The Velvet Morning : Chapter Two - The Entropy of Thoughts

“I can’t take this any further. I can’t stand this situation. It has been a month since you stopped talking to me. You don’t take my calls and you don’t reply my texts.  What’s wrong with you? You don’t even understand how hard it is for me to endure all this. “Prapti grumbled in a high tone nodding her head erratically. Her eyeballs were moving around the table as if she was trying to find a focal point and get right words out of her mind.  She finally lays her hand out of the air and palmed down on the table signifying that she was about to explain on a topic. She took a long gasp of air into her lungs “ .. aaahhhhaaaaa….”  and finally gave an appealing look towards Abhinav . “Abhi, I did this for us, for our future. Please try to understand.” She continued as tears rolled down her eyes.

Abhinav and Prapti were sitting opposite each other far on the garden hut of the ‘Coffee Garden’. Cappuccino on both the china clay was equally cold to the temperature between Abhinav and  Prapti. The bamboo table between them was just ready to sustain the heavy hands of the guests.

“Is this all you have to say?” Abhinav broke the silence and leaned forward to grab the cup of cappuccino. He took a sip.

“Where is Rohan ?” Abhi interrogated as if he loathed that name.

“I never wanted to put you in chains but did you ever ask me, a single time, a singgggggle time”– Abhi continued stressing on word ‘single’ – “that you wanted to go to Australia for your undergraduate study.”

Prapti gazed to the face of Abhinav for an instant and then bowed down for rest of the time.

“You capsized my feelings. You deliberately brushed aside my presence and took Rohan by your side.”  Abhi constricted his lips to an  “ O “ in anger, pointed his forefinger down on the table and continued to show his wrath.

 “I know what dragged you towards me. It’s God who always shows a right path. It’s because Rohan’s visa is rejected. He persuaded you on all this. Yes, I know God is watching. I’m not upset that you are leaving but I am agitated that you turned out be such an opportunist and now you say ‘you did it for us’. I can’t find myself in your so called “us”. I can’t believe you did this to me“

“Nooooo…” Prapti burst into tears. “You make such a lame judgment.  You hurt me more than anyone does. I hate you.” Prapti took a tissue to wipe tears off her face. After a pause, she looked at Abhi and told in a sobbing voice – “ It’s over. I would better die than to explain and convince you. “ She grabbed her phone from the table and stood up to leave Abhinav behind.

Abhi shouted in anger -“ Don’t you ever walk away like that”. Abhi stood up from the couch and clutched Prapti by her left hand wrist around the watch.

“ I said it’s over”- Prapti shouted back right onto the face of Abhi and jerked her hand off the clasp  and left. Abhi stood there in dismay and watched her walk past the restaurant backyard door.

“ Abhinav, now you tell me what are the forms of liquid assets?” a deafening sound approached Abhi.

He stood up to face lecturer Ashok. He turned around to look at his classmates with searching eyes as if he just landed on a new planet.  A big pie chart on the whiteboard, with a big chunk for ‘ Government”, was no hint for the question. An inconspicuous whisper from Binay was only sound he heard.  He stood idle and people on the front rows turned back to see him. There was such a lag in his cognition and finally grimaced to accept that he was lost in the world of imaginations.

 

“ Sit down !!!. Stop daydreaming.”- lecturer Ashok turned towards the class and said “ Guys, please focus. This is very important.”

Abhinav sat down and put both his hand on forehead to scan through the lines on the book. His thoughts were elsewhere. He removed his view from the book and tried to face the lecturer but his eyes subconsciously took him to Rashmi. He could visualize her right shoulder axis on a single plane from that corner position. She was utterly focused on lecturer Ashok.  He noticed her slender neck. Meanwhile she collected those untied strands of hair behind the pinna to reveal an emerald like ear stud.

Soon, Abhinav was submerged on the flood of pictures that emerged in entropy from two contrary situations viz., the situation when Prapti broke up two years ago and the canteen scenario that happened the very morning when Binay was talking about Rashmi.