"Cyrus, I know you are a VIP and you get a million texts during my class. If you think my Constitutional law class is a joke, wait till someone laughs at you once you graduate to spend your life cleaning dust on a file cabinet as an assistant lawyer. Don’t test my patience. Just stay out of my class"
Cyrus straightened his specs and walked out scratching his chin beard. Cyrus was an odd man out in his class. He was 4 years older than the rest of this classmates. But he had the ladies on his side with his trifecta looks - Tall Fair & Handsome. He stood out with his looks as well. He had to try his hands on Ayurvedic medicinal studies by his dad’s compulsion. Cyrus’s grandfather was a Ayurved practitioner known all over India, so his dad wanted his son to continue on that tradition.
His first few days at the Academy of Ayurved at Kottayam, Kerala was horrific. Firstly he never travelled outside Delhi in his life - So Kerala was alien land for him. Malayalam, Rice, Coconuts, Mohanlal, Greenery, Steamed rice cake for breakfast at this hostel - Everything turned for him for bad in his mind - Till she walked in to his classroom on that cloudy day’s first hour.
“Excuse me sir - can I come in?”
“Please come in. Students, this is Jennifer your new classmate” introduced professor Madhavan as he was expecting the new admission.
Cyrus had to control his drool. Till then he had thought that he had seen pretty before. But Jennifer just proved him wrong in the first second she walked in to the classroom and to his life at the same time!
There was instant chemistry between Cyrus and Jennifer. What started off as a casual friendship on the first year of college, started to become something more in the second. They both were now seeing each other a lot.
“Cyrus, my father is going for a 2 day trip to Mumbai. I have got the house all by myself. We can have a movie marathon at my place over the weekend. You can also get a break from your disgusting canteen food. What do you think?” asked Jennifer with her exciting wide eyes.
If Cyrus responded anything but “Are you kidding. Lets do it baby!” we all know he would be an idiot. He was not an idiot, of course.
That friday night, they had the best street food in Kerala, drank a lot. A LOT.
“Baby, I am so sorry for what happened. I did not mean to go this far. This is the first time I have every done this. I am sorry. I am freaking out. Why are you not speaking to me. Say something” Cyrus was in a panic mode the next morning on Jennifer’s bed.
“Cyrus…Cyrus…calm down”. Jenni tried to bring him back to normalcy. “We both are adults. We fell in love and we made love. I was fully aware of what happened yesterday. It was the best moment in life. I learned some few tricks yesterday. I also learned that you cannot take alcohol well! hehe. I clicked some pics on my camera as well. Oh, Do you remember this?” Jenni jumped on to his lap showing a tattoo on her right hand.
Jennifer’s eerie calmness and normalcy was freaking Cyrus more.
“What, No. And how are you so calm about this? What if? What if?…” panic mode for Cyrus continued.
“Hush honey. See, I got a “C” tattooed on my right hand. You know what it stands for?” Jennifer with her soothing calm voice suggesting C was for Cyrus.
“Jenni, you don’t know my father. He is going to kill me. And my ma. Oh my god, what have I done! I am a dead man” Cyrus mind played him different scenes of his parents findings about the affair and beating him to death. He was terrified to say the least.
“Cyrus, lets take one step at a time. Relax a bit. We can handle this. We were anyway going to open up to our parents about us - yes?”
That were the last words Jennifer spoke to Cyrus on that day and till date. Cyrus had quit college. 100s of texts, phone calls, Emails all went in vain in finding him. Cyrus had chickened out. It was too much to handle for him as he was half as mature as Jennifer, mentally. He knew that his parents would never agree for him to marry a Christian. He deleted all the online traces and contacts that he left behind in Kerala. He faked to his parents that he was extremely homesick and did not want to return to Kerala anymore. His Mother being naive, as the rest of the mothers in the world, believed him and made sure he never went to out of Delhi again.
Meanwhile in Kerala, Jennifer was now glowing. She quit her college after 4 months as the bump was now quite evident and she did not want to keep explaining everyone about who the father was at her new ladies’ hostel. She treated life as usual, even after her father had asked her to leave the house fearing public disgrace to his family.
9 Months in, her friend who was a nurse made arrangements for her to deliver in a nursing home in a remote village in Kerala. Jenni could not control her tears seeing the beautiful girl child on her hand. What she was about to do to her made her cry even more.
“Are you sure Jenny?” Asked her friend
“What do you expect me to do here? I don’t have a job. I am 18. How can I support her? Do you think it is easy for me? I am doing this for her. I am going to pray to Jesus that whoever she goes to - she brings joy to that family. I know she will”
The next week, Jenni could not control her emotions leaving her precious little being on the door steps on a government adoption agency.
PRESENT DAY - Bandra, Mumbai - Saturday Morning 10AM.
"Shekar, wake up. Its 10AM already. Did you forget that this is an important day for us”? Tara bumped Shekar on their bed.
“I am aware. I have been awake since 4AM thinking about how we are going to open up the this to our child” replied a calm Shekar getting up from his bed.
“This is very tough for me Shekar. I don’t want anything bad to happen. Are we being good parents here”
“We have been through this Tara. Don’t start from the beginning. We are doing the right thing. Roohii can understand now. This is the right age to make her realize that we are not her biological parents. We also have to make sure that it is not going to change anything between us three”
“You are right. We will open up to her about how we adopted her from Kerala when you were working there 7 years before - in a way that she can understand” agreed Tara.
“Tara! look, the timing cannot be perfect for us” exclaimed Shekar looking at this Gmail Inbox. The adoption agency has helped us trace the information of her mother through a common Nurse friend of the mother. They got the details through the nursing home where Roohi was born!” he could not control his excitement.
“I am still not convinced that she should be allowed to see her biological mother, Shekar. I am very nervous about it”
“We are being good parents, Tara. Trust me. She has the right to know. Who are we to deny Roohi her right?. You have to trust me on this honey” Shekar was confident on what he was going to do.
“Papa…Papa…look. I have drawn the toy that I wanted from Kerala. I want in this exact color. OK Papa?” Roohi jumped on the bed showing off her crayon skills on a sheet of paper.
Little did she know what was in her parent's minds and what was in store for her in Kerala. “Papa, how long do we have to wait before we go to Kerala?” I cannot wait!”
“6 more days to go, kid"
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