Bombay Rains

*1987* "i can't believe we're pregnant together. I can't believe we're having our babies together!" "yes! best friends forever." "that will always be a lame term nitya.""i know. can't help it. it makes me laugh every single time pooja!"         * *1991* "cake!" "hold on vaibhav! it's not going to materialize itself!" "CAKE!CAKE!CAKE!" "VAIBHAV, AHANA. Stop it both of you!" "but we waaaaant caaaake!" "why did we ever have kids pooja? our lives were so much easier." "i know. i know. don't remind me."         * *1999* "mum, could you hurry up?! I have to go!" "ahana. you're not going to paris. you're going for ice cream with vaibhav. will you relax?!" "but muuuum! He's buying me ice cream! for the first time in so many years! and we get to go without you AND aunty! it IS a big deal!" "oh ...

…And they lived happily ever after. She closed the book. Right, because fairytales exist. There is a cute boy waiting somewhere for you to let your hair down so he can climb right up and rescue you. She had tried. Oh god had she. She fell a couple of feet short. But if she sat in her room on the ground floor and let her hair out, it nicely sweeps the floor. She had long hair; that’s where the whole obsession started I think. The reading of fairytales. Watching the Disney movies. Collecting the dolls and dreaming. She could sit and dream all day long. But everyone grows up someday right? Her mother said that.   All.The.Time. It was like a tape that had got jammed in the player. Everyone has to grow up. It’s high time you did too. She’d heard that so much she wanted to give up. On the fairytales. And the dreaming. And the waiting. But why should she. Once in a while, you would think that maybe… your parents are right. Thankfully that time hasn’t arrived yet. Her mother was not right...

She sat huddled in the corner. Tears were streaming silently down her face. She couldn’t dare make a noise. It was calling for danger. She couldn’t move too. Nothing. It would wake him and she couldn’t afford that. No, that was out of the question. * It was 7 in the morning. The sound of running water woke her up. He was in the shower. The water was running light so he had just gone in. she had at least 10 minutes. She tried to get up quickly but the bolt of pain sent her into near paralysis. She bit her lip to stop from screaming out. She moved again, slowly this time, gathering her sari around her as she got up. The crumpled sari refused to be ordered into pleats so she just left it. Buttoning up her blouse she fingered the tear in the side, she would have to sew that up, it was one of her best ones. Slipping her feet into the soft moccasins she walked towards the door. She turned the knob as lightly as po...