Had Taani not been half as in love with Onu as she was now, and had Onu not been half as blind, they would have laughed at the irony of the situation.
Anurag Ganguly had helped her get inside a bus before it had dashed away. Caught the tram just as it was about to leave, screamed at her to run faster and holding out his hand, pulling her inside the tram and against him...clutching her so close to him she could almost feel the hardness of the bar on the tram that separated them.
Anurag Ganguly alias Motu alias 99Kgs alias Theeki Misthti's Best Friend.
This was the same Motu who need help from just about everyone to get out of a bus. The same Motu whose multiple tyres got stuck between the bars so that everyone who would help him would have a good laugh while doing it. The same Motu who didn't apologize for his weight and his eating habits, which was part of why she had loved him so. He was himself, and he was honest to who he was.
The same Motu now held her by the wrist, lifting her to the edge of the bus with surprising ease, holding her for a hairsbreadth of a second in his arms before releasing her...that Motu knew why she wore orange and smiled crookedly sometimes when she blushed at something he'd said...this Motu was innocent of how the hair at the back of her neck stood on end if he so much as brushed her hand with his.
Or maybe he did know, and he was just teasing. One could never tell, and that poker face of his certainly wasn't helping. Onu had never been any good at hiding his feelings, but now even the slight smile she would sometimes bring out in him was too guarded, too filled with reserve to look truly joyful. The Onu she once knew had a face that could tell you everything: his voice could lie, but his eyes wouldn't dare.
Looking at his (very slight) grin as he got her a seat, she wondered exactly what had happened in America to transform the emotionally rich boy she had loved, to this cauldron where emotions never seemed to rise to the surface. It was almost like feeling the rain on your skin while the sun was still shining: the sweetest, most soothing feeling in the world, but so rare that its very presence made it sweeter.
"There's practically no one in this tram," Taani said, in an attempt to break away from the silence that seemed to yawn and stretch in the empty space, "Where is this one off to?"
Onu smile was shrouded in mystery, but what about him wasn't these days? "You'll know when you get there."
"Onu..."
"Now, Taani, what is it they say about sabr ka phal..."
"Definitely theeki nahin hoti!" Taani quipped back.
Onu laughed this time, a rich deep throaty laugh that melted her insides even further.
"Give me ten minutes," he replied, "Ten minutes, and I hope what comes after will be more than worth it for you..."
It had better not take more than ten minutes, because the heat was too unbearable for even this luxury tram. The sun was out and beads of sweat were shining on his upper lip, and hers too. She couldn't help but pray that the monsoons would come sooner.
Onu was looking outside, unaware of the world within the tram, unaware of their elbows almost touching, unaware maybe even of her. Taani swallowed the lump in her throat. It wasn't fair, it wasn't fair at all to feel this way...wasn't it enough for her that Onu had done so much? Had kept his promise to return for her, only for her? Shouldn't that have been enough? It was evidence enough that he loved her the way she loved him...
"Taani?"
She blushed. She'd been so lost in thought that she hadn't bothered to notice where they were headed, "Onu...have we reached yet?"
He rolled his eyes at her impatience. "Not for another two stops. Now come on, stand up...I want to show you something."
She looked around. The few passengers that had been there when they entered were gone and a glass partition separated the driver and the tram conductor from them.
He nodded at her, took her hand and held it outside, unmindful of the dupatta that fluttered slowly in the breeze. The sun was beaming at them so brightly that she just had to look away.
And then she felt the droplets on her palm.
It was raining while the sun shone.
She raised her face to the sun, closing her eyes so that she could feel its warmth and the cold of the rain at once on her skin. His hand warm on hers, his smile a faint whisper of the Onu he used to be.
"Summer rain..." he said, "I'd promised you once that whenever there would be summer rain in the horizon, you and I would be outside to feel it."
"That was eight years ago...you remembered?"
"I try not to break too many of my promises."
She felt the shift in him deep in her bones. He was changing...maybe back to the person he used to be, maybe not. All she knew now were the droplets that studded his face like diamonds, the sun that cast shadows on his face. His face for once showed pure unadulterated joy, for once he had let go and been the boy he used to be.
He had been, was still, the most beautiful man alive in her eyes.
When they reached the mela, where once they had played king and queen of some imaginary Mughal kingdom, and relived old memories, Taani knew that nothing could surprise her the way the joy written all over his face had.
In the two weeks that he had been in their hometown, she had never seen him look so happy.
Even the visit to the mela, and the memories it brought back, couldn't have had the effect that those raindrops in the sun did on them both. In that moment, Taani believed that there was no surprise the two of them could have possibly not shared together.
Days later, at what was to be their engagement party, Taani was proved wrong.
There were surprises he had brought along that could break her heart, and Nupur Basu was one of them.
The summer rain had left them as soon as it had come.
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