Chapter 4 #2
She reached out to switch the indicator again when his hand caught hold of hers.
“Don’t play with both our lives. Drive.”
Her hand twitched in his, ready to turn over and smash his perfect long fingers between hers. Hers weren’t stronger than his but weren’t so… chiseled either.
“Doctor.”
She swallowed, the car slowing down in the last lane.
“Please,” he bit out.
She brought the car to a halt on the shoulder of the Reclamation Road. And turned to him. He wasn’t looking at her. His profile was granite. The bones were protruding, his sharp nose looking sharper. Had he looked so gaunt at his last appointment? She just noticed it. Had he been eating well?
“Your lifestyle changes,” she found herself asking. “Are you following a diet?”
“I have cut out all that you asked me to.”
“Yes, but have you added what I recommended?”
His jaw tightened.
Instead of reading him the riot act on the demerits of nutrition loss when recovering from a heart episode, Ritu turned and put the car in drive.
This simple case was turning into a complex maze.
He was a standard open and shut patient — 80% there, the rest solvable if he got in for an angiography.
Worst-case scenario was stenting. But he seemed so averse to it, so traumatised by the idea, that she was compelled to work on his lifestyle with him.
Even that, he was being stubborn about. She would have to spell it out better for him — everything.
Was it his special dislike for her that was keeping him from accepting his lifestyle change fully or he was just that difficult and dense a man?
She didn’t realise when she drove through the city and was on Maya’s bungalow gate. The guard opened the gate and she drove in, parking behind Gautam’s car and getting out. The reality of Maya’s fall came rushing in and she sprinted inside the open house.
“Maya?”
“Here, here.”
Ritu heard footsteps behind her and wanted to send him away, but Maya was her priority. She ran towards the hall. Maya was on the sofa, splayed back with her feet up on the coffee table and a pillow behind her. MM was playing in the crook of her arm.
“I told you to stay put.”
She was grinning, popping her mouth at her daughter. Her happy eyes came to her, and Ritu read the panic. “G helped me up, it’s better.”
“Where is he?”
“Here,” Gautam came striding out of the kitchen, water in hand. “I didn’t give her any painkillers before you checked… NiP?”
“Oh, hey!” Maya suddenly began to sit up, then winced.
“Stay back!” Ritu sat down beside her, plucking MM and holding her under her own arm to keep her from accidentally hurting her mother.
“Hi, NiP! What a pleasant surprise. Or you couldn't get enough of my awesome party yesterday?”
“I…” he stuttered. A first.
“He drove me,” Ritu filled in for him.
“But you came from your clinic, no?” Gautam frowned.
“Yes.”
“What were you doing at Maasi’s clinic?” Maya asked him.
“I was in the building,” he lied. God knew why he was so secretive about his illness. So what? It was an illness. Humans had come to this earth with bodies and they broke down from time to time. What was to be ashamed of about that?
“She was rushing for an Uber, I saw it, found out you had an accident, and gave her a lift.”
“That’s so damn sweet,” Maya smiled her big, social grin. Even in pain, she could be the hostess that Ritu didn’t want to be on her best day.
“Alright,” Ritu announced. “Can you guys give us the room for a minute?”
“Oh, yeah,” Nilay stepped back. “Sure. I hope you are ok and feel better, Maya. See you, Gautam…”
“Where are you going, NiP? The TV room is there… G, take him,” Maya ordered.
Ritu frowned, as did Gautam.
“What? It’s Saal Mubarak today. We can’t let him leave without lunch. NiP, Saal Mubarak. I hope you are celebrating today.”
“Oh… It’s been some years since I did. Saal Mubarak. All of you. But I’ll get going. Thanks for the invitation though,” he smiled. A normal, regular smile. Why was he so chummy with Maya?
“Come on, it’s a full Gujarati meal. You are a Gujarati, how can you say no? Puri-shaak, samosa, three chutneys, Surti daal and jeera rice. There’s also basundi…”
Nilay’s eyes came to her, panicked. That menu sounded like a heart patient’s nightmare.
“Maya,” Ritu intervened. “Let’s first see how you are doing, and if we need to go to the doctor…”
“You are a doctor, Maasi.”
“A cardiologist, not an orthopaedic.”
“Only you are treating me.”
“Why do all limpets find me?” She breathed.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Ritu glanced up, and Nilay was looking straight at her with his bored, entitled mouth curled slightly, humour in his eyes. She found herself holding back a laugh. She hated how there was an inside joke with a man as obnoxious as this one. Now she had seen it all in life.
“NiP and I will be in the TV room,” Gautam announced, bringing the three-way pingpong to an end. “Ritu, let me know if you need anything or if we need to go to an Ortho…”
“I am not going,” Maya announced.
“Fine, I am going.” Gautam came down to them, plucked MM from her, and led Nilay down the hall and into the other section of the main house.
“Come here, does this hurt…” Ritu began to examine when Maya’s mouth fell to her ear — “Ooooh, lift and all huh, Maasi?”
“Shut up.”
“He may have dual tastes, if you know what I mean. And if that’s true, you have the singlehanded capacity of pushing him to the women’s side once and for all.”
Ritu stared at her, scandalised.
“AND, he is so rich! To quote Geet from Jab We Met — ‘Hum sabki life set ho jaayegi!’”
