It was my first visit to Chandigarh and I had no idea how far Sector 17 was from Sector 17. I had heard that sector 17 was the commercial and shopping hub of the city and everyone who came to Chandigarh would make it a point to visit this posh market. But the poshness or otherwise of 17 sector was not of any interest to me. I wanted to be there and be there fast. I was deeply troubled by the fact that Anita had gone to Delhi. Her last letter to me which she had written about five days back had made no mention of her going to Delhi. This meant the decision of going to Delhi had been a sudden one. Why had she gone and that too when her classes were on? I wanted to know and Urmila was the one who was going to tell me.
I looked for an auto stand, fortunately I was close to the main gate of the University and there was an auto rickshaw stand right outside it. I jumped into the first auto that I saw and said’ Sector 17”. I didn’t ask about the fare, I had no time or patience to haggle over fares. The auto was immediately on its way and I thought it was going too slow. It wasn’t but such was my mental state that even fast seemed slow to me. I don’t remember how long it took, but the auto stopped and the driver remarked, “Here you are Sir”.
I got off, paid him whatever he asked for and looked around. I was in the middle of a huge concrete jungle. There were shops and shops all around, shops on the ground floor, shops on the first floor and although it was very hot, people were moving around in hordes. It seemed people had enough time on their hands but time was one thing I did not have. I quickly asked somebody the way to Neelam Cinema and he pointed towards a building which was right in front of me. I could see Amitabh Bacchan staring down at me from a giant poster but even this giant of a man seemed to dwarf before my gigantically desperate mental state.
I had no time for movies although under normal circumstances I would have taken great interest in knowing which movie was running and even thought about watching it, but these were not normal circumstances. There was a lot of open space in front of the cinema hall; in fact there were huge open spaces all around. I stood exactly in front of the building and waited for Urmila. She was nowhere to be seen. She had said fifteen minutes and half an hour had already passed since then. Where was she? Why wasn’t she coming? Would she be coming at all? Had she made a fool of me? My mind was in a tizzy and I had almost begun to lose hope when my eyes fell on a beautiful looking girl in a maroon salwar suit walking briskly towards me. I heaved a sigh of relief. Urmila was finally here. In spite of my pre occupation, I could not help noticing how attractive Urmila was!
“Hello,Lalit, sorry I am a little late, let’s go to some restaurant, we can’t talk while standing and that too in this heat”. Without waiting for me to say anything, she started walking and I followed her. We did not exchange a word till we reached a place called Gazal. It looked like a fairly expensive restaurant and I started thinking about the amount of money I had in my pocket. I knew I didn’t have much. There was nothing I could do about it, it was not the time to think of materialistic things. We walked in and I was taken in by the ambience of the place. A soft Jagjeet Singh gazal played in the background as the waiter escorted us to an empty table.
“Urmila, now tell me what the matter is. Why has Anita gone to Delhi? What is this about her getting married soon? How can she marry anyone else?” Questions kept pouring out of me, one after the other.
“Relax, Lalit, all in good time. I can see you have not eaten anything since the morning, so let’s have something to eat first, I am also hungry” She beckoned the waiter and ordered a sumptuous meal. My god, who was going to pay for all this, I had just enough money for my return fare with very little to spare. Although I was worried about mundane matters, I had greater things to occupy my mind. The meal was served and Urmila had yet to answer my questions. All this time she had been telling me about her college, the new friends she had made, how much she missed Amritsar and so on. I listened to each and every word of hers. Apart from being very pretty, Urmilla had a way with words and a very captivating voice. She had a hypnotizing effect upon me, so hypnotizing that I almost forgot the main purpose of my visit.
“Come on, Urmila, it is time you told me what’s going on”.
“Lalit, I am afraid the news is not good, at least for you”.
“What is it? What has happened?” The hypnotic effect was wearing off.
“My sister, your darling Anita is getting married and that is the truth” .I could sense that she was enjoying all this; there was sarcasm as well as satisfaction in her voice as she uttered these words.
“How can that happen? She loves me; she will never marry anyone else”. I almost shouted.
“Quiet, Lalit, people are watching us”.
“Then why are you talking all this nonsense? You know very well what you have just told me is a bundle of lies; you don’t like your sister much, do you? Or is it that you are not happy with the fact that I love her, jealous, aren’t you?” I knew I was being rude but I could not help myself.
“Jealous of Anita? Ha ha ha , what rubbish! Why should I be jealous of her? I have absolutely no problems with your loving her, I know you love her very much and that is why I am worried about you”.
“Why should you worry about me and if you are really worried, tell me what I want to know”.
“Look Lalit, I don’t know you very well. We have hardly talked to each other. The few times we have met, Anita has been with us so you had no time for me but I had enough time for you. I know you are a good soul, a thorough gentleman, a man with a golden heart and I don’t want this heart of yours to suffer, I don’t want you to suffer”.
“Then why are you increasing my suffering now?”
“Lalit, I am not doing anything to hurt you, if anybody is causing you pain, it is your beloved Anita”. Again that sarcastic tone and this time accompanied by an almost sadistic smile of pleasure.
“Urmila, you know very well how much your sister loves me, damn it we have been in love for the last four years now and here you are telling me that the girl who loves me the most, is hurting me, causing me pain, making me suffer! Why are you doing this? Why? Why? Why?”
“I know you love her but I am not sure about her”.
‘’What do you mean, you know your sister better than anyone else?”
“Precisely. It is because I know your sister better than anyone else does that I am telling you all this”.
“What have you told me? You have been sitting there, hogging away and apart from making snide remarks about Anita, you have told me precious little!”
“Me? Hogging? Look at the empty plates around you and you will realize who has been doing the hogging out here. Do you have any idea how much rice you have eaten; you have been ordering plate after plate of rice. I know you Kashmiris are fond of rice but I didn’t know you eat so much, that too when you are apparently in distress?” Her words made me look at the table and it was obvious that my nervous tension had made me eat nonstop. My thoughts went back to the money in my pocket. How would I pay for all this and still have enough left for my fare to Amritsar? Urmila was not only driving me nuts but also driving me out of my money. Enough was enough.
“Urmila , you had better answer my questions or I will lose my temper and to hell with what people think! Why has Anita gone to Delhi?”
“Because her fiancé lives there”
“Her fiancé? What do you mean? Don’t play games with me Urmila, I told you, game time is over”
“It is not a game. You must accept the fact that she is engaged.”
“When did she get engaged? Why didn’t she tell me?”
“How could she tell you? Her engagement took place in Delhi and I am sure she must not have written anything to you from there. She didn’t even ring you up, did she? How cruel of her?” Once again a tone laced with sarcasm, a voice full of honey but words full of venom.
“Who told your father about my letters?”
“Honestly, Lalit I don’t know anything about that” I realized that even if she knew she was not going to tell me. It was pointless carrying on the conversation any further. I had no faith in Urmila. The waiter brought the bill and before I could even try to take out my wallet, Urmila had already taken money from her purse and made the payment. Both of us got up simultaneously.
When we were outside the restaurant, the sun was at its cruelest best.
“”Lalit, I know you think I am a vicious girl without any love or sympathy in my heart. One day you will come to know the truth. Here is Anita’s Delhi number” She handed over a piece of paper to me, it was clear that she had decided to do that before she left her place.”You can call her up any time, no restrictions on her out there. Find out the truth for yourself” She turned and walked away and left me wondering what kind of a girl she really was….!
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