CHAPTER 7

At 8 am, in the Badminton Academy, after practicing for two hours.

“Arjun, is there any part you are less confident about?” Ira asked.

“I don’t want to sound super confident but whatever we have practiced, I am confident in those. In the sense, I won’t mess up on whatever you taught me till date.” Arjun said.

“Cool, I think you are ready for tomorrow’s match. For the higher levels of course we will need to work harder. But for now, I think you are done. So shall we just go out and chill?”

“What..? You are joking right?”

“No Arjun. Seriously. It’s been quite long since I went around the city. And it will be relaxing for you too.”

“Coach, if you want, you can go, I am no way accompanying you. My head is about to blast with anxiety and you want to go out today? Just the day before the tournament. How is that relaxing?”

“Funny! You remind me so much of my father. The day before my first match I wanted to watch a movie but my dad was being all bananas about it. But I still did watch the movie anyway and it didn't spoil anything for the next day. Trust me Arjun, you are going to be fine. Over practicing the day before the match is the worst thing you could do.”

“We didn’t over practice! We just practiced for two hours today.”

“Fine, we will go out now and after that too if you feel like you want to practice, we will come back and practice more. Alright? Now please come. Let’s go.” she said, making a pity-me face.

“Okay, let’s go.” he scoffed, finally giving up as he put his head down, shaking it and smiling.

“Thank you! Can we just go to my home so that I can get changed because I am not coming out in these training clothes?” Ira said, all excited and jumpy. Arjun found her excitement very cute and that was the first time he saw that side of her.

“Yes coach. We can go.”

They both rode in their respective vehicles and arrived at Ira’s home which was just ten minutes from the badminton court.

“Please come in, Arjun.”

“No coach, I will be fine here. You just go, get changed and come.” Arjun said, standing on the road leaning onto his bike.

“Fine. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

Ira quickly went inside her home, washed her face and put on a long kurti top with jeans. She let her hair free parted in the middle, wore a pair of hanging earrings and put on some mascara along with eyeliner, finishing the look with baby pink lip balm. She then took her sling bag and made her way out of the door locking it.

Arjun was awestruck the moment he saw her walk out of the big gate of her building. He was used to seeing her in training clothes and a ponytail always. For the first time maybe he realised how beautiful her eyes were and the deep pits on her cheeks as she smiled were priceless enough to drown to death. He kept staring at the gorgeous girl in front him until she spoke, her words pulling him from the depths of heaven.

“Are we all set to go?”

“Yea..Yeah” Arjun said, still taken aback.

Ira unzipped her bag to pull out her car keys only to catch on that she had left it inside home.

“Arjun, just one second. I forgot my keys inside, I’ll go get them.”

“Ah hmm, Ir.. I mean, coach.. If you don’t mind you can come along with me on the bike. If you don’t want to, that’s okay. I totally understand if you don’t want to ride along, I..I just asked.” Arjun said, flushing.

Ira looked at Arjun pouting with a little frown and nodded her head indicating a ‘yes.’ Arjun grinned like a Cheshire cat and got onto the bike followed by Ira. She sat double sided and held the back of her seat.

“Okay to go?” Arjun asked.

“Yeah.”

Arjun kick-started the bike and drove away.

“Coach, before we go anywhere, can we first have some food? I am hungry as a wolf.”

“You just read my mind out. We surely need to grab some food.”

Arjun drove to ‘The Chocolate House’ which was more of a dessert’s restaurant as the name suggested along with some sandwiches. Arjun really enjoyed that place because of its ambience and good food. And it was also the nearest eatery to them. They reached the location and got seated. They ordered two chicken sandwiches and a chocolate brownie.

“Actually I shouldn’t let you eat these being your coach.” Arjun watched Ira closely waiting for her next words. “But cheating diets at times is okay.” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

“Thank god, I thought you were going to stop me from eating these.”

“Ha-ha. By the way the food here is tasty and unfortunately I never knew about this restaurant even after living in this area for nearly six months.” Ira said, swallowing a mouth full of sandwich.

Both of them feasted on their respective sandwiches. Brownie was ordered by Arjun, so he began to chow it down with full of greed as it was his favourite dessert. In the interest of eating it, he even forgot to offer some to Ira for the sake of courtesy.

