The Proposal

The aroma of lavender filled her nostrils the moment she entered the apartment. This was probably the second time after her first visit to Shankar’s place many years back, when she noticed Shankar to be so concerned about the outer ambience; otherwise he only took care of his inner self. No specific attention was ever given to the exterior part; neither to his body nor to his place of dwelling. Sanyukta smiled mildly, trying to hide her thoughts from Shankar for she wanted it to be as natural as possible. The women generally have an extra sense to penetrate into the man’s heart and see what stays there. Sanyukta, one such learned beauty had seen the proposal coming.

They already had a memorable evening. Subsequent to that romantic outing, the personal quality time spent after many weeks, the hands clasped into each other’s in a delightful evening stroll among the young couples on the serene dusky evening of India gate, the eyes dug into each other as if were hypnotized while sitting in the bumpy tricycle; now followed an intense moment where the subject of marriage was to be brought forward by Shankar.

Shankar always knew the aspirations of Sanyukta and knew the materialistic ambitions of her. He had seen her getting nervous and gaining a pseudo identity often in front of some wealthy ego-maniac. He was cautious about the fact that their journeys together may not lead to similar paths but he had planned to improvise a bit in his state of mind and acquire some materialistic wealth in order to make both of them a happy couple. The idea of living together as husband and wife with Sanyukta and having a real family, a loving family of himself had always tempted him, for this was the word which always eluded him in his life so far, “Family”.

He thought a bit more about how he will initiate this discussion and once both of them settled on the sofa with the glasses of beer in their hands, he said “You know that I never had a real family. With you, I feel complete, I forget about my past and my sufferings come to their natural death. When you are not around, I still feel strong because the memories spent with you make me survive one ordeal after another. I may not know that how exactly you feel about me. The women like you are not easy to see through and be understood (both giggle and then Shankar continues after a brief pause) but I lucidly see the deep emotions you feel for me, with me. We both may not complete each other fully as we are two personalities, two individuals with their different individual traits. But then we have many similarities too. Our similarities make us understand each other and the differences make us understand the world. In that sense we both complete each other because our worlds are not limited by our differences but they gain much broader dimensions and the common part of those two worlds glues them so strong that it adds the magnanimity which is full of colours of life. Will you marry me to make that bond even stronger and add some more colors yet unknown to our lives?” and Shankar stopped in anticipation of Sanyukta’s answer.

The place where Shankar lived sharing with Javed, was a small upper floor apartment in the newly constructed area of east Delhi. The building was partially incomplete and was already ravaged by the heat and rains. The heavy downpour during this monsoon had already disclosed the bad construction quality and the colours of the walls were plundered by the whimsical weather. The “honey dew” paint on the walls had started leaving them due to the moisture content and one wall most exposed to the rains was affected the most. The apartment consisted of one living room at the entry; one bed room followed the living room which had an attached toilet. The cooking area was an open space in the living room with a small arch like design. The bedroom had a double bed with a lamp on one side where Shankar slept. The kitchen didn’t have enough space to keep the clean and used utensils separate. The living room had a three seater brown color couch with a small glass-top center table flooded with newspapers and books. A few chairs lay there in a jiffy, in a corner of the living room which was perhaps used during the committee’s meetings.

Sanyukta never felt keen to discuss about her family and the way she had been brought up in front of Shankar for she always thought that those details might trouble Shankar’s thoughts. She belonged to an affluent, high class, upper cast family. Her father, a senior banker, always made sure that the house is well equipped with luxuries. The grand things were like a commodity in her surroundings. Her mother, a house wife always ensured that the large house is kept in complete order. The walls of the home looked livelier, ornate with beautiful and expensive hand-made paintings hanging on them. The walls clad in the bright wall papers were remnant of a house coming straight out of a fantasy book where the princess lived in a palace and her best friends were the cuddly Teddy bear, Cute little bunny with long ears and the beautiful doll in a pink attire.”

Yes, their worlds were different, very different. As different as the walls of those two different houses and it was conspicuous to both of them, though with varying degrees. Despite of the differences, both of those houses carried a distinctive similarity; they both had very robust pillars to carry the weight of the dwellers until eternity. She was a rebellion. She had left her home in search of her own dreams. She had fought endlessly against her very own loving parents for she disliked the fact that the same luxuries, she has been associated for so long would make it tougher for her to abstain from them when she would embark on her own voyage to find those magnificent jewels of her destiny by herself. Besides, she had always been an impulsive person who never thought much about the repercussions before acting. When she realized her mistake later, she would snub it easily. Despite of many grey areas in her mind related to the path she had adopted, she was always certain of the outcome. As a matter of fact, the path didn’t matter for her much till the time the objectives were being met. Though, she hated looking back, she remembered limpidly the love contained in her father’s heart and she saw clearly the love contained in Shankar’s heart too. She won’t run again, she will make it work this time, she had decided.

With this thought, she grabbed Shankar’s hands and pulled them around her waist and went into a deep embrace. Shankar pulled her tightly and lifted her up to see straight into her eyes. Sanyukta pushed her face closer to Shankar, her mouth close to Shankar’s ear and she whispered, “Let’s get married”. And then as if by an enigma, she pulled herself down and started undressing herself. Shankar removed his shirt and pulled Sanyukta towards his face. The heavy breaths became hotter and their bodies sweated with fury.

Shankar lifted her again and moved towards the bedroom. There, both of them under a hypnotic state threw their bodies on the double bed. The ecstasy of beer, the freedom to express and the thought of living together had enraged them. Both were discovering the wilder side of their alter egos. The fiery passion saw no end and both the bodies entered into each other again and again as if they had discovered the perfect abode of bliss and love in the most unadulterated form. The incessant chain of tear drops rolling down from Sanyukta’s eyes, the naked bodies lying in conjunction motionless after those enormously draining 45 minutes and the sound of their deep breaths breaking the silence; everything there was a witness of the enigma, which came out of those two bodies, the acme of the gratification, the two souls felt and the glee which the two pairs of eyes now carried with them.

 Both of them now lay naked looking into each other’s eyes, as if peeping into each other’s souls acknowledging the comfort of each other’s presence. “The Love ably supported by sensuality is like meditation. It transports the souls into a zone of fulfilment.” Sanyukta whispered before she went into a deep sombre lying on top of Shankar with her head on Shankar’s chest. Shankar saw the tranquillity on her face, “The hardships could never plunder her innocence” and with this thought, he too went into the same world of dreams soon after.

It didn’t need a professor to figure out that both of them were deep in love.

V R Bhardwaj