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“And I didn’t get a chance to express my feeling fully. No other officer would have come to rescue a woman who made a distress call at night. Whenever I thought of approaching you and expressing my feeling, I fear. What would be your reaction? And a woman cannot approach a man to have a genuine conversation in this society.”






 Arjun felt deflated. The mention of Silpa by the TV reporter blinded him and knocked him out of his right mind. He ever had come across such an embarrassing situation, but again, who is she? She acted as if she was in close alliance with Silpa. He dived deep into his memories to trace out an instance when Sillpa made a mention of her--nothing.

“Haven’t you asked Silpa about the book?’ She was taking the upper hand. That night he noticed the book was missing from his shelf-- he had slept on the sofa in his reading, and since then, he had no genuine conversation with Silpa. The uneasiness in their relationship caused it, but he should have resolved it by inquiring about the book. 

“I had no other option. Being a police officer, you are not able to realise that situation, chased by a crowd of rowdy men in the deep hours of the night? Using your number was easy rather than searching for the official number. And I hadn’t abused it, and I saw death in front of me….”

She is a woman in her protection—any person within his law-and-order jurisdiction is in his protection—use any means to protect her or anyone in danger is his duty. Now he gets interpreted as reneging on responsibility for a silly personality issue with a lady who was no longer a part of his life.   And if she came to know of his interpretation, she would spread stories concocting her pathetic ideas. He plunged himself to that level. 

Arjun was about to leave to salve the situation, but he wanted to know her connection with Silpa.

“You say you had visited my home to see Silpa--how you are connected to her?”

“Oh, how strange that you didn’t know that” an element of surprise circled in her eyes. “I’m Silpa’s cousin. Hadn’t she mentioned me?”

Her cousin—Arjun recollected Silpa mentioning her cousin who gave her lifts to shop in the town, markets, almost everywhere he didn’t get time to join her. The birthday present from her --she valued more than the dinner he had arranged with her, which didn’t materialise. That cousin was Meenakshi--Meenu. 

“She had, I remember, she mentioned Meenu. You’re not Meenu.”

“Ah, that is my pet name.”

It seemed like a mystery unfolding and a castle of cards crumbling in front of him –his castle of misconceptions. Arjun felt a stream of shame bubble through his forehead. What he should do was to apologise to her, but his male ego harnessed the word in his throat.

He got up from the sofa.

“I… don’t know how to put it before you,” she said. Arjun looked at her. “That moment, I was thinking my final moment had arrived the movement approaching me was one among them to tear me apart. But it was you--at that moment of an emotional surge, I acted foolishly….”

 He had never been to the test of such an encounter-- an intimacy in a victim’s reaction. Was it intimacy or the gratitude for pulling her back out of the gorge of disaster? The question that had vanished from his mind was getting recreated.

“And I didn’t get a chance to express my feeling fully. No other officer would have come to rescue a woman who made a distress call at night. Whenever I thought of approaching you and expressing my feeling, I fear. What would be your reaction? And a woman cannot approach a man to have a genuine conversation in this society.”

Arjun felt a double whammy at that statement, which was society’s shameful truth. In the shout of the rulers marching forward and conquering developments, a woman cannot come to a man to disclose her mind. Of course, they can steal a meeting under cover of secrecy, not in the open. 

“I know what you mean.”

“You came to my place now--I got a chance to disclose my mind to you. I consider it my luck.”

Arjun looked into her eyes, cascading out of them varied pallets of colours, the meaning of which he couldn’t fully fathom.

“Did you like the book?” He asked. 

“I do…” she smiled. “One minute, let me get it for you.”

Arjun didn’t know what to do--should he take it back as it would bring back to his mind wounded memories he wanted to forget. But he cannot ask her to keep it with her. At the same time, he gained relief in meeting a kindred spirit in the matters of the spiritual system. 

She handed over the bag to him. “If you don’t mind, you may take it with the bag,” she said.



That was easy and convenient, he felt... 

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