Ira who was watching him gobbling his brownie couldn’t control herself and let out a giggle. Arjun gazed up to see his coach giggling silently at him. It was then that his senses struck him.

“Oh! Sorry coach. Do you want some?”

“No, you can have it.” Ira said, laughing even more.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Nothing, you finish up.” she said, trying to control her laughter.

Arjun gawked at her with a little confusion mixed with awkwardness. But then he chose to continue munching the leftovers as that brownie meant more than his coach laughing at him.

Arjun paid the bill even after Ira insisted that she would pay it.

“What’s next coach?”

“Movie?”

Both of them drove off to the nearest mall that had a movie theatre and bought the ticket to whatever movie was being played next. They didn’t care if it was a good one or not because at that point of time they just wanted to watch a movie. The movie was about to start, so both of them went to their seats that they had booked. Their seats were at the corner of the left row. The movie began shortly and after thirty minutes into the movie, both of them saw the daylight that the movie was an illogical rom-com.

“Imagine if his towel fell off while jumping” Ira said, laughing.

“That would have been the highlight of the movie then.” Arjun replied, laughing harder.

For the rest of the movie, both of them mocked the scenes and acting of the actors and were in complete splits. They actually had a great time apart from the fact that the movie was a disaster. Anyhow, that two hours and thirty minutes inside the theatre broke a lot of formality between Arjun and Ira.

When they left the cinema hall, it was already time for lunch. So they had a subtle lunch in the mall’s food court which were pizzas and burgers along with some soft drinks. Arjun had the time of his life eating junk food after six weeks of a strict diet which he followed with regular exercise. Then the two of them roamed around the mall for some time. Ira bought herself a silver chain with a clover whose four leaves represented hope, luck, love and faith according to Irish Mythology and Arjun bought himself a new keychain for his bike which was a metallic miniature of the same model bike he owned.

“Look, scary house” Ira said, pointing at a door with HORROR written over it.

“No way, we are not going inside that.” Arjun said, turning around to leave that place.

“Why? Please let’s go.”

“No coach, if I come then I can’t sleep for the next one week. Please I am not coming, if you wish to go, you can. I’ll wait for you here.”

“It would be boring to go alone. It’s alright, we shall not go.”

Arjun nodded in response thankfully for not being forced because anytime he went to the mall with his friends, he had to argue at least for fifteen minutes until his mates gave up on him and went by themselves to the scary house.

“Arjun, why are you scared of horror houses? You do know it's just people inside trying to scare us.”

“I know. I had once gone inside when I was around five years old with my dad and sister. Half a way through, my foot got stuck over something and I fell down. Before I could make any noise, the other two left me and went forward. It was only after reaching out that they became cognizant of my absence. Then the people inside bought me out. So since then that fear stayed with me.”

“I understand.” Ira said, giving him an It’s-Alright- mate look.

“Where are we going next?” Arjun asked.

“This time you chose.” Ira said.

“I know where we need to head now. Let’s go.”

The time was 2 O’clock. Ira and Arjun drove to a place which was an hour away from them. Arjun didn’t tell Ira where they were going even after Ira asked him. They finally ended up at the spot after an hour-long ride in the hot afternoon sun. The place looked like a park from outside but as they headed in, it was actually a graveyard.

“What are we doing in the graveyard?” Ira asked, a little surprised.

Arjun just kept walking forward without replying and stopped all of a sudden that made Ira run into him. They stood in front of a particular grave. He bent down and moved away the dust on the grave which hid the name of the person engraved on it.

“Latha Rajashekar.” Ira read, and looked up at Arjun.

“My mom!” he said.

Ira still kept staring at him waiting for him to continue talking.

“I never saw my mom. She died after giving birth to me. I grew up not knowing how mom’s care would feel.” Arjun said, as he walked forward and he continued “Kavi was the one who took care of me from mom’s place and dad suffered a lot to take care of both of us. He loved mom so much and her demise left him shattered. My sister told me that dad was a very happy- take it easy person until mom was with him, after her death, he became a damn closed person to a point that even Kavi feels him like an anonymous at times.”

He gazed at Ira with the pain in his heart reflecting through his eyes. She could see a different person behind the shadows of his eyes.

“Arjun, you okay?”

“Yeah, I am fine.” he said, forcing a smile.

