Rubin Dominic

Restoration                                                   – Part 1/3

“ …..and why are you not coming for morning walks..? last time your blood sugar and cholesterol was above the normal..na..you should be more careful with your health Sudha..” Mrs.Antony said through the phone as she put vegetable in the cooker.

“ Yeah Mary I know… Chintu has got exams..so I wake up early to call him…by the time everything is done..it gets late…poor chintu..he has been sleeping at 3 and getting up by 5.. Kids these days know that it’s a very competitive world out there” Mrs. Rajan sighed. “That’s right. Kids these days are so career conscious..Rekha’s Sem got over yesterday but she said she will be staying for another two days to start on the project for next sem….”

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Her hair flew in the wind, the part that was not covered by the black skull cap with a Nike logo, wild in the night. Her white T-Shirt which bravely proclaimed “Pretty woman inside” was snug under the blue denim coat with nice pink flower embroidery on the back. Her Silver Platform shoes clung on the foot hold of the black pulsar 180 DTSi, which was racing through the wind at 100 km/hr on the highway with no traffic. Her hands were warm as it clung to the leather jacket of Arvin, her forehead resting on his neck. In between, Arvin shouted out something, which was lost in the rush of air, she brought her lips close to his ear which was covered by a black stud helmet and asked “ WHAT?” .He slowed down a little, turn a little to her and asked” YOU OK,REKZ?” and she smiled and nodded.

Shriya and Rohit’s bike caught up with them, giving out some losers cries and zoomed past them. Rekha turned back to see Rahul and Manya edging towards them, she quickly nudged Arvin, who shouted out a “Hang On”  as the pulsar’s front wheel stood up for a second, before it hit the ground and sped into the darkness of the night.

The road from Banglore to Mysore would usually a highway mayhem with all trucks and transport buses but a major construction work meant that the traffic was routed through a lesser know route and the highway was wide open for the three bikes to zoom around.

Arvin was back in the front, with the odometer showing a rising needle reaching to 130 km/hr. Others were lost somewhere in the dark, but Arvin continued with his pace and Rekha clung to him like her life depended on it and indeed it did.

Then suddenly out of nowhere, a bike came in from the back, over took the black pulsar. It was so sudden that Arvin didn’t even see it coming in the rear mirror. It was silver CBZ with a guy with a red hood on.

 “Some loser trying to show off” Arvin said to Rekha as he tightened his hand gloves “ Not for long”  as the Pulsar’s Rpm shot up and bike almost flew, the guy in the CBZ also sensed this and he gained speed. Arvin pulled hard on the clutch as he shifted to his next gear, with the rpm showing another pulse, and the air felt like it was shooting dust at them.

The CBZ showed no signs of slowing down, picking up speed in the dense night.

Arvin couldn’t believe the speed the CBZ was going. “It must be a fucking altered bike” he thought as he shifted to the final gear and pulled the accelerator.

 The  CBZ responded with one final charge, it just drove into the night. Arvin slowed down, his face with a “what the fuck!” expression. A little later they reached a tea shop and got down. “Rekha you have any idea what speed he might be going at atleast somewhere at 200km/hr” Arvin said shaking his head. “Arey jaane do,why are you bothered” Rekha smiled as she sipped her tea. “ I mean…” Arvin started but Rekha silenced him “ chup chup..leave it na…we are having a good time..” Arvin smiled as ran  his finger through the hair sheepishly “ Yeah that’s true .. but I will get him one day ”

“let’s go” Arvin said when they finished their tea.As they were leaving, the other two bikes came. “you guys are so late..maybe you should try riding a bail ghadi or something… atleast you have an excuse” Arvin smirked. “ ha.ha..Arvin with his funny cap on again..do sms us all when you do that ok? …” Rahul said as he ordered a black tea. “ there was an accident dude…a dumb truck driver thought that he could use this road…he crashed his wheel blocking the road ..we had to take an alternate route…” Rohit remarked as he snatched the coffee from Shriya.

“Why did you guys slow down..we thought we will meet you guys only at the college” Manya asked. “because some guy in hood gave Arvin a complex” Rekha laughed out. “ some fucker with some altered CBZ …wait till the next time..if I don’t show him my fading break lights…call me an asshole” Arvin said. “ But Ari ..we wont be calling anything new” Manya said as she adjusted her hair and the whole group laughed.

