Rivanah knew arguing would be a waste of time. She changed the topic. ‘Where’s the sketch, Mumma?’
‘I have kept it inside the wardrobe.
‘Why? Was it biting you?’
‘Why keep someone else’s sketch in the open?’
‘Uff, tumi je ki koro na!’ Rivanah walked off.
In the office, Rivanah thought the best way to avoid the impending dinner disaster would be to somehow request Nivan not to come for dinner. She didn’t have his phone number yet. And going to his cabin for such a lame thing would be too much. She went through her mails to check if any of them had Nivan’s official mail ID. She found it in one of the group emails. She immediately wrote to him: May I have your mobile number?
A minute later, Nivan replied with his phone number. Rivanah saved it on her phone and checked if he was available on WhatsApp. He was. She typed carefully: Sorry to disturb you like this, but I hope my parents didn’t offend you in any way.
His reply came soon enough: Offended? Not at all. Looking forward to some delicious Bong food tonight.
And Rivanah knew an acute embarrassment was only hours away.
Mrs Bannerjee surprised Rivanah with the number of food items she had prepared for dinner.
‘Mumma, he is coming alone, not with the whole colony. Why have you prepared so much food?’
‘I know, but what will he think of us if we don’t give him options?’
The acute embarrassment was confirmed as far as Rivanah was concerned. Not because she had any problem with so many food items, but because she knew what the intention behind impressing Nivan was.
The doorbell rang shortly after nine. Mr Bannerjee welcomed Nivan. The dinner didn’t go as badly as Rivanah had imagined. Nivan loved everything that was served to him. Mr Bannerjee found the perfect pal in Nivan to discuss his latest obsession: politics. Seeing Nivan talk with her father, she remembered how Danny too had once come for dinner only to be cold-shouldered by her father. How lifesaving it would be if one already knew whether a relationship would go the distance or not, before commencing it. We can always change the road we take but we can’t undo the steps we took.
It was around 10.30 when Nivan finally left. Rivanah let out a sigh of relief as she joined her parents on the couch in the drawing room.
‘Mini,’ Mr Bannerjee said and continued once Rivanah looked up at him, ‘I think Nivan is a good guy.’
‘Hmm.’ Rivanah said.
‘I think we should meet his parents too.’
‘Huh?’
‘He is young, highly qualified, seems very decent, knowledgeable, well settled, and he is not married.’
Rivanah was in an instant dilemma: whether to feel happy about all this or to rue over the fact that her father actually made such enquiries.
‘Baba, don’t tell me you asked him if he was married.’
‘I did when you went to the kitchen to fetch more water for him.’
‘But why?’
‘What why? It is pretty evident what your choice of guys is like. I think you should focus on your job and let us select your life partner. And don’t worry, we won’t give you any reason to cry about this.’
‘I know that, Baba, but I don’t even know Nivan.’
‘You always told us you knew Ekansh and Danny. What was the result? Marriage is about taking as much time as possible to know the person. You youngsters end up knowing everyone so quickly that you get bored and itch to move on to someone else.’
‘This is not what happened with Ekansh or Danny.’
‘You told us what happened between Ekansh and you, but what happened with Danny?’ Mrs Bannerjee was curious.
Rivanah threw a helpless look at her mother and then said, ‘Nothing. I’m feeling tired. Goodnight.’ As she hit the bed, her father’s words echoed in her mind: and he is not married. Why did that sound so appealing? In the Stranger’s words: was she yet again seeking a bigger and deeper hurt in Nivan in order to get over the one given by Danny? It had been some time since the Stranger had contacted her. And with the house-hunting and shifting and her parents’ arrival, she didn’t get the time to contact him more than once. She knew now was the time.
You there? she messaged on one of the stored numbers.
You bet, was the immediate response.
A smile lit up her face. How are you?
I’m good, Mini. Thank you for asking. How are you?
I’m . . . I don’t know. Tell me, you wanted to kill me some time back, and now you don’t contact me at all. Why are you so unpredictable?
