Platonic Imprint
Ranadhir Mukhopadhyay
Platonic Imprint describes a lonely love. Rapid and perfect recovery from a near-fatal injury in the lower spine of a beautiful young daughter in New York led the entire family in Bangalore into a quagmire of questions, distrust, and infidelity before pure and unflinching love offered the answer.
EIGHT
Cheering up with vodka, Cleta whispered to Tiya to go ahead probing her.
“Mom can I ask you a question” Tiya hesitated
“No, No, there is no Mom here, we have Ahana here, is it not?” Cleta wanted to confirm
Ahana only smiled
“Okay, as you say…Ahana, Who is Indraneel, by the way?” Tiya finally asked.
“Indraneel? I do not think I have heard such a name anytime recently” A completely surprised Ahana replied.
“And what about in the past? Tiya did not relent
“I cannot figure out, anything, anybody by this name.” Ahana was clueless
“You please focus my dear Ahana. Who is this Indraneel Bharadwaj from Mathuragarh, but has been residing in Sindapur for long?” – Tiya provided more clues.
Ahana’s face changed, lowered her beautiful face- “How do you come across this name?”
Tiya gave an appreciative look herself and unravel discovering several old correspondences and the prize catch of the diary.
“Your diary and some letters talk very clearly about you knowing him,” Tiya argued
Seeing Ahana keeping quiet, Cleta took over the questioning. “Now that it is proved beyond any doubt that you and uncle are the biological parents of Tiya, what we all want to know is who could be the seventh person that Dr. Wisconsin was hinting at. By telling facts you are not losing Tiya, but offering the medical research a yeoman’s service. Your help could solve, let me quote the doctor, a billion-dollar question.”
Tiya added- “for me, it is like I have been helped by somebody but I do not know him to give an even a courtesy call or thank the person. What a precarious situation.”
Silence prevailed for a long. But then suddenly Ahana whispered- “I need one more shot of vodka”.
Surprised by this change, Cleta looked at Tiya. She quickly recovered from the sofa and pour vodka into Ahana’s empty glass. This time it was a neat peg for Ahana to discourage any degree of hesitancy and reluctance on her part.
Cleta continued, sitting close to Ahana and holding her palm, – “Now that uncle is not here, these words of yours will be with only three of us. No fifth person will ever come to know.”
Tiya asked- “Fifth? What you are talking about? Who is the fourth person?”
“You know Tiya our ultimate aim is to meet the fourth person who has benefitted your genome structure and thank him” Cleta reminded
“Oh yes, yes!! I just forgot.” Tiya said- “Yes Ahana, come on, tell us the truth.
Ahana adjusted herself to one corner of the sofa, found much relaxation, and reconfirmed- “so whatever I shall tell you now should not transpire beyond we three”.
Ahana slowly closed her eyes and started muttering the story of Indraneel.
“Indraneel and Molly had come to Sindapur more than three decades ago.”
Sindapur is a small state on the central western coast of India and was liberated from Portuguese rule only in 1961.
Indraneel, a double doctorate, superannuated only last year from a publicly funded research institute. Molly, with two bachelor’s degrees in science and Law and a postgraduate diploma in HR management, has been the strength of this relationship. The couple has an active social life and also works for two nongovernment organizations – one on art, film, music, dance and literature, while the other one uses science to solve rural-cum-social inadequacies. None of these NGOs contributes anything financially to this family but offers a huge mental satisfaction to the couple. Although have been living in Sindapur for close to four decades, both Indraneel and Molly originally hail from two nearby towns- Mathuragarh and Gopinathpur- respectively in West Bengal.
Almost three years before the marriage of Indraneel to Molly in 1988 through match-making, Indraneel was on one of those frequent visits to Calcutta to discuss with his research supervisor concerning his PhD thesis work. Indraneel had a good grip on the subject and intended to complete the doctoral thesis within three years.
During one of those visits, once Indraneel with his maternal-grandmother Dida came to visit his distant uncle Sudarsan. This uncle had seen Indraneel growing from childhood, played soccer with him at the village and town levels (Indraneel was a very dependable stopper-back), and wanted to see Indraneel getting married to his Delhi-based elder brother’s daughter Ahana.
Sudarsan had earlier placed this proposal to Dida, mentioning that Indraneel and Ahana could be one of the best couples in the world. Dida liked Sudarsan and his family. The forefathers of Ahana and Indraneel were distantly related, as both families hailed originally from East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Even with an age difference of about ten years between Indraneel and Ahana, Dida had no objection to this match. The overall acceptance of both families of this growing possibility of marriage was vivid.
“Is that Ahana in Delhi and our Ahana sitting in Bangalore now in front of us are same?” Tiya enquired
“I guess so”, Ahana blushed.
“How exciting, oh my God, this is a hair-rising love story”. Cleta’s excitement was holding no bounds.
Ahana paused for a while, this time she pours vodka herself into her empty glass took a sip, and continued…
Sudarsan uncle asked Indraneel (alias Indra) to speak to Ahana over the phone. It was the first time that they would be talking. They have never met or seen each other earlier, although had the information about this possible match-making.
