is it because you are so happy to be my wife?” Gautam asked with a straight face.
“You know what?” She turned on him.
“What?”
Maya thought, praying to god for once to give her a good come back. Her eyes rolled from side to side, trying to get one good comeback in this life. God, I cannot start my first day married to him with 0 points!
“Everything!” She blurted.
“Huh?”
“Nothing?”
“What?”
“‘Nothing.’ Opposite of nothing is everything? So ‘everything?’” She explained.
“I didn’t get it.”
Maya grunted, again drawing the attention of passing devotees.
“Listen, G…” she stopped, realising he was again sharing that wink with Kumar bhai.
“I am going home! And you are sleeping in the courtyard!” She folded her hands to the inner sanctum and turned to stomp out of the temple.
“Arey? Listen naa,” Gautam followed her, Kumar bhai close behind with MM and her bag.
“No!”
“Oye, M, I’m sorry… please…”
“No.”
“I have salted caramel cheesecake ordered at home.”
“No!”
————————————————————
“Mu-ma,” she enunciated to her one-year old. Megha pursed her lips and kept thumping her feet down the grass. Gautam laughed from his perch on the verandah lounger, his feet up.
“Come back here!” Maya chased after their daughter, walking over soft bougainvillea petals that had carpeted most of their garden. The winter sun was light but bright, turning their lazy afternoon into a pleasant outdoor picnic. They had eaten vada pav for lunch, picked up lovingly by the 'husband of the year,’ as she had awarded him to make him pick up their lunch. Sunday lunches were street food lunches. For them. MM wasn’t supposed to touch the stuff until she was 5 (father-of-the-year’s rule).
He didn’t need to know that Maya had already shared roadside cheese dosa with her a time or two.
“She is not saying it today, you are wasting your time.”
“She will say it today only and I will win the bet! Keep the Gandhi Bapus ready, good sir,” she gave him her Queen Elizabeth lip. He only raised one mocking thumb in the air.
“Mu-mmmaa,” Maya caught up with her. “Say it. Who gives you mum-mum? Mu-mmaa!”
“Oye, cheater, that’s cheating!” He shot to his feet.
“What cheating? I am just helping her relate words.”
“No, no, no. I change the rules. You cannot badger her. If she says it on her own
today, then good. You are not allowed to put words into her mouth.”
“You are not allowed to change rules in the middle of the bet!”
“Dadaaa!”
Both their eyes whirled to their girl running to Gautam, her tiny feet thumping so hard on the grass. Her curls went billowing behind her as she crashed into his legs, flying high as he swung her up and around. Her giggles echoed through their courtyard as he kept going around in circles, his surprised laugh heavy in the air.
“Did you hear that?” He was bewildered, bringing MM close to his face and pressing his lips to her cheek. She preened, her tiny arms going around his neck.
“Dadda?” Gautam cued her.
“Da-dadaa,” she repeated.
“Da-da?”
“Dadda!”
The duo grinned, booping noses with each other. Maya’s eyes watered. God, why did you have to make me lose the bet and make it so emotional?
“We weren’t even trying to teach her Dada,” his liquid voice found her as he walked barefoot down the garden to her.
She pinched her tears — “No, but she learned it because I always talk to her about Dada when you are not there.”
“What do you tell her?” He came to her, tipping her chin close and kissing her tear trail.
“That her dada is an inorganic mule.”
Gautam kissed her, hard. A tiny hand clapped on her nose and they broke apart. Maya smiled, running a finger down her daughter’s nose — “Fine, he is all yours.” Then, close to her ear in a stage whisper, she said, “Your dada is the best, most handsome, most amazing dada in the whole world.”
“Dadda!” MM banged her father’s face, as if informing him that his name was being called out.
“Yes, baby, I know,” he kissed her palm. “See the benefits of no sugar, no processed food diet for babies?” He showed-off. “My daughter is faster than all the above-average kids in walking and talking. Come on, MM, we’ll learn new words and trump over all those Mommy-&-Me kids…” he trudged inside to get her books.
Maya kept quiet. If she told him MM had eaten all the sugar in the world in all its glorious forms, he would ban her sugar forever. And she had great hopes for the Mississippi Mud chilling in her freezer right now.
————————————————————
“MM, no,” Gautam mouthed to her without heat, buttoning his suit and stepping towards the huge round gong. Maya sat in the audience as he and his executive team crowded around the Dalal Street bell, waiting to ring it as soon as the clock struck nine.