I’m unpredictable because you know nothing about me, but in your mind you have heaps of presumptions about me.
Why don’t you clear those presumptions then?
I will when I’m in the mood, Mini.
You never will, I know.
That too is a presumption.
Haha. Okay, what if I say I know you are aware of the fact that I live right next to Nivan’s flat. Would you call it a presumption?
No. I will call it duty. My duty is to know whatever you are up to.
I knew that. What if I tell you I’ve been thinking about Nivan? Do you think I’m doing so because I’m somewhere seeking a bigger and deeper hurt?
Perhaps.
What should I do then?
Be wary of Nivan. He is hiding something.
For the first time during the chat, Rivanah’s expression changed into a deep frown. What is it?
It is something that may bring you and me closer. Goodnight, Mini.
Rivanah messaged back couple of times but there was no response. What could Nivan possibly be hiding that may bring the Stranger closer to me? Rivanah wondered and replayed the entire evening in her mind from the time he came in. She stopped at a particular moment when he had asked her if the sketch stand had to be removed. Rivanah had said no, after which he had asked if she had found anything else that belonged to the previous tenant. She had said no then, but the truth was that she had not checked the flat thoroughly.
Rivanah got up with a start, closed her room’s door lest her parents noticed, and switched on the light. She checked the wardrobe, behind it, under the bed, below the mattress. While lifting the mattress, she noticed the bed had boxes for storage. Three out of the four boxes were empty. In the fourth box, she found a stack of books. They were some old Harold Robbins and Irving Wallace books. She was about to put them back in the box when she noticed something white peeping out of one of the books. She opened the particular novel and her jaw dropped immediately. It was a white piece of cloth with a message embroidered in black thread. She quickly opened the other books and all of them had a similar white cloth on which some message was embroidered in black. The sight made her stomach churn.
24
The radium hands of the clock in Rivanah’s bedroom showed it was 3.15 a.m. As she tossed and turned in bed, Rivanah felt she couldn’t move her hands properly. She got up and tried to move one hand but realized it was tied to the other.
‘Fuck!’ she gasped.
A sound made her look towards the window. She saw a man’s silhouette, clear against the moonlight by the room’s window. He had a shiny object in his hand.
‘Hello, Mini,’ the man said.
She knew who it was. She had asked him on the skywalk if he wanted to kill her. The sight of the shiny, pointy object told her he did. She tried to jump out of the bed and fell on the floor. Her feet were free but her hands were tied. She was about to scream when she heard the Stranger say, ‘If you call your parents, I’ll kill you in two seconds, but if you keep quiet and cooperate I shall tell you who I am.’
Rivanah, still on the floor, was already breathing hard. Her lower lip quivered. And her silence told the Stranger what her decision was. With each step he took towards her, her heartbeat quickened. He bent down and picked her up in his arms, as if she were a feather. His strength aroused her and eclipsed her fear even. The mask covering his face revealed only his eyes, lips and the tip of his nose
. She knew she had seen those eyes before.
He took her to the drawing room, never breaking eye contact.