“Even after going home to my family every day, I still feel like I miss them some days.” His voice shook as his eyes began brimming with tears, waiting for the permission to pour out.

Ira took a step closer, reached for Arjun’s hand and held it with a tight grip. Arjun gazed down at his hand being held by Ira and again looked up at her. Ira nodded her head and said, “Its okay. Please don’t cry, it wi…” Arjun hugged Ira promptly and started sobbing on her shoulders. Ira was a little startled with that hug and didn’t know how to react but she then hugged Arjun back. She didn’t say a word and chose to let Arjun cry out his grief. A compassionate care rushed through her blood for Arjun, she knew she was going to do everything to keep his emotions safe because she knew how it felt to miss family and all the love.

After a few minutes, Arjun calmed himself down and lifted his head off Ira’s shoulder realising he had hugged her out of nowhere.

“I.. I am sorry coach. I ju.. Just.”

“My name is Ira.” she said, smiling.

“Uh?”

“Friends?” she said, stretching out her hand for a handshake.

“Hmm yeah.” Arjun said, reaching for Ira’s hand with a confused look on his face.

“When I was in a similar space as you are in, in fact I am still in that space, I did not have anyone to confide in. I feel you Arjun.”

“Thank you coa..Ira!” he said, smiling.

“Now that you are smiling, can I take advantage of that and choose the next place we visit?”

“Yeah you can.” Arjun said, with a cracked chuckle.

“Okay, you have already got your mom’s blessings, so can we go get some blessings from the god?”

“Ah..Ira I don’t believe much in god.”

“Why is it so?” Ira asked.

“Because god didn’t save my mom, did he? He just took her and left me alone. He just broke dad and Kavi’s heart. I’m sure my mom was the best and he took her for himself. He is just selfish. If mom was with me, everything would have been so different. I wouldn’t have felt jealous at people who had their moms with them.” Arjun said, anger filling him up.

“I understand Arjun. We don’t have to go to a temple if you don’t want to but will you come with me to the planetarium? It will take two hours to reach and after that we can go home straight from there. Is it okay for you?”

“Yeah it’s cool with me.” Arjun said, his anger evidently under control again.

Once they reached the planetarium, they discovered that the planetarium wouldn’t open for another one hour. So Ira went up to the counter and spoke to the girl there. Arjun didn’t know what Ira spoke to that girl, but that girl opened a door for them to enter. The room was square in shape and the whole room was filled with chaise lounges.

“Come on, the show is about to start anytime.” Ira said.

“Wait. What? They opened the planetarium an hour early for just both of us?” Arjun asked, in an unbelieving tone.

“The perks of being a known face.” Ira whispered, shrugging.

“Wow! Seriously?”

“No mate. I offered extra money for this private show. That girl had no idea about me.” she said, laughing uncontrollably.

“How much did you pay?”

“I am going to keep that a secret.” Ira said, double raising her brows in a mockingly way which made Arjun pout in a playful anger.

The lights went out in the room as Ira and Arjun laid down beside each other on their respective chairs. The darkness of the room was taken away with the star light above them as the show started. The ceiling was being projected with the millions of stars in which one could sight the different galaxies. The view was beautiful. No one who saw the sky from earth would ever expect that something which was worthy enough to define the word ‘ magical ‘ laid just beyond the blank blue they stared into every day. There was a queer silence in which Arjun lost himself to the fizzy stars above him.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“Yes it is. I don’t think I have seen anything this beautiful before.” Arjun said, turning to sight Ira lying beside him and he knew that very moment that he was wrong because something much more beautiful than the three hundred trillion stars was right next to him.

Arjun just gasped at Ira’s beautiful face that glowed beneath the star light. Her skin was spotless.

“Arjun.” she said, looking at him who was already staring at her.

“Hmm?”

“Your mom and my dad are one in those trillion stars. A little speck of light which is so far away from us, far from our reach, peaceful they lay. Don’t you think god was being unfair and partial that he took them first to a better place? They don’t have to dwell about anything, do they, unlike us? People say god takes the best ones first, am sure he does but maybe, so that he can give them the best of what they deserve. We here struggle every day to keep our lives going and keep feeling sad for the demised when the dead are probably living a better life than all of us ever would.”

