Chapter 10
— RITU —
The fortnight that passed should have felt exactly what she came to India for — a break.
With Maya and her family. And Ritu constantly told herself that.
Reiterated. Convinced. Chided. She tried it every day and forced thoughts of a certain obnoxious man with a penchant for reaching for her waist away.
She tried to not think about his fortnightly reports, or his progress, or if his cholesterol was under control yet.
“This is not done, Maasi.”
Ritu glanced up from the cup of green tea in her hand. Maya was thumping down in her pyjamas, rumpled and looking like the cutest witch with narrowed eyes. Sheet mask, messy hair all over, eye patches.
“How does Gautam look at you in the morning?”
“He dare say this to my face and then he will see how.”
“He will need said face to say it to.”
Maya threw the bundle of newspaper roll she had collected at her. Ritu ducked, reaching for the pillow.
“Not that! The sequins are loose on that one!”
Ritu made a show of considering it before hurling that exact pillow at her. Maya ducked but got caught in the face. The sheet peeled halfway.
“Maasi!”
Ritu snorted, breaking into a run with her tea sloshing as Maya came behind her, collecting whatever she could from her hall — pillows, throw, remote?
“Are you mad?!” Ritu gaped over her shoulder. “Put it down!”
“G will get a new one!”
“Remote or my head?!”
Maya made a show of hurling it and Ritu turned — “Sorry, sorry, sorry, you lunatic!”
Loud chortles. She could still laugh like a baby. Ritu rolled her eyes, turning around to find her setting the things back in her hall. She collapsed on the sofa, the remote still in her hand. Ritu eyed it skeptically.
“Come, come. I won’t throw it at you. G won’t get a new one. Even if he does, I will hear about it for the next hundred years.”
Ritu thanked Gautam’s sanity in this madhouse as she padded back to the hall and took a seat farthest from Maya.
“What are your plans for today?” Maya yawned.
“I don’t even know, and it’s only 7,” she sighed. “I am so bored. I think I will prepone my return to this month instead of January.”
“No way!”
“There is nothing to do, Maya.”
“There is so much to do if only you wake up late!”
Ritu broke into a laugh — “That’s the stupidest logic I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s not stupid. It’s smart. You wake up at what? 5?”
Ritu looked guilty.
“I know you do. Megha cries so loud that even the neighbours have asked us if we torture her.”
Ritu took a sip of her tea.
“See, if you wake up at 10 or 11… you won’t have to worry about what you have to do.
Wake up, lie in bed for an hour with Instagram, shower for an hour, time for lunch!
Then read a book or watch a movie all afternoon.
Then go out to walk or shop in the evening.
Dinner outside. Come back to another movie in bed…
or maybe even two… and Maggi! Wow. Maasi,” she whimpered.
“I want that life back! Maasi, I can’t do adulthood! ”
Ritu couldn’t stop laughing.
“You’re so mean!”
Ritu finished her tea and set the cup down. “Yes, but I am still checking for an earlier date.” She picked up her mobile and found it knocked out of her hand. A pillow had tackled it to the floor.
“Maya!”
“No going back early. I have a new plan.”
“What plan, crazy?” She picked up her phone, checking if the screen was intact. It was, thank god.
“You are shifting to our old apartment. It’s just one lane away.
You get to do the whole vacation-without-a-crying-baby thing every night and every morning.
You come here at lunch and dinner times, or whenever you get bored.
Basically, WHENEVER YOU WANT. I will come there to chill when G is home with Megha.
Oh god! Oh god! Oh god! Maasi, we can both ditch adulthood together like that! ”
Ritu thumped her head on the headrest.
“I am so awesome naa?”
She thumped it even harder.
“One week.”
Ritu opened her eyes.
“One week trial. If you don’t enjoy it, then…”
“I will prepone.”
“No, then we will find a new idea.”
“One week, Maya. I will play this game for one week and then I am out of here. I loved living with you guys but I genuinely don’t know what to do with my day. You guys come to New York and then we will have fun there.”
“Hey! You got the invite?”
“Don’t change the topic. What invite?”
“Dimple’s engagement party. More like a pre-wedding week lunch-cum-live band.”
“Yes.”
“It’s tomorrow.”
“I know.”
“Are you coming?”
“No.”
“Why?!”
“Maya, let’s not pretend either of us likes our family.”
“No, but it will be fun to see them make fools of themselves when day-drunk.”
“Since when did you become ok mingling in that area?”
“I don’t know… I just…” Maya’s fun face fell. “I got over them, Maasi. Ever since G and MM, it’s like they don’t matter to me anymore. I don’t run from them anymore. If I run into them, I just smile and move on. And… Dimple called me.”
