See you again 2
Nupur sat at her desk thinking about the past week and her interaction. A weird sensation filled her stomach everytime she thought of that one phone call. Her stomach felt like there were butterflies flying around with elephants and her jaws clenched in tension. She could not get rid of the overwhelming tsunami of emotions that clouded her head every time she gave it a thought. How very unfamiliar her own voice had sounded and how childlike she had felt as she clung onto Mridul’s sleeve. Her new assistant Prisha could sense something was not right as she stood in the doorway holding Nupur’s coffee, and Nuour stared at her screen, lost in thought and visibly absent from the space.
“Nupur ma’am,Nupur ma’am, . . aapki coffee”
“Oh, sorry Prisha I didn’t see you there, please come and thanks so much”
“Is something wrong with the Tilwatia case, you have been staring at the file for way too long.”
“No, everything is good, good job with the drafting.”
“Aapne padha bhi nahi hai abhi tak”, Prisha smirked, she had been around the workspace long enough to notice minor details. An observant girl with attention to minor details was the reason Nupur had decided to take her under her wing.
“Zyaada smart na bano mohtarma, aap jaake wo NGT wali file pe kaam karo. I’m good”
“Okay” Prisha leaves
Nupur takes her coffee, black with only one cube of sugar. Perfect for her ideation sessions in the morning she thought. But, she felt distracted, and wondered maybe she should call Mridul, one way to ease her load. After all, he was the only one who knew about what transpired last week that was sitting heavy on her mind. She wrapped up work and decided to take herself out on a quiet lunch date to gather her thoughts before calling up Mridul. They anyway had lunch hours slightly in sync to be able to sneak in a little catch up call every afternoon. Often a meal of solitude, appreciating the food used to help her calm down. Finishing up her salad, she called up Mridul.
“Hey, wassup. Kyaa kar rahe the tum?”
“Just finishing up lunch, workload is crazy ya. Tum batao, kya hua, you don’t sound so good”
“Kuchh nahi yaar, wahi baat. Ghume jari hai”
“Then go, take a break, go and see how it goes. Either way it will ease your stress of not knowing”
“Hmm, ye bhi idea achha hai”
“Main to ideas deta hi achhe hun. Tum maanti nahi ho bas”
“Zyaada dimaagh na chala, kaam kar”
“Okay, I’ll need to rush waise bhi kaam bhot hai yaar iss hafte”
“Chalo thik hai, bye”
“Bye”
The auto stops at the gate of a glossy high rise building, same as so many others Noori had become used to seeing in the city by now thanks to her work. She steps out of the auto and decides to catch her breath and calm her nerves. Soon it has become over 15 min that she has been pacing lightly near the foyer, not able to bring herself to go inside. She calls Mridul, and cries out of nervousness. He calms her down and she finally steps inside, requests to meet the person of interest claiming to be there on business. Not sure of what else to say, she requests Mridul to stay on call till she feels okay, he complies without hesitation while carrying out injecting reaction premix to vials on his work station. Unexpectedly, Noori sees her mother walk in the waiting area, shorter than she had remembered her to be. Her eyes have sunken and hair greyed, like a hollowed image of an old relic. She is her, but still nothing like she remembered her to be, the decades have shown up her face and worn down the body otherwise.
The Mother’s POV
Walking into the waiting area, my heart was racing wild after ages. I had never felt this excited in a really long while. What I saw in front of me was beyond perfect, a young girl with sparkling eyes, a youthful imagery so much like myself, I was awestruck. This was the young child that life had forced me to part ways with, all grown up now. Beautiful, healthy and hopefully happy. I trembled with fear, as I held her hand. Afraid it might be just a dream and would vanish if I blinked. I sat down next to her, not sure how to act nor how to feel. She seemed to be on call, must have been important I figured, she ended it soon after. We looked at each other, not sure for how long, I could not help but look for that little child of mine, the young girl with endless questions that I left behind. But, here she was, a grown young woman, wiser than I could ever imagine. She eased my pain by letting me know she no longer harboured any negative emotions towards me. Asked me to move on in life guilt free, saying words that seemed too wise for her, afterall I could only see her as my little child who did not know how to tie shoelaces properly. All these years in my absence, had turned her into a grown woman that looked like me, but was so much different than I had expected. I thought my little Noori would be mad at me, and here she was consoling me, wiping away my tears. Life surely came full circle for me.
Noori sat in front of her mother, looking at the woman emotionlessly. She was indifferent as all these years had made her make peace with her absence and she wished her well. As much as she tried, she could not shake the feeling that this old woman was once her beautiful, youthful, lively mother that used to play with her, teach her origami and pluck flowers from the garden. For she did not get a chance to grow with her, see her age day by day and acknowledge the slow change. She had vanished from her life and now shown up after all these years, looking for that little girl Noori, which was probably lost somewhere in the crowd of Nupur being her grown up self. They both seemed to be struggling, holding on to an image of the past like a polaroid picture which no longer represented the person they both had metamorphosed into. Nupur took her leave unsure of whether she wanted to return or not.
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