Page 50 of Musafir Cafe

In the evening, many of the guests started a bonfire in the porch. There was a lot of music and jamming going on. Pummy tried to sing but kept forgetting the lines to her song. Whenever she forgot it, she said, ‘Chandar remembers the complete song. He is the one who reminds me always.’

At this very moment Sudha decided that she wouldn’t meet Chandar, and would go back and move in with Vineet. She had no right coming back into his life and creating so many complications.

The bonfire was now dying down; it could last another ten minutes perhaps.

When everyone had left, Pummy asked Sudha, ‘You’re the same Sudha, right, the Sudha Chandar is still waiting for?’

Sudha didn’t respond.

When she didn’t answer, Pummy said, ‘The way you took out the book from the shelf and touched the last page, I figured out that you were the same Sudha.’

Sudha didn’t respond this time either. Pummy didn’t say anything after that.

After a long silence, Sudha spoke, ‘I will leave tomorrow morning, before Chandar arrives.’

The mountain wind was blowing and rekindling the dying fire. The fire kept livening up, fiercer than before.

T for That Day’s Thing

The next day, Pummy woke up early and went down to the café. When Chandar arrived, she told him that there was a guest upstairs and he had to serve tea to her. She didn’t tell him anything about Sudha. It wasn’t the first time that Pummy had arranged for a guest’s stay in their own home; she had done this multiple times before and Chandar didn’t suspect anything odd.

He went upstairs with the tea. Sudha was comfortably sitting in the balcony, reading the newspaper. Chandar looked at her face after he put the teacup down. People often talk about a moment in which the world stops spinning. This was that very moment that the world had been preparing for, for the last ten years. This moment had a decade for the ice to build up in its cracks. Chandar couldn’t figure out how to react.

‘How’re you?’

‘I am fine.’

After this exchange, they didn’t talk for a long time. Sudha broke the ice with a sip of tea.

‘Is that all? Isn’t there anything else you want to ask me? Did you run out of words seeing me after ten years?’

‘There are so many things to talk about. I don’t know where to start.’

‘The weather is really cold here. When there are no conversations left, we can always talk about the weather.’

‘What is that going to accomplish?’

‘It’ll create a fake sense of comfort that we’ve not run out of things to talk about. By the way, you haven’t changed at all.’

‘I have changed so much.’

‘How much, tell me?’

‘Enough about me, you have definitely changed, look at how much weight you’ve put on.’

‘Yes, I have plumped up a bit. I was right.’

‘About what?’

‘That you haven’t changed at all.’

‘The weather here is cool, isn’t it?’ Chandar laughed after saying this.

The scope of conversation was extremely limited between them after this. For some time, the fog from the cold outside and the steam rising from the hot tea began to fuse together. It was Sudha who started to talk after finishing her tea.

‘Why didn’t you marry Pummy? She’s so nice.’

‘Yeah, she’s a lot nicer than you, for sure.’