“So?”
“We were close to her. Come on.”
“You were close to her. She was a baby for me.”
“Who followed you everywhere.”
“You all did.”
“You were the cool older sister.”
“Maasi for you.”
“Yes, but, she asked me to talk to you. Ask if you would also come. She didn’t know if you would pick up her call.”
“Maya, emotional blackmail doesn’t work with me. You go if you want. Leave MM with me. Or do you plan to take her too?”
“No way! My girl does not see that circus. Rustom and his family will be babysitting her. You, me and G will go.”
“Maya…”
“Listen, your family, my mother’s family, is not as toxic as my father’s family, Maasi. Or have you forgotten? This is Jimmy fuva and Nalini foi. They have always been cool. Remember how we loved to hang out with them? They are apparently still as fun.”
Ritu scoffed.
“Come on. Ok, let’s do this. It’s at Thackers.
We will go, congratulate Dimple, meet a few of the decent members of our circus and leave.
Dimple will be happy you came. We won’t even eat there.
We will go to Pizza By The Bay for Bombay Masala pizza and iced tea.
And then K. Rustom’s. Butterscotch ice cream sandwich. Then chocolate. What say?”
Ritu hated it. She hated Maya’s puppy dog eyes. She hated it when she cocked her head to the side and batted her eyelashes like Bambi. Like daughter like mother.
“Say yes, Maasi, so that I can open the next topic about how to dress like models and outshine every freaking crazy woman of the circus there. Except, Dimple, of course. We are not that mean.”
Ritu had pushed open one door of her life’s ruins this month. Maybe it was time to rattle and break down the other one too.
“Fine.”
————————————————————
The Thackers club was brilliant under the December sun.
Ritu tightened her stomach as she walked inside the doors and down the canopied alley leading towards the seaside ground.
Familiar faces mingled around, eyes riveting to her — shocked, then smiling genially, looking like they had questions to ask, but then shutting up.
She nodded graciously through it all, hoping her game face from Cath Lab and the gorgeous ghaghra Maya had bullied her into would keep the facade long enough for her to get this over with.
She passed a full-length selfie mirror and caught a faint glimpse of herself in the reflection.
Maya’s bullying had worked. The aqua ghaghra made of the wispiest organza, painted in rich pink flowers and sewn on with pretty golden sequins flared around her.
The blouse was a modest half sleeve, hiding her flabby arms as well as making them look…
full. In the right way. The sliver of skin that showed in-between the blouse and the ghaghra was her waist, nipping so well that it gave the illusion of the perfect body.
Suddenly, she didn’t need to hold her tummy in. Ritu relaxed it, smoothening a hand down her matching wispy dupatta and pushing her hair behind her shoulder.
“Maasi!” Maya called out to her from up ahead. She had walked out with Gautam already, waiting for her in the open green ground alive with flowers and lunch tables. Ritu followed them, pasting a smile on her face and immediately feeling it falter.
“Ritu.”
“Papa.”
“Nana was waiting for you here,” Maya smiled sheepishly at her, mouthing ‘sorry.’ Ritu pursed her lips.
“We will be around.”
Ritu stared at their backs, resigned, as they walked away.
She had to meet her father at some point.
She had planned to do it the day before she was to leave, so that she wouldn’t be stuck feeling the weight of this city on her shoulders through the rest of her stay here.
She took steps towards her father. She had spoken to him over video calls a few times a year.
She had seen his WhatsApp DP change and seen him age.
But looking at him in person was different.
He was frail, even if he held himself erect in a stiff grey suit.
His hair was peppered with white, his irises looking lighter after his recent cataract.
She had seen the reports and reviewed his heart medication.
She didn’t know if he had followed the directions.
“I didn’t know you were coming,” he smiled genially.
“I wasn’t. Maya insisted.”
“Good. Did you speak to people around?”
“I just came.”
“If they ask you about marriage, say that we are looking.”
“Ok.”
“And if they ask you why you haven’t been back, say that you have ben busy.”
“Ok.”
He nodded, satisfied.
“Did you meet him?”
Ritu raised her brows. She knew who ‘him’ was. She wanted her father to spell it out. But of course he didn’t. They were in public, with family everywhere. He wouldn’t risk taking names.
“Don’t be around him much. If you want, come and sit down at our table.”
“I’m good.”
“When will you come home?”
“I have been busy in the suburbs. I will come when I can. But I’ll come before returning.”
“How is the clinic hunt going?”
“I have set up some agents. We are looking at listings. I’ll go back and see.”