Chapter 23: Visitors

It was 7:45 PM when a blue Swift Dzire eased into the parking lot near the two-storeyed residential house. A couple exited the car and the man exclaimed, “Finnnnnaaaalllyyy herrrrrreeeeee! The drive took soooo longgg!”

Just as he was done speaking, one of the rear doors opened and a teenage girl climbed out...in time to hear her mother’s comment.

“As did your dressing up before it.” The tall, slender and blond-haired woman reminded him in a teasing tone.

“Uh-” The man went slack in the middle of stretching his arms. “You know what? It’s nice we reached. Let’s go and ring the bell.”

“Rigggghhhhttttt...” his companion drew out the word.

The girl grinned. She enjoyed these good-natured back-and-forth dialogues between her parents.

*****

“Well, aren’t you early, Harshil?!” Aakash wore a shocked expression on his face as he gazed at the visitors.

He looked refreshed. He had been quite tired after the work at the university and the little outing with Cabir. Luckily, the man had had a long- almost an hour- sleep. He had woken up just a bit before 7 PM to help Aanya and little and since then, had been watching the news.

Cabir, who was lounging on the sofa in the living room, was not so lucky and looked worse for the wear. The poor guy had to attend a sudden video conference with his client. There had been some ‘irritating developments’ as he termed it and they had to discuss them. The long hours of gaming and reading through files had also tired him out. Unfortunately, he could only catch a half-hour long power nap before the three arrived came.

“Don’t joke, man! I know I’m late-”

“No, you’re actually early! You told us you’d be arriving by 7 PM so we expected it to be 8 PM, with your laziness. Being about 15 mins early is still a record!” Aakash flashed a wry grin as he led the trio towards the sofas.

“It was the traffic! We got stuck!” Harshil exclaimed.

“Would we have reached here in 5 minutes if we hadn’t?” His wife, Janya asked him. “We left at 6:55,” she informed Aakash and Cabir.

“And all that because he took almost half-an-hour to get dressed!” She added after a slight pause.

“What are you, a girl? Taking so long!” Cabir grinned as he punched his old friend in the shoulder.

“That’s so stereotypical.” A voice was heard from the doorway of the living room. “I don’t take so long to get dressed. What’s that about comparing girls to Harshil?”

“Aanya!” Janya, who was just about to sit down on the other sofa, sprang up and eagerly crossed the table separating the two sofas. The two women hugged tightly as only the closest of friends can, on meeting after ages.

The men, on the other hand, crashed on the same sofa. Harshil, squished between the other two, threw his arms around his two old buds.

“It’s been so long since we’ve met! I wanna know what y’all have been up to! Let’s chat and get wasted!”

“Yeah, let me go grab the drinks!” Cabir joined in enthusiastically.

“Can you not talk like alcohol-addicts? Drinks from the moment you walk in! Mind the kids!” Janya admonished Harshil and Cabir.

“What kids?” Cabir laughed aloud. “Aarav and Kashvi ran away while you were trying to crush each other with hugs.”

Janya cast her gaze around and sure enough, neither her daughter nor Aanya’s son was present. The kids had greeted the elders and while the men were bickering had run off.

“Well, now that the kids aren’t here-” Cabir smirked.

“I won’t drink. Get me the Sprite from the fridge.” Akash sighed.

“Sure, sure.” The lean man stood up, “Let’s go to Aakash’s study-”

“You are not drinking in my study. Last time you got so drunk that you almost trashed my books.” The spectacled man interrupted.

“Fine...here only then.”

While the guys chatted, Aanya and Janya exited the room.

*****

“The place seems quite different from the last time we were here.” Janya noted.

“Yeah. We had our home renovated.” Aanya pointed towards the kitchen. “Remember the table-tennis table we used to have there? We lugged it to the first floor. Why don’t I give you a tour?”

“Sure.” The blonde-haired woman smiled.

Pointing towards the doorway they had come through, Aanya spoke, “The main door is beyond this door as you saw. From the main door, you enter the living room. Recall the door near the left corner of the living room?”

As Janya nodded, Aanya continued, “That’s one of the two guest rooms. It’s the one where Cabir’s staying. And as you see, from the living room, this door opens into the dining room. On our right there’s a short corridor with a door on the wall facing us, see? That’s the entrance to the second guest room.”

“Oh, I see. The corridor ends here to open up into the dining room. A counter set up there divides it from the kitchen. It’s like an open kitchen. I would be able to see you cooking from the dining room, haha.”

“Well, that’s all for this floor. Let’s go to the first floor.”

As the two women climbed the stairs, Aanya noticed Janya carrying a package. “What’s that?”

“I’ll show when we are done with the tour!” Janya giggled.

*****

“So, the room at the right end of this corridor belongs to Aarav. The door you see in front of you,” the blonde-woman glanced at the doorway that she had come face-to-face with on reaching the top of the stairs, “Leads to the game room. The table-tennis table and the equipment for working out are there. Another door on the opposite end leads to an extended balcony overlooking the park.”

Aanya lead the way along the corridor towards the left end.

“Here’s our bedroom and there are two adjoining doors, one on each side of the wall. Those two lead to our respective studies.”

She led Janya into her study and sat down on a chair.

“Are you going to show me what that is now?” She arched an eyebrow, staring pointedly at the package in Janya’s hand.

“Why don’t you see it for yourself?” The woman laughed aloud at her friend’s curiosity. She drew forth the item in question from the packet.

Rectangular in shape and wrapped in a silver gift-wrap, she set it down in front of Aanya.

Wasting no more time, she began to unwrap it while Janya spoke from in front of her.

“I finally managed to create it exactly as I wanted it to. Took a lot of tries to capture the feel of the original picture.”

As Aanya stole a quick glance at her friend, her fingers simultaneously opened the wrapping completely. As she returned her gaze to the picture, Aanya felt her breath catch in her throat.

It was an art piece. An art piece that she’d once asked Janya to create from a picture that had been taken in the last year all of them had studied together in DA Intl. School.

An unconscious smile broke onto her face and her eyes became moist as she traced the faces of the students all tangled close together for the picture.

Even though it was just a handmade creation of a photograph, a beautiful one no doubt...but a recreation in the end...the fact was that the photograph it was based on, was from one of the most vibrant, most cherished periods of her life.

From the day before, when they had begun talking to Aarav about the old school days, she recollected titbits of her own fun times occasionally too. But gazing at the picture now, it felt like a tidal wave of fond memories had crashed into her mind!

Remembering good old times while nice still leaves one a trifle detached...but when you have physical contact with something that connects you to that time, everything feels more vivid.

That was what that photograph was to Aanya, Janya and their group...a connection. How could she not be emotional when she found something that connected her to that most treasured period lost to time?

After all, this connection was a remnant, nay, to be more precise, it was something more precious, it was...

...a memory.