The First Dance
“I am telling you, Romesh. He sends close to fifteen messages a day!
“And the times are fixed — Morning, Afternoon, Evening…even late night sometimes!” his voice grew louder.
“I don’t know how he’s getting so many forwards so soon! Does he sit and write them himself?
“He has just retired, Arvind. When people first retire, they look for things to fill up their days. Plus his son sent him the latest iPhone from America. He’s using it to the fullest!”
“He’s using it and I’m losing it.”
“All I am saying, is that you need to be more…”
“Accommodating and understanding, right?”
“Yes! Finally I’m getting through to you.” Romesh laughed.
Arvind shaking his head in frustration, “Tell me honestly, Romesh. You’re in that group. Don’t those messages irritate you?”
“To be completely honest, I have turned off notifications for that group.”
“What!”
“Arre, then what? I am a Doctor, for God’s sake!”
“Therapist.”
“Same thing.”
Arvind shook his head in response, looking away from Romesh and out of the full length windows to the side, down to the streets below. The traffic was beginning to build up now. The somewhat sundry late afternoon was starting to make way for the buzzing, weekday evening. South Mumbai’s daily peak traffic hour was due to take it course. But here in the air conditioned office, four floors high, Arvind was going to be spared by it’s onslaught. At least for the next hour.
“Should I call for tea?”
Arvind looked back hazily, mildly nodded in agreement and shifted his gaze back to the traffic.
Romesh walked over to his desk and made a brief phone call.
“So, Arvind…” he said as he sat back in his chair.
“You know I love listening to your rants. But let me remind you, you are paying me by the hour. We can keep talking about how awful Manish’s WhatsApp forwards are. But I’m sure you have other things on your mind.”
Arvind looked back hazily.
“How’s Aisha?”
“Aisha….” Arvind cracked his knuckles as he sat back in his chair.
“She has her challenges. Life of a PhD student is not easy, as you know. Her professor is very demanding. She’s working very hard.”
“Right.” Romesh nodded as he made some notes.
“But I tell you Romesh, she loves it! I have never seen her so motivated in a very long time. She’s slogging day and night but no complaints. And she spends a lot of time speaking with Geeta.”
“That’s great.” Romesh smiled back. “How’s the search for a suitor going?”
“It’s on pause for now. We want her to settle down but I don’t think she’s ready. She’s met a few boys. But nothing has worked out. And honestly, I have learned not to push her too much anymore. It never works out.” Arvind slowly sat up.
“The more we try to pull her towards what we want, the more she tries to break free.”
“Right. She’s always been very independent.”
“Rebellious!”
“With you, she’s rebellious for sure.”
“Hmm….” Arvind looked up to the ceiling. His mind went through a quick slideshow of his past incursions with Aisha.
“Yes, I definitely have pushed her buttons. Some of it was my fault for sure. But I think I have a better understanding of her now.”
Romesh simply looked at Arvind, letting him go on with his musings.
“Like you said, she’s independent. So we have decided to leave her on her own. Past few years she’s really turned around her life. She’s doing well in her PhD. She told Geeta that once she’s done, she’ll settle down. So we’ll let her be.”
“So things are good with Aisha, then?”
“Yes. Touchwood.” Arvind knocked on the table between them.
“And your health?” Romesh moved on.
“Health is first class, boss! Daily walking. Occasionally, I go to the club also. I got my annual tests done recently. Everything’s normal.”
“Great, and how’s Geeta?”
“Geeta…Geeta….Geeta….She’s….” Arvind rubbed his knees as he settled back into the chair.
“She’s good. She’s finally pursuing her musical interests.”
“Oh, is it? I did not know this.” Romesh made some more notes.
“Yes, its very recent. Just one or two months back, she found this teacher nearby. She’s enjoying it.”
“I think that’s wonderful! She always had an interest in classical dance and music.”
“Deep interest! My whole life I have been after her to pursue it but she kept pushing it off.”
“Great. And any friction between you two?”
“No. It’s been very pleasant. Thankfully.”
“Okay.” Romesh scribbled.
“When we first retired, we had to work hard to keep ourselves busy.” Arvind went on.
