The Caged Bird – Chapter 7

Both Sayi and Virat were lost in their world, Pranjali who was dancing with Samrat on the stage suddenly ran up and stood in front of Sayi.

“You are pretty like my mumma.”

“Thank you, you are also cute.” Sayi replied awkwardly

“What am I supposed to call you?”

“She is your Sayi chachi” Devika said pulling her cheeks from behind

“Sachi??”

“No Pranjali, it’s Sayi chachi. For heaven’s sake kisi ka toh naam sahi se le lo (take at least one person’s name righ)”

“Sachi!”

“Sayi Chachi” Devika said face-palming

“It’s okay, I’m fine with Sachi.” Sayi interrupted.

Devika took away Pranjali teaching her to say ‘Sayi chachi’.

Virat : “I guess you are not comfortable around kids. Are you agoraphobic (Fear of crowds)”

“I don’t know, it’s just that I’m not used to people. I never saw such a huge family in my entire life. And that’s the same reason I’m awkward around kids. I was given home tuitions, so I never went to school, met people, made friends or did anything like normal people, in the US, I just had my roommate by my side as the 4 guards would never leave my side making me unapproachable to other students and it has always been us 3 in this family. I don’t have any cousins, in fact none of my ancestors ever had one. It is the rule no. 57 of the Joshi rulebook.”

“You guys have a rulebook??”

“A book that is being passed on since generations on the day of coronation ceremony. We have to memorize every rule by the time we turn 10, and it is just a medium sized book comprising 100 rules.”

“Will I have to memorize it too?” he asked hesitatingly

“Why would you? I mean you can if you want to, no one’s stopping you, but, neither is anyone’s gonna force you.”

“I’m bad at memorizing anyways, so we’ll let it pass. (After a long pause) There’s something I wanted to tell you.”

“I’m listening”

“Okay, so there’s this girl I really like….love, we’ve been in a relationship for the past 10 years, and…..well, she broke up after reading the article about…errrr….our marriage. I couldn’t do anything to clear her misunderstanding or fight for my love. I’m sorry but, I don’t think I would ever be able to give her place to you in my heart. I’m sorry, I’m really very sorry. I hope you will understand that I’m doing this marriage out of pressure and helplessness”

“If that’s the case, then it should be me apologizing. I can’t believe my sheepishness ruined two lives.”

“Two lives??”

“You and the girl you love. My life was ruined anyways, if not you, someone else might be sitting here telling me the same thing, and I might be sympathizing with him, blaming myself for all the mess I created like I am just now, I had to marry a stranger for a business deal, I knew it since I was like 5. But it’s definitely not that I was dying to marry, to be honest, I never wanted to marry, I literally hate marriage more that I could hate anything on this universe. I tried escaping, but failed everytime, I did all I could to run away, but, here I am, sitting right beside you wearing this uncomfortable outfit and these irritating accessories. I never really had any expectations from my partner, I didn’t even expect him to be loyal, good-looking, rich or anything, in short, I had never thought of these things, so, I don’t expect anything from you either.”

“So….are you okay with me……”

“If I had a choice I would never have married you, but we’re sailing the same boat right now. I’m as helpless as you are. So yeah! I really don’t care whom you date, love or whatever you do.”

Virat fell short of words with Sayi’s remark and they were again silent.

The rest of the function, they didn’t realize how 3 hours passed and the hall was silent again.

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I have no idea what I wrote, this isn’t how I initially planned this part to be. I’m really sorry for the late update.

You might be aware of the calamity we recently faced. We are not able to contact our friends because of network issues. We didn’t had light since Sunday and the inverter gave up last night. Thankfully the electricity was restored this afternoon and I was able to charge my laptop to post. They are saying the situation may worsen as the flow of the river is restricted by the debris.

We live at a safer place, but, Chamoli is my birthplace, I’m worried about the people and my friends.

Thank you so much for the support and wishes you all have given me throughout