Today, GK Enterprises was being listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange. A big day. No, a huge day for Gautam. And her. He had scaled up GK Spices in record time, now that he had the business acumen and a plan of five years before he even started operations. That compounded onto GK Textile’s business, while Made in Mumbai had become a classic subsidiary in the luxury designers world of Mumbai and Delhi. They currently had supply contracts with 60% of the A-lister designers. A monopoly, if you would. And Maya headed the division with another designer. This one was nothing like Sia. She had a happy family of her own and did not look at the boss with lust or rupee signs.
“Daddy!!” Megha squirmed out of her hold in the first row, pushing to go up to Gautam. Maya settled her. The terrible twos were hitting her at four. Especially when Gautam wasn’t giving her his undivided attention. The countdown began for the bell-ringing but Gautam’s eyes were on them. And Megha kept jumping in her lap, now that she knew she had her dad’s attention.
“MM,” Maya turned her towards her and gave her her wide, stern eyes — “You want me to take you home right now?”
“I want Daddy!” She screamed.
“Yes, I know. But he is working and he will come when is done working. If you don’t keep quiet, I will take you home and no Sunday outing for you either.”
Her pretty almond eyes crinkled, and then it was a bawl fest.
“…4, 3, 2, 1…” The bell gong sounded. Maya glanced up at the stage. Gautam had hit the gong bell with a hammer in a jiffy and was clapping his hands, his feet retreating to the stairs, his eyes on them. A few of his executives and the SEBI heads came to shake hands with him, but he politely folded his hands and moved down the steps, running towards them.
“What happened?” He took Megha from her.
“I want you, Daddy,” their little girl wound her arms and legs around him, resting her head in the crook of his shoulder. He patted her head — “Alright, you have me. Now you have to let me finish this, ok?”
“Mmmkay.”
Maya gave him a look. He just ran a hand down her arm and climbed back up the stage, shaking hands that were waiting for him. And that bawling baby in her arms? She was smiling and chatting up with heads of the country’s biggest stock market control board, taking compliments like a queen and preening in her father’s arms.
Maya glanced up at the ticker, and the GK Enterprises stock was running, opened at 17% over projected price. She clapped with the rest of them, and saw in slow motion the opened stock climb another 5% in the next minute. The applause turned louder, fiercer. That is when Gautam gave the audience his attention and noticed the ticker above him. He pointed it to Megha and as if she understood what that meant, their daughter began to clap too.
It was a big day for Gautam. A huge day. Now that he had done this, she was going to tell him he would be a father again. Maya grinned.
————————————————————
“See?” Gautam held her in his arms and pointed down at the cot. “You have two little sisters, MM.”
“Wow,” her wide eyes turned wondrous. Megha pushed her body down to go into the cot but Gautam held her back — “It’s for small babies. No.”
“Please, Daddy, please!”
Gautam looked conflicted, eyeing the cot as if searching for space.
“No.” Maya warned him from her perch on the hospital bed. “No chance.”
He glanced at his eldest, then shrugged. “You have your big girl bed,” he whispered in her ear. “Why do you need these tiny cots now, huh?”
Megha seemed to mull it over as Gautam sat her down on the bed beside her and reached into the cot for one of their girls. Twins. Non-identical twins.
“You want to hold her?” He asked.
“Gautam, no,” Maya warned again.
“This is ok. You are sitting behind her, I’ll be in front of her.”
Megha perked up, clapping her hands and crossing her legs.
“It’s ok,” Gautam eyed her. “I’ve got them.”
Maya smiled, keeping her body curved behind Megha as Gautam placed the baby on her lap.
“Ooooo! She’s real.”
They laughed. “Yes, she is,” Gautam braced his hands on either side of her on the bed. “And there’s one more where she came from.”
“I want! I want!”
“One by one, MM,” Maya kissed her head.
“I wuv you sooo much!” She sang to her baby sister. Then immediately — “But let me check the second one.”
Gautam took the baby from her lap, and swapped her for the other twin.
“Aww! I wuv you too!” Their eldest cooed. “Can we keep them both, Daddy? Please?”
Maya let out a chortle.
Gautam shrugged — “Since you insist now… Ok. But you can’t fight with them.”
She held both her thumps up.
“And you can’t make them fight either,” Maya added, knowing her eldest well.
“Yes, mom!” She flicked her ponytail back. Gautam laughed, reaching down to press his mouth to her head, then slowly taking their third daughter from her lap. As Megha grabbed the rails of the cot and talked a mile a minute with Gautam about care instructions of the two babies, Maya sat back on the pillows and thought that so much of her she never knew was broken had healed.