Six of them had had their tea, and Rahul paid up. All got into the bike and started towards the college. Arvin was in front, but then he suddenly stopped till other caught with them. “what happened now?” Shriya asked them. “ I was so pissed off with that guy that I forgot something … you guys go ahead.. we’ll catch up with you later..” Arvin said. “but atleast tell us where you guys are going..” Rohit asked. “ No sweat..Rahul knows..right buddy? “ Arvin said as he looked at Rahul. “Ok guys let’s give the couple their privacy..” Rahul smiled and said. The four of them gave Arvin and Rekha a thumbup and headed to the college.

“Ari,where are we going?” Rekha asked as Arvin took a side road without asphalt. “It’s a surprise…” Arvin said as he continued riding through the rocky road. “ No please tell me no..” Rekha asked again in a concerned tone. Arvin stopped the bike, put it in neutral with the engine running.

 He turned to Rekha with the moonlight shown in his face, he asked her “ Rekhz do you trust me? ”  “You and your filmy dialogues…” Rekha turned away from him. Arvin held Rekha shoulders softly and she looked at him. “ No seriously, you trust me?” “ Of course I do..Arvin,I really do.. but this kinda feels weird you know..” Rekha said. “ Just trust me…will ya?” as he started the bike again and continuing moving in the moon light lit road.

Just when they were about to reach a clearing, Arvin stopped the bike. “ now close your eyes…” Arvin said as he held his hand. “ what is this Arvin…”  Rekha said she put her hands up in the air. “Now c’mon, do this for me ..please…” Arvin begged.

“alright alright..” Rekha smiled and closed her eyes. “No cheating..” Arvin said as he covered her eyes with his palm, leading her into the clearing.

“Now open up” Arvin said.

Rekha let out a “wow” when she saw that beautiful sight.

Infront of them was a valley with a lake in the middle.The moonlight gave a pleasant ambience to the whole valley, with the reflection of moon almost in the center of the lake.

“c’mon” Arvin said as he walked towards the valley. There were flat stones along the lake.The whole place smelled of morning freshness, with dew drops in the greenery,Slowly flowing down to the earth.

Arvin moved through the rocks jumping from one to the other.Rekha followed him with a little trouble. Soon they reached the centre of the lake.

“ this is amazing…how did you find it?” rekha asked as she looked around the beautiful valley. “ well, me and rahul stumbled across this one day..and I thought you would like this place…” Arvin remarked. “ I love this place…” Rekha said as she hugged Arvin.

They sat on one of the rocks with their legs in the water. Rekha kept paddling with her leg and Arvin kept looking at the moons reflection. “ you know what rekha?” Arvin said as he turned towards Rekha. “yeah?” rekha asked. “I love you”. “I love you too..dear” and she embraced Arvin and closed her eyes.

Restoration                                                   – Part 2/3

Arvin looked at the sea. The calmness of the sea strictly contrasted his violent state of mind. It was like his mind was fighting a microbe (decision) attacking it to defeat it. But it was finding it hard to fight that peculiar thought, cause like people it was not black or white.. It was a grey thought, with its own rights and wrongs.

For a moment the mind was divided. Unlike a microbe the thought was not a foreign body this was from it and still it had to fight it. The force of all this activity seemed to affect him physically and he tried to shake off that dizzy feeling. When it didn’t work, he took his pack of cigarettes and lit one.

The whole thought process came to a stand still in minutes and he felt the bliss.

Moments later the cigarette had lost it life, and thrown down. It lay there like an old man whose soul was slowly moving out from the body. Then it was all over, the boot had done which it was so used to do. Life was completely drained stamped squeezed, until it became just another cigarette butt.

Arvin reflected upon his sad life. Early years were sad enough, things were getting better and maybe this was the first chance he could settle a score.

“It all started with that bitch” Arvin reflected as he thought of his first and worst love Anna. His head throbbed again, and she was lost in the agony. He looked at the watch “Just 10 more minutes and then it’s over” Arvin thought.

“Why couldn’t she love me?” a question that he had asked himself over a hundred. No a thousand. no a million times…he had given her all his happiness… all the joy that he could bring …all that she wanted…but then one fine day she had walked away with a simple explanation.. “I don’t think this will workout…”.First it was the shock. He followed, he pleaded and then he begged. But then he saw the other guy…sadness was soon replaced with anger…rage rose. but there it stopped. He was never a fighter…the subdued nerd that was what he was…yes, that he was then… He had one day followed her and her new pastime in their new Honda accord with his Maruthi 800.Every sense was telling him to bang it on to theirs. Let this agony…let this rage be over…let everyone find peace. he had almost seen her face bloody with a thin line of blood dripping from forehead, eyes wide open…

But then a honking car brought him back to his cowardly senses. Now he wished he finished it that day.