“I think we were both…lost. Me, especially. We had such busy jobs and now suddenly we had so much free time! So that just led to a lot of fights and arguments.”
“It’s a common story.”
“I’m sure it is. These are things nobody teaches you. Some of my friends cautioned me few years before retirement. But I had no idea it would be this difficult.
“But I think…now we have settled in. We have things to keep us occupied. We go on vacations annually. But most importantly, we give each other space. We aren’t in each other’s face all the time, which is helping a lot. She’s exploring her interests. I’m exploring mine.”
“That’s wonderful! That’s what I wanted for the two of you. I’m glad it’s finally happening.”
“Yes, for sure!” Arvind nodded.
“But keep in mind, you must keep the communication flowing. Us men are handicapped when it comes to communication. And you especially, Arvind. You have been like this from the start. You keep things bottled up inside. You don’t say things that need to be said. And then it leads to problems.”
“Yes, I know.” Arvind sighed.
“So things are good with Geeta…Things are good with Aisha...”
“Yes, touchwood.” he reached for the wooden table again but wasn’t mindful to go all the way. So, he knocked the air around it.
“No problems?”
“No problems.”
“Nothing wrong with that. We don’t always have to discuss problems. We can discuss good things also.”
“Yes.” sighed Arvind as he looked out of the window again.
Romesh did not take notes this time. He simply observed Arvind. He watched as the ease in his life was not reflected in the posture of his body. He seemed to be hanging in between a stance of comfort and tenseness.
“So what’s the problem then?” He finally asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You seem very distracted and preoccupied.”
“Really?”
“Yes, you’re constantly looking out of the window, restless in your chair, rubbing your arms and legs. Something’s bothering you, Arvind.”
“It’s just….I…..” he moved in his chair as if to get up.
“It’s ok. Relax. Take your time. Let’s pause for a bit. I’ll check on the tea.”
Romesh stepped away from the room to speak with his peon. Arvind stayed put, transfixed to the chair in front of him. In a few minutes, Romesh was back in the room, holding two cups of tea in his hands. He placed one in front of Arvind, patted his back gently, gesturing towards the cup. Arvind picked up his cup and made a loud slurp.
“Something’s been bothering me for some time.” he finally said.
“Yes. Go on.”
“It’s just that….I don’t know how to say it. It’s very silly.” he said with a wry smile.
“It’s okay. You know me. There’s no judgement here. Just feel free.”
Romesh took a big swig from his cup to finish his tea. He spilled some on his chin. He dabbed at it with his fingers and cleaned off his fingers on the side of the chair.
“Okay. Here it is.” Arvind took a big swig of his tea as well.
He looked Romesh dead in his eyes, as he said, “I have never danced with Geeta.”
Romesh smiled with furrowed brows, “You have never danced with Geeta?”
“Yes…Never.”
“Are you sure?” the smile was now gone.
“One hundred percent.”
It was Romesh this time that was looking away. He had the expression of someone who was as trying to remember his ATM pin.
“I am sure I have seen you two dance. We have had so many parties together over the years. Didn’t you two ever dance?”
“Nope. Thirty-three years of marriage. Not a single time.”
There was a silence in the room. Romesh wanted to make notes but he couldn’t shake off the information that he had just received. Also, he was scratching his memory for instances of watching Arvind and Geeta dance together.
“So let me qualify that.” Arvind broke the silence this time.
“We have danced together. But never danced with each other. Do you know what I mean?”
Romesh paused to think and replied, “No….I don’t…Please explain.”
Arvind picked up his cup to drink again but forgot that he had finished his tea. To save face, he swallowed air from the cup and kept it back.
“So, you know me. I’m shy and very conscious and constantly worried of making a fool of myself. Geeta as you know, is a trained dancer…has a lot of grace.”
“Yes.”
“I have just never felt comfortable dancing with her. I feel like someone is watching…and judging us…seeing how well she dances, and how badly I dance.”
“Sure, that’s….understandable.”
“Yes, so I have danced with her if I was coerced into it, but I was never into it. I would just do a quick, safe move that I didn’t find too embarrassing and moved away.”