The Stranger placed her close to the glass wall. Before her feet could find the floor, he pursed her lips with his. In a second, his tongue barged into her mouth. The hunger with which he was exploring her mouth broke the slumber created by fear in her, and every inch of her body awoke to an overtly sexual dawn. She wanted to see who this Stranger was but her hands were still tied together. He broke off the kiss and, looking straight into her eyes, tore open her nightdress. The buttons flew open, and he doffed the shirt as she raised her hands above her head. Rivanah rarely wore a bra at night, and her breasts were now out in the open. Her instinct was to cover them with her hands but they were pinned above her head with such power that she didn’t even try. The Stranger squeezed her breasts with his free hand and whispered in her ears, ‘I’m going to untie you now. I hope you know what you have to do.’ With a deadly twinkle in his eyes, he slowly pulled a string and her hands came free. She put her arms around him immediately and pulled him closer to cover her breasts with his chest. Holding him around his neck with one hand, her other hand slithered downwards till it reached his groin. As she massaged his erect penis over his jeans, she pulled his face closer to hers and this time explored his mouth herself with a renewed hunger. The Stranger grasped her hand over his groin. He made her unzip his jeans, and then tug it down, along with his underwear, till his knees. She could feel the tip of his erect penis poking her lower abdomen over her shorts as the two smooched harder. The Stranger scratched her thighs and reached for the elastic of her shorts. Slowly, he rolled both her shorts and panties down together. Grabbing her bare butt with his strong hands, he lifted her till both her legs were resting on his arm. Next, he brought her down so that she could hold his penis and guide it inside her. She obliged and let out a loud moan as he entered her. She heard some noise in her parent’s bedroom. What if my mother comes out in the drawing room right now? What will I tell her? The forbidden nature of her act made Rivanah even more excited. As the Stranger kept moving his pelvis against hers with vigour, Rivanah kept glancing at her parents’ door, hoping nobody came out, while her heart wanted the Stranger to keep going. The way he was looking at her told her he knew what was on her mind . . .
After this, you’ll have to remove the mask. You’ll have to tell me who you are. I promise I won’t tell anyone anything. Not even my parents or the police. I have paid enough price to deserve your identity now, Stranger. Even if you want to kill me after this, do it. I wouldn’t mind, but here’s one last wish: I want to die in your arms, Stranger. I want to die in your arms, looking deep into your eyes as you lead me to a crushing climax where life and death merge to become eternity . . .
‘Mini?’ Mrs Bannerjee called out from her room. By the time she came into Rivanah’s bedroom inquiring who she was talking to at such an odd hour, Rivanah was sound asleep—or faking it, to be more precise. Mrs Bannerjee came to her, caressed her forehead and then returned to her room. Once Rivanah was sure her mother had gone, she opened her eyes. Her heart was racing. She couldn’t believe she had spoken the words out loud, with her parents in the very next room. She removed her hand from between her legs, tugged her panties up and sat up. Her fantasy had ended abruptly. She felt a little empty, but she didn’t want to do it again.
Rivanah went into the washroom and shut the door. Switching on the lights, Rivanah stared at her reflection in the mirror. She saw someone who had no clue what was happening in her life. After she had found the pieces of white cloth inside the books, Rivanah had been shell-shocked for some time. They had the same messages that she had received from the Stranger in the beginning. Was it the Stranger who had stayed in this flat before her? Her parents were surely hiding something. The Stranger wouldn’t tell her anything directly, so where did that leave her? Whom could she talk to? She felt a stifling restlessness which wouldn’t let her sleep or even be at peace. She wanted a distraction. The Stranger had come into her life once in a while, and it ended in a raunchy fantasy. But the questions still remained: whom could she talk to about the pieces of cloth? And why would the Stranger say Nivan was hiding something?
The next morning, her mother complained that Rivanah hadn’t taken a day off work to spend time with her parents, like she had done the last time they had come to Mumbai.
‘But, Mumma, I don’t have many leaves. And I’ve just joined this company,’ she said but promised herself to take her parents out for dinner at least.
At work, she kept thinking of how she could find out more about the pieces of cloth in the bed box. She was surprised when Nivan messaged her asking her to come to his cabin whenever she was free. Rivanah went to him immediately.
‘Good morning, Rivanah,’ he said.
‘Hello, Nivan.’
‘Sorry to have disturbed you during work hours.’
‘Not a problem,’ she said and wondered if she should tell him about the pieces of cloth.
‘You look like you have something to share?’ Nivan said.
‘Actually, I stumbled upon some white pieces of cloth in my bed box.’
‘White cloth?’ Nivan looked interested.
‘Pieces of cloth with messages embroidered on them.’
‘That’s weird.’
Nivan clearly had no idea how those could have ended up in the bed box. Rivanah decided to drop the matter and take it up on her own later.
‘Anyway, you called me. Anything important?’ she said.
‘Yes. I looked for the agreement which I had with the previous resident of the flat.’