His head was throbbing again… “What the fuck…” he muttered to himself, shaking his head trying to get that invisible dagger of it. “it’s all going to be over…just 10 more minutes…” he told himself.

From then on his life was a loser’s battle. nothing worked, nothing stayed…and all good soon faded. Every girl reminded of her, some had her lips, some had her eyes, some her nose. How much he wanted it to be bleeding now…but then the it was again the same gruesome process: he would withdraw, fall back into his hell, a life of segregation. Life of a castaway. alone in the maddening crowd… all the typical loser philosophies.

Then, like it began, things got better, when he moved to another state…things actually got better. He couldn’t believe it. There was this new friends circle, and he gelled with them, and things were awesome, simply awesome.

A smile broke from the corner of his face, the frowning brow eased a little. the booze parties,sheeshas,late night drives. It was all splendid. Then out of nowhere Rekha popped into his life.

A tender coconut seller broke the thought asking him whether he wanted one. His head was feeling a little better so he thought he would have one, paid  and soon was sipping it from a red and white striped straw, going back the memory lane.

The first time he saw Rekha, he almost mistook her for Anna, and for one moment maybe one billionth of a second, thought she had come to say sorry. but it wasn’t to be. She was someone else but the resemblance was striking. He kept on looking at her, every now and then, finding the similarities.

She saw this and had misinterpreted this as a guy who had it for her. Arvin himself was fascinated; something like looking at a two headed tadpole you don’t want to touch, but cant get your eyes of it either.

The fascination grew from both sides, and one day it was sealed on a cold December night, when the gang had gone for a beach party. It was cold and like in a typical bollywood track, she didn’t have a coat and he lend her his, and soon they found each other curled up in the same coat, watching the fire enjoying each others warmth. Somewhere in between, hands joined, a passionate kiss followed…

As he thought about it, another smile broke out but this time it was the smile of a fox.

A cunning smile. It was that day he decided. The day he finally realised what he had to do to put his mind to peace. He would pretend to love Rekha, and then one day he would give her what he received: Rejection. Simple as that. Today was the day.

He had rehearsed this day to the T. They would have a small conversation, something unimportant and then he would drive the point. “I don’t think this will work out honey” hear her rona-dhona for a while and then just walk away. walk away from a curse that was binding him for a long time.

Arvin looked at his watch. Anytime she would be here . And there she was, walking towards the beach in a black T and a light faded  blue Jeans with pink flower patchwork. Arvin watched her come by, as she was reaching, turned to look at the sea. Her face hid her feelings and it was almost neutral and he hoped that it was the same after the news.

Then the throbbing began ..It was like somebody had broke the fire alarm glass in his head and it was ringing now. Ringing like anything. She had by that time sat down and was gazing at the sunset.

The sun was now in middle of the sky and the sea, a golden disk on an orangish black background. The fishermen were returning, boats were coming near the beach.

Arvin was not looking at it, but was trying to focus on the action plan and his head was not helping. All that was planned seemed to fade and he was desperately trying to get a grip on himself.

Rekha spoke, still looking at the sea. “Ari…” she began and then turned to look at him “you ok?” as she scanned his face. Arvin shook his head suppressing the pain and gave a fake smile “yeah I’m fine. There is something that I got to tell you”

Both said the same thing at the same moment. For a while both kept mum and then Arvin continued..” ya you tell me..” he wanted to make the final finish and then just walk away as soon as possible.

She waited for a while, not sure about herself and then said in a feeble voice” I’m pregnant”. Suddenly everything made sense. Her face was not neutral it was drained of all emotions after a very long session of crying. But that didn’t matter anymore. The words were hurled at him like a silver dagger aimed straight at his heart, and found its mark.

It was shock. It took him a while to gather his wits and somehow he managed to mumble “but how?” She had broken into sobs. He tried to review all their meetings and comparing with the all the porn movies he had seen and no there was no connection. No way. The whole world was turning around him, and in between he could hear her say “night…..rain….Karan …….lift…bike broke down….then it just. I’m sorry”

Out of nowhere, the rage was released and he slapped her out right. she fell down with the force onto the sand. And she lay there weeping. He stood up a little disoriented partly because of the turn of events, partly because of the headache he had. But all he wanted was to kill Karan.. Nothing else mattered. He took a few steps, staggered and fell down.