“Hmm…what about when it’s just the two of you…at home…in your younger days…surely you two must have danced!”
“Nope…same story…there have been times when a Beatles or Beegees song was playing on the record and Geeta pulled me in for a dance. But I just wasn’t into it. I was too self conscious. I would just do something and get out of it.”
“Hmm.”
“She never said anything but I am sure she was disappointed.”
“Yes, surely!”
“Somehow time slipped by. And now I wake up realizing that life has passed me by and I haven’t danced once with the woman I love.”
“Hmm.” Romesh still befuddled could now manage a smile.
“So this is what’s been bothering you?”
“Yes.”
Arvind looked out of the window again. The traffic was choc-a-block now. And it had started to rain.
He looked back to Romesh, who was now making notes and said, “I just feel that in thirty-three years of marriage, a husband and wife should dance at least once.”
The meteorological department had been flummoxed by the weather patterns that year. The monsoon season that usually flooded the streets of Mumbai had mostly remained absent, albeit for a few short spells of rain time and again.
But that day was different. A torrential downpour had caught people off guard and had exacerbated the evening rush hour traffic. Cars, rickshaws, scooters and motorcycles clogged the narrow streets, working extra hard to snake their way through. Those on foot, sheltered themselves inside shops, under bridges and awnings. Street vendors lined the sides, boiling pots of chai and dousing battered food into woks of hot oil.
A distance that usually took thirty minutes to navigate had Arvind negotiating for close to two hours. The few minutes that took him to walk from his parked car to the house, sufficed to get him drenched. Just as he was fiddling for the keys, he noticed that the door was open. He walked in, his eyes panning the living room for Geeta. A familiar waft was emanating from the kitchen accompanied by a hissing sound of something tempering in oil. He smiled and promptly started towards the kitchen. He paused after a few steps forward as the old record player placed atop the bureau, caught his eye.
Geeta was blissfully humming to herself as the fish shallow fried in the oil, the spices seeping in evenly. A gentle smile creased her face as she looked out of the window to the pouring rain. The smell of the dry soil being soaked by rain was the perfect compliment to the aroma of the curry leaves that she had doused the fish with. In her younger days, days like these would go by without acknowledgement. But in her retirement, she had grown to appreciate these moments by herself, soaking in the smaller joys of life.
Her moments of bliss were interrupted by the voices of three familiar sounding men singing, “I know your eyes in the morning sun…I feel your touch in the pouring rain…”
She walked into the living room to the sight of a familiar person doing something quite unfamiliar. With ruffled up hair, wet clothes and a wry smile, Arvind was dancing to tunes of How Deep is your Love.
“Arvind!” she called out to him.
As he turned around, Arvind saw Geeta standing by the kitchen door, as she gestured her hands upwards, as if to ask him, “What in God’s name are you doing?”
“Come join me!” he yelled back at her and continued dancing.
“I need to finish cooking.” She yelled back.
“No, just come!” he jogged towards her, grabbed her by her arm and gently pulled her to the middle of the room.
“Cause we’re living in a wold of fools…Breaking us down when they all should let us be…We belong to you and me…”
He held her palms in his and rocked her side to side. She hesitated at first but finally relented and joined him in his strut.
In a few moments, they were College students again. At a friend’s house, when they first met. They weren’t married. They had no kids. No fights. No arguments. No jobs or career to worry about. No bills to pay. No rush hour traffic. No fish frying on the stove. No stray thoughts of chores. Or any distant worries.
She saw his goofy smile and dorky dance steps. He saw her luminous eyes and her grace. They just held each other and danced.
When they were finally done, their age came back to them. Her knees and back ached. He was out of breath. Tired, they both plopped on the sofa next to each other. She felt joy like she hadn’t in years. He felt a massive weight fall off his shoulders.
She smiled and wondered to herself why they hadn’t danced like this before. She turned to look at him. He was lost in his thoughts, still heaving from the onslaught of moving so much in his sixties.
“Arvind…”
He turned to look at her.
“What took you so long?”
He moved his tongue around, salivating a dry mouth, looked her dead in her eyes and replied, “Traffic!”