“Ira, this theory of yours...I don’t know what to say. It’s just wild. Do you genuinely believe all of this?” Arjun asked, unable to take in whatever Ira said.

“I know this is wild but it’s not definitely impossible. Who knows what the afterlife holds. But I am sure it won’t hurt to believe this stupid theory of mine when it gives you a peace of mind knowing our parents are happy wherever they are. Of course we miss them but then again I refuse to believe that people who share the bond of love can be separated, not even death is strong enough to do that. Death can never override the power of love. The presence of true love can never leave without traces. Their love is in the starlight that brightens the darkness of night, the light breeze of early mornings that sweeps off all the sorrows of the last day and their memories which is still as fresh as ever in our minds.”

“Yeah” Arjun said, as his mind dealt with the flooding of thoughts.

The show got over while Arjun kept rethinking what Ira said.

“It’s all ju-just unbelievable but yet as she said, it's not impossible. What if mom is in fact in a better place and much happier. But what about dad, Kavi and I? We are bearing the pain of loss of mom every day. This all doesn’t seem likely, it’s all just unfair. But yeah, it does give me peace to think mom is fine somewhere.” Thoughts kept running fast in Arjun’s mind that his legs started hurting.

Arjun didn’t talk about anything to Ira as they rode back to her place. Ira too hinted to understand the atypical tongue-tied silence Arjun required, so she didn’t try to start a conversation either. They got to her place and she knew she had to break the heavy silence.

“Uh..Arjun.”

“Yeah... yeah?”

“You’re fine?”

“I am. Yes. Fine. I was just thinking about the planetarium. Just like that.”

“Arjun, I am sorry if whatever I said is bothering you.”

“No, no it’s nothing like that. Please don’t apologize, Ira.”

“After I lost my father, it felt as if I was stranded on a lone island. A part of me yearned to see my dad’s face again, to hear his voice again. Nothing I did filled in that void. A weird kind of insecurity crept inside me, it was very scary. It was as if I was being naked in front of the whole world. Even after being surrounded by people, I still felt alone.” Ira choked on her words as she tried hard not to cry. Arjun walked over from his bike to Ira who stood leaning on the gate and hugged her as he muttered “It’s okay Ira, you are fine. I promise.” Ira stood there hugging him tight with her eyes close, unable to reply to his consoling words. She felt his warmth very comforting.

As Arjun released her from his arms, she continued, wiping off her tears, “But then his words, his care, his dreams of seeing me achieve whatever I wanted and the truth that it would break him to see me sad made me realise that whatever happens, my dad would have never let me feel alone. He was a part of me and will always be, I stopped searching for him in places when I understood my father never left me, and he was always there, in me. And that realisation gave me the closure I had been gawking for.”

“I don’t think your mother would want to see her son in agony for which she is the reason. I know you never had the chance to make memories with your mom, yet I know you can feel her inside you. She’ll be dead only when you fail to understand she still lives as a part of you. She is always there, just there. I am not saying it’s wrong to miss her, even I miss my dad till date, but we shouldn’t just let their absence ruin the dream they held for us, the dream of wanting nothing more than our happiness.” Ira spoke those words looking straight into Arjun’s eyes which gave the feeling to have created an impact on his mind.

“Yeah, maybe you are right. And I am sorry about your dad, Ira.” Arjun said, smiling painfully.

“It’s fine. Thank you. I hope you could keep your thoughts about this for later and take good rest. I will see you tomorrow at 8 am in the court. Tomorrow’s match will be yours. We will toast all of your victories in the name of your mother.” Ira said, with an encouraging smile and still wet eyes.

Arjun went home that day and thought about everything that had happened. He was in the seventh heaven. He could easily accept whatever Ira said about his mom because it gave him closure just like she mentioned. He went to bed content like never before. His sister’s best wishes for the next day’s match and his father’s complaints of irksome neighbors was nothing compared to the thankfulness he had on seeing them. For the first time in life, he felt like his mother was right next to him. He didn’t miss her that night instead felt her love all over him like the cool air from his air conditioner.

He knew his mom would be extremely happy and proud if he won the tournament, so Arjun was damn sure about winning not only tomorrow’s match but all the matches he was yet to play at any cost.

And it was also that day which completely broke the ice between Arjun and Ira, the start of their new kindling friendship which was destined to last forever.