After much thought and witnessing hundreds of cars and buses passing by this 18-storey Bank building located along with one of the busiest roads in Calcutta connecting Dalhousie and Governors’ Palace; and after numerous birds and flies visiting him possibly to inject courage; and after several curious and irritating looks of cousins from outside the door, Indraneel ultimately gathered up the nerve to pick up the phone.
Even when the phone was ringing, Indra thought once of putting it down. But it’s now a prestige issue and Indra can hardly go back. Incidentally, Ahana only picked up the cradle from the other side in Delhi.
Both were nervous. Ultimately Indraneel mustered up the courage to say “Hello, How are you Ahana?
Yes, Ahana speaking, who is on the other side?” Indraneel stumbled to say “Indraneel from Calcutta”. Ahana’s heartbeat stopped for a second.
Collecting all her strength she murmured “How do you know it is me this side”
Now Indraneel’s courage took a drain. He could have told me I see only you all the time all the places. Or it does not matter where you are, but I know that my voice will only reach you. Or I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately and finally worked up the courage to ask if you ever think about me.
No, nothing that sort of thing Indra could tell over the phone.
“Is it the right time to talk to you, can you please spare a few minutes?” Indra pleaded
“Yes, it is fine with me” Ahana was quick
Some negative minds would say that Indra would have been happier if Ahana could not continue with the conversation, as we find Indra stammering as if a ship has lost a bearing in the mid-sea.
Ahana, as smart as she is, made things easy for Indraneel and started speaking freely, even asking what sort of research Indraneel is doing. That made Indraneel comfortable.
“Are you afraid of going to sea on your research ship for a long duration? Ahana asked
“No, rather it is very nice, exciting, a huge experience to spend 45 days in mid-sea doing only research,” Indra replied
“So, you would continue to feel happy also in future in leaving your wife and family in Sindapur?” – A teasing Ahana was at her best
“Yes…oh, No, no. I did not mean that.” Indraneel was in a catch-22 situation.
Changing the topic quickly Indraneel enquired about Ahana’s college and how difficult it must be for a beautiful girl like her to remain without a boyfriend. The intention was to know whether Ahana has anybody else in mind.
“No, I am not that friendly with the boys in the class or the entire college.”
“Why so? Are they not handsome or intelligent?”
“Yes, some of them are good, but here everybody shows off a lot.”
“Hhmmm. What’s your dream minus show-off?”
“Yes, when I was a kid, I always wanted to get a small house on a hill that I could name “Ekante (in isolation)”. Did you ever think about such type of stuff?”
“Hhmmm, nice house with a lot of books, a telescope at one corner by the side of the window, a painting easel…and that’s all.”
We do not want to intrude on their exclusive dream talk on the hill and house. After several minutes as the talk progressed, Ahana said- “you see the destiny. From nowhere it connected us and now bossing over us.
“How?”
“First, it insisted you call me. It positioned me thousands of kilometres away in Delhi in such a way as to be close to the phone at this hour of the day. And none other than me only picked up the phone.”
“I think you are correct”
“Every time I heard your name at home, it lights up my world. … I do not know why but you appear to be the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Oh my God. I am so grateful to God and thankful to you for treating me this way. But the point is we have not seen each other, we do not know much about each other”
“But I know all of yours”
“How?”
“That I am not going to tell you over the phone.”
The conversation continued for several more minutes and ended not before Indraneel suddenly asked-
“You must be knowing the talk going on in our families concerning you and me?”
Ahana did not answer immediately, blushed and then slowly said “yes, I know.”
Indraneel re-joined “but you are still a small girl, you are studying. Do not you feel embarrassed about such talks at home?”
“Yes, but all of them know it”
“All…means?” Indraneel little perplexed
“Yes, all our relatives” Ahana told
“I do not want to know who knows what. I want to know only from you. Will you please tell me?”
“What?”
Reaching to her heart, Indraneel, overcoming another bout of hesitation asked- “Will you marry me?”
Ahana reddened, missed several heartbeats, paused and then said- “Yes if you want that way.
The telephone hung. What else that poor phone could do after that confirmation?
Indraneel wanted to keep the conversation short and interesting. All he probably wanted from the first phone call is to test Ahana’s interest and not engulf her thoughts. He wanted to let Ahana know that he is happy speaking to her. He knows that telephonic conversation is a real-time affair. There is hardly any time to choose words or plan a strategy. Moreover, both of them have very little idea about the appearance of each other. Yet we find Indra could not hold to himself completely.
Ahana thought a little differently. Remember she was not given any advance notice of the call. She was taken completely by surprise. Yet once she picked up the phone and came to know who is on the other side, she took a few deep breaths before answering the call. She tried to keep her sentences short keeping Indra wanting for more. Ahana knows Indra is interested in topics close to his research or sports. Raising those issues could give her a good way to get him talking and to learn more about Indra. But in the end, she also could not control her emotion.
……To be continued
About the Author :
Dr. Ranadhir Mukhopadhyay is a Marine Geoscientist. He had retired from NIO, Goa as a Deputy Director. He now lives at Goa.