Gautam was patiently answering Megha’s questions, his eyes meeting hers over her little head. He smiled, his mouth still moving. Her husband, the father of her three daughters, the boy she had met on a rainy Mumbai morning. He had healed something he never broke.
“Can we name them Blossom and Bubbles, Daddy?”
“No.”
“Pleeeease!”
“Uhh…”
“No,” Maya had to intervene. “G, no.”
————————————————————
Drip. Drip. Maya squinted, stopping in her tracks crossing the verandah alley. She glanced up and scowled. The roof was leaking. “G!” She hollered. “We have to repair this leaky roof!”
It wasn’t even raining, and they had sealed up all the roofs just before monsoon. How was this one still leaking. It was Diwali time, the skies were clear. Maya eyed the orangey dusky sky outside and craned her neck under it — “Once. Once I asked you for a leaky roof over a leaky umbrella. Doesn’t mean you keep leaking it all over my head throughout my life. 10 years! It’s been 10 years, now move on.”
Maya began to stride towards the hall door. Now that she thought about it, if she’d asked for 500 crores in that moment, she would have gotten it. But wait, she already had it. Not her personally. But Gautam’s companies did. And by extension it was her only, wasn’t it? She grinned. What else was there to ask for? She stepped inside the hall and down strode her party of 4.
“Alright girls,” Gautam clapped both hands. “Drill time.”
Like a well-oiled unit their three girls lined up in order.
“Knowing your mom, she would have arranged more sweets than she got approval for in the buffet. But we are smart. We only take —“
“One!” His little spoon held her fist up. Meher, their middle child was a classic pleaser but with Gautam’s solemn personality. The other two were wild kids. MM had matured lately though, and only showed her wild streak when she badly needed it. Otherwise she was the balance-maker of the family. The classic elder sibling. If she listened to Gautam in one situation, she would tip the scales by taking her side in another situation. Maya was proud of her picking her battles. Their youngest though. Oof. Even Maya had had her meltdown moments with her. If she could produce an alpha version of herself, it would be Mukti Kumar. A mouthy little thing with guts of steel. Maya knew that secretly even Gautam had given up hopes of taming her. And she was not even seven yet.
“…now, mom and I might be busy, but I have my eyes everywhere,” he pointed to his eyes and back at theirs. “You, m2,” he tipped his chin at Mukti, a smirk on his face. He had Drill Sergeant names for them for these specific drills (mm, m1, m2).
“Behave.”
Mukti gave him a mock salute, followed by her sweetest smile. Seriously? What kind of dynamites had she created? Maya rolled her eyes.
“And today is Rustom mama’s last day, remember what we say to him?” Gautam cued. And Maya was proud that her girls began to scream over each other with their ‘Iloveyous’ and ‘Imissyous’ and ‘You’rethebests.’ Yeah, no. They were dynamites, but they knew respect. And admiration. And love.
Even if she would have asked for the best family in that leaky roof moment, Maya was confident she wouldn’t have been able to manifest this one. So her tiny bit to the world was simple — ‘Do, don’t demand.’ She had gone through life doing, making choices where choices were inevitable, and trying to make the best of them. But she had kept going. Doing. Not waiting for the returns to come. Because that was a pit she had fallen into once. Never again.
Gautam often compared her to Mumbai, during one of his thoughtful late night musings. Maybe he was right. Because even this city kept doing. Not waiting for the results to come. That was the real magic now, wasn’t it? To own your actions and know that whatever would come was a gift!
“Ready, you all?” She strutted into the hall, her heels clicking on the marble floor.
“Ye…” Gautam’s words trailed as he looked up and at her. “Oooh,” his lips rounded, his eyes turning dark. She flipped her hair behind her shoulder and showed off every inch of her scoop-necked black dress with spaghetti straps. With a high slit up her thigh. This Diwali party at Made in Mumbai was themed 50s Retro. And the grand Tin Anniversary of the 10th Gundees? She had a special story to tell.
“Ok,” he stepped towards her, close enough that only she could hear — “Drill for you. Some crazy has invited Aarya to the party. You will stay 10 metres away from him, especially when your back is turned to him. He has a nasty habit of hugging people from the back.”
“Not people, me,” she grinned.
“Yeah,” his hand splayed on her hip, pulling her in. “I was being nicer in framing it.”
“G,” she rolled her eyes. “I gave you three girls, I am repairing leaky roofs in your house and I spend my life smuggling desserts into your kitchen. It’s been 10 years, move on.”
She randomly caught two little hands and began to strut out of the house, knowing he would take the remaining.
“Oye, M?” He called out. She turned.
“Nothing!” Their girls screamed.
They grinned. Yeah, nothing.