You are a saviour, Nivan, Rivanah thought. ‘Thank you so much.’
Nivan picked up a document and gave it to Rivanah, saying, ‘Never mind. This is the agreement. The tenant’s name is Ekansh Tripathi.’
Rivanah looked down at the name on the document. For a moment, her mind went blank. She slowly lifted her face, still unable to think properly.
‘Your expression tells me you know the person.’
‘Umm . . .’ She felt her throat had dried up by then. ‘Not really,’ she lied.
‘Okay. He has a phone number if you can read it in the agreement. If you want you call him up and talk about the sketch stand.’
There was no response from Rivanah.
‘Hello? Everything okay?’ Nivan said, leaning forward.
‘Yeah,’ Rivanah nodded, looking stumped. ‘Yeah, right. I’ll call him.’
‘Great.’
She took her leave. Back in her cubicle, Rivanah had only one question on her mind: when would Ekansh Tripathi leave her life? She had deleted his number but it was still etched in her mind. She matched it with the one in the agreement—they were the same. She dialled, but before it could connect, Rivanah cut the call. She still wasn’t sure if she should give Ekansh another excuse to enter her life. Especially since what happened the last time they met had altered her life drastically. She put these thoughts away and dialled again. The call was answered on the third ring.
‘Hi, Rivanah. What’s up?’ he said in a formal tone.
That voice . . . that ‘Hi Rivanah’ . . . that ‘what’s up’ . . . they were like the evil chant of a witch to crack open her box of memories, which had nothing but pain and suffering in the form of beautiful snapshots of the past.
‘Did you ever live in the Residency Enclave, B wing, flat no. 1604?’
‘What?’
‘Please answer me.’
There was a pause.
‘I think so.’
‘Did you or did you not?’
‘I did. For some time when I . . .’ He stopped midway.
You were cheating on me. Rivanah completed his sentence in her mind.
‘But Tista once told me you lived in Navi Mumbai.’
‘That was after this. Why are you asking?’
Rivanah quickly checked the date on the agreement. The stay in the Residency Enclave was indeed dated well before she had move
d in with Tista.
‘Hello? You there, Rivanah?’ Ekansh said.
‘Please don’t ever take my name,’ she said and asked, ‘Did you keep a sketch stand in the flat?’
‘A sketch stand? I never used to sketch, you did. Why are you asking me all this? And what about Danny? Is everything okay? Look, I’m really sorry for my behaviour that day.’
The mention of Danny’s name pushed her to remember how she had kissed Ekansh and sent the picture of it to Danny. Disgust clouded her.
‘Yeah. All is fine. Bye.’ She cut the line. Ekansh called back. Rivanah ignored the call, and later blocked the number. Whom should I trust? Ekansh? The guy who has already given me the biggest reason in the past not to trust him? A dreaded thought occurred to her at that moment: what if Ekansh was the Stranger? A mild headache hit her and she started massaging her forehead.
‘Hey, what happened? You okay?’ Smita enquired.
‘Nothing,’ Rivanah muttered. She somehow managed to get back to work.
In the evening, Rivanah left office later than usual. She called her parents and asked them to come over to Red Box in Andheri itself. She met them downstairs, and together they went up to the restaurant. Though she maintained a smile all through the dinner, there was too much on her mind for her to enjoy. They were done in two hours and took an autorickshaw home. As they were about to walk into the elevator, they bumped into Nivan. Greetings were exchanged. But Rivanah sensed something wasn’t right about him. When she reached the sixteenth floor, she received a message from Nivan: Come downstairs, please.
With a slight frown, Rivanah told her parents she would join them in few minutes and took the elevator down. The moment she stepped out of the elevator, she noticed Nivan’s BMW right outside the building. He was behind the wheel. She walked up to him, but before she could enquire, he said, ‘Get inside.’
Rivanah got in and asked, ‘What happened?’
Nivan pointed to something on the dashboard as he shifted the gear. Rivanah noticed there were two Post-it notes stuck on it.
Forget Me Not, Stranger Page 14