Ritu glanced around at the palatial bungalow she resided in by the sea, on one of Mumbai’s most expensive promenades.
Maya shrugged without moving much — “More rich is never too bad. Kindness and richness together is the best combination. We all will have it together.” She dropped her voice to a whisper — “He might need some work on the former, but a good ego kick will bring him down the pegs. Your kicks are the best.”
“Grow up, Maya.”
“Live a little, Maasi.”
————————————————————
It took an hour to get Maya to recover. Nothing was broken. Nothing was compressed. A Myospaz Forte and a hot water bag, and some extra time dragged by Ritu later — she was back on her feet, walking slower than usual, but ready to entertain her guest.
Ritu was sure the said guest would have left by now, but he was in the TV room, talking work with Gautam, MM asleep in her cot.
“Hi, guys, let’s go eat!”
“Why are you jumping around?” Gautam got up immediately and came to them, pasting his hand on Maya’s lower back. “Ritu, you said it’s not serious. But this…?”
“This does not stop jumping. Might as well let her. After lunch, though, straight to bed.”
“Come on, NiP, the chef has been waiting to start frying up!”
Ritu stood aside as Gautam rolled MM’s cot out of the room behind Maya. She was about to follow them when Nilay caught up with her — “I wanted to leave, but Gautam wouldn’t let me.”
“It’s fine.”
“I wasn’t asking you if it was or wasn’t.”
She fumed — “Then what was this?”
“Informing.”
“Just behave yourself and try to keep this…” She moved her hand around his obnoxious mouth. “Shut around Maya for a change.”
He scowled — “What does that mean?”
“She is a married woman with her child and her husband in the room.”
“Yes, I know,” he pointed to the space outside. “I can see.”
“And yet you behave like that!”
“Like how?’
“Like some obnoxious flirt.”
“Ok, first of all, how I behave is none of your business. Second of all, I flirted with her for all of two seconds like I flirt with anybody who comes singing my praises before I found out she was with Gautam and pregnant with his baby. I am not that obnoxious.”
She shut her eyes and rolled them inside, praying for the next hour to pass without one more word from his stupid mouth.
“Closing your eyes and muttering to yourself when you are beaten is another personality trait?”
Prayer rejected.
Ritu opened her eyes and stared into his — “That’s it, have your lunch and say bye-bye. I am not seeing you for…”
“You are known to treat patients without invasive procedures.”
She frowned.
“Rajiv…” he hesitated. “My friend and GP… he had good things to say about you. I do not want to go to another cardiologist.”
There was something in his tone. Something that was not… NiP, for the lack of a better word. He had suddenly cooled down, mellowed.
“Not all my patients go home without invasive procedures.”
“More than the average number do. That’s good enough for me.”
Ritu felt at her tether’s end. Today was new year, Saal Mubarak. A new beginning. She was here in Mumbai for a vacation. And the number of fights she had had with this man without any logical reason, solution or conclusion was beyond count.
She sighed.
“I will treat you respectfully,” he said.
Her eyes bore into his. There seemed a resignation and a silent surrender on his entitled face.
“Fine.”
He nodded.
“Don’t eat anything today on the table except dal, rice and salad.”
“There is no salad on Maya’s menu.”
“There will be.”
————————————————————
“Maasi, salad?” Maya made a face as she brought a bowl of chopped cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, and radishes with a bunch of coriander and mint to the table.
“Why not?” Ritu eyed the bowl in her hand as Maya’s chef was plating up their thalis. Maya had gone all out, with marigold table arrangements and incense sticks and the works. Her mother would be proud of her for this arrangement.
“I’ll have some,” Nilay called out.
Ritu gave Maya a triumphant look as she walked around to him and began to serve it up.
“Don’t fill his entire plate with salad! There is puri, samosa, basundi… and the chef has fried papad and fryums too…”
Ritu filled half his thali with salad — “You can make space for the rest, I’m sure,” she informed tartly. He glanced at his plate, then back up at her, a smirk in his eyes — “Love the hospitality.”
“I am so sorry, NiP…” Maya began to push to her feet.
“No, no,” he waved her off. “I love salad. Not a big fan of the rest…”
Ritu noted him eyeing the spread around him. Yeah, right. He was salivating inside.
“Try the samosa,” Gautam passed him the platter steaming with mini samosas. They smelled divine. Ritu glared down at him, hoping none of the other two occupants noticed.
“Uhh… I’ll take the dal and some rice.”
“It’s a festival, and you aren’t even eating the good stuff?” Maya butt in.
“I am on a diet.”
“It doesn’t matter on new year.”
“I have a ramp to walk soon.”
Maya gave a whoop so loud, Ritu’s bowl clattered.
Her eyes widened in amused horror at the man quietly eating his salad as Maya launched into an in-depth interrogation on which show and which venue and ‘how did she not know’ about it. Ritu knew nothing about fashion or his world, but she was sure this man was making it up as he went.
She sat down on her chair and served up the salad in her plate, then added a dash of salt because the original version did not have any.
She eyed Nilay Patel, eating it all without reaching for the salt and pepper shakers, or complaining.
In that moment, his need to become ok, his obsession to recover without a procedure, settled in for her.
As he finished his salad and let her push more onto his plate without protest, Ritu decided she would try her best to make sure that he became ok without an invasive procedure.